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Lithia buys Eugene Saturn site Knight Ridder News Service Medford-based Lithia Motors Inc. has bought Saturn of Eugene, adding to its stable of Lane County auto dealerships. Lithia, one of the nation�s largest new-car dealers, bought the Saturn outlet last Friday for an undisclosed sum from Bob Zamora, a Stockton, Calif.-based auto dealer. Lithia owns a Dodge and Nissan outlet across the street from Saturn of Eugene at 2095 Centennial Blvd. It also owns a Toyota dealership in Springfield. "It�s a natural fit for us," Brian DeBoer, Lithia�s senior vice president, said of the purchase, which includes both the business and the dealership property. The acquisition means that Lithia has two Saturn dealerships out of its 49 outlets in six Western states. The other Saturn dealership is in Medford. DeBoer said his firm wants to boost sales at Saturn of Eugene. One way to do that is to find land for a Saturn used-car lot. That lot probably will be elsewhere in Eugene, he said, because the new-car dealership is landlocked and adjacent property does not appear to be available to buy. Zamora brought Saturn, a division of General Motors known for its no-haggle pricing, to Lane County in 1995. He spent $200,000 to renovate the property, formerly the site of a Suzuki auto dealership. Zamora and a Southern California-based partner own 15 new-car dealerships, all of them in California or Nevada. Zamora said he had difficulty persuading key employees to move as far away as Eugene. Lithia, with 15 dealerships in Oregon alone, should not have the same problems finding key employees as Zamora did, DeBoer said. Lithia plans eventually to have 15 to 20 employees at Saturn of Eugene, more than double the current number. "We�ll be able to bring people (to the Saturn dealer) out of the Lithia organization," he said. Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA