General Motors in a deal with race car magnate Roger Penske agreed to shut down the Saturn division of the automobile dealership.  The Saturn is the car that was to revolutionize the way the car buying consumer thought of small and mid-size cars.  The brand will have its ending in the United States where it was manufactured and sold.

The associated press reports that the Penske Automotive Group is based in Bloomsfield, Michigan.  The Michigan based automotive was unable to find a manufacture to supply vehicles for the Saturn brand automobile dealerships.  The automotive group will continue to build similar models of the Saturn such as the Vue, the Aura and the Outlook until 2011.  After that time Saturn will have to find other manufactures for its vehicular products.

The news was disappointing as the Saturn retailers had tried to make the New Saturn a reality, but the brand will be phased out.  Penske will have sole ownership of the United States 350 dealerships and the some 13,000 Saturn employees will be retained.  Penske executives had been trying to make deals with other automakers to save the Saturn brand but the deals fell through.  Information was not disclosed to the associated press the automakers involved in the talks.

The announcement of the Penske decision to shut down Saturn came as a surprise to General Motors who were at Capitol Hill at the time speaking about closing down 3,000 dealerships.  By the fall of 2010, General Motors plan to close 2,410 of its automobile dealerships.  General Motors plan to stop manufacturing Saturn as soon as possible.

Current Saturn owners can still go to the dealerships for to have their automobile serviced.  Once the dealerships close, current Saturn owners can take their automobile to certified General Motors dealerships to have their cars serviced.

The General Motors chairman first unveiled the Saturn brand of automobile in 1983.  The slogan "A Different Kind of Car Company" did not launch the actual product until 1990.  At that time a new plant was built in Spring Hill, Tennessee to attract the cooler and younger car buyers.  The Saturn was originally built also to compete with the Japanese automobiles being imported to the United States.  The brand Saturn had somewhat of a cult following with thousands meeting in the city of Spring Hill.  However, Saturn never made money for General Motors.  The factory in Tennessee stopped making Saturns in 2007.

The crossover from the Saturn is the Chevrolet Traverse that is manufactured in Delta Township, Michigan.  The Spring Hill Saturn assembly plant will be closed and placed on standby if the demand for GM products increase.