The Buzz

Some people know him as C.M. “Bill” Gatton. Others as Carol Martin Gatton. Either way, they take note when he speaks.

The Kentucky native has made millions from cars, banks, real estate and other businesses — enough to endow UK’s Carol Martin Gatton College of Business and Economics with $14 million in 1995.

A year earlier, he bought three Nashville-area Saturn dealerships and now owns five in Tennessee and Alabama.

General Motors’ survival may be in doubt, Gatton told a Nashville newspaper, The Tennessean, last week, but not Saturn’s.

“I don’t think there’s any chance GM will shut Saturn down,” Gatton said. “GM will explore options to sell the whole division and I believe there would be other automakers interested in taking it over.”

He said he has “no idea” who the new owner might be, but analysts say it might be an European or Chinese automaker looking for an established dealer network.

Gatton said he was so convinced of Saturn’s future in 1994 that he “paid more for them than I would have paid to get four different Lexus stores.”

“I’m not worried, because I’ll bet even if GM sells the division to somebody else, it will still be called Saturn and will still have the same dealers,” he said.

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