RideLust

A Follow Up to the 9 Detroit Auto Brands We’d Miss the Least

On December 3rd of 2008, we published an article entitled “9 Detroit Auto Brands We’d Miss the Least” encouraging the Detroit automakers to slim down and get rid of some of their brands. The argument was, that just like Aron Ralston cutting off his own arm to survive, the major US car manufacturers needed to take drastic action and cut off some major portions of their business in order to keep the business alive as a whole.

Almost 7 months later, we’re back with a follow-up to see which of our original 9 brands survived and which ones went the way of Oldsmobile and Geo. Check it:
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Renault Megane Trophy Concept

Is a stateside Renault built for Saturn a complete pipe-dream? Following up on a report from Bloomberg over future Saturn production, the new/future owners of the former GM brand are addressing rumors of possible replacement models coming from Renault or Nissan. At the same time Roger Penske has thankfully taken Smart cars out of the mix for Saturn dealers…sort of.

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New Kia Forte; Coming To A Saturn Dealer Near You?

The preying on the carcass that was once noble GM continues with a report that Kia is looking to expand into markets previously held by Saturn. According to Automotive News, in one scenario, the Korean automaker is either looking to open or move dealerships into areas recently vacated by Saturn or will try to partner with those dealerships left standing after the automaker breaks from GM.

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Texas grown Edward E. Whitacre Jr. knows plenty about telephones. He spent 43 of his 67 years building AT&T into a multi-national telephone giant. That takes some quality wrangling, my friends. But what about cars?

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Image: egmcartech.com

Roger Penske, owner of Penske Racing and the Penske Automotive Group of dealerships, has been announced as the confirmed buyer of Saturn. GM’s press release doesn’t include much of the gory details, but the press release does confirm that Penske-Saturn will contract with GM to continue producing the Aura, Vue, and Outlook models until Penske hooks up some new suppliers (rumored to be a foreign automaker, possibly Renault or a Chinese company). This provides some stability for Saturn’s employees at their respective GM plants, but the future is still far from certain for Saturn as a brand. Let’s just hope Penske chooses to make this work, because remember how bad the buyer’s remorse was when you bought a HD-DVD player a while back? Imagine if you’d bought an entire automaker. Yeesh.

Press release after the jump.

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Wilmington Solstice/Sky Factory

There may be life after GM’s death for the Solstice and Sky.  Admirers of the sports cars are crossing their collective fingers on word from GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s statement that GM is entertaining the notion of selling the Wilmington Delaware plant where the two roadsters are built.   

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Saturn Sky

Another potential savior of the Saturn brand has emerged in the form of a joint effort by Nissan and the Penske Automotive Group.  Similar to previous plans that would keep intact Saturns nearly 400 dealerships, Penske would operate the business with the actual vehicles supplied by Nissan or Renault.

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The “Saturn Experiment” began in 1985 as a brainchild of General Motors, to create a separate entity from the parent company to compete with Japanese auto makers. It came undone in 2004 as a result of a contract change between management and workers, and could be on its way to becoming a thing of the past. GM announced in April that the Saturn, along with the Pontiac brand, will be discontinued due to economic necessity. The two brands join Oldsmobile, which was dissolved in 2004. This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Renault Motor Company is one of many that are interested in supplying cars to be sold through Saturn dealerships. But nobody as yet has made a move to continue a car division that once billed itself as “A Different Kind of Car Company.”

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2009 Pontiac Solstice GXP Coupe

Clearly Pontiac’s eminent demise will put a damper on sales in the division’s final months of existence.  This is even more unfortunate in light of the performance brands return in recent memory to, well….performance.  Still, for a certain segment of  consumers, buying a Pontiac now might be the perfect time.

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GM is getting serious about spinning off its troubled Saturn division, noting interest from “a number of potential buyers.” The number or identity of buyers is, of course, not revealed. This is more good news for GM, as any potential for generating cash from its holdings should relieve the beleaguered General’s fiscal situation. In addition, it may be unloading its European holdings, so GM could be a lot more streamlined in the coming months. This is could be good news for Saturn dealerships too, many of which are stand-alone and would otherwise go extinct. Look for GM to seal the deal by the end of the year. Read More…