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Jim Mateja from the Chicago Tribune: Roger Smith's dream is officially a nightmare. The General Motors chairman came up with an idea in the mid-'80s to create a division called Saturn to compete directly with Japanese imports by selling small, low-priced, high-mileage cars. The first Saturn, the SL, bowed with a 1991 model. Smith spent $3 billion to develop Saturn. And it did create a halo with no-haggle sales and the flower left on the driver's seat after the car was serviced. It did well early...

Charlene Sadler from CBC News: Historians reviewing what went wrong with Saturn shouldn't blame fickle consumers for turning their back on a brand trying to do things differently, says an automotive marketing expert. "Saturn will stand out as a spectacular marketing success," Ashwin Joshi, an associate professor of marketing at the Schulich School of Business in Toronto, told CBCNews.ca on Thursday. The automaker succeeded in developing a loyal following, but failed to deliver in the technical d...

Paul Ingrassia from Newsweek: It's hard to remember a time when the top man at GM was the most celebrated industrialist in America, maybe even the world. But that was the case on January 8, 1985, when Roger B. Smith convened a press conference in Detroit to make what he billed a "historic announcement." But on this wintry day in Detroit, Smith would make his biggest gamble yet: unveiling the Saturn, GM's first new brand in 70 years. More than just a car, it would be a stand-alone subsidiary—us...

Jim Jelter from MarketWatch: General Motors, having just watched Chrysler hit the wall of bankruptcy, is scrambling to avoid the same fate. To help beat the clock, the company announced Monday it's "reviewing expressions of interest" from potential buyers of its Saturn brand. No further details are available at this time, but the company hopes to have a buyer for Saturn by the end of the year, according to the cryptic press release. Clearly, it is trying to create a bit of buzz over the brand ...

The Tennessean reported today that "many observers, including a longtime Saturn dealer who owns three outlets in and around Nashville, said they think Saturn will survive as a brand, although it might be sold to a rival overseas manufacturer." Saturn's excellent customer service reputation was cited as one of the brand's biggest appeals. "Saturn was designed to compete head to head with the Japanese automakers in the production and sale of inexpensive, fuel-efficient small cars. It also built a ...

Ned Hunter JacksonSun.com: If the deal between Penske and General Motors closes, Penske's group would obtain the rights to Saturn's brand name and acquire certain assets as well, according to investors.penskeautomotive.com. "General Motors would continue to provide Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook vehicles, on a contract basis, for an interim period," the Web site states. Wolkonowicz believes GM will supply cars to Penske through 2011; then the new Saturn owner will likely take production overseas. ...

Ken Newton from St. Joseph News-Press: General Motors, feeling the pinch of foreign imports, dangled the idea of opening a new plant to build a “revolutionary” car. Such a factory would employ 6,000 people while also creating 15,000 jobs in supporting businesses. Workers there would not only have the benefit of a paycheck, they would stand, shoulder-to-shoulder, at the vanguard of a new era of American industrial might. Perhaps to seem egalitarian, or more likely to create buzz and cajole so...

David Welch from Business Week: The long, sad saga of Saturn is finally over. The once-hot General Motors division that began with a bang 19 years ago is now headed into oblivion after a deal to sell it to retailer Penske Automotive Group fell apart on September 30. The chain of auto dealerships released a statement saying it couldn't find a source to manufacture new car models after 2011, when GM was scheduled to cease production of the existing Saturn models. In an interview in early August, G...

Jack Katzanek from the Press-Enterprise: At least two lifelines have been extended to troubled General Motors Corp. brand Saturn, but anyone who steps forward with a rescue deal faces a difficult task, an industry analyst said. Last week, an Oklahoma-based private equity group, Black Oak Partners, said it was working with an undisclosed number of Saturn retailers on a possible deal to buy the car company's distribution network from GM. A second plan involving Saturn dealers is also in the works,...

Warren Brown from the Washington Post: Small, independent car companies such as California-based Tesla Motors and AFS Trinity Power of Bellevue, Washington, have come up with electric models that give their gasoline counterparts a very fast run for the money. After driving an "extreme hybrid" AFS Trinity version of a Saturn Vue SUV, which beats all GM Saturn Vue models in fuel-economy and straight-line acceleration, here's suggesting that the Penske Group, Saturn's new owner, get in contact with...

While Fiat dithers with Chrysler and the April 30 deadline looms, it should take this moment to walk away. Why take on a huge financial and legal mess with too many factories and too many vehicle lines and too many dealers? The real opportunity for Fiat is in taking over Opel, with Saturn by extension. Merge Opel and Fiat products a few years down the road, regain some status in Europe--and keep the products in the pipeline to feed your new right-sized U.S. distribution network, Saturn. Saturn m...

Stuart Lasser, who owns a Saturn dealership 34 miles west of New York City, sued GM on Nov. 20 after the automaker rejected an attempt to subdivide his showroom and sell vehicles made by GM and South Korea's Kia Motors, according to federal court records. "All I'm trying to do is survive here," Lasser said in an interview with The Detroit News. "They're not letting me do that." Lasser's request would have been unprecedented for Saturn. Many GM brands are sold under one roof - Buick, Pontiac and ...

Dan Gearino from the Columbus Dispatch via the Boston Herald: The toughest part for Saturn fans was the suddenness. For months, Penske Automotive Group worked on plans to buy the Saturn brand from General Motors. And then, in an instant last week, the deal evaporated. Saturn is now slated to wind down over the next year. "We were caught off guard as much as everyone," said Steve Whitman of Clintonville, vice president of the Central Ohio Saturn Car Club. Penske walked away from the deal after be...

G. Chambers Williams III from the Tennessean: Tom Smith opened the Video Shoppe in north Columbia a year after General Motors announced it would build a new Saturn plant in nearby Spring Hill. To his delight, the automaker put a giant training facility right next door, and rentals of his movies boomed. "I had a good run because of it," he said. But today, more than 20 years later, the South Central Tennessee Career Center has moved in next door, where unemployed people go to look for work. "Thei...

Paul A. Eisenstein from MSNBC: It's been nearly a quarter-century since General Motors Chairman Roger Smith stunned the automotive world by announcing that GM would create an all-new car division, called Saturn. But 25 years later, Saturn's once high-tech factory, and Saturn itself, are closing down, testimonies to the failures of Smith, and the CEOs who followed him, to fix GM's problems. GM announced late Wednesday it would close down the division, at the cost of some 13,000 jobs, after a deal...