NEW YORK — General Motors Corp. has a tentative deal to sell its Saturn brand to auto racing magnate Roger Penske’s dealership group, both companies said Friday.
Penske has signed a memorandum of understanding that would give his dealership chain, Penske Automotive Group, Saturn’s 350 dealerships, the companies said. Penske said that he expects to offer all the dealers new franchise agreements and will retain all 13,000 Saturn employees for now.
“I would expect that the model that we’re putting together, the distribution model, will be profitable Day One,” Penske said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’ll have less costs. We’ll not be in the manufacturing side.”
At Saturn of Denver off South Wads worth Boulevard in Jefferson County, the staff gathered to hear the news and broke out into a cheer.
“I say, I say, I say Saturn Penske,” said Barbara Collins. Collins founded the website early in the year and has been instrumental in saving the brand, executives have said.
“Everybody is so excited here,” she said through tears. “They saved 13,000 jobs and 350 dealerships around the country, and it’s absolutely fantastic.”
Collins lauded Roger Penske for deciding to buy Saturn and keep it alive.
Neither Penske nor GM would say how much Penske is paying for the brand. Penske said he expects the deal to close in the third quarter. Initially, GM will continue to produce on a contract basis the Saturn Aura sedan as well as the Vue and Outlook crossover vehicles. But Penske said he is in talks with global car manufacturers about building Saturn cars in the future.
Denver Post staff writer Elizabeth Aguilera contributed to this report.
