GM Stops Saturn Production; What Now?

GM stopped producing new Saturns yesterday after news broke that its deal to sell the brand to Penske Automotive Group fell through. People were shocked in both the executive suites of Detroit and the 350 Saturn dealerships across the country. Add in the thousands of Saturn owners and potential buyers, and there’s a lot of confusion over the future of GM’s formerly “different” car company. Here’s what you need to know if you’re a Saturn owner or potential buyer.

Saturn Deal Falls Through, Brand to Die

Today, Penske Automotive Group is withdrawing its plan to purchase Saturn from GM. In turn, GM has issued a statement declaring it will not seek other buyers for Saturn and will wind down the brand and its dealers.
 
The terms of this process — including how long new Saturns will be produced and sold — will be announced at a later date.

Penske cited problems securing deals to sell other makes and models besides the current crop of GM-sourced vehicles. The company said a deal with a third party to make future Saturns fell through and that led to the deal’s termination.

Saturn now joins Pontiac and Oldsmobile in the GM graveyard. The sale of Hummer is still ongoing.  

GM Leaves Bankruptcy: Where Do the Brands Stand?

In the tumult of GM’s lightning-quick journey through bankruptcy, you may have lost track of what will happen to all the individual brands. Therefore, here’s a quick and handy guide to where each brand currently stands as the new taxpayer-owned GM emerges from Chapter 11.

Saturn: Purchased by the Penske Automotive Group, which owns NASCAR and IndyCar racing teams, as well as the U.S. distribution arm of the Smart car brand. Saturn’s five models will become the property of Penske but will still be built by GM on a contract basis. According to reports, GM will continue production of the three best-selling Saturn models for the next two years: the Aura, Vue and Outlook. It will discontinue the Sky and Astra. By 2011, GM will stop producing Saturn vehicles, and Penske will have to find a new manufacturer — possibly Renault Samsung Motors of Korea, according to Automotive News.

Saab: Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg led a consortium to purchase the ailing brand from GM. The deal is contingent on $600 million of financing from the European Investment Bank to be guaranteed by Sweden. The deal is supposed to close sometime in the third quarter of this year, but analysts have questioned whether Saab is big enough to survive regardless. It sold only 93,000 cars last year and has been unprofitable for a long time.

Recall Alert: 2008 Saturn Vue

GM has issued a recall for 44,451 Saturn Vue crossovers from the 2008 model year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The crossover’s body-colored door handles might stick or bind. In this case, a door may not latch.

An unlatched door could come open while driving, putting the occupants in danger and increasing the risk of injury.

Dealers will replace the outside door handles with new chrome handles for free. Owners may contact Saturn at 800-972-8876 or NHTSA at 888-327-4236.

2008|Saturn|Vue

Penske Reaches Deal With GM to Buy Saturn

With Hummer sold off earlier this week, GM has now announced a tentative deal with Roger Penske for the businessman to buy its struggling Saturn brand.

According to Saturn, the deal would save more than 13,000 jobs and keep 350 Saturn dealerships from closing.

Under the deal, GM would continue to make Saturn products — like the Aura, Outlook and Vue — for Penske until 2011.

There’s been no word on whether GM will continue to build the Sky or Astra. The assembly plant for the Sky is due to close this summer, and Saturn didn’t release a 2009 Astra in the U.S.

After 2011, Penske reportedly plans to sell globally sourced vehicles; Automotive News is reporting that Penske will sell Renault Samsung vehicles built in South Korea at Saturn dealerships.

The tentative agreement saves Saturn and its customer-friendly dealers from an almost certain death. GM had previously announced that without a buyer it would close the brand down by the end of this year.

GM, Penske reach tentative deal for Saturn brand (Detroit Free Press) 
Penske plan: Sell Samsung vehicles at Saturn stores (Cnet)

Saturn Vue Two-Mode Hybrid Rated at 28 MPG

Remember the Saturn Vue Two-Mode Hybrid? If you don’t, you’ll never know it, as this Saturn Vue model will never go on sale.

The vehicle was so close to launch that the EPA even tested it: The Vue Two-Mode would have received a 27/30 mpg city/highway, 28 mpg combined rating. That means the ill-fated 255-hp hybrid crossover would have been more fuel-efficient than the 2009 Toyota Highlander Hybrid (though that model is larger and comes equipped with all-wheel drive), but less efficient than the 2009 Ford Escape Hybrid and 2010 Lexus RX 450h.

The Vue Two-Mode Hybrid was part of Saturn’s aggressive hybrid strategy, which was intended to lead to a plug-in hybrid in 2010. The Vue Two-Mode Hybrid was equipped with a powerful V-6 engine and could accelerate from zero to 60 mph in 7.3 seconds and tow up to 3,500 pounds.

The model would have complemented the Vue Hybrid, which has a 172-hp four-cylinder powertrain and, interestingly enough, achieves the same combined EPA rating – 28 mpg – as its erstwhile Two-Mode sibling would have.

Will Consumers Miss the Old GM? Not Likely

There’s been a lot of talk about “good GM” and “bad GM” and what the closure of Pontiac and sale of Saturn, Saab and Hummer will mean to the new company. We thought we’d recap the impact GM’s restructuring will have on car shoppers.

General Motors remains the largest producer and seller of cars and trucks in the United States, already selling 777,785 vehicles this year, through May.

Nearly one of every five cars purchased in the U.S. comes from GM through the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, Saab, Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac brands.

Pontiac will be shut down completely by the end of 2010, with Saab, Saturn and Hummer expected to be sold off.

Those four brands combined have 18 nameplates on sale. Together, those models comprised 2.4% of the new-car market in April. That’s a drop of about 1% from the same time last year (3.6%).

GM Plant Closures Signal Product Shift

Now that it’s operating under bankruptcy protection, GM has ramped up the scheduled plant closures it had previously announced. Four assembly plants will be closed this year, impacting current products.

The least surprising closure is the Wilmington, Del., plant that produces the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadsters and coupes. It's also the most immediate, shutting down in July of this year. The 2010 Pontiac Solstice coupe just went into production at the plant, and company officials have said only 1,000 will be produced. One is already sold to GM executive Bob Lutz, meaning there are only 999 available.

The other three assembly plants and what they build are listed below.

GM Plans Plug-In Hybrid SUV by 2012

GM plans to have a plug-in hybrid SUV by 2012, according to Tom Stephens, GM’s vice chairman. The technology should be available for limited use in Department of Energy fleets by early 2011, Stephens said.

While earlier plans called for the Saturn Vue to be GM’s first plug-in SUV, Saturn’s future clearly is not within GM, and its future anywhere remains uncertain. That being said, Stephens said the plug-in will be from one of GM’s four core brands: Chevy, Cadillac, GMC or Buick.

While Stephens wouldn’t say which brand or SUV is the likely candidate, GM has already equipped a small fleet of Chevrolet Equinoxes as fuel-cell vehicles. Given the size and fuel economy of the next-generation Equinox, we’re thinking that redesigned SUV could be a likely recipient of the plug-in technology. Because the new Equinox is reported to be EPA-rated at 32 mpg on the highway, the plug-in would have to get seriously better mileage to make the extra cost worth it to consumers. A conventional hybrid SUV might be more practical in the short term.

Plug-in hybrid technology will be applied to one of GM’s four core brands (GM FastLane Blog)

With Saturn Gone, GM Loses a Quarter of its Hybrid Sales

Saturn accounts for a quarter of GM’s hybrid sales, so when that brand goes away later this year, there go all those fuel-efficient vehicles the Obama administration wants to promote.

Vehicles like the Saturn Vue Hybrid and Aura Hybrid will be no more, and because Saturn sells the second most hybrids for GM (behind Chevrolet), they'll have to be replaced with other fuel-efficient vehicles in order for GM to meet increased CAFE standards. In 2008, Saturn accounted for 3,205 of GM's 11,454 hybrid vehicle sales, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The hit to GM’s CAFE average will be partially mitigated by the shuttering of Hummer and Pontiac, but sources told Automotive News that Saturn’s hybrid technology will still likely need to be used in cars from the remaining brands. That's because hybrid versions of the Chevy Malibu and Silverado and the GMC Sierra Hybrid probably won’t cut it when it comes to CAFE, and the much-hyped Chevy Volt will make up only a negligible portion of the market when it’s released.

This likely means the introduction of new fuel-efficient models down the line, but how soon that happens will depend on how well GM can get its house in order.

When Saturn Goes, So Does a Quarter of GM’s Hybrid Sales (Automotive News)