(Source: AP via Yahoo)

General Motors Corp., just days after the bankrupt carmaker sold its Hummer brand, said Friday that it has reached a deal to unload Saturn to racing legend and auto dealer Roger Penske.

 General Motors Corp. has a tentative deal to sell its Saturn brand to former race car driver and dealership group owner Roger Penske, both companies said Friday.

Penske has signed a memorandum of understanding that would give his dealership chain, Penske Automotive Group, Saturn’s 350 dealerships, the companies said. Penske said that he expects to offer all the dealers new franchise agreements and will retain all 13,000 Saturn employees for the immediate term.

“I would expect that the model that we’re putting together, the distribution model, will be profitable day one,” Penske said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We’ll have less costs. We’ll not be in the manufacturing side.”

Neither Penske nor GM would say how much Penske is paying for the brand. Penske said he expects the deal to close in the third quarter.

Penske Automotive Group also distributes Daimler AG’s Smart subcompacts in the U.S., but Smart has its own dealership network and Saturn dealers will continue to exclusively distribute Saturn vehicles, Penske said.

Initially, GM will continue to produce on a contract basis the Saturn Aura sedan as well as the Vue and Outlook SUVs, the companies said. But Penske said he is in talks with manufacturers around the world about building Saturn cars in the future.

GM Chairman Roger Smith first unveiled the Saturn brand in November 1983, describing it as a revolutionary new way to build and sell small cars in America. But the project was slow to develop and the brand did not officially launch until 1990. It featured the iconic tag-line “a different kind of car company.”

GM’s hope was that Saturn would attract younger buyers with smaller, hipper cars to better compete with Japanese imports. It built a new plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., devoted to Saturn production. The factory had more flexible work rules than traditional GM plants for the employees who built the cars.

Image Courtesy: Penske Automotive Group

Despite a cult-like following that drew thousands to annual reunions in Spring Hill, the brand never made money for GM. The factory stopped making Saturns in 2007 and currently builds only the Chevrolet Traverse.

As GM focused more on high-profit pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles, Saturn began to languish in the late 1990s. Then in 2006, car buyers began to find Saturn’s new models more appealing. But after a good year in 2007, sales dropped 22 percent last year as the U.S. car market withered.

Penske Automotive also distributes Daimler AG’s Smart subcompacts in the U.S., but Smart has its own dealership network and Saturn dealers will continue to exclusively distribute Saturn vehicles, Penske said.

Carl F. Galeana, who owns two Saturn dealerships north of Detroit, said Friday he was thrilled that Penske would be the Saturn buyer.

“Roger Penske is an icon in the business world,” Galeana said. “I’ve worked with him personally. Nobody works harder than Roger Penske.”

Galeana said the fact that Penske is interested in Saturn means the brand has value.

“It allows Saturn to get back to its original roots, which is to be an independent car company,” he said.

Shares of Penske Automotive rose 52 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $15.13 in midday trading on news of the sale. The stock has enjoyed a brisk rally this year, more than tripling from an annual low of $4.82 in March.

During a press briefing earlier this week, GM Chief Executive Frederick Henderson said Saab has attracted three bidders, but he declined to reveal names.  The renowned Hummer brand was sold to a Chinese heavy machinery company a couple of days ago and this transaction will conclude upon clearance from three different Chinese government agencies .

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