Penske Kills All Talks With GM For Saturn — Three’s A Crowd, Damn It!

Featured, Miscellaneous | Dean | October 2, 2009 at 03:58

Wow, things can change quickly. Yesterday we pretty much reported that Saturn will soon belong to Penske, where the new owner will branch the brand out to many other markets. However, it seems like this is now false.

Penske has announced that they have stopped talking to General Motors about Saturn as they are concerned about the future supply of vehicles beyond the agreement. In other words, Penske had already set a deal with GM to use or sell – if you will – vehicles on a contract-basis for a set amount of time, after which will then see Penske use the same contract with other automakers to stay alive.

The original statement said that Penske dealt with a third-party automaker, not General Motors, where their board has now turned down the deal. This leaves Penske and GM alone in the dark, to fend for themselves.

“Without that agreement, the company has determined that the risks and uncertainties related to the availability of future products prohibit the company from moving forward with this transaction,” said Penske in a prepared statement.

Understandably General Motors is upset as they won’t be getting some cash, and that a lot of hard work will now go unneeded. However, who is really to blame? At this point in time, we don’t know as the third party has not yet been named.

“As a result of PAG’s decision, we will be winding down the Saturn brand and dealership network, in accordance with the wind-down agreements that Saturn dealers recently signed with GM. Pursuant to the terms of those agreements, the wind down process will be determined and communicated shortly,” said GM’s President and CEO, Fritz Henderson.

Owners of Saturn models will be happy to know that they aren’t however being cheated in this deal. Saturn owners will still be able to service their cars at the Saturn dealerships, where after they have closed down, any other GM dealership will be happy to help out.

“Today’s disappointing news comes at a time when we’d hoped for a successful launch of the Saturn brand into a new chapter. We will be working closely with our dealers to ensure Saturn customers are cared for as we transition them to other GM dealers in the months ahead. I’d also like to thank every GM employee and Saturn retailer who worked so hard to try to make this new beginning happen for Saturn,” said Henderson.