Comments on: A Breath – what’s the state of Saab right now?

By: Paul Humpage

Paul Humpage — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:30:24 +0000

Regardless of what happens i hope they dump the Griffin badge (as they will have to shortly) and use the Aeroplane logo at the top of this post.

By: PT

PT — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:03:45 +0000

CAR Magazine recently mentioned Aston & Saab in the same sentence when commenting on the Paris motorshow. They pointed out how both marques have very distinctive design language and how this is an asset as they work with limited ranges . It was quite a complimentary statement AND there was a picture of some car deisgner dude sitting on a Saab bike accompanying the story.

By: turbin

turbin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:37:10 +0000

While I’m in wild but plausible speculation mode. How about Mr Dave Richards (described as the ‘Branson of motorsport’) and Branson get together for a Prodrive/Virgin Saab stakeholding. Using the Aston Martin platform they can engineer a green supercar solution with the Aero-X without having to tame the AM power-house image. Surely the gorgeousness of recent Saab concepts dove-tails nicely with AM. This gives the Middle-East connection as well. We all know Aston and the customers have the freakin money!

Think about it…. long and hard…..

By: turbin

turbin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:20:16 +0000

Sir Branson, your time is now. Bring on the cash.

Depends on how Mr Virgin is doing, anybody know? Not about to wipe himself out in some crazy round-the-world thingy?

Not sure why anybody hasn’t even wildly speculated about ‘Virgin Saab’ before (in my recollection anyway). One time 9-5 Biopower driver, maybe not now (?), but as for the near future?

By: Wulf (NW Michigan, USA)

Wulf (NW Michigan, USA) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:54:22 +0000

More from Automotive News:

GM talking to investors about Saab sale

Automotive News
December 3, 2008 – 11:54 am ET

General Motors is talking to potential investors who could take partial ownership in Saab. Jan-Ake Jonsson, managing director of the Swedish brand, said GM and Saab are talking to several investors about putting money into the Swedish company. He did not say who Saab is talking to, but sources at Saab owner GM say other automakers and large engineering houses are among the interested parties.

“We are looking for investors to get some external funding into some activities, such as accelerating product development,” Jonsson told Automotive News Europe today. GM announced a strategic review of Saab on December 2. GM’s chief operating officer, Fritz Henderson, said the review includes a possible sale of the loss-making brand.

Saab is also talking to the Swedish government about the government taking a stake in the automaker, which employs nearly 5,000 people in the country. Jonsson said a decision on Saab’s future including possible new financing or new stakeholders will be made in the next two or three months. He declined to reveal how much money Saab is seeking.

“A total sale is far down the priority list. We have integrated ourselves into GM as an organization and on the product side,” Jonsson said. A complete shutdown of Saab also “is totally off the map,” Jonsson said. “Next year we will start to roll out new products and that is a great opportunity to get some revenue.” He said Saab has exciting plans, including the launch of the new 9-5 next year and new models after that.

Said Jonsson: “That together with the strength of the brand will position Saab in a very competitive position in the market place.” In August, the Swedish financial daily Dagens Industri reported that Saab’s loss for 2007 was 2.2 billion kronor ($360 million) compared to a loss of 2.9 billion kronor ($474 million) in 2006. The newspaper cited the group’s annual report filed in Sweden.

By: zippy

zippy — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:30:15 +0000

Mentioning Saab in the same sentence as China makes me wanna heave, enough already!

I actually think that Fiat and Saab are a great fit. After all, Fiat supply diesel engines to Saab already and the Fiat Group is actually building some great cars these days.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:08:52 +0000

One option may be to create a sort of Swedish car conglomerate between Volvo and Saab that would be majority owned by the Swedish government, with perhaps a foreign entity taking a minority interest but providing the necessary liquidity for this to work. That might kill two birds with one stone when it comes to Ford and GM needing to downsize. This may be a case where if we want to continue enjoying Swedish design, safety and engineering excellence, something of a merger of equals would be in order here.
For my part, I would never buy a Saab owned by a company from countries such as China and India that have absolutely no automobile manufacturing heritage/know-how even if they’re still manufactured in Europe.

By: Karen

Karen — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:16:09 +0000

Renault, BMW, and Tata are all mentioned as buyers. Volvo/Saab = 15% of Sweden’s exports. And Opel is mxed up in this. On to most current post…

By: TC

TC — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:45:21 +0000

I have never believed that we should worry too much about saab’s performance in the US. It is a european brand with strong loyalty, admittedly from a small demograhic niche. So why not pull it out?

By: Adam

Adam — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:53:57 +0000

I don’t think this focus on the core brands comment is anything new. That’s how Saab got to where it is right now. Underinvestment.

But reading through the plans, if I were a Senator looking at this bailout-triage situation, I’d say Ford isn’t too far gone but GM and Chrysler are too far gone and look to only be money pits at this point. I don’t know that all of GM wouldn’t collapse anyway, even with Federal money.