REPORT: Renault after Saturn, Geely after Saab
According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, General Motors is working on a deal with Renault to hand over Saturn, providing the French automaker with a "launching pad" to expand into North America. The WSJ's sources say that the deal with GM would allow Renault and its South Korean subsidiary, Samsung Motors, to sell its wares in the States though the existing retailers, possibly marketing the new vehicles as Saturns and building some of the vehicles using the General's underutilized plants. How the deal would flesh out financially remains to be seen, but there's a chance that Renault would acquire Saturn for no cash down – not surprising considering GM said it essentially plans to cancel the brand – but the French automaker would need to take on Saturn's liabilities and production costs. We're not entirely sure how acquiring a brand that could compete with Renault-owned Nissan in the U.S. would be in the best interests of the company overall, not to mention Saturn's track-record of marketing "European" vehicles in North America.
On the Geely front, the Chinese automaker is one of "three to four" serious bidders for Saab (as opposed to the ten reported yesterday), and comes a few weeks after Geely's bid for Volvo. Geely execs traveled to Trollhatten in the last few weeks, joined by nine other suitors, and the WSJ hypothesizes that Geely could be pushing for a deal with Saab as a way to put pressure on FoMoCo to get serious about the Chinese automaker's bid for Volvo. Regardless of Geely's apparent love of Sweden, expect a deal to be inked on Saab's future owners early this summer. Top tip throwback.
[Source: WSJ]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
chineyz954 1:35PM (5/06/2009)
Saturn 350z
Reply
Sea Urchin 1:39PM (5/06/2009)
No, Saturn Clio. If this goes thru Saturn could finally get the car it was always supposed to have, affordable, Euro cars.
the_MVP_X 1:43PM (5/06/2009)
I knew Saturn wanted to have affordable,japanese cars.
Dude 1:48PM (5/06/2009)
@Sea Urchin
I think you mean affordable Japanese cars.
Ligor 2:14PM (5/06/2009)
not quite, but maybe the scion of Nissan with better products
we'll see if this pans out
James 11:05PM (5/06/2009)
..."GM would allow Renault and its South Korean subsidiary, Samsung Motors, to sell its wares in the States..."
Renaults "might" do well under the Saturn brand...but it's pointless to sell Samsungs since the current K-line of cars are essentially re-hashed old platform Nissans.
Samsung + Saturn = Samsturn
Renault + Saturn = Return
;p
the_MVP_X 1:41PM (5/06/2009)
Leave Saab alone Geely.
Reply
Sektor 1:42PM (5/06/2009)
Which means, "let Saab die".
the_MVP_X 1:47PM (5/06/2009)
C'mon, you know that Geely can't make Saab batter.
BigWill 2:10PM (5/06/2009)
I dunno. I'm kind of curious to see how a Saab Happy Chrysanthemum 9000-5 would turn out.
2004m3driver 5:12PM (5/06/2009)
@ the MVP X
Making it "batter" might be easy as cake.
tekd 4:43PM (5/07/2009)
Geely might not be able to make Saab better in the sense of giving it technical assistance, but it can definitely help Saab pack more into each car for the same amount of money by sharing parts purchases from suppliers, and hooking them up with cheaper suppliers in China.
Assuming that the Saab engineering team gets to keep doing what they're doing it could help Saab out quite a bit.
At any rate it's not like Saab has all that many alternatives lol.
Sektor 1:41PM (5/06/2009)
Euro priced cars in the U.S.? Ain't gonna work.
Reply
Sam 1:47PM (5/06/2009)
If you want good, environmentally friendly and safe cars you have to pay for it.
hypermiler 1:49PM (5/06/2009)
> Euro priced cars in the U.S.? Ain't gonna work.
The article says vehicles would come from Korea, not France.
Aprime 1:59PM (5/06/2009)
No it didn't (just because they point to Samsung Motors doesn't mean they'll [all] come from South Korea) - but it would make sense regardless.
Colin Smith 2:02PM (5/06/2009)
US automakers have consistently underpriced their cars and relied on spurious finance deals to move their product, and now they are bust!
Americans need to learn that cars aren't THAT cheap.
Matthew 2:15PM (5/06/2009)
Very true, Sektor. American people often don't realize that the average car price to purchasing power ratio is much higher in Europe than in the US. That's why car designed for Europe will have a hard time selling well in the US except maybe for niche and/or premium cars providing enough added value to justify opening and maintaining a network in such a vast country, since mainstream imported European cars will be too pricey for the average American customer. Especially if those Euro cars fail to prove more reliable than the domestic competition. What makes Euro cars expensive are 1) complicated things under the bonnet to save as much fuel as possible and 2) R&D to make such complicated things reliable. Another oil crisis would be a godsend for cars designed for Europe, though.
The Renaultsports, Koleos and Laguna Coupé (maybe Espace) could sell quite well in the East and West coasts, but far from threatening any American brand IMO.
hypermiler 2:23PM (5/06/2009)
@ Matthew
> The Renaultsports, Koleos and Laguna Coupé (maybe Espace) could sell quite well in the East and West coasts, but far from threatening any American brand IMO.
You don't understand that the vehicles being discussed for distribution via Saturn are Renault Korea's, not Renault's. Unlike Renault, Renault Korea's models(Almost nothing to do with Renault's models) are very competitive, they consistently outscore Hyundais in quality ranking.
Basically, GM's helping the US entry of another import maker with Honda-level quality.
Matthew 2:31PM (5/06/2009)
@ hypermiler
Quote from the WSJ article:
"Under a deal with Renault -- which controls Japan's Nissan Motor Corp. and South Korea's Samsung Motors -- the French auto maker could eventually use the Saturn network of 400-plus dealers to sell its own cars, including vehicles made by Renault or Samsung and sold as Saturns, the people familiar with the matter said."
...including vehicles made by Renault or Samsung and sold as Saturns...
The Koleos is a Renault-rebranded version of the Samsung QM5, BTW.