Penske Inches Closer to Saturn-Badged Renaults

There’s been lots of buzz floating around the blogosphere about Roger Penske’s plan for Saturn.  Penske hopes the seal his buyout of the GM division by the start of the fall.  His major concern is long-term product development–Saturn currently builds only three vehicles: the Aura, Vue, and Outlook.

Penske and his staff have been looking to foreign businesses as a future supply base.  Recently, Samsung of Korea came out as one of the finalists, but France’s Renault is said to be the likely winner.  Renault, which has a controlling stake in Nissan, has a wide-range of competitve vehicles in the EU and has wanted to re-establish a foothold in North America.  Penske’s been drawn to its wide menu of small and fuel-efficient vehicles, something sorely lacking from US carmakers.