Penske Automotive Group to Buy GM's Saturn Line

GM announced months ago that it was seeking to divest Saturn, a 25-year-old subsidiary that initially focused on fuel-efficient cars in a bid to combat foreign carmakers. Saturn was also supposed to rival foreign automakers, and was famous for its plastic body panels which could be kicked, slammed, and more and be perfectly fine.

Penske Automotive Group will have access to Saturn’s 350 dealerships and Roger Penske said that he expects to offer all the dealers new franchise agreements. For the time being, all 13,000 Saturn employees will be retained.

Penske Automotive Group owns the second-largest US automobile retail chain (by sales). It regularly scores high in customer satisfaction surveys. Naturally, as Roger Penske is an ex-race car drive, the company also has race teams in the IndyCar, NASCAR and Grand-Am series.

Penske Automotive Group is also the sole US distributor for Daimler AG’s Smart subcompacts, but Smart has its own dealership network. and Saturn dealers will continue to exclusively distribute Saturn vehicles.

The latest move of Saturn to Penske Automotive Group continues GM's divestiture of lesser brands from its portfolio. Earlier this week, GM agreed to sell its Hummer brand to a Chinese heavy machinery company and a stake in its Opel subsidiary to Magna International of Canada.