But his job as finance manager ended Friday as the dealership closed its doors, the first casualty among the three Nashville-area Saturn stores owned by Bristol, Tenn., car dealer C.M. "Bill" Gatton. The others are in Cool Springs and Rivergate.
Barger and 16 other employees were let go, all because auto-racing great Roger Penske was not able to complete his takeover of the Saturn brand from financially strapped General Motors.
"I'm not sure what I'm going to do next," Barger said. "I'm kind of in a state of shock. We just found out last week, and it's still hard to believe. I'm going to sit at home for a while and ponder the future."
Penske pulled the plug on the Saturn acquisition Sept. 30, the day before the deal was to close, saying that a preliminary agreement with another automaker to produce vehicles for his independent Saturn operation had fallen through.
Rather than open the process to further bidding, GM said that same day that it would terminate all 350 Saturn dealers and wind down the business instead.
Nationwide, more than 13,000 Saturn dealership and corporate employees stand to lose their jobs, and the "new kind of car company" GM created in the mid-1980s to fight Japanese imports — with its headquarters and manufacturing plant in Spring Hill — will be relegated to history along with such names as Nash, Studebaker, Packard and Oldsmobile.
"Up until the last minute we thought it was a done deal," said Gatton, who has owned the Nashville-area Saturn stores since 1995. "Personally, I think GM and Penske made a big mistake. There is no automotive brand in America that has as much goodwill among its customers as Saturn, and there is no other domestic brand with this kind of positive image. It's a sad, sad day."
Gatton said he will keep the Rivergate and Cool Springs locations open at least through October 2010, when their franchise agreements with GM officially expire. And if he can, he said, he will convert them to other new-car franchises, if any are available.
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