Randomly Noted

Roger Penske is pulling out of his pact to acquire the remnants of GM’s Saturn. Is it taps for Saturn? It certainly looks like it. In a previous blog I waxed poetic about what Saturn once was, stood for, meant to me personally (when we met, my husband drove a Saturn, with an ironic fuzzy dice dangling from the rear-view mirror…) Now all I can say is: Roger, what were you thinking? In buying Saturn, Penske was getting a brand and a concept, both tired and tarnished after more than a decade of degradation at the hands of GM’s former bosses. Penske, no fool, intended to revive it as a youthful, fuel-efficient car brand built on other auto makers’ spare capacity. If anyone could have pulled it off, it was the entrepreneurial Penske.  Even so, it was an exceedingly long shot. Details are only now emerging but Penske’s announcement says the firm which had agreed to assume production had vetoed the plan, leaving him with no manufacturing base. That partner would appear to be Renault SA, whose interest in producing Saturns for Penske seems to have shriveled up and died. There’s one glimmer of hope for Saturn: As with GM’s Saab, which found a benefactor in Swedish super-car maker Koenigsegg in partnership with a Chinese auto maker, Saturn might find an overseas sugar daddy or mommy. Could the Chinese – who have been circling any number of sick American brands (think: Volvo, Opel, Hummer, Saab) – be on the phone to Penske even now? Stay tuned! Saturn may yet live. By the way, have a look at Saturn’s website. It proclaims: “We’re optimistic about the future.”