A car guy steps up: Roger Penske in talks to buy Saturn.

[Stinky The Clown]

The deal, as I understand various speculative reports, holds that the Penske organization will be buying only the distribution of Saturn cars. He will not be buying the manufacturing arm or the dealerships (which are all franchises, anyhow). It is reported that Penske will offer franchise continuity to all 350 Saturn dealers. GM will continue to manufacture the cars for now. But the deal acknowledges that a new entity will, at some unspecified point in time, be needed to build the cars.

What's hopeful, in my mind, about all this is the involvement of an organization led by a guy who is a smart businessman and a car guy all in one. He is forming a new business model for the car biz, whereby the distribution and branding is separate from the manufacturing.

Craftsmen (tools) is an example of what the final model might be. They manufacture nothing. They have their product built to their own tight spec for form and quality and then find companies to build them.

Nike shoes follows a similar model.

Both brands are respected and profitable. They differ in their view of manufacturing - Nike seems unafraid of third world, cheap labor exploitation where Craftsmen likes US manufacturing, at least for its bread and butter core products.

In the short term, this move is likely to save all 13,000 jobs associated with the Saturn brand.

Good.

[givemebackmycountry]

1. That's a good take Stink... "A Car Guy"

And Roger Penske is just that.
A serious car guy.
Stock cars or Indy cars, he's at the track and he's all business.
And the man knows how to win.

Now, who is going to step up and buy Pontiac?

[Stinky The Clown]

2. Did you know that Penske is the US's only SMART car importer?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

3. Imagination running wild now. What about a Saturn F1 team headed by Penske?

THAT would rock.

[Stinky The Clown]

4. That is surely within the realm of the possible

F1 helped make Honda a front line player and they're still in F1 and an engine supplier at several levels of racing, like the Indy Car series.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Alas, Honda left F1 last year.

But they'll eventually be back. All of those big players keep going and coming back. Renault, Mercedes, Porsche, Ford...

I used to follow IndyCar, but I'm kinda out of the loop now. I didn't know Honda supplied engines.

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Yeah, the interviews where the drivers all say things like "The Trojan Condom Ford was ........"

"..... real good until it bursted" several of them were talking about their Honda motors.