When I needed to buy a car recently, I went to my local Toyota dealership. Amid the auto bailout mania, the last thing I wanted was a Government Motors car.
I was surprised to find myself settling in on a used Saturn. I remember thinking, though, that when GM imploded another car company would come along and rescue the strong brand from its dying parent.
Enter, today, Penske, which is purchasing Saturn from GM.
It was funny just now watching Penske execs on ABC News talk about how they could run the company at a profit. That's something GM could never do, despite the face that Polk Research reports that 80% of the company's cars since its 1990 founding are still on the road.
The Penske guys said that among the main reasons they could make it work was the absence of GM's legacy labor costs. They didn't mention a word about alleged "atrocious marketing and production decisions."
