Let’s face it. Pretty much everything happening within GM is big news these days. But when legendary racecar driver and business mogul Roger Penske says he wants buy Saturn from the bankrupt automaker — that’s a top of the fold, front-page story. But, just in case you haven’t been following this deal from day one, we’ve got you covered.

So here it is, Tuned.com’s guide to everything that’s happened, will happen and might happen between Penske Automotive Group and Saturn.

Ok, so what’s happened so far?

Penske Automotive Group and General Motors have signed a memorandum of understanding — basically a gentleman’s agreement on paper. MOU’s aren’t typically legally binding. In this particular case, the MOU says that if a deal goes through between Penske and GM, Penske will “obtain the rights to the Saturn brand, acquire certain assets including the Saturn parts inventory, and have the right to distribute vehicles and parts through the Saturn Dealership network.” Furthermore, GM will continue to produce the Vue, Aura and Outlook for an interim period that’s looking to be through 2011.

Just who is this Penske character anyway?

Really? You’re reading an automotive website and you don’t know who Roger Penske is? Shame.

Penske started out back in the late 50’s as a racecar driver. Competing and frequently winning in Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) events, Penske quickly made a name for himself as a talented racer. But, in 1965, much to the dismay of his fans, Penske announced his retirement from racing in order to focus on his car dealership.

From there, Penske expanded into ventures including tire sales and trucking. Ultimately his success grew into the automotive empire he heads today. Penske Automotive Group is the second largest automotive dealer in the world, with more than 240 dealerships worldwide.

But Penske is perhaps better known for his racing teams. Penske Racing currently competes in the Indy Racing League, American Le Mans Series and NASCAR. Racing greats including Mark Donohue and Mario Andretti have raced under Penske’s banner leading his teams to a plethora of victories including 15 wins at the Indianapolis 500.

So when will Penske’s purchase of Saturn be official?

Impossible to say for sure, but both parties are looking to have the deal finalized by the third quarter of this year.

But Penske doesn’t manufacture cars, how are they going to make Saturns?

As mentioned above, GM will continue to produce the Vue, Aura and Outlook for Saturn through 2011. After that — or perhaps during that time, Penske will look for existing automakers that want to expand in the American market.

According to Automotive News, Penske recently met with Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in Paris to work out details of a potential partnership that could result in Renault-Nissan importing Renault Samsung cars from South Korea to be sold under the Saturn brand.

(To clarify — Renault, a French carmaker, is in a partnership with Nissan, a Japanese carmaker. South Korean company, Samsung — you know, like the TV’s and cell phones — was purchased by Renault in 1998 and is now a subsidiary of the French-Japanese company. Globalization at its finest.)

But, Motor Trend blogger Todd Lassa said in a recent post that although Renault-Nissan is the most likely partner, he thinks Penske will look to Nissan’s North American facilities as opposed to importing cars from South Korea.

“Nissan, with its unused capacity able to build various vehicles in the U.S., would be a prime candidate for reskinned compact or midsize cars bearing the Saturn badge around 2012 or ‘13. There’s plenty of room in Nissan’s North American facilities to avoid having to source them from Renault’s Samsung plants in South Korea, as some have reported,” Lassa said.

What about all those Saturn dealerships?

Penske said he will extend offers to any existing Saturn dealers who want to continue to sell new cars. Though whether all 363 dealerships will remain when all is said and done is impossible to say.

A quick note: Unlike so many other companies and divisions, Saturn trended away from over-saturating the market with dealerships. In fact, those 363 dealerships are owned by only about 150 franchisees, so the transition should be relatively painless with respect to dealership closings.

DETROIT – A day after Chrysler LLC said it was cutting 800 dealerships, General Motors Corp. on Friday told about 1,100 of its U.S. dealers their franchises will be terminated late next year.

GM said the move targets “underperforming” dealers with small sales volumes and markets in which they are not competitive.

“Dealers are not a problem to GM; they’re an asset to GM. Too many dealers, in actuality, are a problem,” said Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of North American sales and marketing, in a conference call with reporters.

The company did not disclose the dealers it plans to eliminate and left it up to dealerships to reveal if their franchises will not be renewed.

The cuts are part of a larger GM plan to drop 2,600 of its 6,200 dealerships as the automaker tries to restructure to become profitable again. The moves likely will cause the loss of thousands of jobs and governments will lose untold dollars in tax revenue as dealerships are forced to close.

Besides the 1,100 dealership cuts, the company will provide updates to about 470 Saturn, Hummer and Saab dealerships on the status of those brands, which it plans to sell.

Friday’s cuts will not be the last. GM said it expects to lose more dealers through attrition. Ultimately, about 90 percent of the remaining dealerships will stay with GM, the company said.

FedEx letters bearing the bad news began arriving Friday morning at GM dealers around the U.S. The letters state that dealers were judged on sales, customer service scores, location, condition of facilities and other criteria.

Both Chrysler and GM say they are cutting the number of dealers because they have too many outlets that are too close to each other, and the competition drives down prices. But as the ranks of dealers thin and competition decreases, that likely will mean higher prices for car and truck buyers.

As GM and Chrysler lost market share to Japanese and other overseas brands, the automakers, as well as Ford Motor Co., ended up with too many dealerships. Many are barely getting by and can’t afford to upgrade their facilities or hire the best personnel to compete with the Japanese, who have far fewer dealerships.

With fewer dealers, consumers won’t see as much competition, said Aaron Bragman, an automotive industry analyst with the consulting firm IHS Global Insight.

Source: AP

DETROIT – General Motors Corp. told its dealers Tuesday that it will force 1,000 to 1,200 underperforming locations to close their doors as the automaker tries to thin dealer ranks to make the remaining outlets more profitable.

GM told the dealers about the plan in a video conference, according to a dealer who spoke on condition of anonymity because the video conference was private. It is part of the company’s plan announced Monday to cut more than 2,600 dealers by 2010.

The company expects to lose 500 Hummer and Saturn dealers when those brands close or are sold, and it expects 400 dealers to close voluntarily. Another 500 would be consolidated into other dealerships, according to the dealer.

GM said Monday that it also would eliminate its Pontiac brand, but there are only 27 dealers that sell just Pontiacs, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association. Most Pontiac dealers also sell Buick and GMC vehicles at the same location.

Company spokeswoman Susan Garontakos confirmed the numbers and said GM is in the process of deciding which dealers to keep based on their sales performance, capitalization, potential profitability, size, image and customer satisfaction scores.

After that, she said, the company will go market by market and determine which dealerships are not meeting the terms of their franchise agreements.

“There’s a lot of things that we have to consider, but we’ll have talks with those dealers that show or haven’t demonstrated that they have maintained a good performance,” Garontakos said.

John McEleney, chairman of the NADA, said in a written statement that GM must treat all of its dealers fairly and those that close should be compensated.

“It’s not out of any fault of their own that these dealers are being forced to close their businesses,” McEleney said.

He said many details were unknown about how the dealerships will be closed, but “137,330 dealership employees will lose their jobs, and state and local governments will lose an estimated $1.7 billion in sales tax revenue that would have been used for economic development in communities around the country.”

GM announced Monday it plans to reduce dealerships by 42 percent from 2008 to 2010, cutting them from 6,246 to 3,605.

GM is living on $15.4 billion in government loans and faces a June 1 government deadline to complete restructuring moves, win concessions from its unions and cut its debt. If it fails to meet the deadline, it will go into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

GM has decided to scrap its Pontiac brand and either sell or close Hummer, Saturn and Saab. It will focus on four core brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.

Courtesy of the Associated Press.