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BREAKING: Penske Terminates Saturn Discussions
Penske "terminates" discussions regarding Saturn, brand now on death row.
www.gminsidenews.com
September 30, 2009
By: Nick Saporito

Earlier today General Motors released a press release stating that talks with Penske Automotive Group (PAG) regarding the sale of the Saturn brand to them. Back on June 5th, while in bankruptcy protection, General Motors announced that they were in discussions to sell the entire Saturn Distribution Corporation to PAG; the deal was to allow the Saturn brand and dealerships to avoid being killed off like what is happening to the Pontiac brand. According to GM, PAG's decision to terminate talks regarding Saturn was not based on interactions with GM or Saturn, but because of the inability to source new products beyond what it had asked GM to build for them.

Due to today's announcement, GM will now begin a "wind down" of the Saturn brand like what is happening with Pontiac. In the coming days and weeks GM is expected to announce further details on the wind down plan for Saturn. We at GMI expect the brand to be phased out fairly quickly.

GM states that Saturn customers and owners will be able to purchase vehicles and service them at their existing Saturn retailers for now. As Saturn progresses in the wind down process Saturn owners will have to transition to traditional GM dealerships for service and warranty repairs.

GM had this to say in their release, "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."