As part of today’s program, I sat down for an interview with Steve Shannon and Jan-Willem Vester from SaabUSA. We covered a wide spread of topics over the course of a half hour. I recorded the coversation and will be transcribing the whole thing as time permits.

The first instalment is below and I think you’ll find there’s some interesting news in there. There’ll be more to come, as well as two more interviews from the show, when I get back home.

We started off just talking about the show in general…..

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Steve Shannon (SS): ……compared to either Macquarie Place in Chicago or the LA convention center it is smaller, but it’s good in a way, because everybody’s nice and tight and ….

Swade: ….you’ve gotta bring your A-game to the display…

SS: yeah, you do. The measure of a show is who brings their really hot stuff because whoever brings more hot stuff brings more media. Some shows just measure themselves by how the footfall is and Chicago’s the biggest in the country from that point of view but if you just talk about the quality of the new-car reveals, then Detroit doesn’t want to be unseated because we kinda control that.

Swade: You must be very happy with how things have been received with the 9-4x.

SS: Yeah. I talked with a number of American journalists and what I’ve heard from Jan-Ake and others who have talked to Europeans, it seems to be going over well. I think the desireability of that segment, just how much it’s growing…to offer a vehicle…it’s such a preferred body style in the US right now and I think the fact that it’s a good fit for Saab – it’s the modern equivalent of a wagon. The SportCombi’s finding its level in the US, but that crossover will have just a little higher seating position and be a little kinder for visibility, and coming in a car that has a high level of ride, handling and refinement.

Swade: Is there a feel for why the SportCombi has struggles because it’s just such a brilliant car, and the reviews that it gets are fantastic – the anti-SUV – it’s got great storage space, great utility….

SS: It’s interesting. Journalists, automotive journalists love wagons, they love to write about wagons. The American consumer is just not….it’s just not taking hold. The SUV shape, the crossover shape has just become…if you want something with more utility than a three-box sedan, I mean, you can try and logic people into, for not very much more money, with better fuel economy – and we’re seeing a little bit of that trade for Combis from SUV’s, but not much.

If we had a lot more advertising resources we might do a lot more proactive advertising with it.

Jan-Willem Vester (JWV): And it’s not unique to us. Audi, Volvo have lost, same with Mercedes, they’ve retracted the C-class wagon.

SS: Yeah. Fundamentally, they’re in the marketplace here because manufacturers develop them from Europe and there really is no incremental cost. No-one advertises them, even our competitors don’t….we just make it available for those that choose it and it’s a certain percentage of people (that want one).

Swade: Does that, as a company, give you a bit of pause….we had heard that there was going to be a crossover version of the SportCombi, raised up a little with cross-wheel drive and some ‘cladding’ …..does that give you pause on doing that sort of thing?

SS: We think it’s worth a shot. Cross wheel drive adds a lot more to that concept, with a little higher seating position, we think it’s worth giving it a try. There are some that…..you know, Subaru with the Outback…

Swade: Very popular in Australia

SS: Yeah, they’re big here too, especially in pockets like the north-east. So, it’s worth doing, but today’s SportCombi without AWD is seen as just like a sedan with a little backpack, and that’s just not quite enough to get people to make the jump. But we’re working actively with the folks in Sweden on what this alternative 9-3 Combi might be like, and …

JWV: …..we have the basic ingredients now, thanks to cross-wheel drive. We never could do it, but we have that now, so let’s explore it a little…

Swade: Are your dealers screaming down the doors for cross-wheel drive to actually hit the road?

SS: They are, especially in the north-east. We got some great dealers, like Len Schraeder, great long-time Saab dealer who’s in a great market in New Jersey calls me about once a week asking “when’s it coming?”

Just having any all-wheel drive system is a big benefit, and then the fact that this system is so capable, so sophisticated, it gives us that little extra. So not only do we have it, we got the best one. How the lawyers let us…..what the claim looks like, I’m not sure, but the ability to be very aggressive – we’re not the first by any means – but were not bringing any all-wheel drive system out, we’re bringing the right one out.

There was an interesting meeting the other day here in the US with a gentleman from out engineering group who had worked at Saab for a number of years and he remembers going through a number of studies in Sweden on different all-wheel drive systems and none of them quite passed muster. Not enough capability, too much extra weight, etc etc. So it’s not that we haven’t looked at it before….this is the right one, and it’s a couple of months away.

Swade: Recently, I emailed Saab Sweden and asked about the eLSD setup in the XWD. People are looking for whn that might become available with the Aero model. It’s not going to happen straight away?

SS: The latest I understand is it will be the 09 model year. The will be around four months worth of 08 model Aeros that won’t have it. As soon as 09 model starts, in about August, it will. In the whole engineering process of making it both engines, both transmissions….we just couldn’t flick the switch all at once, but we’re headed toward the eLSD for the V6 and no eLSD for the 2.0T.

Swade: And XWD availability with the 2.0T? That’s the other thing that people are asking.

SS: That’s with the model year change. For 09, so basically late summer, early fall. And so by the end of this calendar year, it’ll be available on the 2.0T and on the Aero, in both the transmission combinations.

JWV: …no excuses anymore (laughs)

SS: ….and I have my fingers crossed! No, no, no….

Swade: in 2008, aside from the economic conditions here….there’ll be a lot of people waiting for (XWD) so in 2008 we can expect a reasonably lean year in terms of sales growth.

SS: Yeah. If you look at all the different ingredients, we expect the first half of this year to be like the last six months of last year, around 16,000 and it might get better in the second half. There’s some industry headwinds there, but we do have, finally now, a good availability of the 08 9-3. The ramp up was a little slower than we would have liked, so now everyone has enough of those, and we have cross-wheel drive coming but it really only hits the volume car at the end of the year.

The 9-7x is another conundrum because the industry indicators and the segment indicators would say truck-based SUVs are coming down, gas prices are going up, but we think from a profitability point of view it makes sense for us to be a little bit more aggressive, incentive-wise, on the 9-7x. So, we may buck the trend there. Explorer will be down, and the Durango and the other truck-based ones, but we could be up on the 9-7x this year.

When you net all that out…..if we can do this year what we did last year (approx 31,000 retail and 2,000 fleet) then we’ll have around 33,000…..

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more to come when I get home…

Another day done.

My apologies for the low volume of postings here in the last few days, but it’s pointless taking the laptop to the show. I’ve been at the show all day for the last two days, which just leaves posting at night.

The discussion in comments has benefitted, however, which has been great.

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Here at BMW, ze pretty lady makes photo of wise men, ja.

Yes, today was the day when I finally got a chance to wanter around and take a look at the other manufacturers on show here. It wasn’t a long journey, mind you. I was locked in at the Saab stand once again for 90% of the day and spent my last 45 minutes or so taking a look around.

I shot a bunch of photos and will put the best of them online shortly.

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I got a late start today, largely because I stayed up until 5am last night doing the Anthonly Lo video. My body’s fighting this time zone like you wouldn’t believe.

My tiredness has also contributed to me getting less coverage than what I might have otherwise liked to do. But I’m happy with the 9-4x coverage we’ve got here, and expecially with what’s still to come.

Almost every important Saab exec has made the journey to Detroit. I’ve got to chat to most of them and most of the interviews will be covered here in time. The interviews I recorded today were audio-only and I’ll be transcribing them to text as time permits.

I hope you don’t mind, but I made a judgement call and skipped interviews with people like Jan-Ake Jonsson and Kjell AC Bergstrom (GM powertrain). Mostly this was a matter of timing, but it was also an interest in getting some quality time with certain people to find out a few things that we otherwise wouldn’t have really known.

Interviews today were with the following:

Gunilla Gustav – Gunilla works with Saab Communications and is mostly based in Pixbo, but my chat with her today focused on the otherwise mysterious Saab Brand Center. This is something I was really interested in finding out about as we hear the name but there’s very little known about it, what it does and who it comprises.

Andrew Dyson – Anthony Lo is the head og GM Europe’s Advanced Design Group and as such, is the main spokesperson when it comes time to unveil concepts such as the 9-4x. Andrew Dyson, however, is the man on the ground who was in charge of both the exterior and interior design for the 9-4x concept, reporting to Anthony as the design progressed. We talked at length about the design process and in particular, Andrew’s very own Saabs.

Steve Shannon – Of course, I couldn’t come to the US without spending some time with Saab USA chief, Steve Shannon. We had a great chat about a great number of things, including the coming Saab 9-3x, the opportunities for diesel in the US, the model rollout in 2008 and 2009, the Turbo X, and more.

I’ll start working on the interview with Steve Shannon and Jan-Willem Vester shortly.

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Today was another big day of unveilings, but it was good to see that even though Saab’s day had passed, there was still a large number of people visiting the Saab stand.

GM were filming a number of videos with Saab personnel and the Saab 9-4x concept, which I’m sure will appear on the Saab Global website in due course.

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One of my favourite photos from today. I should have exposed it for the car, though…..

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Time to get writing…..big poll to come.

I set the alarm for 8am. That might sound late-ish, but given that I’m not feeling remotely close to sleep until around 3am I thought it was fair.

I wandered downstairs for a breath of fresh air and there’s people everywhere, fully coiffed and ready, wandering around in suits and everything!!

Don’t they know the Saab presentation isn’t until 11.30?

What?

There’s stuff other than Saab here?

Oh.

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Actually, they may not know that Saab’s on at all today. Here’s the program as written in the documentation:

Sunday, January 13, 2008

7:00 am Media Credential Office Opens / Oakland Concourse

8:30-8:55 am Johnson Controls / D2-15

* * * *

9:00 am Show Floor Opens

9:10-9:30 am NAIAS Co-Chairs Opening Ceremony / Michigan Hall Stage

9:30-10:00 am North American Car and Truck of the Year Awards / Michigan Hall Stage

* * * *

10:15-10:40 am Ford / Cobo Arena

10:50-11:15 am Chrysler Corporation / Washington Blvd. outside Cobo Center near Oakland Entrance

11:25-11:50 am General Motors with Lunch

12:00-12:25 pm Mercedes-Benz

12:35-1:00 pm Volkswagen

1:10-1:35 pm BMW

1:45-2:10 pm Honda

2:20-2:45 pm Audi

2:55-3:20 pm Subaru

3:30-3:55 pm Hyundai

4:05-4:30 pm Kia

4:40-5:05 pm Lamborghini

5:15-5:40 pm Mitsubishi

5:50-6:15 pm Land Rover (at Stand)

The Saab show is the one bunged in with…..

11:25-11:50 am General Motors with Lunch

….so there’s a very good chance that I’ll be the only person in Detroit covering it. Never try and get between a press corps and lunch!!

Time to hit the showers, then….

Another day passes in Detroit, and it shall be known as the day I didn’t carry my camera enough. Consequently, I have no photos from the GM Style event that I attended tonight, but I do have some good notes….

Buckle up, long post coming…..

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The day started with lunch at Fishbones, meeting up with a few Saab people in the process. Long-time commenter and 9-5 advocate, Greg Abbott was there, along with Erica, whom he’s just sourced a non-turbo 900 for in Minnesota. Erica’s planning a big drive up to Labrador with a few friends in 900s and wanted a non-turbo model for the job – less bits means less to go wrong. We were all joined by ‘SaabWookiee’ – who’s yet to make his first Saab purchase but has been studying the form guide religiously. I think if and when Saab get the EDP back up and running, he’ll be a prime candidate. More on the EDP later….

I was determined to wear shorts at least one day while I was here in Detroit, and given that today was the warmest one on the forecast, out they came.

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I don’t want to offend any Americans here, but let’s just say that Detroit in winter isn’t quite Trollhattan in summer. It’s a pretty confronting place, actually. Well, where I am is, at least. I’m sure the people that live here have got their place in a nice suburb and a regular set of pleasant locations to visit, but the little I’ve seen of downtown so far is pretty sparse.

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Good morning all. As I arrived here in darkness yesterday, this is the first daytime view I’ve had of Detroit, Michigan, home of the North American International Auto Show.

So what do we see here?

1 – The Detroit River, and if you’re looking over the Detroit River then that means you can see….

2 – Canada – my wife’s home and native land! Detroit is the only city in the US where you can look south and see Canada. Just over the river is Windsor, Ontario and my driver last night told me on any given Friday or Saturday night there’s several thousand kids from Detroit over there partying away. The legal drinking age in Canada is 19, wheras it’s 21 in the US.

3 – The marquee for tonight’s marquee event, The GM Style show. I have access but I got an email this morning telling me that the event is heavily overbooked (what a surprise) so its first come first served. I dunno if I can be bothered.

4 – A little of the Ren Cen – The hotel I’m staying at is actually part of GM’s Renaissance Center building, and you can see some other bits of it to the right. If there was anyone in at their office looking back at my window, then you’re probably also seeing several office workers wondering why there’s a guy taking photos out of his window wearing only underpants! I know, you didn’t need that image.

As for whatever else is out there, well, that’s what today is for.