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Our mate Eric Geers at Saab Sweden has been chatting with the Swedish press following the announcement from the Whitehouse that GM and Chysler have 102 days to get their house in order.
Some 9-5 and more DEKRA coverage follows. But first, here’s a translation of EG talking to DN.se:
This means that the restructuring of GM in US is in full swing says Eric Geers.
-We knew that the Bush administration was for the loan package and also the coming Obama administration.
Geers points out that GM goes from words to action which in the longer term is positive for Saab. The plans for disinvest Saab Automobile as Geers puts it ” first thing within Europe” continues
- One must remember that most of our sales are in Europe.
The fact that Saab has good response from Swedish gov trough the package for R&D and the loan package to GM is a breakthrough says Geers.
- It feels far more positive now . A more intensive dialog/discussion is going on within GM , where we within Saab are directly involved in says Eric Geers.
Dagens Nyheter -reporter: But the conditions are tough and good figures must be presented in the end of March. Will it work?
Eric Geers : Yes, Absolutely.
Thanks Dippen!!
——
Saab are featuring in a couple of European magazines this month, which is good to see as it the clippings are for all the right reasons.
The first mention is in this predictions calendar by Autobild. They predict that we’ll see the 9-3x in August 2009 and the 9-5 and 9-4x in October 2009.
I’m pretty sure we’ll see the 9-3x beore then, at a car show at the very least. As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure that you can write GENEVA in permanent marker all over that one.
Whilst you’ve got that permanent marker out and the lid off it, write in FRANKFURT for the Saab 9-5, too. I’ll bet my house on it (a long as Saab are still alive at that point).
The 9-4x? That’s anyone’s guess. I reckon if they can manage the 9-3x and 9-5 for 2009 then that’ll be a monumental effort given the circumstances they’ve been in all year.
Thanks Francis!
——
The second mention is in Auto Motor and Sport, where they’re given a prominent position thanks to AMS publishing the DEKRA report.
Albert VDB sent it through and mentions that the article itself doesn’t provide much more information than what we’ve already read, but it does mention Saab in a positive way, which is relatively uncommon for the German AMS and something special.
Click the image to enlarge. The percentage you see to the right of the table is the percentage of deficiency-free vehicles over the given mileage range.
Thanks once again, Albert!
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10 responses so far ↓
1 Grider
// Dec 20, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Despite all the changes in the industry nowadays, it’s good to see that some things never change: Looking at the DEKRA chart, Alfa’s beautiful 156 is down there way at the bottom. Funny thing is, i’d still buy one – in Sportwagon GTA trim, personally. Hope yours is doing better than the average 156, Swade.
2 Tobias
// Dec 20, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Wow, I’ll like Alfa but that is a horrbible number…
3 Tompa
// Dec 20, 2008 at 9:47 pm
The 9-3X is totaly ready and ofcourse it will be out in the beginning of the year. Allthough, it should have been presented now in the beginning of the northern hemisphere winter and not at the end of it.
The sooner the NG9-5 is out, the sooner Saab will be making money. The 9-3 is stil an attractive car and the 9-3X together with the 9-3´s acceptable price for what the car is will see to that it will be sold in good numbers even after the NG9-5 launch. Maybe the 9-3 may creep down in numbers outside of Sweden but not much here. The NG9-5 Will sell in quite large numbers, I´m sure of that.
Regarding the 9-4X.. I´m sure it´s a realy good car and I hope it will sell well.
/Tom
4 Ron57RC
// Dec 20, 2008 at 10:52 pm
DEKRA report:
0-50,000 km SAAB 9-3 ~ 93.1%
An appropriate score don’t you think!
5 zippy
// Dec 21, 2008 at 12:03 am
The DEKRA report reveals one thing…Germans must be getting all the good 9-3’s.
LOL!
6 2-Don
// Dec 21, 2008 at 5:55 am
And now they get the fully loaded Hirsch one! Darn, should live in Germany!
7 Tompa
// Dec 21, 2008 at 6:22 am
Zippy.. Never had anything better than my Saabs.. I´ve owned Bimmers, Ovlov, Nissan, Jeep etc
8 jim
// Dec 21, 2008 at 7:44 am
I work in a SAAB dealership in Austraiia, was lucky enough to go to Spain and drive the 9.3x at IDIADA proving ground test facility.
This car is without a doubt the most amazing vehicle I have ever driven, 100K to zero on ice in 5 car lenghths – accelerate to 100k on ice in nearly the same distance- ability too excellerate 200 – 240k like we would from 40-80k
SAAB precision driving team, had trouble demonstrating drifting because the car wouldn’t drift, traction control on or off made little difference to the cars handling.
Basically it is everything perfect, sold my first one without the customer even driving the car.
Pure fluid motion.
9 swade
// Dec 21, 2008 at 7:51 am
G’day Jim, welcome to the site.
We had one of our regulars here at TS attend the IDIADA event as well and came back a very happy camper. He won his place through the competition Saab Oz held but hardly publicised.
How many have been sold here in Oz now? I know of two guys with a Turbo X. Clive and Jose. Did you sell either of those?
Again, welcome aboard.
10 Bob Sinclair
// Dec 21, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Re: SAAB IN THE EURO PRESS
Eric Geers points out, “- One must remember that most of our sales are in Europe.”
Well, after observing how Saab has fared under
GM’s ownership year after year, I can’t avoid recalling that there years before GM took over that most of Saab sales were NOT in Europe.