Yesterday, Roger Penske backed out of the deal he had struck with General Motors to buy the Saturn brand, ultimately signaling the end of GM’s two-decades old import-fighting brand. The deal was clever: Penske would buy all 350 dealerships and the Saturn brand, and GM would continue to build the current Saturn lineup for the next year or so while Penske found another supplier (widely rumored to be Renault). However, the third supplier backed out, giving Penske no reason to go through with it. GM has little choice but to wind Saturn down.

At only 19-years-old, Saturn was one of the shortest-lived brands GM ever had. Yet it was also pivotal to the company’s current fortunes – or lack thereof – in myriad ways, from the promises made during its development to the billions of dollars poured into the brand that could very well have saved other divisions in the process. GM established Saturn to learn a new way of doing business. Instead, the business it already had was almost undone.
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