Thursday Snippets
There’s lots of interesting reading and viewing out there today…..
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For the car photography buffs, there’s an article from Autoweek about….car photography. There’s no earth shattering revelations here but there are some good tips if you read it closely. The main grab I got from it was that taking good car photos is like anything else - if you want to do it well you have to go the extra mile (locations, setup, bracketing, etc etc)
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The BIG news for today is the report in Swedish paper, Dagens Industri, saying that Ford are negotiating with a Chinese company with regard to selling Volvo (Autoblog’s report).
They say it, Ford deny it. Who’s right and who’s wrong?
The answer to that question doesn’t matter too much to the 2,000 Volvo workers that got axed today. 1200 of those jobs are in Sweden itself, where things are definitely happening and much of it is in response to the softened US market.
Can Saab escape similar consequences? It’s hard to see this happening to one company and not imagine it happening to the other, given that they’re both exposed to very similar conditions.
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Following on from yesterday’s discussion of the perfect garage, I’m unsure as to whether I’d ever want a car with stuff like this in it.
Next up was a demo of customized personalized morning news, an example of how a user could set it up to start their daily commute. In the engineer’s example, the Jeep rattled off a few stock quotes, the local weather, sports scores for a favorite team, which local gas station had the best price today, and which of three pre-programmed routes looked like it had the least traffic for the ride to work. Your own morning routine could be whatever helps get you going. Maybe it’s the shortest distance to the nearest Starbucks, the joke of the day, a favorite tune for a quick sing along, or perhaps a compliment on your tie. “Good morning! My, you look sharp! By the way, the Mobil on the corner is $3.95 for a gallon of regular!”
There’s something about my car talking to me and knowing all this stuff that gives me some Stephen-King-style heebiejeebies. I want my radio to inform me when I choose for it to do so. My car is there to be driven.
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And speaking further of what you might want in a car, GM Europe are asking for your comments on that very subject at their Driving Conversations blog:
….we are devoting a great deal of investment and energy to ensure that our next generation products are both fuel efficient and environmentally friendly…..Moving forward, where should GM focus its innovation resources? How can we make you say WOW? Is it flying cars, self-cleaning cars, driver-free cars - you name it. We want to hear your thoughts. Push the limit with us.
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I’m watching a new-for-2008 TV show here in Australia called The Gruen Transfer. I hope you other Aussies are watching it as well. I’m not sure if this is an original Australian concept or if it’s been on elsewhere and this is just an Aussie version, but it’s fantastic.
The idea of the show is to deconstruct the advertising industry. Each week they show a bunch of ads and they have ad industry people there to talk about why they’re working (or not). It makes for fascinating viewing.
Last night they covered a bunch of car ads and it got me thinking again of how much fun it would be to come up with user-generated car ads for Saab. Well, it’d be fun as long as they were good, I suppose.
Fascinating stuff, though.
The shows are 30 minutes each and you can download each one from the Gruen Transfer website. This week’s show with the car ads (mostly SUV ads) can be viewed here.
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Yeah, the Gruen Transfer sounds fascinating, been meaning to watch it. Is a Denton concept, apparently he asked Wil to lunch to discuss and Wil thought you can learn more from lunch with Denton than many learn in a lifetime, so went for it. Wil download, thanks for the reminder!
I kind of figured Volvo might go. Ford created a template with it’s Jaguar/Rang Rover sale and I’m sure it will use it again. I think GM might try something similar too.
Shanghai Automotive would probably be a bad fate for Volvo. Whilst I don’t think it would be as bad as the disasterous Rover deal, I don’t think it would be good either.
In about 1997 there was some talk (supposedly by Investor AB) of combining Saab and Volvo into a Swedish Car Corporation. I didn’t like the idea at the time, but now I think it has some merit.
If a consortium of AB Volvo, Saab Aerospace and other interested parties could buy Volvo and Saab and establish something like this, I think it would be a great achievement and very good for Sweden too. I’d hate for Sweden to see it’s car industry go down the same path as the UK’s was allowed to go.
Markac, at the end of the day it’s an open economy and free market in an ever-globalizing world. Protectionism did not work for the U.K. auto industry, it won’t work in Sweden either.
Both Volvo and Saab need to put out innovative products that are competitive in today’s market place. Keyword of the day: competitive.
There’s a reason why Saab and Volvo are always thought to be for sale and there’s never even been a suggestion that VW will offload Audi to a Chinese or Indian maker. Why sell something profitable that also contributes to the rest of your group of companies? So much so Porsche is now going to be using Audi diesel engines.
Bottom line is, if there is some kind of Swedish government intervention, this certainly spells doom for both Saab and Volvo in the medium run. Things are very different now than they were 60 years ago when SAAB first started making cars.
Saab, and Volvo for that matter, need to make a product people want to buy at a price that will make for a good profit margin. Emotional attachment aside, there is nothing more to it. Really.
Kroum: I wasn’t sugesting a high level of protectionism, but by the same token when we look at what Shanghai Automotive and Nanjing Automobile ( now combined it seems?) have done with Rover, I’d truly hate for something similar to happen to Volvo or Saab.
If combining them could make a mostly independent company, than I have to say I’m for it.
Of course Volkswagen wouldn’t sell Audi. It’s too profitable for them. Unfortunatley you can’t say the same for Volvo with Ford and it’s probaly even worse for the Saab GM relationship.
Speaking of VAG, it like GM probably has too many brands. I think Seat might be feeling a little uncomfortable at the moment?
If Volvo is bleeding, The Germans are getting dehydrated, Saab might still be okey. Having been in crisis mood for the last 15 years, I believe Gm have already done Saab a great favor by removing the company from the spread sheet. All the cutting in saab has already been done, meaning; if there is no meat left, and all models are based on common platforms, the only way to tackle the fuel crisis is with smaller car models like a saab 9-1, and consumer expansion in asia and mideast. living in asia, I believe the markets over here are quickly moving from basic car recognition, to a more selective car ownership. People love the japanese brands for their performance and design. Scandinavian understated Saab is the most japaneese of all the european brands, so its just a matter of time when that small car hits the streets, that all of us will start picking new sets of car keys up. Saab should not aim to catch up with BMW when clearly the game has turned, and now Saab should use its fuel efficient high performance brand to its full potential.
slightly off subject, but interesting none the less:
A Saab 9-3 Arc was just stolen (on news) from the richy county next to mine, and of all the luck in the world, I just spotted it.
It blew up in my cul-de-sac about an hr ago.
its wierd b/c it blew up from the trunk and progressed to the C pillar, blew the inside and windows to bits, and everything.
The whole time of the investigation, I was too concerned of begging the cop for some of those usable parts. She thought I was a freak. HA.
Just read quite a dooms-days report from Di.se on volvo, that on the other hand was painting Saab in the brightest colors I’ve seen for the last 20 years. I hope someone got time to translate it in english.
It looks like GM might not be the abusive parent we all thought. With the models coming out, the timing, the shared technology, indicates that Saab is not trying to catch up, but has positioned itself perfectly. I believe we are witnessing the rebirth of a new successful Saab brand, Bmw grew strong in the 70s and 80s, Audi got strong in the 90s, now we look for Saabs big moment in the sun.
Saaburban: You have far more confidence in GM than I do. I’ve almost given up with them. After 18 years of GM being in control of Saab, I’ve finally thrown away the rose coloured glasses.
From a local Swede. Well as said before Saab could be affected but not all all to the extent of Volve, there is no fat in the Saab organisation to cut today….Volvo on the other hand have me puzzled as to what all the people are doing there… I do hope that GMrealizes that now it the time to push Saab to grow both it’s lineup, sharpen it’s marketing (simple truths will sell cars!) and push as a first goal for the 150k sold units mark.
Volvo is in trouble because their top sellers were gas hogs (esp. the XC90), and their main market is the USA. High fuel prices and unfavourable exchange rates are definitely bad news for them.
Saab, on the other hand, could still profit from high fuel prices if they play their cards right. They really need to sell the fact that a 9-3 2.0T is a more eco-friendly alternative to the competition’s larger engines.
They could even put-out the message that the 9-5 wagon is a safer, more economical, sportier alternative to the XC90 (but why start now?).
Having a 9-1 to sell would really help, of course…
Wasn’ t the end of british motorcar industry (at least in high selling volume cars) rooted back down in the seventies and partly in the eighties, not only because of protectionism but even more because the POOR QUALITY they tried to sell (british leyland etc, swallowing up a lot of marques before going under) ? All in combination with the Tatcherian strict free-market thinking without participation from government in the eighties, the introduction of VAT in the early seventies and the first oil crisis above all ?
In the end it gave a good foundation for example for the VAG-group who focused then a lot more on less fuel consumption, good quality and a fair price (not the luxury things they want us to buy now).
I do not believe circumstances today and the problems Saab (or Volvo) have to face are comparable to what happened with the british car industry. Not even the recent mishaps with the sinking Rover-brand.
Each period has it own specific problems and on the one hand it is easy to look retrospective to what should have been done. I wouldn’t want to be the main captain of a ship, which is not knowing to take a good direction (aren’t there just too much captains on the GM-vessel ?).
The game is complex. And gets more complex every year / day.
Don’t underestimate BMW (and the rest of german car industry), not just famous for their powerfull M-cars. Next to Mercedes, BMW must have very good engineers. Fuel efficency is the key theme for both those brands (as it is for all others) , they may not have the imago of building fuel efficent cars, but they actually can make it and sell them. In sale figures the horsepower pranking M- & AMG cars are just for creating the halo and earning money were big money is being spend (as does VAG with Audi). But both generally 3-series & C-klasse and their derivates are the best selling cars in their enveloppe. They now it and they focus on that. I read somewhere BMW is considering even setting up another brand next to BMW & Mini just to fill the gap in the fuel-conscious market (Mercedes already tried but didn’t succeeded with their Smarts, altough the ForFour was promising).
GM needs Saab to make it its spearpoint in both (european & sporty) premium brand AND as a leader in fuel-efficient technology. A global operation is needed on both fronts: further development of advanced technology (BioEthanol/use of other resources/safety/…) on the one hand and marketing on the other.
BMW just gives the example - like they did before in ’70s and ’80s troughout the ’90s till now - by pretending they produce the only drivers cars there are and now starting us to believe they are leaders in fuel-efficency.
I think I’ll have to visit the BMW-world and the re-opened beautifull BMW-museum and watch the engineers and marketeers while they eat their sauerkraut anf have their weizenbiers at the same table and exchanging strategies … .
Now GM/Saab, get that 9-1 or whatever you may call it on the road and let that be followed by a couple of derivates (sonett, 5-doors hatch, etc.). Offensive strategies work far better than a defensive by just following trends (to slow).