CEDAR FALLS - A casualty among Saturn dealers in Eastern Iowa has been announced, but Cedar Falls' dealership has no plans to drop the brand of General Motors vehicles.

"We're proceeding with business as usual," said John Deery Jr., owner of Saturn of Cedar Falls.

On Monday, the Hiawatha-based Lithia Motors dealership, which also sells Buicks, Cadillacs and GMC trucks, announced it was dropping its Saturn of Cedar Rapids business, effective Thursday.

"Whatever we don't have sold by Thursday, the factory will take back," said Steve Fox, the dealership's general manager.

He said there was no point in continuing the sales of Saturn, of which GM will end its production at the end of this year.

"As you know, Saturn was originally supposed to have a three-year timeline, but they shorted it to the end of this year, so we decided to terminate the Saturn franchise and put the facilities to some better usage.

The Hiawatha store had 40 to 45 Saturn vehicles in stock, as of Tuesday morning, Fox said.

"The good news is it's not going to mean any changes in staffing or personnel; we'll also still be able to service all our customers," Fox said.

In Cedar Falls, Deery said he plans to sell Saturns as long as they're available.

"(General Motors) is in negotiations with several (companies), supposedly to sell the distribution chain," he said.

He said the pace of Saturn sales at the 3-year-old Cedar Falls dealership had not changed in recent times.

"Saturn sales are about what they have been," he said. "We're still selling and servicing and moving right along."

Deery said he doesn't know what might happen in the future.

"But, I don't think anyone has a clue," he said. "I don't know what's going to happen to Chrysler, GM or Ford, later, or Saturn. Even if I had any information, I wouldn't know if it was accurate. All I can do is continue on."

Deery pointed out that before April 20 GM was voicing confidence in the future of its Pontiac brand.

"Then, on May 1, they said it was gone," Deery said. "I don't know who knows what. They certainly don't tell me."