SaturnFans.com Links

John Stoll from the Wall Street Journal: To spark interest and remind consumers that Saturn is still alive, its dealers have kicked off a new marketing campaign built around the slogan, "Wonder where the car business is headed? It's here." The slogan will be used on banners across Saturn storefronts and in a spate of email blasts, Facebook blogs and direct communications with buyers. In the second week of July, GM will start advertising deals on Saturn vehicles in a bid to clear dealer inventori...

Stephen Grocer from the WSJ: Two years ago, Magna International fell short in its bid for Chrysler. Now Matthew Wurtzel at Dealscape.com is wondering if Magna is posed to replace Chrysler as a member of the Big Three. The Canadian auto-parts maker is bidding to acquire General Motors' European arm, Opel, you see, and there are reports that it may also bid for Saturn. As Wurtzel explains, a combined Opel-Saturn under Magna makes a whole lot of sense. Saturn, after all, is essentially the U.S. ver...

Cliff Banks from WardsAuto.com: GM announced today it will cease building Saturns at the end of the '09 model year instead of 2011 as it had said in its previous viability plan. However, sources tell Ward's the Treasury Deptartment, based on recommendations from President Obama's automotive task force, has decided to allow Saturn to survive provided a sale can be completed by the end of the year, at the latest. Although GM will build Saturns only through this model year, it may provide contract ...

Steve Finlay for WardsAuto.com: Auto makers sometimes veered into the guardrails of paranoia in the 1990s as they watched AutoNation grow fast by buying up scores of dealerships. Manufacturers worried that if Wayne Huizenga's new enterprise got too big, it would start telling them what to do, rather than the traditional other way around for the automotive retail franchise system. Such a U-turn from business as usual didn't occur. Yet something like it is about to take place. But AutoNation wonâ€...

Jamie Lincoln Kitman from the Washington Post: There's a reason why finding buyers for the carmaker's German Opel division and domestic Saturn brand has been easy: They're the most promising divisions GM owns. Getting rid of them was dumb and pretty much seals the company's fate. It's no wonder that sophisticated investors have stepped up: racing legend and Smart car distributor Roger Penske in the case of Saturn and billionaire Canadian auto parts magnate Frank Stronach planning to buy Opel. Fo...

Warren Brown from the Washington Post: I am a great admirer of Jill Lajdziak, general manager of GM's Saturn Division. She has fought the good fight, greatly improved Saturn's manufacturing efficiencies and product quality, and expanded the division's product offerings. Ironically, Lajdziak's success is why Saturn must now be folded into Chevrolet. The truth is that Saturn was established in 1985 for the sole purpose of shaking up GM's middle management, shocking it into the realization that GM ...

Beth Shayne from WCNC NBC NewsChannel 36: Volvo. Saab. Hummer. Pontiac. Saturn. Jeep. Those vehicle brand names are all being batted around during the automaker’s hearings on Capitol Hill as divisions for sale, or for elimination. So what if you own, or want to purchase one? What about warranties? Service? Parts? GM's Saturn of Charlotte's customer liaison Whitney Marti tells us Saturn warranties are GM warranties, and fully backed by the parent company. She believes it is unlikely that Saturn...

Chris Woodyard from USA Today: General Motors' potential bankruptcy filing is sure to prompt questions for the millions of consumers who own GM vehicles or for folks who are thinking about buying a new GM car or truck. Here are some questions and answers about how the filing could affect you.

Michael Sheena from the Examiner: Okay, so Penske is interested in Saturn. What would he do with it? Word on the street is that he'd sell Samsung cars and crossovers. It's not as outlandish as you might think. Samsung is largely owned by Renault-Nissan and uses corporate underpinnings for its vehicles. The corporate parts sharing should make the Samsung vehicles easily adaptable to US regulations. The pictured car is essentially the 2010 SM3 with some auto show fluff on it. The 2010 SM3 is...

Associated Press: The White House weighed its options Saturday for preventing a collapse of the troubled auto industry, once the backbone of the U.S. economy. So far, the only thing certain is that the Bush administration wants to avoid the possibility of a disorderly bankruptcy of any of the Big Three. General Motors and Chrysler have said they could run out of cash within weeks without government help. "Administration officials are continuing to gather financial information from the automakers...

Ken Thomas from the Associated Press: The Obama administration plans to give General Motors Corp. enough government aid to restructure over the next 60 days. Two people familiar with the plan say it will demand further sacrifices from the automakers and bankruptcy is still possible. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make details public.

Patrik Jonsson from the Christian Science Monitor: General Motors' Saturn brand – touted as "a different kind of car company" – had high aspirations, borrowing the Japanese manufacturing model of team production, among other things. But the Saturn experiment fell to earth with a final thud Thursday as a “goal-line� deal to keep the brand alive fell apart. Saturn’s latest slogan – "We're still here" – suddenly seemed like a cruel joke as 350 dealerships are likely to close and 13,00...

From DealersEdge: In most retailing industries, the people who are closest to the customers, the retailers, tell their various manufacturers what customers want and the manufacturers provide it. Not so in auto retailing, where the manufacturers decide what to produce and then expect the retailers to sell it. That model is about to change with the news that Penske Automotive Group has agreed to take over the Saturn brand from General Motors. As Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue...

Lindsay Chappell from Automotive News: Saturn dealers woke up last Thursday morning to the grim reality that their brand was dead, Roger Penske was not going to save them and General Motors Co. planned to compensate them with between $100,000 and $1 million per store to close by next October. Once known as the most satisfied retail network in the industry, Saturn dealers fumed. "That's a small amount of money after all we've done," snapped Gordon Walker, who owns six Saturn stores in the Chicago...

In their weekly podcast, David Patton and Mathew Passy from the Wall Street Journal discuss Saturn's future. In addition, they talk about new indications that deals on cars and trucks from all manufacturers are going to get even better in January. Plus, new research shows that speed and senior citizens aren't as hazardous as you might have thought.