Penske Buying Saturn.....Interesting

[mjs]

This newly updated story in Yahoo says that Penske Automotive still owns Detroit Diesel. Some other excerpts:

Penske told reporters that he expects to offer all the dealers new franchise agreements and will retain all 13,000 Saturn employees for the immediate term.

Penske Automotive Group also distributes Daimler AG's Smart subcompacts in the U.S., but Smart has its own dealership network and Saturn dealers will continue to exclusively distribute Saturn vehicles, Penske said.

Initially, GM will continue to make cars for Saturn for two years, Penske said. But he also said he is in talks with manufacturers around the world about building Saturn cars in the future.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gm_saturn_penske

[rb336]

I seem to recall that Penske/MG negotiations fell through a few years back

[MrCrush1914]

word has been that he's only interested in the distribution network; still a big loss of manufacturing jobs - and probably, the brand.

^^^
If he contracts GM to build these products- how is it a loss of manufacturing jobs? Your statement would make sense if he sent the manufacturing to another country or something. GM already builds other products similar to the Saturn line so why build new plants etc. It's better for GM to keep them on as a client and build their cars and keep some employees than to wash it's hands completely of the brand. It's like Delco, Visteon, etc but in reverse.

[detmsp]

word has been that he's only interested in the distribution network; still a big loss of manufacturing jobs - and probably, the brand.

^^^
If he contracts GM to build these products- how is it a loss of manufacturing jobs? Your statement would make sense if he sent the manufacturing to another country or something. GM already builds other products similar to the Saturn line so why build new plants etc. It's better for GM to keep them on as a client and build their cars and keep some employees than to wash it's hands completely of the brand. It's like Delco, Visteon, etc but in reverse.

Yeah, well that's true, but you pulled that part about contracting GM out of your @$$. No one here said anything about contracting GM to build the products because that's not what is going to happen. Most likely outcome is that Penske uses the saturn dealer network to sell Samsungs.

I haven't heard any rumors of this, but I guy can still hope.... Magna looks like they are buying a big stake in Opel and will sell them in Canada but not the US. Maybe Penske could uses the Saturn dealer network to sell Opel here? But that's probably a pipe dream

[MrCrush1914]

^
[[Reuters) - GM [[GMGMQ.PK) and Penske on Friday have outlined a proposed deal for purchase of Saturn.

"Says GM would continue production, on a contract basis, of the Saturn aura, vue and outlook"


I didn't pull it out my ass... I read more than one story:



http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv...5544C620090605


No apology neccessary

[detmsp]

^
[[Reuters) - GM [[GMGMQ.PK) and Penske on Friday have outlined a proposed deal for purchase of Saturn.

"Says GM would continue production, on a contract basis, of the Saturn aura, vue and outlook"


I didn't pull it out my ass... I read more than one story:



http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv...5544C620090605


No apology neccessary

Sorry, I was talking long term. There will be no next generation Aura, Outlook or Vue. This is so that the Saturn dealers have something to sell until Penske has vehicles to import.

[mjs]

There will be no next generation Aura, Outlook or Vue.

If they're not building next generation vehicles, why is Penske keeping the design engineers or looking for people to manufacture Saturns more than two years out?

[MrCrush1914]

^ He doesn't have any factual information- it's typical Dyes fiction. How dare someone have a plan and it not have some sort of hidden agenda down the line. We all know that never happens...

[econ expat]

This newly updated story in Yahoo says that Penske Automotive still owns Detroit Diesel. Some other excerpts:

Penske told reporters that he expects to offer all the dealers new franchise agreements and will retain all 13,000 Saturn employees for the immediate term.

Penske Automotive Group also distributes Daimler AG's Smart subcompacts in the U.S., but Smart has its own dealership network and Saturn dealers will continue to exclusively distribute Saturn vehicles, Penske said.

Initially, GM will continue to make cars for Saturn for two years, Penske said. But he also said he is in talks with manufacturers around the world about building Saturn cars in the future.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_gm_saturn_penske

I saw the same story and wondered if my memory was incorrect or I missed reading of a failed sale/ merger.
Yahoo made the same mistake , didn't check research, So much for internet news stories....

Here's Detroit Diesel site with a timeline about development and ownership:
http://www.detroitdiesel.com/about/history.aspx

And Penske Corp website does not list Detroit Diesel amongst the subsidiaries:
http://www.detroitdiesel.com/about/history.aspx