After last week’s announcement that GM will focus its future on four brands — Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC — left its Saturn brand in limbo, the automaker has told Saturn dealerships that they will continue the brand at least through 2012:
 

The good news: Saturns will remain in production until 2012 or 2013… at least. The bad news: the Saturns currently being produced might not get any new updates or engineering before then. That’s the bitter and the sweet that GM revealed to Saturn dealers at the NADA conference.

On the warm, fuzzy side of things, dealers are — for the moment — just happy to hear that Saturn isn’t “going away in 30 days.” While on the cold, dark side of reality it’s clear that GM doesn’t have much money, doesn’t know how much it’s ultimately going to get in loans, and can’t fully fund all of its brands. That means that refreshing and re-engineering the current offerings might have to wait until the crystal ball is a little clearer.

GM has to deliver a restructuring plan to the federal government in three weeks, at which point the future of Saturn may be made more clear.