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December kicked off with a Boston Globe story on the infamous Saab Art Car that lives in the area. It was good to find out some background info on this rolling fun piece.
I’ve been truly blessed with meeting some fantastic people whilst writing this website. One such person I met briefly in Sweden last year. He’s a former Saab designer, now running his own design firm and doing some work for Hirsch on the side – Taras Czornyj. That’s a brief Q&A and a look at his beautiful Hirsch Saab 9-3 SportCombi.
Of course, December was THE BIG month when it comes to the GM bailout. The big three CEOs left their private jets in the hangars and drove to Washington, rocking up in hybrids to show how focussed they are on small cars that few American consumers really want to buy when gas is below $2 a gallon. They had to present their plans for the future and it was here that we learned that Saab was officially under review.
That means that if they can, they’ll sell Saab.
I had my thoughts on this whole situation and Eggs had his thoughts about it, too.
Reports came quickly out of Sweden that the government would provide some aid to keep the car industry going there. These reports were quickly confirmed by the government itself, who took legislative action just a few weeks later. They denid any intentions to take ownership stakes in either Saab or Volvo, however.
I took a breath and summarised the options as I saw them.
These were the prevailing thoughts at this time:
- “A global strategic review of Saab does not mean a sale of Saab, but rather how we can secure the future of Saab and how to raise the money.”
- “It could mean that we work together with an external partner.”
- “There are a number of interesting possibilities. But, of course, you can never exclude the possibility that we sometime will be sold.”
And if Saab were to be sold, that means we had to look at the options as to who may buy them. The global automotive family tree is a complex one, to be sure, but Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne forecasted that it would get a lot simpler in the next five years or so, with the number of automotive conglomerates reducing to around six in that time.
I chatted some more with Eric Geers about the whole situation.
EG: it’s seem that the only thing that’s in the media is then, OK, it’s for sale. And the same has happened to Volvo. Whereas the other options were forgotten. So we tried to explain yesterday what that could be and why they will be, as we see it, on the top of the list…..
….It involves a number of options that we’ve considered, like project-based funding to even equity ownership. We’re looking for the best financial options that will secure a good outcome for a successful Saab business.
Happier news, of sorts, in my own black humour way – Kroymans killed their association with Cadillac in Europe. GM Europe should do the same.
We saw an amazing online virtual tour of the Saab Museum in Trollhattan.
Logan got married and drove off happily with his new Mrs in his Saab. Congratulations again, mate!
I finally succumbed and wrote that I hope GM sell Saab. Opel union bosses said that if that happens, they’d still be happy to build the 9-5 at Russelsheim for the new owner. Seems like people at Saab Sweden want to bring the 9-5 back home to Trollhattan, however.
We looked over various bits of Saab technology that we’ve never seen make it to production.
GM announced they’d be selling some of the ‘lesser’ family jewels, including a Pikes Peak Saab from the mid-1990s. Mark LaNeve from GM also came clean on what a “strategic rview” of Saab really means:
LaNeve said the auto maker expects to announce significant developments in efforts to sell its Saab and Hummer brands by the end of March 2009.
SaabUSA announced that they would be showing the Saab 9-5 Griffin Edition already confirmed for Europe at the Detroit Motor Show in early 2009. It’s the 9-5’s swansong and looks to be well equipped but high priced.
The end-of month good news was that I bought a car, which I’ll pick up in a few days from now. It’s a 1999 Saab 9-3 Monte Carlo and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. It needs plenty of work, but should be a hoot to work on.
