GM to sell Saturn unit to Penske Group

The Los Angeles Times ^ | June 5, 2009 | Ken Bensinger

[2ndDivisionVet]

Why are they selling-off their only brand of somewhat high mileage vehicles, if Mr. Obama wants them to become "green" and lower their so-called "carbon footprint" and all that jazz? Oh, and letting the Chinese communists get a foot in the door -- what genius! Frank Marshall Davis should be so proud of his protege/victim.

[Big_Monkey]

I could be way off base, but I believe that Saturn is mostly if not totally non-union. There no upside for the UAW to keep the non-union subsidiary.

[Last Dakotan]

GM's national contract with the UAW requires that all production staff belong to the UAW. Stupid eh?

[SoDak]

Huh, well, we have one Saturn already, maybe more if this new group builds quality and has no UAW. We love the Saturn we have.

[DallasDeb]

Are we going to let the Chinese build our soldiers’ vehicles? (Hummers) Just imagine the problems we will have if China builds the enhanced-for-war Hummer.

[smokingfrog]

The Saturn workers do belong to the UAW, but I don’t think they have the same contract as most of the union folks that work for GM.

[wordsofearnest]

Hummers have nothing in common with HUMMVEE’s. They are made by AM General LLC

[theDentist]

"You sound unconvinced. Do you wanna see the Penske files?"

[tommyboy]

The military HumVee is not made by GM.

[omega4179]

Because Saturn was not properly marketed or managed to capture the American imagination?

[omega4179]

No the real HMMV is built by Am General it has nothing to do with the “Hummer” which is a look alike dropped on a GMC Sierra truck chassis.

[omega4179]

So Penske is stuck with them?

[DallasDeb]

Great! Thanks for the correction.

[Colvin]

The replacement to the Hummer if the International MXT. New hummers are not going to the field of battle.

[truth_seeker]

I guess the irony would be that the original purpose for Saturn, was to develop a model for new ways of being in the car business; labor, products, marketing, etc.

I think initially some of the assembly labor was either non-union, or different contracts.

Some of their products were innovative.

Marketing was to be fixed price, no haggling. And salaried sales staff, not commissioned folks.

Penske is a very successful company. If anybody can salvage the good aspects of Saturn it should be them.

[Cheetahcat]

Yes I may look at one since the filthy UAW in not involved.

[smokingfrog]

I would imagine Penske can hire whomever they want, under whatever terms they decide. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see. The Saturn plant in TN stopped making Saturns about 2 years ago. I think they were making one of the smaller SUVs for Chevy or GM.

[irishjuggler]

Why are they selling-off their only brand of somewhat high mileage vehicles,

I'm afraid that you're thinking of the old Saturn of 10-15 years ago. Back then, Saturn's lineup was entirely made up of subcompacts. Saturn is now completely different, basically selling midsized sedans and SUVs that are analogous in fuel efficiency to similar vehicles sold by other GM divisions like Chevrolet.

[Cheetahcat]

“You sound unconvinced. Do you wanna see the Penske files?”

That was a funny episode.

[omega4179]

so the saturn cars are not made in that “new” state of the art tennessee factory?