Thursday Snippets
It’s with no small amount of sadness that I report the closure of yet another stand-alone Saab dealer in the US. With a restricted range that wasn’t grown like it should have been, dealers haven’t been able to meet the diverse model requirements of buyers and yes, I do lay the blame at the corporate parent’s feet. This time it feels personal because it involves people I know.
Saab of Hunterdon, sponsors and supporters of this site, will close their doors on July 7, for good. The building has been sold. SOH’s parent company, JMK, has another stand-alone Saab dealership in New Jersey and here’s hoping that they can hold on while we all wait for the rush of new models next year.
I’d like to thank Saab of Hunterdon for their support over the last 12 months, particularly Scot Orzillo, who was my main point of contact there. I wish all the SOH staff well as they seek employment elsewhere.
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UPDATED
Edmunds report on Steve Shannon’s presentation at Saab of Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles (notification of this came yesterday).
Shannon confirmed the SUV will look “97 percent the same as the concept that was shown at the Detroit show” earlier this year.
“Priced like a BMW X3 and sized like an X5,” Shannon said, “the 2010 Saab 9-4X will go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2009.”
Based on the same global GM architecture as the 2010 Cadillac SRX, Shannon said that the 9-4X is still “every bit a Saab.”
Shannon also confirmed that the 9-4X will make its production debut at an auto show next spring.
I’ll lay money on New York for that debut….
97% the same as the concept, eh? Given that the rear lights will change and that it won’t have the great-looking-but-not-functional ski rack or the white leather interior, I’d suggest that accounts for very close to 3% of the car’s appearance.
Hopefully that means they’ve kept the look of the acrylic dashboard as that was the big winning interior feature of that car, and probably the main reason I left Detroit feeling good about it. Looking at the World Car Fans interior shot (heaps of people shooting the 9-4x in the last 2 days!), my hopes would seem to be unfounded.
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In other GM-related news, I’ve had word filter through to me that GM won’t be allowing Employee Sales (i.e. special employee pricing) on the Saab 9-3 for MY2009.
My source estimates that employee sales could account for as many as 3,000 units sold per year and the vast majority of those sales would be 9-3s (along with highly profitable 9-7xs in Michigan).
If you can think of a good reason why they’d want to take a measure that generates less word-of-mouth free advertising and puts less Saabs on the road at a crucial phase of the brand’s evolution, please post it in comments……
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A sneek-peek into some technology that might appear in the next Saab 9-5?
GM Europe has posted this video about some speed-sign and drift-warning technology that will likely be appearing in the Opel Insignia.
Don’t adjust you volume knob. It’s a silent film.
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We’ll have to keep an eye out for this, out of the UK:
Saab is launching an integrated promotional campaign with The Independent and Channel 4. As part of the deal, The Independent is publishing a four-part series focussing on Independent Thinkers.
There’s no more info available, I’m afraid, but between new ads being filmed in the rural US and plans like this, it seems like Saab are actually cranking up some promotional material.
For the 2009 model year, perhaps?
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From Flickr, a set of photos to reinforce once again what great design is, and why the 900 is regarded by popular opinion as The Saabiest Saab:
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Very sad about the SAAB dealership. I recently took a friend of mine to one of these Super Dealerships to test drive a 9-3 and he was disappointed in the sales crew. I taught them some things about the 9-3 Aero they were selling. They had Cadillac people trying to sale SAABs and they didn’t have a clue! The service is even different! They have one SAAB tech at this dealership and it’s in the 4th largest city in the US! I miss the stand-alone dealerships here in Houston….. SAAB of Hunterdon, I’m sure you will be missed!
Oh my friend really liked the car by the way! He is considering it as we speak. I’m telling him to hold off until he can get the Aero with XWD!
I would not have my car if not for the employee pricing and I will not buy another without it.
I simply can not justify buying another SAAB without discount compared to some other GM with discount. We are talking 1,000’s of $$.
Maybe with the end of the discount for the 9-3, they are trying to help the sales of the 9-5… just an optimistic point of view…
It is sad about Saab of Hunterdon. I’m used to seeing their add every time I look at Trollhattansaab. The new models will come too late for how many other dealers? Outside of the US I still think the 9-4x will be largely irelevant. With petrol expected to hit $A2 a litre here in Oz by the end of the year, buying SUVs will be the last thing on anyone’s mind.
What it still continues to bamboozle me is how on earth the dealers in the UK continue to thrive with exactly the same models that are available in the US, here and everyone else ????? Why then an Aston Martin dealership too can survive with 2 sports models that only differ in sizes ???? Pointless in listing my opinions, views, facts etc etc but it must be noted that the dealers have to engage a lot more these days in conducting their own promotions and branding activities to succeed no matter what brand and line up they sell. I have seen the Mildren group simply killing themselves over time as they build their reputation for all the wrong reasons. No one (including me) will deal/buy vehicles from this dealer. They go out of their ways not to service you as a real client. This is disappointing as they will be the next one to bail out and clearly they are working towards a fast end !!!
I thought Hunterdon was the mother dealer of JMK, not the other way around..
Its so strange, because JMK is such a small dealer. Its not even small, its TINY. The lot isnt even big enough, they park some of the cars at CompUSA next door. And when I went to NJ in March, it looked dead over there. Nothing was moving.
With the economical conditions and how rough it is up north, combined with lack of models to sell, Saab in NJ is really losing sales to JMK BMW (right next door) and the 3 surrounding Volvo dealers within a 12mi radius…
Wow.
Swade, lay off the interior you see in these pics. Everybody has been taking it as a given that it somehow indicates the production interior. It is a bare bones functional interior for road testing. This will not be the production interior I guarantee you. The real interior can be workshopped and tested in studios and not on the road where spys can jump on it like they have and spread such sensitive info over the web in minutes. I have seen road mules that have blank plastics and industrial ‘emergency stop’ buttons in place of beautiful production interiors that will be in the final cars
Sad to hear about SoH closing down. Saab’s limited model line-up is indeed a huge challenge for most dealers to cope with, and I am sure unless they have other brands to support them and believe in the brand long term, there is little for them to go by on.
However, Joe does raise a valid point. I can only speak from experience that customer support and relations are absolutely critical to the survival of any kind of business these days. Perhaps it’s a cliche, but in a globalizing world where customers are one click away from most of the information they need, businesses in general need to do a lot more to attract customers. This is particularly true for luxury/premium products.
yep, turbin is right… Those pics have the instruments in a Alfa / GM like circle… the Saab instruments are more like BMW and Merc
tudon
i suppose you are talking about ron carter in houston. yep they are down to one saab tech and said that there is now a 2-3 week wait for appointment for saabs. i hate that place, had to get my radio changed as it was messed up from factory and i was shouted at when i informed they scratched part of my dash. we need at least one stand alone, i cant stand going to dealerships that hate working on our cars.
It would seem odd that GM would drop employee pricing on SAAB since they have finally integrated it with the employee version of GM Buypower this year. I can finally build a SAAB and see the employee price rather than calling SAAB USA and getting transfered around to get a faxed price list (why do they always sound so bewildered when I call them and why couldn’t they just email it to me?).
Needless to say, SAAB will not be on my shopping list if the discount is discontinued. 108,000 happy and trouble free miles on my 9-3SS and everyone I know knows how happy I am with the car.
wow 108,000 miles on a 9-3ss. glad to hear its holding up.
Turbin, I hope you’re right, but I’ll bet you a steak dinner that the production interior is closer to the one in those shots than it is to the one I fell in love with in Detroit. If they do the right thing with the interior then I’ll never be happier to buy someone dinner.
BTW, my emails to you keep bouncing. Can you email me with an alt address as I haven’t been able to get through to you all this week. We need to hook up in two weekends from now when I’m over your way.
Fourth quarter of 2009? Are they kidding?
Here’s the concept interior from a similar angle. Looks like the same layout as the one in the linked photos, including gauges etc. except for the fancy show trimmings. I’m just hoping that it’s not all basic grey.
I also find it strange that now the 9-4X has apparently been pushed-out to 4th-quarter 2009. Won’t that make it a MY2010 vehicle? I thought it was supposed to be “eighteen months” away from production as of its concept debut at Geneva in January 2008. That would have put it as a late 2nd-quarter or early 3rd-quarter 2009 release. I would guess it would have been tagged as a MY2009.5.
Not that I care anyway as I have no interest whatsoever in that vehicle other than hoping it sells like mad to bring some money into Saab. Hopefully the price of gasoline will be lower then than it is now as well as auto manufacturers can’t seem to give away SUVs/CUVs in the U.S. with the current run-up in fuel prices.
I thought everbody would have seen the pic’s of the production interiour, as they showwed up in leftlanenews.
http://www.leftlanenews.com/saabs-9-4x.html
Never mind the opel steering wheel!
Introduction at an auto show in spring? That means it will definitely be in Amsterdam where I’ll be able to see it!!!
http://www.leftlanenews.com/wp-content/plugins/iimage-gallery.php?idpost=7752&idg=1&idi=5
This pic looks like it should be the final interior. It’s looking like a ready for sale dashbord and not like a prototype of something!
Hey, nice white 900 classic photos!
Also on the Flr feed are shots from the Swedish Day at which Wyvern saab owners attended.
Apart from the white door mirror housings which jar with me(paint them black pls), that c900 looks great in white over dark grey bodykit.
Oh, on the 94x - we have threaded on the steering wheel already, and I agree with Swade, the interior ‘aint that far off…
Oh, and I thought someone was on hiatus?
Lance & Swade, there’s more to that 900 than meets the eye, it’s a great drive and fast too. I drove it back from Licoln just over a week ago and Alex has done nothing but clean and detail it ever since. Robin.
Really? That’s the one you drove? Well please pass on my regards to the owner. Awesome looking car.
Lance - slimming down to 1 or 2 posts a day is a hiatus, isn’t it? Relatively speaking?
Swade,
Yes, hiatus is fine mate, just jesting.
Robin - lucky you for the drive.
The oversize rear spoiler looks nice too -in white including underside.
Swade, I trust you will stick with Saab and Alfa, and not become a Hyundai Hiatus?
Oh, I forgot:
Swade and all - go to ebaymotorsUk enter Saab 95 and a lovley Nine Five vee Four estate crica 1960 something is for sale in south west wiltshire- its red adn really straight and family owned. Robin- its down Maiden Bradley way.
Buy it someone; its to good to see wasted.
Havn´t Saab been working on that kind of Eye stuff for some time. Or is it “just” the camera that judges if you are sober or not?
The 9-4X must have been pushed to the 4´th quarter due to other releases.. Like the Caddy BRX. Well then begin sales of the 9-4X in Europe first then. I recon the 9-4X will sell like crazy in Sweden, GB, Spain and maybe even could boost sales in Germany.
That C900 is one sexy car.
Sized like an X5? Uh-oh, I was hoping for smaller than that. Where is some news on the ‘raised’ XWD Combi??
Mo, you are correct! I miss Performance and Nxcess SAAB. They knew what they were doing! Now all we have are Ron Carter and Demontrond Volvo? Sorry to hear about your interior. To whom do you complain about that and get results?
Mo, You are correct! I miss Performance and Nxcess. Those guys knew what they were doing and how to treat customers! I hope they repaired your vehicle’s interior. They could at the least have SAAB people there to deal with other SAAB people. The Cadillac people aren’t very proffessional. Is there anyone out there you can make a formal complaint to and get results?
I’m bothered by Saab getting rid of GM Employee sales promotions in the US in large part because of the trend it’s showing. It seems that Saab’s getting rid of many of the ways that people used to get into Saabs at more reasonable prices (e.g., EDP, Employee programs) and in more cost effective configurations (e.g., 2.0t vs 2.0T engines).
They need to be careful in how they do this given just a few years ago all these options were available and there we big incentives in place.
No employee sales leads to much better resale value.
SaabUSA finally rewarded Saab dealers for buying lease returns at auction for two months this year. This kept nice pre-owned Saabs out of the dirty hands of wholesalers and instead allowed Saab dealers to justify Saab Certification, which in turn is going to provide new Saab owners with years more warranty coverage, which in turn is good for those same dealers’ service departments long term.
Coinciding with the recent spike in gas prices, this has turned used Saabs into precious merchandise at auctions, where they are now routinely going for more than NADA book values.
This is very good news for Saab owners and dealers.
I’m in the window to buy a new Saab in the next half year, so I’m less concerned about resale value and more concerned about getting a good deal. Can’t they wait with these things until after I buy?
I was from Shaker Saab Brook Park of Cleveland OH and we sold our store to god-only knows and the building is now closed for good. We are now part of the Mercedes Benz of N. Olmsted crew with a new name, Saab of North Olmsted but we are also the #1 dealer in Ohio (for now) BIG BIG NEWS!!! GM Employees will no longer get a GMS discount on the 9-3 for ‘09… YIKES
Sorry about the repeat up there!
2 don
the person who shouted at me was the service manager, who is always frustrated when talking about saabs. all they do is worship there hummers and caddys.
we have always had problems with this dealer always damaging our cars. my moms sts went it and they scratched the bumper and said it wasnt them and instead or replacing a part in the interior that was peeling they just painted it. cmon in a 45k luxury car. they are jokes. they got in a accident in our gmc many years back. so in all yes ron carter is full of jokes but i really have no choice. i wish houston was like dallas who have large caddy/ saab dealerships but are still good at servicing saabs.
In regard to GM Employee pricing on ‘09 9-3’s there is an element of 2 + 2 = 5 here.The dealer message stated that in a revision to the program in question for a period running from 06/20/08 thru 09/30/08 the 2009 9-3 was one of the vehicles excluded from GMS pricing.This is best ambiguous in light of the fact the 2009 model year does not begin until 10/01/08.In other words this change effects a model we won’t have for sale until after the program exclusion expires.Strange to say the least!
Thanks for the heads up! Good to know before I consider taking my car there. DeMontrand it is! There are no SAAB service cobplaints on their website, perhaps you should fill out the first. I assumed it meant they were ok. Now I know better! Thanks again!
Love the picture of the white 900. There’s no question that the 900 is the most beloved design of Saab. With all of the retro cars that GM is coming out with (i.e. camaro, challenger, etc.), they should seriously consider bringing back the lines of the Saab 900 series from the 80s. I would definitely buy one. The current design just does not cut it for me.