CarBuyersNoteBook

How long will Saturn be around? According to General Motors, Saturn will be around at least until 2012. “We are still working through many options,” but Saturn is “not going away in 30 days,” said Todd Ingersoll, a Saturn dealer on the Franchise Operations Team. Good to know, but long range plans may or may not include the troubled brand, which many predict will be one of the first on the GM chopping block.  Out of the past 20 years, Saturn has been profitable for one of them—one year out of 20, and losing money in every other year. GM did not commit to building any more Saturn or products or any new Saturn products.

GM was careful only to say it would not completely eliminate the Saturn brand before 2012: cold comfort at best, but in this market better news than some at Saturn had expected.  The biggest take ahead of Saturn if it is to survive is to come up with a plan for profitability in the short and long term, something almost all American brands are struggling with right now.