Is it true that there will be no more Saturn cars?
DETROIT — General Motors Co. said today it would shut down its Saturn division after an agreement to sell it to Penske Automotive Group Inc. fell apart. The Bloomfield, Mich. dealership headed by auto racing magnate Roger Penske walked away after it was unable to find a manufacturer to supply vehicles to it after a contract with GM runs out in 2011. A tentative deal for Saturn was announced on June 5. Penske was to get Saturn’s 371 dealers and promised to retain the 13,000 Saturn employees. The proposed price was never disclosed. This marks an ignominious end for the brand that was supposed to revolutionize the way small cars were built and sold in America. GM Chairman Roger Smith first unveiled Saturn in November 1983, but the project was slow to develop and the brand did not officially launch until 1990. GM put more effort into making higher-profit SUVs and Saturn languished, never making money. Sales did spring up in 2006 and 2007 when gas prices rose, but then plunged along with ot
