Penske Wins Saturn Bid

[cosworth151]

The Detroit News and AutoWeek are both reporting that Roger Peske' Penske Automotive Group have won the bidding to take over GM's Saturn Division. The reported price is $100 million to $200 million. The official announcement could come later today.

Penske Automotive Group is the U.S. distributor for the Smart car.

[Jericoke]

GM can't make all its divisions work, despite the savings in parts sharing, scale and corporate costs, and people are going to make the divisions work on their own?

I guess it's a gamble on GM dying completely.

[cosworth151]

My guess would be that Penske has a deal in the works to import a line of existing cars, badge them as Saturn and sell them through the Saturn dealer network. The manufacturer would also gain access to the fine Saturn plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

The new owners of Opel/Vauxhall come to mind. The Saturn Aura is already an Opel product. However, GM may have included some sort of non-compete clause in the sale of GM Europe.

I'm sure that Saturn dealers will start selling Smarts, too.

[Jericoke]

Getting a dealer network sounds like a good reason for the deal.  Hadn't thought of that one.

Where are Smart cars sold now?  In Canada they're sold at Mercedes dealerships

[SennaMan]

GM can't make all its divisions work, despite the savings in parts sharing, scale and corporate costs, and people are going to make the divisions work on their own?

I guess it's a gamble on GM dying completely.

GM's culture could not make it work - it just got too big and complacent - but Roger Penske's no nonesense business acumen will.

[Philbe]

I think he's walking into a winner. The Saturn cars now (cept for the Vue) are more than decent cars. I could see a deal in the making to use the existing dealerships to carry Fiat cars in NA again.

[cosworth151]

Fiat has already done a deal with Chrysler.

I don't know how much of the existing line Penske will have long term. Some Saturns are re-badged Opels. The Sky is a Pontiac Solstice. The current rumor is the Penske will stick Saturn badges on Chinese cars.

[Scott]

First thing Penske should do is stick Penske badges on the Saturns and give the design a sporty re-work.