Saab sales in their home market continued a worrying over-all trend in March 2007.

The Saab 9-5 suffered a 39% fall in March, selling 1,125 units for the month in comparison with 1,854 in March last year. Saab have sold 2,987 units of the 9-5 year to date, which is a 15.95% fall from Jan-March 2006.

The Saab 9-3 had a better month, selling 1,052 units this month compared to 822 for the same month last year. Saab have now sold 2623 units of the 9-3 in 2007, which is a slight rise over the 2,605 sold in the same period in 2006.

Saab’s total sales for January to March 2007 are 5,610, which is an 8.9% fall on the first three months of 2006 (6159 units).

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The fall in sales for the Saab 9-5 is a worrying trend that started at the beginning of this year. For the last 4 months of 2006, the 9-5 consistently sold around 1,200 units. This year has seen sales under 1,000 units per month for the first two months and whilst March is traditionally a strong month, I’d imagine 1,125 was less than expected.

For as long as I’ve been tracking these numbers, the Saab 9-5 has been the second best seller in the Swedish market. At the end of March, the Volvo V50 is within 197 units of displacing it.

Fortunately, the recent announcement of a 10,000 kronor rebate on the sale of BioPower vehicles from April 1 this year should give the 9-5 BioPower and the new 9-3 BioPower vehicles a sales boost for the forseeable future.

I’ve emailed Saab Sweden in the hope of getting a comment on these numbers and will keep you posted should something come in.