Comments on: Renault interested in purchasing Saturn

By: mayer_ray_nagin

mayer_ray_nagin — Thu, 07 May 2009 02:07:34 +0000

I think french ownership is a good idea as long as the put an IN-N-OUT Burger franchise in every dealership.

By: idrinorbarsaku

idrinorbarsaku — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:18:12 +0000

i like this!

By: SomeGreek

SomeGreek — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:43:36 +0000

…that much money…

By: SomeGreek

SomeGreek — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:42:04 +0000

Exactly what i was thinking about, andy. They don’t need saturn, they won’t pay that money for it.

By: klazterp

klazterp — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:17:01 +0000

GM hs no plans on relaunching Pontiac. The don’t sell it, because they don’t want a chinese company trading on the brandname. That would make a direct competitor for Chevrolet and/or Buick.
Pontiac will never fly again after the kill-off. There are more evocative bands around that could be re-introduced. Sad thing is, there are already too many car brands around. It wouldn’t be worth the marketing expenses.
Saturn is different: it hasn’t such a heritage that can be used and the dealer network is separate.

By: CADDY-V

CADDY-V — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:52:10 +0000

Flatred:
Gm is killing Pontiac so they can save money. If they sell it then they have no rights to it, but if they kill it they can bring Pontiac back when there money is a little better. They would never let Pontiac go it’s been in GM history for to long. Same reason you will never see GMC our any brand that has been around that long ever go, just put on hold.

By: andy

andy — Wed, 06 May 2009 21:00:51 +0000

a foothold he so desperately desires? isnt his/ their US foothold Nissan?

By: JakeK66

JakeK66 — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:58:31 +0000

Oh crap. I don’t really even know anymore JohnnyC. I swore before it would be Chrysler that Renault would take over, but then Fiat hit so I thought Saturn. It was only a matter of time they would do something as they swore by all accounts to want to be here in the US and not particularly in Nissan dealerships.

With all these foreign carmakers from Europe coming over with smaller cars, an all Democratic Congress and Presidency, economic conditions crappy, the fad of people freaking out about the environment and global climate shifts (albeit not global cooling – now global warming), oil problems, I had to make sure my calander said 2009 and not 1979.

By: leftwingagenda

leftwingagenda — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:54:19 +0000

don’t forget the union portion, borat, we don’t own 100%…yet

By: Borat

Borat — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:44:07 +0000

I wish we could negotiate with French government some other purchases as well: what about them buying back Louisiana? After all Renault is 15% owned by Republic of France. I forgot that we own 100% of GM and Chrysler.

By: Flatred

Flatred — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:37:52 +0000

Renault and Nissan share most of their parts (actually almost all of them incl.engines) but the design departments while working together (you can see the influence in both brand) are still separate. But none of the Nissan US are Renault rebadged.
I think it would be good for Saturn. Renault is very similar and target the same audience (like Opel) and it makes a lot of sense.
As for Pontiac, it would be nice but GM has no desire on saving/selling it and just want to kill it. Shame!

By: carstuff

carstuff — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:36:33 +0000

With all these suiters GM may get some serious money out of one of them. Who woulda thunk?

By: slider5634

slider5634 — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:13:31 +0000

“Maybe Renault would make use of Saturn, Renault might have some good cars, but don’t they have Nissan?”

Yes, they do have Nissan, and while some design influence does come from Renault in Nissan’s US product base, none of the current US Nissans are direct rebadges of European Renaults — atleast as far as I know. This would definitely create a justified reason to directly import Renaults and either just sell them, or rebadge them.

By: Blakkarr

Blakkarr — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:53:50 +0000

It makes sense and I’m glad there is apparently hope for SATURN.

But what about PONTIAC? They got a buying even before a “for sale” sign was posted.

Heaven help me, I’m actually getting concerned about HUMMER. Ditch the H2 and focus on the H3 and aim at being a real JEEP Rival and there is hope for HUMMER. IF CHRYSLER manages to hold onto JEEP, Wrangler and all, then maybe INTERNATIONAL could see a way to picking up HUMMER instead.

That leaves only SAAB. Maybe VOLVO? The longest shot would be TOYOTA. More likely some CHINESE company.

By: Flatred

Flatred — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:52:38 +0000

Yeah! Bring on the Megane R26R!

By: johnnycanuck

johnnycanuck — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:50:41 +0000

You da man Jake! Now take a deep breath and think about whether or not this is something you want.

By: Euro Devotion

Euro Devotion — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:50:16 +0000

“Renault Samsung Motors is a South Korean automobile manufacturer. It was first established as Samsung Motors in 1994 and started selling cars in 1998, just before South Korea was hit by the Asian financial crisis. Negotiations with Renault started in December 1998 and in September 2000 Renault bought a 70% stake for $512 million.” -wiki

The cars are all Nissan rebadges.

By: F50

F50 — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:50:00 +0000

Yeah Samsung is an electronics company, anyways maybe Renault would make use of Saturn, Renault might have some good cars, but don’t they have Nissan?

By: JakeK66

JakeK66 — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:48:29 +0000

WHO CALLED IT? I DID!!!!

By: save saab

save saab — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:43:34 +0000

Saturn importing Renault is great but what is Samsung? Isn’t that an electronics company?