"Saturn deal is called a new business model" (contractor, buy)

[delusianne]

Detroit businessman Roger Penske's move to acquire General Motors' troubled Saturn brand and dealer network could be pioneering -- the start of a new strategy for selling cars and trucks in the United States, experts said Friday.
***
"The proposed acquisition marks the beginning of a new business model in this industry," wrote [Jack Nerad of Kelley Blue Book], "a model in which the distribution side of the business controls the brand, and manufacturing is conducted by one or more sub-contractors."

http://www.freep.com/article/20090606/BUSINESS01/906060412 (broken link)

[dee99ta]

Chinese car. Thats the plan.

[delusianne]

GM selling Saturn to Roger Penske - bizjournals:

Instead of building cars for Saturn, Penske will contract the manufacture of vehicles, first from Saturn’s current owner, GM, and later from other car companies. His plan, announced earlier today, is to distribute those cars through Saturn’s biggest asset--its hundreds of independent and highly-regarded dealerships.

The structure would make Saturn a different kind of operation...“What this means, they are going to be primarily a marketing company and in some sense that is a new model of business in the auto industry....This is the first time when we’ve seen a company say ‘we’re just going to distribute,’” without manufacturing.

While it might be new for a company like Saturn to contract out the production of all the cars it sells, it isn’t so unusual that it wouldn’t work. Car companies often manufacture models for each other.

[socal2009]

I always wonder-who is buying Saturn cars? They are not cheap, and they are ugly.

[texdav]

Te real difference is what tey say;that the distribuotr does not make any cars itself. If the distributor does a better job of ginign what the customer wants because he is closer to the consumer than it make work very well is my immedaite reaction. What you see now i9s just a maker rebranding a existing vehickle of another maker.Interesting.

[wheelsup]

Problem with this is they have no control over the quality of their product. Once they contract it out to the lowest bidder and customers turn they are FUBAR'd.

[Stac2007]

Is it true that the future of Saturn means their cars are to be built in China? If this is true I will never purchase a single unit. We bailed them out and now they are going to take away more jobs. Stabbed in the back by the very government the people voted into office.

[delusianne]

Originally Posted by Stac2007

Is it true that the future of Saturn means their cars are to be built in China? If this is true I will never purchase a single unit. We bailed them out and now they are going to take away more jobs. Stabbed in the back by the very government the people voted into office.

Wouldnt that be Penske's call, not the government's?

[Stac2007]

Originally Posted by delusianne

Wouldnt that be Penske's call, not the government's?

I'm not so sure.

[8 SNAKE]

Originally Posted by Stac2007

I'm not so sure.

Why wouldn't it be Penske's call? He didn't buy Saturn just so the government could tell him how to run his company.

With that said, it's probably way too soon to assume that the manufacturing will take place in China.