Here’s the scoop on Saturn… No real scoop until June 1.

If GM can put a deal together with a buyer, Saturn survives. If not, it’s dead at the end of the year.

By the way, we’re predicting Renault will be the manufacturing partner for Saturn, if the brand indeed, is sold.

Is Renault the most likely partner for Saturn?

Read the column to see the reasons why it might work.

Is the end near for Autobytel?

In what best can be described as a hostile takeover attempt, Trilogy Enterprises today made an cash tender offer of 35 cents per share to Autobytel’s board of directors.

The offer represents a 32% premium over the trailing 30-day average closing price of Autobytel’s common stock. The stock jumped more than 10 cents following Trilogy’s offer, which indicates a selling price likely will be somewhat higher than 35 cents.

Trilogy is Autobytel’s second largest stock holder. Sean Fallon, senior vice president for Trilogy says, “We have concluded that Autobytel’s ability to execute a turnaround and realize significant value for its stockholders is subject to significant and unacceptable risk. We believe that a high-premium, all-cash tender offer is the most effective way to maximize value for all stockholders. As a result, we have determined it is necessary to take the offer directly to our fellow stockholders in order to deliver significant value to them as expeditiously as possible.”

You can read the letter to the board of directors here.

It’s likely this situation could get ugly for Autobytel.

Trilogy hopes to leverage the relationship Autobytel has with dealers and manufacturers while adding to the trough of leads it scores. Trilogy developed a lead scoring tool last fall that more than 300 dealerships (not counting AutoNation stores) are using for free. The Austin, TX-based firm has already scored more than 5 million leads and believes acquiring Autobytel and its leads will help it develop more predictive solutions.

Apparently Russ Darrow, the owner of the Russ Darrow Group in Wisconsin, and the current chairman of the American International Automobile Dealers Assn., has a talent for rap that has been hidden till now.

Check out the video — it’s a trip.

We learned this week that we published this year’s Ward’s e-Dealer 100 ranking with some incorrect data. As a result, we have published a new — and corrected — list which can be downloaded here.

Obviously, we are deeply embarrassed by the mistake and apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused. We take the Ward’s e-Dealer 100 seriously and appreciate the support and participation from of our readers through the nine years Ward’s has published the list.

When yesterday’s stories broke on various news agencies that General Motors Corp. was considering axing its Pontiac and GMC brands as a way to avoid bankruptcy we smelled a rat.

Even worse, other reports claimed GM was moving up its timetable of closing 1,700 stores from five years to just a few weeks to meet the June 1 deadline. The legal, financial and practical obstacles make the idea laughable.

But we chased the story anyway and Associate Editor James Amend put together one of the more reasonable pieces addressing the reports.

The only way GM could shut down those brands today is through bankruptcy. The issue is the dealers. A manufacturer closing a brand would be in violation of the franchise agreement with its dealers. True, GM closed Oldsmobile, but it paid more than $1 billion to its dealers and spent years in court defending lawsuits from numerous dealers.

Shutting down Pontiac and GMC would be much more complicated because the auto maker and its dealers have exerted so much effort and money the last few years combining the two brands with Buick. In fact, more than 90% of the three franchises are grouped together now.

So what does GM do with Buick? Taking away two brands from its dealers would mean GM would have to provide some way for Buick dealers to stay in business by adding vehicles to the lineup, such as trucks and full size SUVs.

Chances of that happening? None.

Or GM would have to push the Buick franchises to Chevrolet and Cadillac dealers. That process would take years and hundreds, if not thousands, of court cases.

So what’s left? GM tries to make Buick GMC (with a Pontiac vehicle) work as it said in its viability plan submitted in February. Or it declares bankruptcy and shuts the brands down, gets out from under its franchise agreements and picks certain Chevrolet and Cadillac dealers to take Buick franchises.

We’ll know in a few weeks what the strategy is.

For more than 20 years, Ward’s has produced two of the industry’s most authoritative lists: The Ward’s Megadealer 100 and Ward’s Dealer 500 rankings.

Time is running out to participate this year, but we’ve extended the deadline to Friday April 17.

You can download the forms by clicking here.

The clock is ticking for the Sonic Automotive Group which has till May 7 to either come up with the cash to pay $105.3 million in debt or renegotiate with bondholders to restructure the debt.

Otherwise, the public dealer group will be in violation of three loan covenants and may be forced to file for bankruptcy. At the moment, Sonic does not have the cash to pay it, and is restricted from using an existing revolving credit facility to pay down the debt. Additionally, credit markets remain frozen which has hurt Sonic’s ability to raise cash.

But the situation might not be as dire as it appears. Sources outside of Sonic who are close to the situation tell me they believe it is likely the company’s bondholders will play ball and not let the group go into bankruptcy. In other words, a restructuring of the debt is probable. (But don’t base your investment decisions on that information.)

The stock price was as low as $1.70 on Monday but closed at $2.21, which might indicate some shareholder confidence in the group. Sonic does have a great mix of brands and if it weren’t for the credit crisis, it would be in okay shape.

Sonic may have a few cards to play yet such as selling off some stores. It is planning to sell as many as 35 dealerships this year — that’s approximately 20% of its portfolio. But those deals will take time to close, especially in today’s environment.

However, Sonic is closing this week both the acquisition and sale of Beck Imports, a Mercedes dealership in Charlotte NC. And that should provide it with anywhere from $20 million to $30 million it can use to pay down the debt.

Sonic tried to acquire the luxury dealership in Feb. 2008 from current owner Skip Beck, but Mercedes refused to approve the deal citing problems with three Sonic-owned dealerships in California. Mercedes lifted the restriction in February once Hendrick Automotive Group decided to bid on the store. So Sonic is acquiring Beck and then immediately selling it to Hendrick. (Incidently, the deal gives Hendrick almost total control of the luxury market in Charlotte.)

During a recent conference call with analysts to release 2008 earnings, company executives did not answer questions about the impending debt and instead directed people to the 10K filing with the SEC.

Sonic says its operations were profitable in 2008, discounting the $658 million write-down of value of many of its stores, which really is a reflection of the ongoing credit crisis and not the strength of its stores.

Even if Sonic is able to renegotiate its debt by May 4, it still has a lot of work to do. Including the $105 million, Sonic has $1.5 billion to pay off in the next 18 months and another $400 million after that.