Comments on: News imminent from Saab?

By: Tompa

Tompa — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 12:05:26 +0000

Nevitz.. Great stuff

By: wilfried

wilfried — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 23:01:28 +0000

I must admit checking the TS and other sites more than regularly became a habit last days/hours, just curious to get to know THE news.

By: ctm

ctm — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:49:18 +0000

Swade, I’m pretty sure you will beat me to the news – good or bad.

By: swade

swade — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:28:07 +0000

Funny,

Every morning I wake up and wonder if ctm’s sent me anything big during the night translated from the Swedish news. It happened this morning

By: Etienne Saabhuy

Etienne Saabhuy — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:19:22 +0000

Every morning now when I wake up, I walk to my Mac, wake it from sleep, and reload the TS page hoping not to find the bad news… I wonder if I’m all normal…

don’t worry ..i do the same..with my PC

By: ctm

ctm — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 22:15:09 +0000

If GM sell Saab swedish plant in Sweden to another manufacturer, but keep the Saab brand name and badged cars made at Opel Chevy/Daewoo plants in germany or elsewhere…
Did you prefer still buy a car made in Trollhättan cars, even if it’s Toyota or something..or did you still prefer buy a “Saab” just badged like that ?

As a Swede, I would not buy something called Saab just because it’s “Made in Sweden.” If Saab were sold to some Chinese outfit, I would be very skeptic to buy a new model from them and probably go for something else. If a company like Toyota would buy Saab, then I would be more interested.

Every morning now when I wake up, I walk to my Mac, wake it from sleep, and reload the TS page hoping not to find the bad news… I wonder if I’m all normal…

By: mike c

mike c — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:43:14 +0000

@ max: Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. Informative and to the point. Unfortunately still sad though. The good guy’s always get screwed.

By: max

max — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:21:33 +0000

mikec
Try country Saab in Florida NY. Relatively new dealer, a real good guy that you can trust. Roberti did a good job, but in the Saab world they moved up too fast. Almost every new Saab dealer who built these new “RED” (retail enviroment design, I believe Roberti built one) buildings have had troubles. Way too much overhead for a brand with no new products since forever in car world terms. Then the dealer council (Roberti was on it) pushed to close Saab National HQ in Atlanta and consolidate to Detroit….I knew that was the beginning of the end…. I have had at least 3 reps from GM per year since. Sometimes they would change and not even tell us. We were literally the “fruit fly” buzzing around GM’s head and occasionally we would get a swat at us to keep us away. The guys they put in charge of Saab in the US were nice guys but had no “horsepower”. They couldn’t order a roll of toilet paper for the public restroom, without asking…… GM is the worst communicator that one could imagine. They called us their business partners but every time something changed or happened we could only find out via rumors in the press or sometimes even on this blog. (I’m not kidding) I may not the sharpest tool in the shed but I know if I had “partners” they would know what was going on in “our business”. Programs would change and we would find out days later…..Our costs of dealing with GM have just kept escalating. They kept promising different things and then never follow through. I could go on for hours…..
Unfortunately I think our Saab world is doomed. The main cause will be GM’s greed and lack of future planning. They have starved Saab, taken all good items and gave them to other GM sacred cows. They thought in their arrogant ways that nobody saw what they were doing and that in their arrogant ways the could do what they wanted…and they have but now the vulture is home and circling GM and Saab’s carcass. I only hope that if the end comes for Saab at GM’s arrogant hand that those who are responsible for the demise of Saab and GM in general go down with it….Wagoner, LaNeve, Lutz..etc. They deserve the first blow of the machete.

By: eggsngrits

eggsngrits — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:40:26 +0000

My money is still on GM keeping Saab and Pontiac. Saturn is really the most expendable of the domestic brands simply because the dealer network is much smaller. The Saturn/Opel automobiles could easily be sold as Pontiacs if that’s what it takes.

Sale/lease back make perfect sense to raise cash. Out right sale makes even more sense, and it will get there….

By: Bernard

Bernard — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 13:07:43 +0000

Forget this Audi or Subaru stuff. If GM were to announce that they are closing-down Saab, I would go to my local dealership, get myself a 9-5, and have a car that will last me 20 years easilly, and 40 years if I build-up a cache of spares.
I don’t plan on getting a new car for quite a few years (my 9-3 hatch is doing just fine for now), but I definitely would if this was my last chance to get a new Saab.