Saturn Confirms Plans for Shutdown, May Try to Spinoff From GM

Could they sell foreign nameplates and survive that way? Purpose, thereby responding to market conditions faster than typical dealerships?

One problem I see, of course, is that if California doesn't fall into the sea after bankruptcy, they will try to dicate emissions standards for the whole U.S., and more european and asian brands will not find feasibility in meeting U.S. standards.

Prices go up, car choices go down, and California politicians will come after water and bailout money from neighboring states.

dodo2 - what about spinning off Opel/Vauxhall/Saturn together? It'd be a company of reasonable size with global reach that might have a fighting chance of making it as a smaller Mazda-scale company.

I don't know that the European outfit is doing particularly well for GM anyway.

And actaully, if you add Saab to the mix, you have a pretty viable company. Three brands of working class cars and a premium line. Pretty Euro-centric, but with a sizable US manufacturing base given that I'm sure that GM would be willing to allow them to utilize all of that excess space.

This is a sad sad day for GM. I thought Saturn was going to become the U.S. Opel. Opel has some stellar cars now that GM here could really use without changing them too much if at all. It started too little to late. They should have thought of doing this from earlier in this decade. Saturn would have had a much better chance today.

Peugeot and Citroen. Some hot cars that need to be on the streets here.

@roar02ram:

Vauxhall/Opel/Saturn spin-off would be an idea. Give Saturn the plants they need to produce the cars in North America form the GM excess.

Selling Opels as Saturns makes a lot of sense to me only if the Saturn versions are built in the U.S., India or China.
At a minimum, Saturn must deliver quality at or above the Opel/GM level of quality, but importing from Germany and Europe is too expensive most of the time. If versions of Opel were manufactured in U.S. or India or China then Opel would either have a hedge against currency and labor as they could export the U.S. built cars to Europe or gain access to China or India markets if they built them there. If Opel was running the assembly plants in India or China I expect the quality would be of acceptable level.
If Saturn relies on Chery or Mahindra for vehicles then they should close at the end of 2010.

Buy a Chineese or Indian car under a Saturn nameplate? Your kidding right. The only place I think is suitable outlet for a car from China would be Wal-Mart. They only sell junk from China there anyways. Plus, the only slug customer considering a Chinese made car would be AT Wal-Mart. Put a blue smock on some part time employee and sell them a sub-standard car. THAT'S the Wal-Mart way. I can see Anita and Paul Leinert fawning all over it

One of the few things Walmart doesn't sell is cars, so it could be an opportunity for them to grow their business.

Saturn is hurting for sales right?

I see this as a scheme by GM to still make a bit of profit off of Saturn before they finally go under, while at the same time wiping their hands clean of any liability or responsibility once they DO go under.

If Saturn isn't selling cars now, I see little reason why they'd sell the same cars as a pseudo-independent company.

China and India are can and do manufacture quality vehicles. Honda, Toyota, BMW, GM, Ford, Mercedes, VW assemble vehicles in China or India and have proven the ability to do so with quality.
No kidding.
As I stated in my post, Opel or GM would have to be the manufacturer to insure the quality.
Using a stereotype that has not been applicable for 20 years and throwing in a WalMart attack does not make an intelligent debate.

ronpr

Have you driven (or even seen) a Chinese or Indian made car?

As for the anti-WalMart rant, I'm betting you're a union man. Everytime I see anti Walmart propaganda, there's always a union group behind it. They just hate the fact they don't have their greedy controlling mitts on Walmart.

One thing that can be anticipated is that GM won't sell the production plants in Tennessee or Delaware. They don't want to compete with plants owned by former employees who will be working at hourly costs which could probably be less than what Nissan, Honda or Toyota are paying at their US plants, nor would they want to sell those plants to foreign firms which could then go into competition with cut-rate hourly costs.

That is what happened when America's basic steel went belly-up in the 70's and 80's, the companies refused to sell to new companies organized by former management and blue collar workers, preferring instead to disassemble the mills after they had rusted into obsolescence for a decade.

Like Flic said, I see no advantage to Saturn by separating. Alternatively, I see a huge advantage for GM. Maybe GM should do the same with Buick/GMC/Pontiac?

I'm assuming this means Saturn will be a Suzuki-like company? Separate but not independent?

Of course the elephant in the room is who would buy Saturn? The money-grubbers at Cerberus are probably sick of the auto industry by now and I imagine Kerkorian is tired of getting involved himself. Tata already has enough on their plate for now, and none of the Asian automakers are in a position to expand.