Megadealer Roger Penske To Buy Saturn From GM

Amen bankerdanny. Good luck Roger!

Seems like a risky move by Penske.

Unless they make a lot of changes, they'll wind up like Chrysler.

Has The Captain ever made a bad move (other than not switching to a Lola chassis sooner in May 1995 so Little Al and Emmo could make the Indy 500)?

The cars he will get are decent but GM doesn't seem to make any money selling them.

I am really curious to see what he will do different in order to make a profit.

I'm curious about the labor agreements.

Estreka, most Saturn dealer employees aren't union. It sounds like Penske isn't purchasing manufacturing capability, so any labor issues would be GM's problem.

Wonder if Penske will go to Holden in Australia and see if they can sell the Commodore (aka G8) as the performance car in the Saturn brand.

Saturn will once again have a significant change in its product offerings and will probably alienate some of its current customers with the new products. Its happened before with the current vehicles although they were much better in everyway vs the acutal real Saturn developed models. In my eyes however, Saturn just seems to be a badge with no substance or philosophy behind it.

Saturn should've gone back into the hands of the NASA engineers who initially developed the cars in the first place. Saturn had a great theory in dealer practice in the beginning, but they were too picky for their own good and it hurt the dealer network. Saturn would only allow so many franchisees per region and they had to display excellent CSI scores to qualify for franchising. On top of that, Saturn dealers had to have separate showrooms and service centers from their existing dealers. The original Saturns were still the best ones. Cheap cars with excellent fuel mileage that would last many years and many many miles with obvious maintenance. I'll take a '99 SC2 5-speed, please.

Another note: It was those cheap little cars that gained the following. Excellent sales and service support followed by decent cars. My aunt bought a used SL2 5-speed. She loved the car (considering she was used to owning Cadillacs), but after a few years she had trouble driving a manual due to back problems. When it was time for her to buy another car, she insisted on another Saturn. She purchased a 1 year old ION and it was definitely not what she had hoped for... electrical problems and suspension parts needing replaced by 15,000 miles. She was afraid of that car and ended up trading it in for an older Dodge. The thing she misses the most about her old Saturn ('96 SL2) is the gas mileage. Even the ION didn't come close.

redgeminipa,

I've been saying for years that Saturn has abandoned it's original audience. They got off the ground by offering cheap, decent, high mpg, cars with a respectful dealer experience.

I don't think the dealer experience has changed much, but other dealers have improved. Otherwise, I can't think of a single car in their lineup that meets their original philosophy. Chevy comes closer.

My roommate has a 98 Saturn. Not a looker but he hasn't had one problem with it since he's driven it. Surprisingly comfortable interior, IMO. None of the buttons/knobs/panels have fallen off yet, unlike my 97 Chrysler.