REPORT: Penske talking to Renault to supply vehicles to Saturn
Remember the rumor that Roger Penske is looking to bring Renault back to America via his recently-procured network of Saturn dealerships? Consider it a rumor no more, as the deed has been confirmed by none other than Renault's chief operating officer Patrick Pelata, who said in a recent interview:
"He is looking for cars to sell. He has looked at all car makers, and he has seen that Renault has a nice line-up, sharing power trains with Nissan that are obviously adapted to the U.S. market... He's asking us: 'Do you want to sell us cars?' and we are discussing about how to sell him cars."Considering that Nissan and Renault have plans to share virtually all new engines and Nissan is already well established in the U.S. market, it may make sense for the French automaker to supply Saturn-badged vehicles to Penske once GM stops producing the current Aura, Outlook and Vue models, which could be as early as 2011.
Previous reports indicated the vehicles in question may actually be sourced from Samsung, Renault's Korean subsidiary. According to Pelata, though, "It's an ongoing discussion," and no deals have yet been finalized.
[Source: Wall Street Journal - Sub. Req.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Remy Overkempe 6:32PM (7/31/2009)
Done deal.
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James 6:41PM (7/31/2009)
Samsung Motors aka RSM..is Renault.
http://www.renaultsamsungm.com/main/index.jsp
The SM3 looks could easily pass for a Saturn.
DiRF 7:11PM (7/31/2009)
As I posted in an earlier thread, I really think there are 3 cars from RSM that could do very well as Saturns...
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/595/possiblefuturesaturn1.jpg
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/4991/possiblefuturesaturn2.jpg
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/2972/possiblefuturesaturn3.jpg
SimbaDogg 9:49PM (7/31/2009)
carlos ghosn could be a very happy man
sk 9:36AM (8/01/2009)
For Saturn's sake I hope that they get the French Renault and not the Korean Samsung's to sell. It would throw Saturn a couple of generations back in looks and design if they sell the Samsung line-up.
adam1drift 6:34PM (7/31/2009)
http://txgarage.com/my-plead-to-penske-and-saturn/
I wrote a plea to Penske on what cars they should bring over.
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VW GTi 6:37PM (7/31/2009)
Yeh, fresh meat!!!
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Shiftright 6:47PM (7/31/2009)
I'll take a Clio RenaultSport please, and I do like me the Laguna Coupe!
Wow! Fiats, Alfas and Renaults back in the US! Now being Citroen, Peugeot and Lancia. We need more choice in affordable euro cars.
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Duncan 6:51PM (7/31/2009)
Just amazing how the American auto industry has changed.
Remember that Saturn was introduced in 1990 as the all-American challenger to the rising threat of imported cars. They built an all-new, all-modern plant from the ground up, trained a whole mess of workers in the most efficient production processes, and built cars that were unlike anything this country had ever built before in both quality and style.
Now, not even twenty years later, the one-time pride of the Big Three has become a cast-off. Their vaunted plant has become just one more cog in GM's overgrown machinery (it now builds the Chevy Traverse), the cars are loosely-differentiated derivatives of other GM designs, and the whole works is about to be replaced by French designs with Japanese engineering.
I wish them well, of course, but the shift in American manufacturing is just profound. Hopefully we won't look back in another 20 years and remember when America used to have its very own set of auto companies...
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Duncan 6:53PM (7/31/2009)
I should also say that if Renault (the brand) is coming back, I'll take a Laguna coupe, in Alpine blue. Thanks. :)
Ray 8:12PM (7/31/2009)
Actually I don't think the American auto industry changed much at all, which is why GM went into bankruptcy. Saturn was billed as a different kind of car company. This might have been true in the beginning years but eventually they all ended up badge engineered like any other GM make.
It is ironic though that the different kind of American car company is going to turn into basically a dealer network that sells foreign cars.
jv2k 3:26PM (8/01/2009)
Saturn started off as an idiotic idea and ended up dying as a result.
So GM felt threatened by the competition and instead of deciding to increase the quality of their current brands they decided to waste resources by starting a new one from the ground up. The new dealer network was a good idea but besides that Saturn was a waste of money and resources and should have never been created.
To summarize the biggest problem I have with saturn: instead of making cavaliers and sunfires better GM decided to make a third mediocre economy car platform.
Duncan 3:40PM (8/01/2009)
I actually won't dispute that creating Saturn was kind of a stupid move. (So was investing in a plant to build Corollas, for that matter.) The biggest problem is that GM made no attempt to really learn anything from Saturn - why it was successful, engineering wins and losses, the reasons its customers found it so appealing, etc. The closest they came was letting Oldsmobile copy the Saturn dealer experience for a while, but that's about it.
The thing is, when they were on their game, Saturn got the rest of the industry to sit up and take notice - which is something GM had been unable to really do for quite a while. I think as an independent, Saturn's got a lot of work to do to rebuild its once impressive image, but Penske's a person who is used to getting things done the right way. As it was before with Saturn, it will probably be again: everything depends on the product and the marketing.
Of course, that's true everywhere in the industry, as GM and Chrysler are FINALLY figuring out...
Dr. Nick 7:02PM (7/31/2009)
I'll take the hot Clio as well. Nice.
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John 7:15PM (7/31/2009)
I like the 2010 Renault Alpine Sportscar based on the 370z! that would be a nice new Saturn Sky http://bit.ly/GIbdk
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Matthew 7:23PM (7/31/2009)
R Penske should take Renaults that are competitive in their respective segments, i.e. the Clio (small hatch), Scenic & Grand Scenic (small/mid MPVs). The 2007 Laguna (family car) has proved quite reliable, it seems, so it could penetrate the US market without too much worries; but I doubt it could sell in significant numbers, even with a Saturn badge on it (not an innovative car and uninspiring looks except the Coupe). Too much competition in this segment, too. The SM5/Koleos (SUV) hasn't been a journos' top pick but customer satisfaction seems okay in Europe & Asia; but as for the Laguna: the segment is already flooded with very good competitors in the same price range (Rav 4, X-trail, Outlander, Santa Fe, Tucson...).
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Matthew 7:37PM (7/31/2009)
Sorry, QM5 not SM5.
Matthew 7:27PM (7/31/2009)
Oh, and supposed Renault plans of Alpine revival is a hoax that has been officially debunked since the rumor surfaced...
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Zoran 7:47PM (7/31/2009)
I guess they learned absolutely nothing from bringing Opels from Europe.
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Protzenegger 10:41PM (7/31/2009)
The reason Astra failed was that it basically wasn't advertised. Almost nobody knew it existed, and it sold (or rather didn't sell) accordingly.
The Sky failed because it was too much of a toy, and Miata beat it at the game.