The end is quickly approaching as Roger Penske announced September 30 that he is no longer in the running to purchase Saturn. The deal was supposed to close in September, but troubles ended up killing the deal and will ultimately kill the Saturn brand. General Motors announced that without Penske the Saturn brand will be shut down.

The problems were allegedly with Penske securing a future manufacturer of the Saturn vehicles. GM was going to continue to manufacture the cars through 2010 for Penske, but the 2011 models were to be made by a manufacturer that Penske was to hire for the job. Word is that manufacturer was Renault, but that deal fell through and so Penske pulled out of the purchase of Saturn.

Had the deal gone through, the sale would have saved about 13,000 jobs and 350 dealerships or so, but now GM is planning on shutting the whole works down, but will continue to service the Saturns at GM dealerships.

GM makes Saturns at the plants at Fairfax, KS., Lansing MI, and Ramos, Mexico, but also make other vehicles at those plants and doesn't expect the closing of Saturn to decrease employment levels at those plants.

GM has not yet released when the dealerships will close, but is not looking for a new buyer for the brand. It is expected that the 2010 model year will be the last.