Can a billionaire car mogul save Saturn?

Michael Vaughan, Autos.CTV.ca

Roger Penske is an American folk hero. He's the sports car racer who morphed into a billionaire car dealer. He seems to have the Midas touch in auto racing (his team has won the Indianapolis 500 fifteen times) as well as auto sales and leasing (you can rent a Penske truck almost anywhere or you can drop in and buy a car from one of his 250 car lots -- none in Canada).

But now he's taken on Saturn -- not the sixth planet from the sun but a discarded part of the General Motors disaster.

Saturn Corporation was established in 1985 by GM as a "different kind of car company." It was supposed to beat the Japanese at building small cars for the American market. Saturn succeeded in building a small, cult-like following among its buyers for the no-haggle pricing and "Family Reunions" -- but it never made a dime for GM.


The first Saturns hit the streets with dent-resistant plastic body panels. These were supposed to reduce repair costs and let the manufacturer change styles more rapidly. In fact, Saturns almost never changed appearance and the panels were something of a fire hazard.

Since the 2000 model year GM basically gave up on having Saturn separate or "different" and started putting a Saturn badge on cars from their European division -- Opel. They got some pretty good cars this way.


Penske has now waltzed in (financial terms not revealed) and picked up the Saturn brand, parts inventory and the right to distribute vehicles and parts through the Saturn dealership network -- about 350 in the U.S. and 60 in Canada. In addition, GM will continue to produce the Vue, Aura and Outlook for him for the next three years.

So how can Roger succeed where General Motors blew away billions? Well the first point is Penske won't have to worry about the factories that build the cars. This time around Saturn is only going to be a distributor of cars -- other people's cars.

Roger and his team can now shop the world for custom-made cars from other manufacturers that he thinks will fill the bill with his adoring American public.

Sure, he'll make do with the GM stuff -- good stuff by the way -- for the first few years. But in the meantime he'll cut deals with companies like Renault-Nissan to build the cars he thinks will sell.


Nissan has lots of under-utilized manufacturing capacity in the U.S. and it's expected that Roger will wrap himself in the flag and source only "American-made" cars. Flogging Saturns built in China or India wouldn't suit Penske's All American image.

Roger knows how to sell. He started with tires, moved into trucks and now the Detroit-based Penske Automotive Group is the world's second largest automotive dealer group.

Americans instantly recognize him as the serious looking, handsome guy wearing earphones in the pits as his team takes the checked flag. He's the representation of old fashioned American virtues of hard work and team play.


Gearhead blogs since the deal was announced have been overflowing with comments like "We love Roger" and "the guy has a golden touch."

If he pulls off the deal for Saturn, and makes it work, Penske will have caused the biggest change in how cars are sold since the dawn of the auto industry.