Saturn attracts big name interest
Roger Penske and Renault-Nissan show interest in General Motors brandGeneral Motors has officially put its Saturn brand on the auction block and it has attracted some high profile interest. Automotive and racing giant Roger Penske has admitted he is considering a bid on what was meant to be GM's brand to tackle the Japanese players.
He joins the current Saturn dealership network in considering taking over the brand from the beleaguered automaker. Bloomberg reports that the Nissan-Renault alliance has approached Penske about a possible tie up to sell the French-Japanese cars through the 400-strong Saturn dealership network.
Penske's Penske Automotive Group (PAG) is the second largest publicly held dealer group in the United States with 310 dealerships in America, Germany and the United Kingdom. Penske also acts as the US distributor for Smart and successfully re-launched that brand over the last two years. One of the reasons for the success of Smart is Penske's decision to allow customers to order and pay deposits over the internet that allows dealers to hold less stock; something that is a major issue for many American dealerships in the current climate.
"We've looked at Saturn," Penske revealed in a US interview. "We look at a lot of opportunities. It would be premature to say we're anywhere close to a deal."
Citing sources close to the deal, the Bloomberg report suggests that Nissan's sales drop in the US has caused the re-think in strategy. It claims that Nissan-Renault could sell versions of its current line-up badged as Saturn models.
If PAG does take control of the brand and doesn't strike a deal with Nissan-Renault, then it would leave Penske having to source cars from elsewhere around the world. GM has said it will cease production of Saturn models at the end of this year but could continue to build them on a contract basis until the end of 2011.
Speculating along those lines, this could mean another option for the return of the Holden Commodore to America -- this time carrying Saturn badges. It's early days yet so we'll keep you posted.
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