With seemingly every automaker in the midst of a product expansion, it comes as no surprise that Daimler’s Smart brand is considering a move beyond its two model lineup. Smart’s current lineup only offers seating for two – as the ForTwo nameplate would suggest – but the minicar maker is mulling a four-seater model.
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Two new suitors, including Detroit auto tycoon Roger Penske, have surfaced for General Motors Corp.’s endangered Saturn brand, according to sources familiar with negotiations.

Penske is the highly successful head of Bloomfield Hills-based Penske Automotive Group, Inc., which operates more than 300 franchises in the United States and internationally, selling 40 different brands. The billionaire Detroit booster, who oversaw the city’s Super Bowl XL preparation, has accomplished almost everything in the auto industry, from racing cars to building engines as owner of Detroit Diesel Corp. to snagging exclusive U.S. distribution rights for the iconic Smart minicar. But buying a brand and building vehicles would pose a new challenge.
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German automaker Daimler AG will see more cost-cutting and a reduced dividend this year after it warned Wednesday it won’t pass through the worst of the recession until the second half of this year.

“In 2009, the global economy will shrink for the first time since World War II,” Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche told Daimler’s shareholders at the company’s annual meeting in Berlin.
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