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Sweden’s sales data is in and unfortunately it’s a continuation of the bad sales news we’ve been reading about for the last 12 months.
Total new car registrations in Sweden fell by 45% in December, so the problems are not Saab’s own. The problems are everywhere. Total sales for 2008 were 253,000, which was down over 17% from the 306,000 registered in 2007. Forecasts predict that number to fall even further in 2009, possibly as low as 185,000 units. Sales in 2008 ranked 19th in Sweden’s all time annual sales ladder, getting beaten out by years as far back as 1965, so a figure below 200,000 could send Sweden back into the 1950s in search of record lows.
Saab 9-3 sales
Saab Sweden sold 677 units of the Saab 9-3 in December 2008, which was a massive fall of some 60.3% from December the prior year, where they sold 1708 units of the 9-3. For the entire year, Saab sold 12,623 units of the 9-3, down 11% from 14185 the year before.
Despite that sea of red ink, it wasn’t all bad news for the Saab 9-3. No, seriously. Despite these lower numbers in terms of unit sales, the Saab 9-3 actually had a marginal increase in market share for the year from 4.6% to just shy of 5%.
Saab 9-5 sales
It’s all negative news for the Saab 9-5, I’m afraid.
Saab Sweden sold 484 units of the Saab 9-5 in December 2008, down around 40% from the 802 sold in the same month in 2007. For the year in total, there were 7,248 Saab 9-5s sold, down 32% from the 10699 sold in 2007.
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There were 73 Caddys sold in December, but these were VW Caddy sales, not Cadillacs.
For Cadillac sales in December, it’s hard to sell. Swedish sales charts are ordered by the number of total sales for the year (rather than for the month). There is no Cadillac mentioned in the 75 cars on the list, and #75 itself sold 687 units in 2008. So we know that Cadillac didn’t sell that many.
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The Saab 9-3 BioPower remained the second-best selling “green” car for 2008.
The Saab 9-5 BioPower was the fourth best selling “green” car.
The Cadillac BLS E85 vehicle was the 43rd best selling “green” car in Sweden, selling 200 vehicles in 2008, but zero in December 2008.
68% of the vehicles sold in Sweden in 2008 were E85-capable vehicles.
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An interesting side story from The Local:
Many car drivers in Sweden want the scent of a new car without actually paying for one. Sales of air-fresheners with scents of leather or vinyl are booming, while car sales continue to fall…..
….Wunder-baum, a popular brand of car air-fresheners, reports that its classic pine-scented top seller has been overtaken by a tree-shaped freshener impregnated with the scent of new cars.
“It is basically the market leader in Scandinavia. This ‘tree’ has a bright future,” said Daniel Niklasson from Yngve Niklasson AB, a distributor of Wunderbaum products in Sweden to Sveriges Radio.
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10 responses so far ↓
1 David Blumberg
// Jan 3, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I love how you mention the pathetic cadillac sales every month… GM should really get it by now hey! No one buys them. Invest the money somewhere else already (Saab).
2 Tompa
// Jan 3, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Well, you don´t need to be a rocket scientist to know that Saab would have done better with the NG9-5 out. And it would not have affected the 9-3.
Cheers/Tom
3 Edonis
// Jan 3, 2009 at 10:40 pm
I too really like the way you point out that Cadillac-sales are low!
When I purchased my first car, a 1987 Audi 80, it had obviously been driven by a smoker, and as a non-smoker, I found the smell to be awful. I tried numerous different tactics to get rid of the smell, but they all failed. The result? I bought a Wunderbaum which I put in the car when I parked it, with the “New Car smell”, which by the way, doesn’t smell anything like a new car. Important to note, I never hung it down from the rear-view mirror when I drove the car…
4 ronan
// Jan 4, 2009 at 2:21 am
The figures aren’t that surprising. Everyone in Sweden must know that Saab’s future in uncertain and it wouldn’t be surprising if people were holding off making a purchase of a 9-3 until the picture becomes clearer, which looks to be March or so.
I’m amazed that anyone bought a 9-5 given the uncertainty surrounding Saab and the fact that if Saab survives, its first act will be to replace the 9-5.
5 ctm
// Jan 4, 2009 at 2:40 am
For Swade’s pleasure…
Cadillac BLS
Dec: 2 (42), -95%
Jan-Dec: 349 (227) +54%
6 1985 Gripen
// Jan 4, 2009 at 3:37 am
Why is the 9-3 the second-best selling “green” car in Sweden (and for that matter the 9-5 the fourth)? A few years ago when BioPower debuted wasn’t the 9-5 (which had the exclusive on BioPower for a short time) the best-selling “green” car?
I’m guessing #1 and #3 are Volvos, right? Why do even Swedes seem to favor Volvo over Saab? If you can’t be the best in your own home market, how can you expect to succeed elsewhere? There’s no reason Saab shouldn’t be ranked #1 and #2 in Sweden, IMHO. I’m sure Bob Lutz would chock it up to marketing.
@Edonis: what’s a “wunderbaum”? Right now we have a Saab 9-5 sedan loaner from the local dealer while my wife’s 9-5 wagon awaits them to figure-out the problem with the seat heaters (they’ve had it for like a week already but the holidays have slowed work on it). Whomever borrowed the car last apparently bathed in perfume and smoked in it. My wife gets a headache every time she has to drive it. We let it sit with all the windows open for like two days but the smell’s still there. I guess I need a wunderbaum, whatever that is.
@ctm: I’d want a BLS just for the novelty of it. I’d be the only one in N.A. with one! Then again, I’d be part of an exclusive group worldwide considering the poor sales!
7 Gunnar
// Jan 4, 2009 at 1:58 pm
If you had told a GM big wig back in the 50s that Cadillacs would be sold alongside Saabs, share platforms with Saabs, and be lumped into the same luxury division as Saabs, he’d have choked on his cigar in full bellied laughter.
And yet here we are, 2009, and Cadillac (of Fleetwood Brougham heritage) and Saab ( of 99 fame) are sitting on lots alongside each other.
Who’d a thunk it?
8 ctm
// Jan 4, 2009 at 8:02 pm
1985 Gripen,
Why do even Swedes seem to favor Volvo over Saab?
Because Volvo actually has a modern lineup of different models to choose from…
Wunderbaum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wunderbaum
9 1985 Gripen
// Jan 6, 2009 at 1:46 am
@ctm: Thanks. We have those here, but don’t call them that. They’re just “tree air fresheners”. They featured in the old film Repo Man.
10 ctm
// Jan 6, 2009 at 6:27 am
Wow, only 120 Saab 9-5 sold in the US during December… Saab -57% in December and -35% for the whole year.