I’m having a crap day, hence the low posting and bad attitude.

It happens to all of us, I guess.

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Can’t say enough about how p***ed off I am reading headline after headline on the automotive wires about how BMW, Mercedes, Audi and seemingly every other significant European carmaker will be bringing a diesel to the US in either 2007 or 2008.

I know the reasons why Saab can’t and won’t be bringing one, but if there’s ever a time that Saab needed to bringing product news to the market (and I’m talking significant product development news, not special editions) – well, now would be a good time.

I’ve been talking up diesel since day 1 on this blog and whilst ‘plans’ to bring Biopower to the US market are nice, you don’t sell cars with plans. You sell them with products.

Told you I had a bad attitude today.

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Want more?

Then there’s the Saturn Vue Green Line that’s going to be a plug in hybrid.

I’m not sure about how much of the technology in this SUV is common to the Saab Biopower Hybrid Convertible that we weren’t told was also a plug-in, but I can’t help but feel that Saab’s getting kicked in the cohunas once again.

It has an all-electric range of……………………………..10 miles.

I’m starting to get the feeling more and more that Saab’s most prominent market, the US, is going to be the death of the brand.

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On the brighter side, Saab UK are going to be providing company vehicles for Arsenal FC.

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And on the even brighter side, I’ve entered the Viggen in Autoblog’s Reader Ride of the Week contest, won by a C900 converible last week. The theme for next week is turbocharged and supercharged cars.

Fellow Viggen owner and Aero-X photographer, Richo, is contemplating entering his Viggen as well. So if there’s any other Viggen owners out there with a Flickr account, get busy and enter yours in too. Let’s drown them in Viggens!!

Heck, let’s drown them in Saabs!!!

Instructions on entering are here (at the bottom of the post)

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In other Richo news, a friend of his has just made a purchase, thereby lifting Saab Oz’s sales total for November by 1.

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Oz Saabers: That 1988 900 Aero on Ebay still hasn’t received a bid yet.

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And if you really want to see some bad attitude, ask me about the new dealership space here in Hobart and the prime example of Saab getting #%@$# over by it’s bigger GM brothers. I could write more, but won’t at this point.

Suffice it to say that Saab Oz could do worse than to come down, visit and perhaps have a word.

Have a nice day.

I got this in the mail this morning from Erek.

Ah, If only they’d recognised the growing SUV trend back in the 1980s….

I do not follow the Saab SUV/9-7x discussion too closely over at the blog, so please forgive me if this has already been mentioned or discussed. I have no idea what the relationship between Saab cars and Scania trucks is precisely, but wouldn’t it be nice if the SUV niche was handled by Scania. All the saab elements we love could be present in these vehicles and the exterior styling could be drawn from both Saab and Scania…..Finally, they could even run a ‘Born from Trucks’ ad campaign

Saab and Scania are no longer related companies, of course, and the 9-4x that will be coming is apparently an all-Saab development. But I’m sure if they were still involved with Scania and they chipped in with some design ideas that it would have been very interesting, and quite the heavy duty vehicle.

Born From Trucks! Yes!!!

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The Saab factory in Trollhattan is looking at shedding up to 190 jobs, offering early retirements or voluntary redundancies to many of their current workforce (about 4,400 people).

Cuts would take effect in 2007 and are said to be unrelated to anticipated sales.

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Robert Farago’s GM Deathwatch series is now on it’s 101st episode. If this site were an automotive journalism monitor then I’d start a GM Deathwatch Deathwatch.

His latest instalment includes the following:

The ability to kill diseased brands is arguably the single greatest potential advantage of a GM bankruptcy. The need to feed The General’s eight US automotive brands with new[ish] products and mondo marketing dollars has been dragging GM’s design, engineering, production, sales and marketing creativity into the dumpster for decades. If a post Chapter 11 GM had three brands– Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC– selling a limited range of products, the company would unleash all the talent locked up inside its bloated bureaucratic structure. It could finally take on its transplanted competitors with unfettered American grit, imagination and know-how.

How does the need to feed eight brands impact on design? And who are the designers they will “unleash” after Chapter 11? And why aren’t these designers unleashed right now? They’re paying their designers a salary, right? And if they are, why are the designers waiting to unleash some good designs?

I can understand how GM’s fatty excess can effect marketing, investment in sales infrastructure, and obviously, human resources (amongst other things) – but blaming size for a lack of inspired design?

And whilst I don’t want to cause any offence, a chunk of global grit, imagination and know-how will go a lot further, being a global company and all, with some of its best engineers in Europe and some great design teams here downunder.