Short answer: no. But that doesn’t stop The Detroit News from practically begging the man they say “has accomplished almost everything in the auto industry” to reach for the stars. Er, planets. “We have been offered an opportunity to look at Saturn,” say Penske Automotive Group spokesfolks. But “it’s very premature to assume anything will be done. I can confirm to you that we are looking at it.” And that’s enough to get Motown’s cheerleaders all hot and bothered. Motor Trend‘s pick for Car Czar negotiating with the UAW’s pick for Car Czar (now GM advisor on the Saturn “sale”) negotiating the fate of GM’s best dealer network? Sign me up for that smoke-filled room!
Except that the “negotiations” are likely headed nowhere fast. GM is entertaining at least two other offers, one from private equity group Black Oak Partners, LLC and several Saturn dealers, the other from Telesto Ventures. The latter could even see GM products sold under the Saturn brand for several more years (Saturn dealers, rejoice!).
Sadly for Penske boosters, Automotive News [sub] reports that Penske Automotive Group has seen its Q1 earnings drop by 50 percent with sales down about 30 percent. Also, Penske is a smart cookie. According to AN, “about two-thirds of Penske sales come from premium brands and 30 percent from foreign brands. Only 5 percent of its sale stem from Detroit 3 brands.”
Why change that now?
Saturn died back in the mid-90s when GM dragged it back into the mother company. Let it disappear already
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/the-truth-about-saturn/
Yea I’m not sure Saturn ever had a chance. People are too scared, ashamed, and enraged with making choices about disappointing cars. They perceive their choices to be a reflection of themselves. Relatively bad car choice = I’m an idiot, anti-American, Selfish, a snob etc etc. Thinking that Saturn is an incompetent car company, its just too much of a perceived risk for Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Chevy buyers. The name does not attract a safe choice either. Did I mention America is looking for a safe bet, ie. reliable and/or not hated/shamed car company.
Now, forgive my cynicism, but Mr Penske has a truck rental company and distributes SMART cars in the US.
Excuse my stating the obvious, but Saturn has no production plant, no engineering center, no patents, no styling center, no test track… let’s not forget – no money, no prospects, no anything except a waning amount of ‘blue sky’ reputation and a bunch of dealers who signed on with a company which said they could yank the franchise without penalty – sign here – and the dealers did so. Let’s not forget that in reality, Saturn never made GM a penny / i.e. LOST MONEY consistently.
Now with all of that, I’m totally confused as to what Mr. Penske thinks he is getting….
Perhaps he has some Chinese overlords with deep pockets who want him to be a front man for Chinese made cars.
Seen any of those things crash on You Tube?!
I wouldn’t let my worst, hated enemy (if I had one) ride in or drive one… if I could have my way.
Perhaps Mr. Penske is going to resurrect the 1976 AMC Matador coupe as a Saturn. That should be interesting..
Perhaps Mr. Penske is going to resurrect the 1976 AMC Matador coupe as a Saturn. That should be interesting..
Not only would it be interesting, it would be a massive improvement. Saturn needs to go, it’s never made money, and its name means nothing any more. GM started a good thing with Saturn in the ’90s and quickly went to work destroying it, just like most everything else they do. I say just let the brand die.
I’m assuming the Captain will be at the track tomorrow (first day practice). I’ll keep my ears open.
Hmmm, maybe he’s wanting to bring back American Motors. (Tongue in cheek). I think the Kenosha engine plant (ex-AMC) is set for closure, and the Sterling Heights Michigan (front wheel drive) car factory is set to be closed (by Chrysler….) probably could be had for a song…
One of the Hot Rod magazines did a spoof last April issue about AMC returning. It was great.
AMC fans can only wish.
They could do worse than to bring back AMC. AMC actually outsold Plymouth and notched up 3rd place for a few years in the early 1960’s.
AMC kind of was what Subaru is to the U.S. auto market today.
Smaller cars. Not necessarily a full line up. A little off-the-norm. Interestingly, late in AMC’s “life span” from the early 1980’s to mid-late 1980’s, AMC offered ALL WHEEL DRIVE Eagle cars. Like Subaru does now.
Maybe Mr. Penske is thinking of buying access to a bunch of dealerships on the cheap-cheap-cheap, supplying them with inventory via auctions, while building a sales channel for another sort of car company who might then want to take it off his hands. Like Geely. Or some Italian company who might want to sell cars in the US but had a deal that went down the tubes.
I think Mr. Penske got the the way he is by being “smart” not being “dumb” into buying a has been vehicle that General Motors could not make a penny on, I think the Detroit papers make a lot of these stories up when they don’t have anything else to print!
George, you’re right. Wasn’t it Mr. Penske that bought Detroit Diesel from GM and made it profitable, then sold it off? I do believe it was!
Nothing like making a living on succeeding where the biggest corporation in the world (well, it used to be….) completely and consistently fails…
As in Epic Failure (soon to be Chapter 11). Right, GM?
(More tongue-in-cheek humor).
The way things are going, maybe Mr. Penske is ready to buy the rights to a bunch of dealers, change the signs to AMC, buy a few troubled assets, have some hired-gun (engineers) improve the already approved-for-production cars, slap AMC badges on them and buy the American Motors Corporation name off the dead Chrysler LLC.
He could then go hat in hand to President Goodwrench and say “see? we have an AMERICAN car company – we just need a few trillion to make it work!”
hmmmm IIRC correctly people took me to task for suggesting that there was nothing at all of “Saturn” to sell…..
Looks like less every day that goes by.
Brilliant summation, Menno. That about says it all
Saturn: there is no “there” there.
It’s a buyers’ market for car brands.
Besides Saturn for the dealer network (400 dealers with a decent rep in most major markets), I’d pick up Pontiac, Jeep and Viper.
Call it Planetary Motors or Universal Motors and you could still use the same stylized planet Saturn logo and save on the signage. Use Saturn for the compact and midsize sedans. Pontiac for the big sedan. Viper for a sports car (and like the Corvette extend the brand, in this case, downward with a cheaper V8 HEMI powered version). Jeep for the Wrangler variants including the Unlimited 4 door and J8 pickup.
I read Manzo/Capstone’s assessment of the Wrangler as needing at least $500 million to “reestablish the brand” and I don’t know how the Wrangler could be divested without the Jeep brand with it, while somehow keeping the Grand Cherokee in the new “good” Chrysler. Chrysler has made such a big deal in court about the face/grille of the Wrangler being an iconic Jeep trademark.
”Penske Automotive has not made an offer to GM for Saturn.”
Being a native Detroit(area)er, living in Europe the last 11 years, and also being employed by a major automotive supplier … I can attest to the admiration that Detroiters have for Mr. Penske (I am suprised somebody has not started calling him “The Great White(-haired) Hope”… My expectation is that these are just hopeful wishes being aired…
To Ronnie: Re. wrangler and g/cherokee going to separate owners, think “shared brands” and think Volvo (car) and Volvo (truck)… (could also think Hummer and Jeep, they shared nearly indistinguishable faces … even Lutz when at Chrysler, banned the 8-slot grille from the Jeep line, saying “7 slots is Jeep”, and then Chrysler tried to sue Hummer for appropriating the face of the Jeep brand… and failed, because the consumer was deemed smart enough to tell the difference between J and H…
They could do worse than to bring back AMC. AMC actually outsold Plymouth and notched up 3rd place for a few years in the early 1960’s.
So did Pontiac. Now Plymouth, AMC, and Pontiac are all gone.
It seems like being 3rd place in the 1960s was the kiss of death.
Robert.Walter,
The Jeep/Hummer trademark case was interesting because both parties had legitimate claims. The Hummer looks like a Jeep because the original HumVee was designed and built by AM General, the defense division of AMC when it owned Jeep. Now, the 7 slot grille and “face” of the Wrangler are fully protected trade dress.
BTW, speaking of people respected around Detroit, Dave Bing, former NBA great and owner of Bing Steel, was just elected mayor of Detroit. Now if the voters there only get rid of the lunatics on the city council starting with Monica Conyers. I suspect Ken Cockrel, defeated by Bing, will run for city council again and if he gets the most votes he’ll replace Conyers as city council president.
Saturn does have a cool logo. That is basically the only value of the company now.
@ menno
AMC has fans?
I think I would buy a Penske Saturn before I’d buy an AMC Saturn…
Well, here it is one month later, June 5th, and all the naysayers look mighty silly right now.
Good luck to Roger, good luck to Saturn, and too bad for all the negative posters who had nothing good to say. It’s never smart to gloat. Life’s got a way of throwin’ it back at ya’.