General Motors to sell Saturn brand to Penske

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. has a tentative deal to sell its Saturn brand to former race car driver and dealership group owner Roger Penske.

Penske

Penske would get Saturn's dealership network, which consistently has scored highly in customer satisfaction surveys for its no-haggle policy. There are about 400 Saturn dealers nationwide.

Penske has said his company, Penske Automotive Group Inc. of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., is interested in the Saturn brand and intended to make an offer.

Penske Automotive Group also distributes Daimler AG's Smart subcompacts in the U.S., but Smart has its own dealership network and Saturn dealers would not distribute the tiny cars, one of the people said.

Initially GM would continue to make cars for Saturn, but Penske would also sign deals with other automakers to manufacture vehicles for the brand.

Penske Automotive owns the second-largest U.S. automobile retail chain in terms of sales. It also owns heavy-duty engine manufacturer Detroit Diesel and has race teams in the NASCAR, IndyCar and Grand-Am series.

The sale is part of GM's strategy to shed its four "non-core" U.S. brands -- Saturn, Hummer, Pontiac and Saab -- as it restructures the company.

On Tuesday, GM announced a deal to sell its Hummer line to China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd.