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May 12, 2010 Dear Saturn of Naperville Customer, John Lennon could not have said it better: “Nobody told me there’d be days like these. Strange days, indeed!” Who could have predicted the wild ride our economy and our industry has taken the last several months? Certainly, not me. And when I went to my first Saturn training in 1990 where we talked about the plan for a 100 year car company, I would have bet the farm that what happened to Saturn this past year could never happen. But the decision to terminate Saturn was made and set all Saturn Retailers on a new course. What has happened since October 1, 2009? Unlike most, we made the decision early on that we were going to be the last Saturn store standing. We purchased as many new Saturns as we could from other facilities, but we sold out of them in early January. Of course, we knew that day was coming so in November we started building up our used car inventory. For most of 2008 and 2009, we kept about 50 used vehicles in stock. Today, we have over 160. We have a huge selection of Saturns, including some 2010 Outlooks, but we have greatly expanded the non-Saturn selection. We have added used car buyers, sourcing vehicles from all around the country which has helped us to grow the inventory and enabled us to find specific vehicles for customers who had not been able to find what they were looking for. Consequently, we are selling 3-4x as many used cars, trucks, vans and SUVs as we did last year. In fact, we’ve sold more used vehicles this year than we sold new and used combined in 2009. In service, we added more techs to adequately take care of our increased number of service customers. We have more trained Saturn techs in our shop than any other service department in the Midwest. However, with the influx of non-Saturn used cars, we also have experienced techs who can work on virtually any make or model. So what’s next? Well, the final plans have not yet taken shape, and probably won’t until late summer or early fall. What we do know is that we are staying in business and are hoping to be open in both Naperville and North Aurora before the end of 2010. We appreciate your continued faith and patronage and I’m looking forward to making announcements about our new identity(s) as soon as our plans are finalized. Please make sure we have your current e-mail address so we can keep you informed in a timely manner. Sincerely, George Honiotes Owner Saturn of Naperville
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