GM to shut down Saturn after Penske ends talks

[bigjohn16]

Source: MSNBC.com

DETROIT - General Motors Co. said Wednesday it would shut down its Saturn brand after an agreement with Penske Automotive Group Inc. to acquire it fell apart.

Penske, citing concerns of whether it could continue to supply vehicles after a manufacturing contract with GM ran out, ended talks with GM Wednesday to acquire the brand.

GM CEO Fritz Henderson said in statement that Saturn and its dealership network will be phased out.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33107120/ns/business-autos/

[Larkspur]

1. I own a 2001 Saturn L200

and was laid off last year. Am on a contract with my old company but no guarantee of full time employment right now. So it's not the best time for me to search for a new car.

[Born Free]

6. you don't need to replace your 2001 L200 ...

We have a '01 L100 and if the local Saturn dealer shuts down, we will just take it to an independent shop for repairs.
There will be plenty of parts available for many years to come.

[HuckleB]

24. We've been taking ours to an independent shop for years already.

You're right. There is no need to jump ship from an old car if it's still running fine.

[LTR]

27. Any GM dealer can fix them as well

Same with Oldsmobile and Pontiac when they shut down.

[HuckleB]

23. We have a 2002 SL2.

It's not worth anything, but it's running just fine, so why would we get a new car?

[Captain Hilts]

2. Isn't this being penny-wise, pound foolish?

[NeoConsSuck]

3. Damn, I really liked the Saturn Sky

hoped to own one some day :(

[Renew Deal]

4. I guess this is "total" bullshit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9F2CNDTNJ4

[KansDem]

5. I just bought a 1995 Saturn SW2 a few months ago...

Like it very much...:)

I hope I can keep it for awhile...:(

[HuckleB]

25. Those are great cars.

You'll be able to keep it for as long as you want.

[question everything]

7. Sad. In the early 90 I thought that Saturn was going to be

my next car, after a Toyota Camry. Then I read that GM plan was to entice drivers like me and then "convert" us to V8 GM owners. I stayed with Toyota.

[vinylsolution]

8. Who the hell is making these decisions at GM?

Saturn would have been a fantastic, modern, forward-looking brand, with which to launch a range of hybrids and plug-ins.

But no.... we can't have that.

Because 21st century car buyers want those hip 'n happening Cadillacs and Buicks, right?

So long Saturn, R.I.P.

:banghead:

[Delphinus]

20. I know.

I'm quite disappointed with this decision.

Good luck to all effected by this: employees, dealers, shops, owners.

[LTR]

29. Saturn had loads of wasted potential

And they were just starting to get the right idea by doing hybrids and selling good cars from GM's foreign divisions (like Opel). I really thought they'd figured the whole thing out about Saturn.

[Romulox]

32. The Obama administration is running GM at the moment. So Geithner, most likely. nt

[Born Free]

9. Penske also has Smart Cars...

Although you had to be on a waiting list to get a Smart car they are now pushing the '09 leftovers and maybe Penski isn't
ready to take on another brand. I think Penske would do better to use the Saturn dealers to sell Smart Cars
rather than the BMW dealers.

[NeoConsSuck]

15. Smart cars aren't that smart

for their size and weight, they should get a lot better gas mileage than what they do.

[mrs_p]

10. when i bought our new saturn last may

i was told that there were several interested buyers, including several foreign companies. i'm not giving up all hope just yet.

(btw - we are on our third saturn and love every single one of them)

[onestepforward]

11. I hope they do have more than one interested foreign companies too.

I've owned 3 Saturns also. My current one is a 2000 LS200. They have all been good cars and service has always been excellent.

[RadicalGeek]

13. I'll 2nd this

I'm on my 2nd Saturn.
First one was a 2005 Saturn ION that got totalled and I went to the same dealership and replaced it with a 2004 ION.

I guess GM still doesn't get that not everyone wants an SUV, Truck or Big Car. . . Same mentality that killed the US industry.

[Throd]

12. That sucks. I love my 2000 LS.

[olddad56]

14. I thought the Saturn was the best car they made.

[d_r]

21. I did too

We've had four of them; I have a vue now, a 2004 made in Springfield with plastic panel body. We like it a lot. I think it is a shame.

[Owl]

16. Damn!

[TankLV]

17. GOOD RIDDANCE TO BAD RUBBISH!

Saturn salespersons are some of the WORST in the business!

I wanted a good used car to get around, and the idiot salesman kept trying to push on to me a car I couldn't afford...

FUCK SATURN!!!

I for one, am GLAD at this turn of events...

[HuckleB]

26. You had one bad apple.

Sorry, but you can't generalize from that.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

18. I'm guessing the "other automaker" was Chery of China

Chery Automobile actually makes some excellent cars - they however seem to have a knack for fucking over everyone who tries to do business with them, and where the US is concerned they have run out of people to fuck over.

[blue_onyx]

19. The other company was Renault

"The novel bid to create a car company that didn't build cars fell apart when Penske Automotive Group Inc. failed to secure a related agreement to have France's Renault SA supply autos for dealers to sell when GM stopped building Saturns in about two years, people familiar with the matter said."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125434260817353567.html

(The rest article is for subscribers only)

[vinylsolution]

34. That's a real shame....

.... Renault has a terrific line-up of small, fuel-efficient cars that the US market badly needs.

Especially cool is its range of small turbo-diesels that get over 50mpg.

These could have been imported and sold as Saturns.... what a wasted opportunity.

Check out Renault's UK web site http://www.renault.co.uk/cars/range.aspx">here.

[melm00se]

35. unless Renault has squared it's act away

the last one I owned was the second biggest piece of shit I owned (#1, by a long long long way was 1984 Olds Cutlass Station Wagon)

[Romulox]

38. The reason Renault's are unmarketable here:

[vinylsolution]

39. But that was 30 years ago....

... was Detroit producing anything relevant in 1978?

Hmmm...

[Romulox]

40. Ford has worked hard in the US market in the last 30 years, while Renault fled...

That's a significant difference, wouldn't you say? At any rate, there's certainly no law preventing Renault from endeavoring to rebuild its image in the US at any time that it's ready. :shrug:

[david13]

22. Penske got wise. I thought it would be the downfall of Penske if

they did take them over.
This company has been a loser from the start. The cars are basically nothing other than gm crap.
In no way shape or form can they compete with Honda and Toyota.
This company never made money.
It makes total economic sense for gm to pull the plug on this failure.
dc

[Psephos]

30. Spoken like a true Saturn non-owner.

I, on the other hand, am an actual Saturn owner. So my opinion is backed by facts and direct experience.

My SL2 has 231,000 miles on it. I get 36 mpg on the highway and 30 in town, with an auto trans and a DOHC engine. The fiber/resin body looks new, will never get dings and will never rust. The car has never had a major repair. It even has the original factory-installed stainless steel exhaust.

Previous car was a Honda. It rusted so bad the sheet metal perforated and then great chunks simply fell off. GF's Toyota, meanwhile, ended up needing a new engine because the oil galleries (the passages in the motor through which oil is pumped) became blocked due to poor design. Google it sometime - the problem went on for years, affecting hundreds of thousands of cars, while Toyota denied it (and did nothing to change the design).

[Historic NY]

28. some of the newer Saturns share the same stuff w/Chevy, Buick, & GMC vehicles

just trim differences.

[Romulox]

31. Penske's plan was to import cars from China and badge them as Saturns. No loss here. nt

[fujiyama]

36. I think it was South Korea, under Samsung, which is a Renault subsidiary

It doesn't matter. The car wasn't going to be built in Spring Hill Tennessee, which is where previous Saturns were built. What most people here don't realize is that Saturn never made a profit in all the years it was in existence. GM had no choice but to shed the brand.

We can argue about GM and its own internal politics the last 20 odd years and it shortchanging Saturn, but there's no point now. GM needs to do what it can to survice and focusing on the core brands it has isn't a bad idea.

Personally I think Saturn had some nice technology and decent cars. The Ion, which is what the current Cobalt is based off had a great engine. Mine's been fairly reliable. But the fit and finish in the Ion was plasticky garbage. They did improve it drastically in the Astra, which was Opel based and the Cobalt and Malibu are much improved as well.

[Romulox]

37. The aborted deal with Nissan was only the latest. Chery was in the mix, too.

Either way, he was looking to buy the dealerships, not the manufacturing capacity. So I don't see this as a loss.

[fujiyama]

41. Didn't hear about Chery

Not surprised though.

I feel bad for the dealers. They have some good people working at them but there's not much that could have been done.

[NavyDavy]

33. well not everything can be fixed by an independent mechanic....

I have a L300 series and we have been trying to get an air conditioning compressor and the connector sleave for 5 months now and they areon back order......so now we will probably never get one.....

[CBR]

42. I have had my Saturn for 6 years. It has been a great car. We

were strongly leaning towards buying an Aura in January. Guess we will look in to Honda and Nissan now.

[midnight armadillo]

43. Saturn had to die

Remember that shortly after it started Saturn had customer satisfaction numbers second only to Lexus(!). People were really excited about the new GM brand. It had a new retail and reformed manufacturing model for GM.

Since this was showing the existing GM brands to be lacking, Saturn had to die. It was carefully deprived of new product for years and then new products were sub-par (like the Ion). Now it is dead. Boy, those Buick and Pontiac execs sure showed them, huh.

[dysfunctional press]

44. we looked at saturns when they first came out...

but my wife and i are both on the taller side, and neither of us felt very comfortable behind the wheel of any of their cars in our price range- they seemed to be geared toward a much smaller line of people. :shrug:

[FVZA_Colonel]

45. I guess someone lost the file.