Renault to Keep Saturn Alive, Sell Cars in the US

Saturn, the General Motors brand which has been often linked with bankruptcy, might be kept alive by Renault, the French manufacturer who is now planning to use the company in order to expand its coverage in the United States. Although the whole deal seems to be a bit complicated at the first sight, Renault has already made the first steps towards the Saturn takeover as Roger Penske, one of the interested parties, and Carlos Ghosn had a meeting on the subject.

According to a report by autoblog.it, the two companies are interested in forming a collaboration that would result in Saturn producing cars in Samsung's Korean factories but selling the models in the United States. This way, Renault could step into the United States with the help of Saturn, a company that already owns a large dealership network.

But speaking of dealerships, the two potential partners already discussed on this subject and they are reportedly planning to reduce their count from 384 to 250. Still, there's nothing confirmed but a final decision is expected to be announced in the next few days as Saturn's fate is to be settled this week.

This isn't the first time when Renault - Nissan is linked with an acquisition of Saturn, as the French - Japanese alliance was rumored to be interested in the American brand since the beginning of the month. Renault's CEO, Carlos Ghosn, did not explicitly denied the reports, but he insisted Renault is not yet discussing a possible Saturn takeover.

General Motors also hinted that in case no Saturn buyer is found by the end of the year, the American brand might join Pontiac on the list of units to be scrapped by 2010.