GM selling Saturn to Penske

Bankrupt automaker General Motors Corp. announced Friday that it will sell its Saturn unit to car dealership operator Penske Automotive Group. Penske is owned by Roger Penske, who owns NASCAR and IndyCar racing teams and who himself was a former driver.Penske plans to buy Saturn from General Motors and turn it into a new kind of car company – one that doesn’t make its own cars. 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. Penske, who already runs Penske Automotive Group Inc., the second-largest U.S. dealer network, thinks his business model is different enough to be successful. The sale will save 13,000 jobs and 350 dealers “in the near term,” said Detroit-based GM, which like Penske Auto wouldn’t detail the terms.