Barring a last-minute hitch, racing legend Roger Penske seems certain to become the new owner of GM's Saturn brand.

Barring a last-minute hitch Roger Penske will become the new owner of General Motors’ Saturn brand, ending a grand experiment that was meant to give GM a leg up on its Japanese rivals.

Penske, the motor sports legend and mega-entrepreneur, has or will shortly sign a Memo of Understanding, or MOU, that would position him as the all-but-certain buyer of one of four brands that GM is abandoning as part of its bankruptcy-based restructuring.

GM said, late last year, it would phase out Saturn, unless it could find a purchaser, by around the end of 2010.  It now appears that the ailing automaker would provide products for a Penske-owned Saturn through a transition period and after that, the brand would have to find alternative sources of vehicles.

Penske is not expected to produce vehicles on his own, so among the possible partners being considered are the French maker, Renault, which has long been interested in a return to the U.S. market, and some Chinese auto sources, according to well-placed industry insiders.

An announcement could come anytime, though GM officials will only say that negotiations for a Saturn sale are ongoing.  Several different bidders were reportedly in the running.

Too little, too late. Saturn let its early momentum falter and even a belated flood of products, such as the Astra, shown here, failed to reverse its slide.

It’s almost exactly 25 years since GM’s far-reaching CEO, Roger Smith, announced plans to create what would eventually be billed as “a different kind of car company.”  That set off a flurry of activity, with states across the country competing to see who could come up with the most lucrative incentive package to draw the planned Saturn factory.

It eventually landed in Spring Hill, Tennessee, along with most of the rest of what was intended to be a virtually stand-alone “company-within-a-company.”  Saturn had its own design, engineering and manufacturing centers and even negotiated a separate and more flexible contract with the United Auto Workers Union.

When the first car debuted, in 1989, it received mixed, if generally favorable reviews.  “People expected the car to lift off its wheels and fly,” recalled the late Skip LeFauve, who ran the operation at its launch.  But it turned out that the real revolution was on the retail side, Saturn quickly earning a reputation for customer-friendly sales and service practices that won over the sort of motorists who hated the car buying process.

Initial momentum turned south, however, as infighting among the various GM brands convinced senior management not to approve the much-needed expansion of the Saturn line-up.  By the time they finally authorized a larger car, it was too late.

Asked by TheDetroitBureau.com if GM had essentially strangled the brand, recently-retired Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said, “I wouldn’t be that harsh, but we created a baby that was growing healthily and, when it was still an infant, told it to go out and get a job on its own.”

Even a flood of highly-regarded products, over the last three years, couldn’t revive the brand’s momentum.  Sales were an anemic 188,000 in 2008, a decline of nearly 22%, and volumes have continued plunging this year.

There are 380 Saturn dealers in the U.S., today.  Most or all are likely to stay on with Penske, according to well-placed sources.  The new owner could also look to expand ties between his own retail network, the Penske Auto Group, which is the nation’s second-largest auto retail chain.

Penske, who has revived ventures such as Hertz Truck Leasing and Detroit Diesel Corp., and has been a force to be reckoned with on the motor sports circuit, also serves as the U.S. distributor for Daimler AG’s Smart Car division, which he took on after the German maker failed to come up with a plan to sell the cars on its own in the States.