WASHINGTON — Charlie Eickmeyer says he was a fan of Saturn vehicles years before he was able to drive. Today he’s in shock.

So were employees at Day Automotive Group in Pittsburgh when they read the news online that a deal to rescue Saturn had fallen through. And Mike Martin is left wondering how he can move the Saturns left on his lot and what to do with the employees at his Manassas, Va., dealership.

“It seemed like the deal was going through,” said Eickmeyer, 34, who started following Saturn when he was 10 years old and runs a Web site for enthusiasts of the brand. “I was really excited about the next chapter in Saturn’s history.”

That chapter was supposed to be a future under former race car driver Roger Penske, with the novel approach of filling dealerships with cars made overseas and rebranded as Saturns.

Instead, the collapse of talks between GM and Penske Automotive Group Inc. likely means the end of the brand, sending Saturn dealers scrambling over what to do with their soon-to-be-empty showrooms and leaving loyal Saturn owners mourning the apparent demise of a company that built its reputation on customer care.

GM said it will cease making Saturns at plants in Kansas, Mexico and Michigan almost immediately, but will continue to honor warranties after dealers stop selling cars. Saturn owners can still get their vehicles serviced at GM’s remaining dealerships once their Saturn dealer shuts down.

Saturn’s future has been in doubt since GM said earlier this year it planned to phase out the brand by 2011. GM was shrinking to four brands as part of a deep restructuring. Just five days after GM filed for bankruptcy, Penske emerged as a possible buyer for Saturn. Wednesday, Penske backed out, unable to find another company to supply vehicles after GM stops making Saturns in two years.

So more than 350 Saturn dealers expecting to hear about the closing of a deal instead are faced with shutting down their showrooms if they don’t have a viable contingency plan. Thousands of jobs are in jeopardy. Dealers will have to figure out how to sell remaining vehicles to customers who may be skittish over the news that the brand will disappear. But they won’t close immediately — GM gave dealerships until October 2010 to wind down their operations.

GM had a midday conference call with dealers to discuss the closures. Dealers said executives expressed shock and disappointment that the Penske deal fell through, but didn’t provide much detail on the specifics.

The mood was grim Thursday at dealerships, where owners said they were blindsided by the news.

“This is nothing short of the bride running away at the altar,” said Lou Gonzales, president and owner of Saturn of Antelope Valley in Palmdale, Calif. “The millions of Saturn customers across the United States I’m sure are disappointed. But they will not be left out in the lurch.”

At Day Automotive, owner Bill Numrich said he planned to keep selling Saturns as long as he could. “We still have a Saturn customer base that we have to service,” said Numrich.

And some buyers remained loyal to the end.

Frank and Erika Martin, of Hampstead, Md., were looking to buy a new Saturn on Thursday at a Baltimore-area dealership, even after hearing that the brand will end. They are already devoted owners — their grandson was born in the backseat of their first Saturn — and they e-mailed GM to try to convince the company to keep Saturn going.

They also say they owe Saturn their lives. The 2007 Saturn Ion they were looking to replace was totaled three weeks ago. “I completely credit Saturn with why we’re not badly injured,” Erika Martin said.