If the planets align correctly, I might actually get a Turbo X to drive next week!
We’ll see. I’ve got the go ahead from Saab Oz, it’s just whether or not our local dealer needs the car for demos during the week. There’s only one Turbo X for the press here in Oz and it doesn’t make it’s way to Tassie to often, so we’ll see.
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The ink is barely dry on the ballot papers and already, the head honchos and the pundits in Detroit are queueing up to get into President-elect Obama’s ear. As Autoextremist Pete De Lorenzo said – there ain’t going to be time for a lap of honour.
More from Auto Extremist:
Our national obsession for getting things on the cheap – the “Wal-Mart” syndrome – isn’t helping, either. We have become a nation of bargain hunters, consumer zombies addicted to deals that feed into our instant gratification and “right now” mindset. Unfortunately that mindset is helping destroy our country from within by contributing to the decline of our manufacturing sector. And this is having a devastating effect on our long-term strategic future too.
Let me get back to the issues facing the domestic automobile industry, one of the pillars of our manufacturing base in this country. The threat to the “Detroit 3” has far-reaching implications for all of us. One in 14 jobs is either directly or indirectly connected to the domestic automobile industry. Repeat that figure to yourself because it’s daunting. We’re not just talking about the threat to one of America’s core industries here, and it’s not just Michigan or the other scarred “flyover states” that will be devastated by this either, because there are automotive suppliers and dealerships big and small all across the country that would be immediately affected if Detroit is allowed to go bankrupt. And for a nation teetering on a deep recession, I don’t need to tell you that a bankrupt Detroit could send this nation over the edge – and right off a cliff.
From Edmunds:
The pleas have already started for Obama to move swiftly to speed such things as a merger between General Motors and Chrysler. GM must get government aid because “time is very short,” Roger Altman, the former treasury official advising GM in its talks with Chrysler, told Bloomberg. “The consequences of a collapse by GM or all three could be very severe,” he said.
From GM:
GM welcomes President-elect Obama’s pledge to support our nation’s domestic auto industry in its ongoing efforts to transform its business and develop new technologies. This support comes at an especially critical time as our industry confronts one of the most difficult economic periods in our nation’s history, caused by the global financial crisis. And this support will enable a competitive U.S. industry to contribute significantly to our nation’s economic revival, in employment, technology, energy security, and other important areas.
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TTAC have intercepted an internal GM memo about a special internal broadcast due to take place on Friday.
Rick Wagoner, chairman and CEO, and Fritz Henderson, president and chief operating officer, will share third quarter results and tell employees about important changes to our business to address the challenges brought on by the volatile global economic situation.
Given that last week’s wildass rumour didn’t take effect a few days ago as they predicted, they’re now saying that this broadcast could provide the venue.
Truth – it could be absolutely anything. GM have already stated that they plan on releasing third quarter operating results on Friday, so I’d suspect that any changes as a result of all that red ink will be the topic for discussion.
Will it have an effect on Saab? We’ll have to wait and see. Remember, there’s a big meeting in Trollhattan this week, too.
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Trued contacted me a week or so ago saying that he was thinking of starting up a casual mailing list or some other sort of central gathering point for Turbo X owners around the world.
That idea has ended up taking the form of a Turbo X blog.
Trued’s owned some very special Saabs in the past so it’s no surprise that he’s added a Turbo X to his garage. He’s got a habit of tuning his cars pretty well, too, so this will be something to keep an eye on if you’re a current or aspiring Turbo X owner.
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My dream idea…” GM sells Saab back to the Kingdom of Sweden and allows the Swedish people to once again run the show….” LOL just a fantasy dream…
Actually, I had a similar thought today: Maybe GM will ask the Swedish government for some bailout cash too! Then perhaps the Swedish government would own a portion of Saab.
I know he wants to send a lot of money to Africa. Why not send it to Sweden, too? We trade there
Wow
from yesterday and the darkside…
Interesting thoughts. Lets not forget that Obama is President – Elect for a while until he’s sworn in and then he needs to work with ( an admittedly Democratic) Congress. Nonetheless – a breath of fresh air.
So it goes. Government intrusion into the market leads to distortions which are not allowed to resolve themselves. Instead, there is more intrusion to shore up previous mistakes. A fully government owned car manufacturing enterprise resulted in the Trabant. Do we wish to go down that path, or is everything now just too big to be allowed to fail, and there is no turning back? Alas, I foresee protectionist policies coming, and they will not do the consumer any good.
The odds of the Government of Sweden buying Saab are about equal to the odds of Obama reinstating slavery in the U.S. Besides, I can’t think of anything worse than a government-run automaker. Oh wait, a government-run utility conglomerate is pretty bad, too.
But I do believe GM will be looking to offload Saab sooner or later. Hence I am optimistic they will launch the new 9-5 and 9-4X as planned, more or less. Those vehicles could add clout and value to the brand.
And since we are at wild-ass speculations, what if Porsche ends up picking Saab? That’d be pretty cool.
Hah, Arnold, you beat me by a few seconds.
My latest ideal Saab owner is wait for it,
Prodrive. They had the cash to buy aston, so they obviously want to go places as a company and they have the resources to buy a company of Saab’s size. They also got their start building rally cars so it’d be natural for them to finally have an in-house WRC campaign instead of building cars for other guys. As an engineering-focused firm, I think they’d understand the Saab engineers and the technology-driven Saab identity far better than the beancounters at GM have. Most importantly, they’re very adept at building sweet, unique products using other people’s platforms so inheriting a lineup based on GM platforms wouldn’t be the end of the world for them. I think it would be an interesting match that would work well for both parties.
PSA or Renault would also be nice, not to mention Porsche if we’re really getting unrealistic.
Hi folks,
Has anyone tried to find an Aston Martin dealer lately? Collectively we are asking for incompatible outcomes. If someone has to drive across a Texas city to buy or service a SAAB, or to the next state, province, or country, the brand will simply disappear. It is already a problem in North America that major cities are lucky to have more than one dealer, and there are =few if any in between. My guess is that we need a successful GM to keep SAAB anywhere reasonably available, stock the parts, and support service. In the hands of a new owner with a specialty vehicle line, it’s bye-bye from North America. Renault is long gone although its sibling Nissan is strong here, but Nissan already has a premium line. Peugeot is gone. Fiat and Alfa gone. Prodrive could not work because SAAB stores cannot survive on SAABs alone outside a handful of markets. Porsche dealers are not likely to want SAABs; if they need a lower priced line to keep up the cash flow they already have an inside track to Audi and VW, or they too can go the mini-campus route with those two brands.
I think SAAB’s best, make that only, future on this continent is as a boutique premium, sporty brand with a lot of commonality under the skin with the rest of GM vehicles, sold alongside a reduced number of GM brands, in shared, clustered, or adjacent showrooms. Very soon I’d bet we’ll see GM stores at different levels: At the top, full line (minus Buick or Pontiac or GMC) from Cadillac and SAAB to Saturn, Pontiac, and Korean and NA Chevrolets. In smaller markets, maybe a reduced range from Chevy to Buick or Saturn. For example, in Canada, SAABs are sold alongside Saturns, but not every Saturn dealer handles SAAB. New dealerships appear to be planned in pod format with separate but connected showrooms for different brands of groups of brands, and services in the center. Soon one of those pods might sell Jeeps (the last remnant of Chrysler and American Motors and Kaiser-Fraser) with GM engines. I’d happily buy another SAAB from GM. I would not touch it as an orphan brand. At least the Chevy-Buick dealer in the prairies will try to honor my warranty and get me a part.
Let’s be careful with our wishes.
B
The Big Three are not in trouble because Americans alone demand inexpensive cars. I’m sure those who pay sky-high prices for cars in other countries would love to pay less. US manufacturers are in trouble because they have high social overhead, cannot obtain cheap long-term financing (like some Asian manufacturers) AND cannot easily transition to smaller economical cars when markets shift. US manufacturers are heavily influenced by the domestic market where most folks want larger more powerful cars than the rest of the world. Foreign manufacturers can amortize the cost of loss-leader econo-cars against their worldwide sales of similar models. Not so, GM or Ford.
The fickle American consumer rewards manufacturers of big trucks and SUV’s, then abandons them when the economy tanks or gas goes up. Foreign car companies can exploit such situations because they can always afford to offer more econo-cars in their model lineup. This degree of volatility is deadly because market shifts are occurring faster than domestic manufacturers can re-tool their assembly plants. If plants were more flexible in shifting production on the fly, this would be less of a problem. However, for now, they suffer the consequences.
There may be a double whammy on the horizon. If GM gets bailout money with strings attached mandating production of higher mpg cars, falling gas prices may kill off demand for them even before they come to market. What then? We’ve seen this before twenty years ago with flex fuel cars. I see no solution other than making it illegal to sell cars below a certain mpg level. That way, manufacturers are not left holding the bag when consumers decide they want to upsize.
It’s hard to have confidence in GM any longer. In the past five years, GM seems to have taken it’s previous ineptness with Saab to a whole new level. With GM’s current woes, it’s hard to see how it can have any concern for Saab. Saab needs to be in new hands ASAP and hopefully European ones. I’m sorry but 18 years is just long enough.
The problem with GM is that they suffer from the management plague that’s run many a big american industrial firm into the ground in the past. That plague is greed on the part of executives who have little to no understanding about or interest in what it takes to run a successful industrial firm in a global economy.
The Japanese executives running Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and the Korean companies are much more likely to have worked their way up through the company as engineers, designers, etc than the bozo marketing types running the show at GM, and it shows in how they run their companies (not to mention in their smaller salaries). They realize that in order to keep their companies going they have to be planning 10, 15 years in the future and reinvesting in production facilities and product development rather than chasing short-term profits.
That’s why the Japanese are able to make high-quality small cars profitable, because they re-invested in their factories to cut down on production costs. That’s why the Japanese are able to switch production volumes of specific models so easily, because their more modern factories allow them to re-tool in a matter of weeks. That’s why their cars are consistently more technologically advanced and higher quality than the big 3′s, because they’re thinking in the long term and planning their development spending accordingly.
They don’t squander their profits on 8-figure executive salaries, they don’t build needlessly flashy headquarters like the renncenter, and they don’t sit by idly raking in the profits of the current fad without planning for the next one. And as a result they aren’t headed towards chapter 11, whoda thunk it? The big three deserves every bit of the economic woe that they’re currently in and they have nobody to blame things on but themselves.
What does this have to do with Saab? Saab is a company that once staked it’s claim on being ahead of the technological curve and building unique, high-quality cars. There’s simply no way that their kind of brand message will ever be able to thrive under the ownership of an organization like GM. It’s just never gonna happen and I’d almost rather see “Saab, the Swedish car company” go the way of the dodo than to see it live on as “Saab, the badge on another bland underperforming GM product”.
Kroum said: “And since we are at wild-ass speculations, what if Porsche ends up picking Saab? That’d be pretty cool.”
I’ve been thinking, and saying that, for years. Just think, two automakers with very strong and consistent lineages, and almost all their model nomenclature begin with 9
But with Porsche upping its ownership stake in the VAG, it would not really make any real business sense, as SAAB perfectly lies on top of VW and overlaps into Audi lineup.
SaabKen: VAG already has one S*** car brand (the Spanish one) and that one seems to be struggling to find it’s place at the momemt. Unless Porsche could find a way of keeping Saab separate from VAG, buying it would be a bad move for everyone.
Compare a Passat CC and a Saab 9-5 and I’m afraid VW will have overtaken Saab… if not the new 9-5 turns out to be a huge success….whenever it’s due….
I am not that sure, that just because of a new president Saab’s future is rescued – though I hope it.
But as others, I wondered in the early morning, if GM maybe get rid of Saab in the next time – not bleed it out, but just sell it to any other corporation. I thought about Audi: Upper-segment, but not a real access to the nordic sector. Moreover Audi (I know: VW) is kinda successful ATM, so why not try that way?
Why I thought about that? Because somehow I realized, that after several years under GM, Saab is not anymore able to remain in the market without a helping hand.
“Remember, there’s a big meeting in Trollhattan this week, too.”
Oh oh…
“they don’t build needlessly flashy headquarters like the renncenter”
The Ren Cen was conceived by Henry Ford II and financed primarily by the Ford Motor Company. Civic leaders intended this ambitious urban renewal project to quell the white flight which increased, following the social unrest from the 12th Street riot in 1967. The project was intended to revitalize the economy of Detroit. In 1970, Ford Motor Company Chairman Henry Ford II teamed up with other business leaders to form Detroit Renaissance, a private non-profit development organization, which he headed in order to stimulate building activity in areas of Detroit that had been severely impacted. The group announced the first phase of construction in 1971. GM didn’t buy it till 1996. Albiet, they did spend $500 million to spruce it up.
I agree with Alex. The problem is similar to that experienced by Apple when it was headed by a soft drink executive. GM does need new leadership who are dedicated to the product (and there are peoople within GM who understand product–they’re simply not in charge) as the generator of every other benefit.
Sadly or otherwse, I stand by my guess that without GM there will be no SAAB, and after finally being able to afford a new SAAB in 2007 I’d be sorry to see no future chance to repeat (then again, I’ve had cars by BMC, Vauxhall, AMC, Alfa Romeo–all gone or gone from this NA market, so it’s possible to move on, just not the preferred path).
I’ll need to contact Trued, soon. I want to see what he’s about with autocrossing his new Turbo X, once it’s broken in…
Hmmm, the results should be very interesting, possibly comparible to a Subaru WRX 2.5?
I wonder in what SCCA class the Turbo X would be placed?
Let me know, Trued! – dan@racingready.com
Yeah, let me emphasize that the problems at GM and the big three lie almost totally with the incompetent management. Back before I transferred out of an engineering program, I had friend there who knew people working as engineers at GM and who were planning on going to work there. Trust me, GM’s deficiencies don’t lie with their engineering staff, they lie with the bozo’s who pay them and tell them what to work on.
As to the “future Saab owners”, what about Tata motors? Now that they are serious about being a contender in the luxury market as shown by the job they’re doing with Jaguar and Land Rover, I could see them managing Saab well. Those three brands would also work very well together as they all draw from that same wealthy, highly educated clientele with an eye for being different and there’s almost no brand overlap. Sell the three together in dealerships and you’d have Saab for the small cars and 3/5-series fighters, Jaguar for the super luxury sedans, and Land Rover for the SUV’s. There would be almost no overlap between the three except for possibly the between the 9-5 and the XF, but in that case you’d likely have the top-end sporty 9-5 Aero model at about the same pricepoint as the more luxury-oriented base level XF.
This deal would also work for Tata too because they would take on Saab’s excellent engineering staff that would be invaluable to their future product developments across the board.
Alex,
As we speak there is a BIG Swedish delegation in New Dehli to promote skilled Indians to move to Sweden. Skilled labour is a must for de future growth of the Swedish economy. We are to few people in a to big country. TATA industries also employ aprox. 120000 people in the internet business. Who knows mayby someone in the crowd of business and politicians offer SAAB to Indian money…
Best way would be the Wallenberg Family and their control-company Investor to buy back SAAB so to speak. They sold SAAB away to GM in a 2 stage deal. But maybe SAAB has a low enough pricetag now?
Swade,
Thanks for putting a link to the Turbo X Blog and to my “garage” http://www.garaget.org/trued , the 4 cars shown on top are the cars I own today the cars down on the page are old ones!
Let the american car companies fall on their @sses. Seriously. For years they have done exactly what Alex stated above. The Volt should have come out 5 years ago. Shame on them for not developing new, better technologies.
Business 101 people. Capitalism at it’s finest. If your product isn’t good, your business goes under. Why should the government bail everyone out? Either run with the big boys our get out of the way.
One word …
unions