June Sales Update: Is This The Turnaround?

Okay, I originally thought May's semi-positive sales figures were a fluke, built, as they were, on a combination of low gas prices and higher demand for trucks. But now that I've seen some early June figures, even I'm ready to say the industry is taking some steps in the right direction.

Of course, I'm not talking about June vehicle sales — I'm talking about the June sales of GM's non-core brands. As most people have probably heard, China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. has made an offer for HUMMER. The company, according to its Web site, is "one of China’s major privately owned engineering companies. Tengzhong is a manufacturer of heavy machinery equipment with a presence in special-use vehicles, road and bridge construction equipment and construction and energy industry equipment."

Then, this morning, the buzz started to build around reports that the Penske Automotive Group has won the bidding for Saturn. Essentially, this gives Penske the excellent Saturn dealership network and, according to the media, continued production of the Saturn Aura, VUE and Outlook. There are no solid details yet regarding how long GM would continue manufacturing vehicles for Saturn/Penske, but it's clear that the new Saturn would also sell vehicles manufactured for the company by other OEMs.

When it comes to HUMMER, some people are a wee bit concerned that Tengzhong has no experience building or selling retail vehicles. And some analysts say it's unlikely China will approve the deal, because it violates some of the country's goals for building up its homegrown auto industry.

But I just can't imagine Tengzhong would make a bid in the first place if it didn't already have some idea that China would, in fact, approve. And keep in mind that the company claims, again on its Web site, that it built its recent success "through a series of successful acquisitions."

Now, even though HUMMER has been excoriated by, well, a long long list of critics, the fact remains that it has a solid core of diehard fans. These are the same kind of enthusiasts that have kept the Jeep Wrangler notching actual sales increases this year. And, as I've always said, if there's a place in the industry for high-performance, low-mpg supercars from makers like Ferrari and Lamborghini, there's a place for vehicles that put a similar emphasis on off-road performance and get similarly poor mileage numbers.

On the Saturn front, things look even better. Penske is a Smart businessman — literally — and knows how to run a retail vehicle operation. The Penske Auto Group operates the second-largest (in terms of sales) chain of dealerships in the country. Penske's role as a distributor for the Smart ForTwo has provided key experience in providing brand support for vehicles. There should also be plenty of public support for a U.S. company that's saving some 13,500 jobs across the country. I'm not saying people are going to favor Penske over the Italian-owned Chrysler or a Chinese-owned HUMMER but ... well, yes, I am saying that.

So, it suddenly looks like General Motors is sitting two for three when it comes to unloading it's "bad" brands, leaving only Saab up for grabs. And I'm so giddy about the news, I'm going to toss out a wacky idea for who should pick up the Swedish outfit — Bill Gates.

That may sound nutty at first, but don't forget that old meme about Steve Jobs and Apple running an automaker, and how some people thought that would bring in the right mix of innovation and excitement needed to get the U.S. industry in gear. Gates would be a much better fit than Jobs, as Microsoft is kind of the Toyota of the computer industry, and one could hope that cars built by this new GM (Gates Motors) could follow the same path to success.

Gates also has the money, with a net worth of around $40 billion. I'm betting he could pick up Saab for a fraction of a percent of that ... if he has to go out of pocket at all. Finally, there's every reason to believe saving Saab is something Gates would want to do — after all, he's definitely known for supporting charities.