Dismantling of General Motors picks up speed

News from Detroit that General Motors Corp. had agreed to sell its Saturn brand to Penske Automotive Group Inc. seems to be good news for 13,000 Saturn employees but not such good news for the largest U.S. automaker. The dismantling of bankrupt GM, which sought bankruptcy protection Monday, raises real doubts about whether the automotive giant will ever emerge as a viable company. GM has already agreed to sell its Hummer brand to a Chinese company and its Saab subsidiary to a fellow Swedish automaker, Koenigsegg Automotive AG of Angelholm. GM and Penske plan to complete the sale of the brand and its 350 dealerships by this summer, according to the Reuters international news service. GM has said it plans to reorganize in bankruptcy court and return as a smaller company concentrating on its core brands, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac, Reuters said. Penske, which operates hundreds of car and truck dealerships and supply stores across the United States and Britain from its headquarters in Bloomfield, Mich., was one of more than a dozen bidders for Saturn, which was created by GM in 1984 and began selling cars in 1990. GM announced it would sell the Saturn brand in February. Under the agreement with Penske, GM will continue to build the Saturn Aura, Vue and Outlook as a Penske contractor, Reuters said.

Closure of Pontiac shows GM still doesn't get it

Speculation that General Motors plans to kill off its Pontiac brand instead of trying to revitalize it with new models and better values is an indication that the country's largest automaker is still locked-in on a highway to failure. With new leadership at the top and billions of dollars in federal loans, General Motors should be making plans to build better, more-attractive cars across all of its divisions. Instead, the automaker is trying to suck the remaining life out of itself as it careens toward bankruptcy. An official announcement about Pontiac's fate is expected as eartly as Monday, according to Cable News Network (CNN). A GM spokesman, Jim Hopson, declined to comment Saturday on the future of the Pontiac brand, saying the automaker was not prepared to comment at this time, CNN said. Pontiac was GM's third-best selling brand last year, outselling Cadillac and Buick. But Cadillac is the corporation's most-profitable brand and Buick is very popular in China, CNN said. Pontiac once built GM's most exciting vehicles, from the high-performance GTO to the flashy Firebird. The 1964 Pontiac Tempest LeMans GTO is credited with creating a new class of American car, the muscle car.