Interview with Bob Sinclair - former chief, SaabUSA
Back in January, I was very fortunate to hitch a ride with 1985Gripen up to Santa Barbara and spend the afternoon with Mr Robert J Sinclair.
Uncle Bob.
Unfortunately I was so taken in by the moment that I didn’t record a thing at that time. We chatted for over three hours about all things Saab and it was quite possibly the highlight of my US trip.
Bob was the former head of what’s now known as SaabUSA and served in that position from 1979 until 1991. That was his second stint with Saab.
I wanted the chance to interview him so that I could present some of his story for the wider Saab community. I wanted to interview him this month in particular as March 2008 means it’s 50 years since he first joined Saab as a guy in his mid-20’s.
The interview goes for 45 minutes. Sit back, make a cuppa while you let it load, and enjoy the story of a true Saab pioneer.
Bob’s a blast to talk to and I thank him sincerely for his time.
——
NOTE: This was recorded using Skype and there’s a couple of moments of interference in there. I think you’ll get the gist of what was said, however.
Also, the Google Video doesn’t seem to be playing the last 6 minutes of the interview. I’ve made a second movie now so that the final minutes aren’t missed.
More from this category
- New Saab Performance Team video
- Turbo X traction action
- Turbo X: the drive that stole the show
- A little fun with Peter Johansson
More from this author
- Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Thursday Snippets - rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, for now…
- Let Saabs be Saabs
- Nordic adventure in Åre, Sweden
Subscribe to this author
Recent Comments
- zippy on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Beren Erchamion on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Beren Erchamion on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- BrianL on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Ken B on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- SaabLance on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Kroum on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Adam on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- joemama on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Dippen on Thursday Snippets - rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, for now…
Make a cuppa while you let it load?? I’ll be lucky if it loads within 24 hours on 56K dialup.
I’ll just have to wait till Monday when I am back at office. I enjoyed Mr. Sinclair’s presence at SOC 2007, looking forward to listen to the interview.
Sounds like it’s time for an upgrade. EnG
Thankyou Swade: It was interesting to hear some of Bob’s comments, especially those regarding Saab’s abandoning the hatch. His words seem to echo the thoughts of most of us, that making the 9-3SS range without a hatchback option was a tactical error.
I must admit when the 9-5 was launched I thought it was correct that it had a wagon version instead of a hatch. I still think that is correct for the larger car, but I hope the wagon in the new version is more of a “Sport Combi” type.
When the 9-3SS was launched I was dismayed that the hatch was gone, and except for the convertible all we had was a somewhat indifferent looking sedan. We had to wait quite a while for the wagon version, but whilst it’s quite a clever car, the Sport Combi has never grabbed my interest.
I’ve always believed that the GM900/OG9-3 outsold the 9-3SS. It would be interesting to see a comparison of sales figures. Anyway I hope that a lesson was learned and the next 9-3 will once again include hatches? Then maybe I can put owning a new 9-3 back on my wish list!
Reading between the lines, I think Bob summed it up that Saab is a great niche manufacturer and trying to make them mainstream, or a mass market competitor is never going to work. I hope finally GM is beginning to learn this?
Very interesting. I had no idea about the story behind the 900 convertible.
Did you mean to include the pictures of the chipmunk and the red neck store?
Long conversation — I haven’t listened yet.
Many thanks to Mr. Sinclair for his graciousness.
Best wishes!!
Good way to spend a Saturday morning, having tea and toast while listening to this interview.
Swade,
I’m excited to listen to this interview! You are truly amazing. I just have 1 request — yeah I ‘m way picky…
Since this is just audio–any way we {and by we I mean I} could get a MP3 of it. Google Video is stuck on my computer. an MP3 can go in my Saab with me, and I can listen to this while I am driving to work.
Swade:
This interview, together with your coverage of the Geneva Auto Show, demonstrates what a top-notch blog THS really is. Whether it’s the graphics, text or now your interview style, the result is always top-notch. Don’t know how you manage, but hats off to you for all the good work.
I really enjoyed this interview!
Thanks, Swade.
And thanks to Mr. Sinclair: it was really interesting and amusing hearing all these stories!
After a listen, I’m surprised that he really dissed the cancellation of the hatch. I figured that he’d be more focused on the marketing data….
By the way, Americans aren’t any slower or quicker to change their minds that other people, but when you aggregate a market of this size, the marketing people are slower to see trends and thus “slow to change” becomes somewhat a self-fulfilling prophecy — the marketing people don’t change the products because the old-think is still a HUGE number of people, thus ensuring that things change slowly.
The part about the convertible was interesting. It’s amazing how things “just happen” and then work well.
eggsngrits: Did marketing data show that buyers didn’t watch hatches? If Saab wanted to compete directly with the Audi A4 and BMW 3 series as I’m sure GM envisioned they could, you can see why they thought dropping the hatch the way to go, but I’m sure by now they’d admit it was a mistake?
Markac: Yes, the data, and rapidly declining sales of Saab and other premium hatchbacks showed buyers thought hatchbacks were only for small, cheap cars.
That’s why I was surprised to hear that Sinclair thought it bad.
He’s right though — niche and mass marketing are two different things.
I think that Saab’s thinking that they should go head-to-head with BMW and others was a mistake. They should have stuck with their niche strategy and make cars that BMW wouldn’t make.
Back when Sinclair was running the show, Audi wasn’t a force at all in the US, and Saab was. 49,000 cars in a year — Saab isn’t even half of that now, and the market has grown.
GM won’t admit any mistake possibly excepting the UAW contracts!!
eggsngrits: I think if Saab’s sales of the OG9-3 were declining it was because the car was getting old and built on a very old platform, not because it was a hatch. The 9-3SS got a very good platform, but gained a conservative body and I don’t think it did anything to improve sales.
I found it odd that in 2002 when Saab abandoned the premium hatchback, Mercedes introduced it’s C class hatch. I know this car wasn’t sucessful in the US, but it has been elsewhere. It’s soon to be replaced, and I wonder if Mercedes will try and market the new version in America? Perhaps it’s the right time to sell premium hatches again?
Sales of the OG9-3 were going down, but so were all hatchbacks in the class. It wasn’t just a Saab thing.
congratulations to this fine interview with a very interesting character. I have never listened to a 45 min. interview on any website before…
i love the story of bob checking on customers’ letters - his people must have hated that.
also interesting to know how it all started wit my convertible’s ancestors.
I’m surprised at the number of people that hadn’t heard the story of the 900 convertible. I thought that was well-known Saab lore.
We even covered this recently here.
Nice video but can you please not overdo the titles? Everybody with video editing software and an internet connection can’t seem to realize that making titles like this is a worthless endeavour and wastes peoples time.