Bob Lutz, the soon-retiring Vice Chairman of General Motors, says that the largest American automaker is likely to shut down the Saturn brand despite producing high quality vehicles. Autoblog reports on a conversation Lutz had with Automotive News:
 

General Motors’ Vice Chairman Bob Lutz may be on his way out to pasture, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to leave as anything other than the quote machine we know and love. The Maximum One told Automotive News that he wished Saturn would survive the current economic calamity, “But frankly, the reality is that that is probably not going to be the outcome.” When the Vice Chairman drops that kind of news, it doesn’t bode well for the struggling brand, which posted a 21% decline for 2008. Lutz went on to say that Saturn had the best, most fresh product lineup in the GM portfolio and that the company doesn’t have the time or money to spend trying to figure out what went wrong.

Saying this publicly probably dooms the Saturn brand to even lower sales pending the official closing as buyers will avoid companies that won’t be around in a few years when they need something done to the car. GM has committed to keeping Saturn alive through 2012, but it sounds like that will be the end.