According to a story in yesterday's New York Times, GM might "buy out dealers that exclusively sell Saturns and market the cars through its Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealers instead."
I can't think of a worse idea. Saturn was set up to be an innovative alternative. Even the marketing was deliberately meant to be different. Rolling the Saturn dealerships into the existing brand dealership would be an abandonment of that experiment. Nothing GM could do would be a bigger signal of a return to the same old way of doing things. At a time when a line of economy cars is seen as the only hope for the short-term future, GM apparently want to turn its innovative economy line into the same thing as all of its current brands.
Earlier this year, there were rumors that GM wanted to sell off its Saturn brand (see earlier posting). Apparently, GM couldn't find a buyer back then. I don't know if there was a lack of interest or no one was willing to match GM's price. But it still sounds like a good solution to me. Since GM can't seem to make this innovative idea work, maybe some one else can.
So let me propose this: Congress should take some of the planned auto bailout money and use it to spin out Saturn as a stand-alone company. As a requirement, all of the supplier contracts with GM and other suppliers would remain (so that GM couldn't cut the new competitor off at the knees). Other adjustments might be allowed with an eye to making the company financially viable.
This solution would keep the factories operating, keep the workers employed and keep an American source of economy cars. It would even create some work for that other group of threatened workers: investment bankers.
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