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Ken Bensinger and Tiffany Hsu from the LA Times: In a surprise development, General Motors said it would kill its Saturn brand after a deal to sell it to an auto dealership chain fell through at the eleventh hour. In June, GM formally announced that Penske had outbid other suitors for the brand and that the deal would save the 13,000 Saturn jobs, most of them at dealerships. But in the end, said Anthony Pordon, senior vice president at Penske, "there were hurdles we found out that we couldn't su...

Dan Strumpf from the Associated Press: As part of a larger General Motors Corp. production slowdown, a GM spokeswoman at Spring Hill says the plant will extend its downtime for the holidays by more than a month because of market conditions. Spring Hill plant spokeswoman Kate Neary said Friday that the holiday begins December 24 for GM's 3,481 employees at Spring Hill. She said production at the plant that makes the new Chevrolet Traverse had been set to resume January 5. That date has been moved...

Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com senior writer, says that "in its new marketing structure General Motors has identified four 'core' brands. Two other brands might be dropped altogether and another has been relegated, officially, to 'niche' status." He writes that "for the most part, the plan, which was announced Tuesday, is a refinement of a strategy GM has been working on for years. But with congress watching, the automaker seems to be going at it with more public commitment. Essentially, GM h...

Eric Walsh from Reuters: General Motors, nearing a Tuesday deadline to present a viability plan to the U.S. government, is considering as one option a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing that would create a new company, the Wall Street Journal said in its Saturday edition. "One plan includes a Chapter 11 filing that would assemble all of GM's viable assets, including some U.S. brands and international operations, into a new company," the newspaper said. "The undesirable assets would be liquidated or so...

Jamie LaReau from Automotive News: GM COO Fritz Henderson said that GM is conducting a strategic review of its Saab and Hummer brands and that the "status quo" for the Saturn brand will not work. "We need to do something different with the Saturn brand," he said. Henderson stopped short of saying GM would outright shutter the brand, but he made it clear that it would not remain in the same capacity and form it is today.

Jamie LaReau from Automotive News: General Motors leaders told Saturn dealers today that funding has been allocated to build Saturn vehicles through 2012 and in some cases 2013. But they stopped short of saying Saturn would get new products and won't be killed. "We are still working through many options," but Saturn is "not going away in 30 days," said Todd Ingersoll, a Saturn dealer on the Franchise Operations Team who attended a Saturn dealer meeting at the National Automobile Dealers Associat...

Jean Halliday from Advertising Age: General Motors said it wasn't going to do corporate ads -- and then it put Chairman Ed Whitacre in its multiple-model "May the Best Car Win" campaign. The automaker also said it was going to create distinctive advertising for its four remaining vehicle brands, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC -- but tell that to subscribers of Newsweek and BusinessWeek. In early October issues of those publications, GM is running nearly identical back-to-back spreads from Mc...

GM wants to get rid of Saturn. Saturn has the most unique, fresh, young and hip automobiles in all of GM-land. The Aura was named North American Car of the Year in 2007. The Astra is (finally!) a bonafide European GM model in the US. The Sky is a fun, sporty and yet liveable convertible that is fierce competition for the likes of the Mazda Miata and Honda S2000. GM claims that Saturn hasn't seen the success of its early-90s debut in years. Well, maybe because they aren't marketing it right. If G...

Dan Gearino from the Columbus Dispatch: Saturn, launched in 1990 to compete with the affordable small cars of Toyota and Honda, soon will be sold or spun off. GM might announce its decision Monday, when it will submit the latest version of its restructuring plan, and probably will disclose plans for Saab and Hummer as well as Saturn. "We plan to be around," said Tom Carpenter, co-owner of Saturn of Columbus. "We're not going to fold the tents." His dealerships illustrate some of the assets that ...

Bill Koenig and Mike Ramsey from Bloomberg: General Motors, the largest U.S. automaker, may keep Saturn as it undergoes a needed pruning of its brands, Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said. "All the options with Saturn are on the table," Wagoner said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. The automaker has been meeting with Saturn dealers during the past month and "I hope we will come to a conclusion in the near term," he said.

Jonathon Ramsey from AutoBlog: When it comes to Saturn, General Motors is a little stuck. The plucky brand that promised something different and then turned into much the same hasn't seen critical acclaim or profitability for more than ten years. GM has halted funding for new Saturn products, and its plan to Congress indicated that a sharp focus on Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC. That would appear to leave Saturn something pretty close to dead. But GM can't simply close the Saturn shop.

Keith Crain from Automotive News: This may be one of the most important weeks in the history of General Motors. GM executives must submit to the federal government their plan demonstrating the viability of the company. More than just cuts, they must show the feds and the nation that they a have a plan for survival and prosperity. They also must demonstrate that rather than simply chasing their tails, they see the future five or 10 years out and have a vision for GM in that future. Up to now, the...

From the Associated Press by way of the NYT: Saturn General Manager Jill Lajdziak said the brand, once billed as a different kind of car company, most likely will be sold, given the interest of several buyers who have surfaced. She says GM will take other bids for the brand until June 1. In February, the company said it would keep Saturn going through the end of the 2011 model year, which is late summer in 2011. But because of the interested buyers and demands to restructure faster, GM decided t...

John Pearley Huffman from Popular Mechanics: With the announcement that General Motors and the Penske Automotive Group have broken off negotiations to transfer ownership of the Saturn brand between them, the Saturn saga sadly ends. Over the next few months, GM will implement the "wind-down" agreements it has with Saturn dealers and start closing up the division. As you read this, the last bundles of Saturn sales brochures are likely being heaved into dumpsters around the country. It's an almost ...

Derek Abma from the Financial Post: Windsor's Transmission Plant will shut down for a week starting Monday as GM adjusts inventory. When the plant reopens February 23, the 1000 unionized production workers will start rotating layoffs that are expected to continue indefinitely as a result of slumping vehicle sales. The Windsor factory - which makes transmissions for the Chevrolet Malibu and HHR, Pontiac G5 and G6, and Saturn Aura and Vue - is scheduled to close in June 2010.