I can’t see the Saab marque is of any value to BMW group what so ever .
It would be better for BMW to let Saab die from a business point of view. There would be less competition in the marketplace and I’m sure they would pick up customers if Saab closed down.

Renault has it’s hands full with Nissan and why would Mercedes need another brand? They already have a model range beginning with virtually every letter of the alphabet to fill every niche already .

What real value does Saab give to any other car maker other than it’s name ? ….And sadly who really cares anymore other than a small hardcore of fans …who tend to buy second hand cars .

As already said the legendary brand loyalty is all but gone , the products are dated , poorly made , unreliable and well off the pace of the current crop of cars.
I hear far to frequently ,from customers, that they have had several Saab’s in the past but they will never have another .

The majority of new customers who have come to Saab in the last 5 years will never buy another.
GM does not want invest. It simply can’t be worth investing in . The company does not make money and does not sell enough cars.

There are simply to many models and manufactures to satisfy the global market place. Sadly some manufactures will have to go.

To me it really does seem another Rover type situation . However Rover did have the Mini .. Saab has ?? I can’t see the Swedish government being at all interested in getting involved . Can you?

Also the sales figures are totally inflated this year anyway !!
Currently there are simply thousands (over 2000 maybe over 3000! )of pre registered Saab’s sat at the docks .
UK Saab franchise agents and specialists have had enough and many have shut down or have chosen to leave the franchise.
When there is almost 30% off a new car you know there are problems ahead. Also the warranty reduction and price increase in the US seems quite a black statement of Saab’s predicament .

The UK is the biggest market for Saab and if it’s awful here I can only guess how bad people are feeling worldwide .

I really think that GM thought the Cadillac BLS would take off over here ( have you seen how much they spent on advertising the car ) . If it had I think Saab would have already been on the way.

I’ve sold Saab for the bulk of my life but I’m very sad to say that part of me would like it put to rest before the good memories people have of the older cars fades away . I can see a similar end as I think Oldsmobile had ? Maybe 1 years notice , a final run and then closure. We are already seeing big signs in cost cutting – wish does not fill me or my co workers with any confidence for the times ahead.

they share almost all of the platforms, engines, transmissions, … with other brands of the VAG group. That’s one thing that the VAG group does very well : they make one good platform/engine/transmission/… and then put it in lots of different brands (seat, skoda, vw, audi, porsche) and models.

Examples : the new 1.4 tsi engines (with compressor and turbo!), the DSG 6 and 7 traps dubble clutch transmissions. That are engines and transmissions that GM has no substitute for.

But GM does have 10 (or so ) 2.0 outdated petrol engines.

Porsche is buying the VW group. Reasons? Burning their cash, preventing Audi from building even more supersportscars, and maybe to get even in some old family feud. Through VW, the also get control of Scania. Why not sell Audi? It would bring loads of money at the moment. Audi seems to stand more and more on their own compared to the rest of the VW group, so it could work to chop it off. And when they got rid of Audi, they buy Saab. Saab will never build supersportscars, and can replace Audi as a premium brand much more in line with the tastefulness of Porsche. And once again, Saab and Scania are together… Oh my…:)

You’d think in these times of high gas prices, they’d be pushing Saab hard, but no, they’re still trying hard to move Hummers and Escalades.

One third of Saab’s US sales are made up of 9-5 and 9-7x and I imagine those two would have bigger margins than Hummers. Of course, then there’s the incentives they’ve put on the hood of those vehicles, but I don’t think Hummers are necessarily going at MSRP either.

Kroum, I’ve wondered about BMW, too. I always wanted Porsche as an adoptive parent, but now they’ve taken over VW, BMW might be the other good fit (much as I hate to say it).