ten ₱esos

A newly-built Saturn dealership on Highway 98 in Panama City did not open in “Fall 2008,” and it never will.  G.M. is killing Saturn — “a different kind of car company, a different kind of car.” It will follow Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Geo,  Plymouth, Eagle, AMC and other brands to the junkyard of history.

Penske Automotive Group announced today that it has ceased discussion with General Motors to buy the Saturn brand. Penske Automotive Group, which retails Smart brand cars in the U.S., said that it quit negotiation due to concern of a source of vehicles after the time that GM had agreed to supply some models.

P.A.G had negotiated to buy Auras, Outlooks and Vues from G.M. on a contract-manufactured basis until 2011, when Penske would buy vehicles from another maker under a similar agreement.

It had negotiated the terms and conditions of an agreement with another carmaker, rumored to be Renault — and its Samsung Motors unit in Korea — but the unnamed manufacturer’s board of directors rejected the deal.

Penske Automotive Group: “Without that agreement, the company (P.A.G.) has determined that the risks and uncertainties related to the availability of future products prohibit the company from moving forward with this transaction (to buy the Saturn brand from G.M.).”

G.M.’s President Fritz Henderson stated, “As a result of PAG’s decision, we will be winding down the Saturn brand and dealership network, in accordance with the wind-down agreements that Saturn dealers recently signed with GM.”

Saturn’s 350 dealers sold only 57,223 new cars in the first eight months of 2009 — 60% fewer than January-August of 2008. Saturn dealers had urged G.M. to seek a buyer after G.M. initially planned to euthanize the brand and phase out production of cars. They had hoped that the pending sale and revitalization of Saturn by P.A.G. would save 13,000 jobs.

Customers will be able to buy cars and have them serviced in Saturn dealers during this wind-down process lasting a year — until October 2010.

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