As General Motors pushes to terminate Saturn and Pontiac, the automaker will be introducing impressive discounts in order to help deplete inventories of these two brands. GM employees and suppliers can get even better deal thanks to employee discounts as well.

Tens of thousands of GM employees can take advantage of this unique perk, which has long been a part of GM’s benefits package. In addition, GM is offering $7,000 off new cars until January 4.

The new discounts are intended to move Saturn and Pontiac inventories quickly so that GM and its dealers can focus more on its core brands, including Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC. GM employees are most likely to get the best dealers on these new cars, even below invoice price.

Jessica Caldwell,  senior analyst at Edmunds.com, believes that the $7,000 discount is more hype than anything else. But, for dealers that have hundreds of unsold Pontiac or Saturn models sitting on their lot, it could be just what’s needed to push remaining inventory.

After deciding to remove Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, and Hummer, from its lineup of auto brands, GM will have plenty of cleaning up to do in 2010. As these vehicles are cleared from dealer inventories, GM may finally be able focus on all the right areas.

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General Motors, and Penske Automotive, will be saying goodbye to Saturn as the attempt to sell the Saturn brand fell through. Production on Saturn vehicles has already been stopped, and now dealers will have just a few months to sell all remaining inventory.

Penske Automotive Group was in talks with GM for months in hopes of buying the embattled brand. The biggest challenge standing in the way of the Penske was finding another source for vehicles says Buick Birmingham since GM had no intention of continuing to supply the brand with vehicles. Penske had reportedly been in talks with French automaker Renault, but when discussions fell through, Cincinnati Used Cars suggests that Penske had no choice but to walk away from GM.

Once Penske walked away from talks, it took GM less than 24 hours to build the last Saturn vehicle. Currently, there are about 12,000 Saturn vehicles in inventory. Last month about 3,000 vehicles were sold according to sources at Chevy Parts New Mexico. It’s expected that inventory will be divided by GM to ensure as many dealers as possible have their needs met.

GM remains confident that it will be able to sell the remaining Saturn inventory. Unfortunately, Saturn dealers are so optimistic about the demise of the beloved brand.

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