According to CNN: “Car dealership operator Penske Automotive Group announced on Wednesday that it has canceled plans to acquire General Motors’ Saturn unit. As a result, GM said it will wind down the brand and dealer network, potentially putting 13,000 Saturn dealership jobs at risk. The announcement comes nearly four months after Penske agreed to buy the rights to the 19-year old brand from GM when the automaker was in bankruptcy.

As part of the deal, GM would have continued making Saturn’s three best-selling models — the Aura sedan, as well as the Vue and Outlook cross-over SUVs — for the rest of this year and next. Penske, which would have been the distributor but not the manufacturer of the vehicles, would have sold the cars on behalf of GM. Penske said it would find another third-party manufacturer to make new Saturns in 2011.

But negotiations with another, unnamed manufacturer fell through after an agreement was rejected by that manufacturer’s board, according to Penske. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the manufacturer in question is Renault.” It seems Saturn will go the way of Pontiac by the end of 2010 or sometime in 2011. And much like Pontiac, Sat. had plenty of potential, but in a world where car makers merge/close at the drop of a dime (literally) anything is possible.

Now Penske Automotive Group (who statistically sell the second most amount of new cars in America, along with truck leasing, shipping/logistics and racing) and at the head of this “Let’s Buy Saturn” pact. Penske has a pretty good history with car brands – they handled the introduction of Smart in North America and the turnaround of Detroit Diesel from a money-losing operation into profit-generation. Roger Penske, chairman of the company, has some stiff competition when it comes to picking up Saturn, but he’s got a pretty nice track record to back him up.