In reponse to the global economic downturn, both Holden and Saab here in Australia are taking the knife to their corporate hospitality commitments.

This is big.

Saab’s involvement in horseracing in Australia is probably it’s biggest single marketing exercise. The Melbourne Cup is the biggest horserace in Australia and the final race available to qualify for The Cup is a race called the Saab Quality. It’s a huge event that sees my RSS feed full for two weeks with speculations about who’s going to run in “The Saab” etc.

Saab will also be cancelling their corporate hositality tent at the Melbourne Cup Carnival. They’ve been erecting this tent and hosting Melbourne’s movers and shakers for a number of years now. In November 2008 they moved back to the prestigious group of tents known as The Birdcage – the loftiest spot you can get.

Back in 2006 they changed their marquee every day of the four-day carnival to reflect a different season (to promote the four-seat, four-season Saab convertible). In 2007 they had a Saab Convertible encased in ice. This are big, costly events.

Saab will retain an affiliation with racing through being a vehicle sponsor for the Victorian Racing Club, but the days of copius amounts of free wine and cheese are over.

For Holden, the cuts go even deeper.

The biggest form of car racing here in Australia is the V8 Supercar series. It’s Holden vs Ford. One of the most storied rivalries in the country.

Holden will retain a factory team in the V8 Supercars, but they’re withdrawing all of their corporate hospitality at V8 Supercar race meetings, including the car race that stops the nation – Bathurst.

Saab’s situation here in Australia would be well known to you. They’re struggling in a big way.

Whay you mightn’t know is that Holden are also struggling. Holden are propped up by the fact that they make a large number of vehicles for overseas markets. These are primarily (maybe wholly) large RWD vehicles based on their prime seller here in Australia, the Commodore family sedan and wagon (and ute). Holden were going to supply the US with the Pontiac G8 Sport Truck, but that’s been cancelled. Their top selling car here in Australia, the Commodore, was recently beaten out for top spot in the sales charts by the Mazda 3 (and this after numerous beatings by the Toyota Corolla and HiLux).

For Holden, withdrawing in anyway from their main image-builder – V8 racing – is a big, big move.

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It just goes to show….all the fancy high-class marketing in the world won’t mean a think without a hot product.

Saab need those new products now.

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It seems the deck chairs are shifting and the plans slowly unrolling within GM Europe for a more independent and distinct Saab.

There are two main news articles doing the rounds on the web today. The Automotive News article is based on a GM press release that reads as follows:

General Motors (GM) will reorganize the sales, marketing and aftersales function in Europe. The aim is to give more responsibility to the individual brands and markets in order to be able to respond fast to the rapidly changing market conditions, while continuing to focus on growth markets (particularly Russia). The changes will focus on strengthening GM’s brands and maximizing efficiency by capturing the non-customer visible multi-brand synergies.

GM Europe will also streamline the cluster organizations and have the markets report directly into the brands. This allows a more targeted approach in the individual markets, speeds up decision making and simplifies the structure.

To achieve this, GM Europe announces the appointment of three brand leaders, reporting directly to Brent Dewar, GM Europe vice president, sales, marketing and aftersales:

* Alain Visser, currently GME chief marketing officer, will be named GME vice president Opel

* Wayne Brannon, currently executive director Chevrolet Europe, will be named GME vice president Chevrolet

* Jan-Åke Jonsson, will add responsibility for marketing and sales for the Saab brand in Europe to his role of managing director of Saab Automobile AB

An interesting omission here – who’s the chief in charge of GM Premium Brands? The guy who’s going to push Cadillac’s barrow in Europe?

Did I miss something here?

The release goes on…..

The multi-brand structure has served the organization well and vaulted GM Europe to over 2 million vehicle sales for the last three years. We will now transfer to a set-up with more autonomy for the individual brands, increasing our efforts to grow brand equity, accelerating the decision-making process and driving business growth in Europe”, said Dewar.

“The multi-brand structure has served the organisation well”

???????

Then why change it?

Reading between the lines, I’d say this points to GM putting more emphasis on Chevrolet in Europe, admitting they can’t run Saab in Europe because they haven’t got a clue when it comes to individuality, and the final admission-by-omission that Cadillac has been an abject failure and total waste of corporate dollars.

You won’t hear anyone within GM say that. That’s just me.

The focus here, I guess, should be Jan-Ake-Jonsson’s increased responsibilities, which center more of Saab’s functionality within Sweden, which is where the plan is heading, of course. Those increased responsibilities will take effect on March 1.

One of our regulars here at TS – Maxfli – chimed in with the comment of the week in response to this story over at Automotive News:

Maybe Jan-Ake Jonsson can order toliet paper for the office now without asking 27 people up to and including Rick Wagoner for permission…..although I doubt it.

Classic!

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The other report is from Autocar in the UK, where GM Europe chief Carl-Peter Forster (who I believe is a genuine GM supporter of Saab) has been providing some cause for optimism:

GM is working at top speed to complete “the base outline” of a Saab funding agreement with the Swedish government before the end of the month, GM Europe president, Carl-Peter Forster, has said.

A plan for Saab’s future must be part of the overall viability plan for GM presented to the US government authorities at the end of the month, said Forster.

February 17th is definitely “by the end of the month”

“I still believe in the Saab brand,” said Forster. “Its traditional values of safety, understated design and care for the environment all fit today’s socio-economic climate and are very resilient. With the right model structure and a consistent, well implemented strategy, I’m convinced Saab could still be profitable.”

Forster says GM’s ‘mistake’ was to set Saab on the correct path too late.

That’s CPF being very cagey with the corporate speak. Accentuate the positive. Getting on the correct path too late = lack of involvement and investment earlier in the piece.

Semantics aside, this is good meaty confirmation of the path that we already knew was being taken. A path that should bring us the following:

Saab will launch a new 9-5 in about a year, and a mid-sized SUV, the 9-4X, in about 15 months. That will be followed a year later by a new 9-3. At that stage, a new small Saab, probably Astra-based, could make sense, Forster believes.

As much as I’d like to see a smaller Saab, that new 9-3 has got to be priority #1.

Go you Swedes!!!!

I believe some of the European automotive press are actually either on their way to, or are actually conducting some initial test drives of the Saab 9-3x in northern Sweden as we speak.

The automotive papparazzi seem to be hanging out there as well.

There’s a new gallery of shots over at Motor Authority.

Here’s a small version of one. Head over to Motor Authority for the rest, all of which are much bigger. All of them suffer from bright flash exposure and the snowfall that was happening at the time, but are still interesting to look at.

The question remains – are any of these diesels? And if so, do they also have XWD?

This isn’t going to help slow sales in the US, but it’s potentially a very positive development for the imminent release of the Saab 9-3x.

One of the bugs with the XWD system in the regular Saab 9-3 is that there wasn’t enough room to have both a diesel engine and Saab’s new cross-wheel-drive system in the same car. With diesels being so big in Europe, this would have made a great alternative to an SUV for the Euro market.

I’ve just heard from one source in Europe that the Saab 9-3x will be offered with a diesel engine, which raises a couple of possible scenarios:

1) With the extra suspension-induced clearance that might be available with the 9-3x (being a raised up and body-cladded version of the 9-3 SportCombi) they’ve now got enough room to fit both the XWD system and a diesel engine.

OR

2) There may be a FWD version of the 9-3x on the menu in addition to the standard XWD model that we’re expecting. This could offer the same drivetrains as the regular 9-3 SportCombi range, but with the body modifications of the 9-3x and no XWD system.

Option 1 is definitely the preferable scenario. When the XWD system first came about I heard from a lot of people who were interested in the combination of XWD with a diesel powerplant.

Although option 2 seems to go against the “x” part of the model’s name, I’d imagine this is the more likely scenario. Call me a pessimist, but I don’t want to get my hopes up for a diesel/XWD combination and then have those hopes dashed. Having both FWD and XWD versions of this body style would make sense, too, offering the vehicle to more potential customers who want the utility that comes with the ground clearance, but not the extra fuel consumption that comes with XWD.

There was no mention as to whether the diesel powerplant in question would be a TiD or a TTiD engine, so we’ll have to wait and see.

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I just got off the phone with Eric Geers from Saab in Sweden and unfortunately there’s absolutely nothing I can talk about here on the website. Eric is quite happy to keep me posted on the goings-on with Saab, but obviously at the moment everything’s quite delicate in terms of negotiations and plans, and I must respect the spirit in which the conversation was held.

Suffice to say that Saab are conducting their activities in a manner that suggests a faith in the favourable outcome of negotiations, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

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Two sources who don’t such faith……..well, it’s only one, really…….are Automotive News and Autoblog. Automotive News write the news and Autoblog re-hash it for those who don’t have a subscription (which is a great way to make money, by the way. Their income would be well into seven figures a year now and the cost of a AN subscription is only around $150 per year).

Anyway, Automotive News are saying that GM doesn’t have a clue what they’re going to do with Saab…..

Talk about pressure. Just a couple of weeks before General Motors has to submit a detailed plan proving viability, GM executives have no idea what to do with their losing brands.

With President Barack Obama still selecting his team of advisers, it’s a bit fuzzy as to how specific GM will have to be about its plans for Saturn, Saab and Hummer.

But at this point company leaders are stumped for solutions, sources say.

…..except they then go on to say that they do have a clue….

“We’re trying to see how much of Saab we could isolate,” the source says.

The next step is to secure funding from the Swedish government to help Saab run on its own. Saab hopes to launch the next 9-5 large sedan and new 9-4X crossover next year. The Swedish government has offered aid but does not want an ownership stake.

The third step, GM hopes, would be a successful launch of the new products, making Saab attractive to a partner or buyer.

GM does not want to hold on to Saab. If the plan fails, GM would likely close it, sources say.

If I were Saab, I wouldn’t want to hold on to GM, either. Well, not much of it, at least. There’s some useful bits like volume purchasing that are handy if applied the right way.

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There’s a great review of the Saab 9-3 Aero XWD over at AsiaOne.

They kick things off with some notes about the Turbo X, noting that only four were imported into Singapore and that all of them were snapped up very quickly by Saab enthusiasts there. One of them was bought by a reader of this site, Shyang, and we should be hearing more from him shortly about the new Nav/Audio system he just purchased for it. But I digress…..

A few snippets:

In essence, the new 9-3 Aero XWD is the Turbo X, unlimited. The car has the mechanicals of the Turbo X but not the fancy aesthetics. Not that the standard 9-3 really needs the look-faster bits to stand out. The angular lines look smart and different from the popular usual German suspects.

And I’ll draw your attention to my own comments about useable speed from a few days ago. Those comments came to mind as I read this….

The car’s touted 0-100kmh timing of 7.5 seconds (7.3 for the sedan version) seems nippy, rather than ballistic but Saabs are best known for their in-gear acceleration where the swell of mid-range torque (the Aero has 400Nm between 1,900 and 4,500rpm) ensures the most effortless of overtaking manoeuvres.

….which was my point, exactly.

The review is called Saabstance Over Style, and makes for a good read.

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Dippen has just drawn my attention to a note in the Saab Turbo Club of Sweden forum where someone is stating that the 12th February edition of Tekniken’s Varld will be coming complete with images of the Saab 9-3x.

Can’t wait!

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Wins for Saab seem to reasonably rare no matter where the location is these days. Here in Australia, they’re even rarer, and when they do occur there always seems to be some sort of furore.

This week the fuss is over a local mayor in suburban Melbourne choosing a Saab 9-5 BioPower as his mayoral vehicle.

Cr Hemphill is cruising the streets in a $51,000 Swedish-made Saab 9-5 Biopower sedan. It was chosen over three cars made by Toyota, one of Hobsons Bay’s biggest employers.

But the new mayor defended the purchase, saying the vehicle was the most environmentally-friendly available and it supported the council’s policy of promoting bio-fuels.

The Saab 9-5 can run on 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol mix and has a low carbon dioxide emission rate.

Hobsons Bay Community First spokesman Colin Palmer said the mayor was snubbing a local manufacturer in Toyota.

“What has Saab ever done for Hobsons Bay?” Mr Palmer said.

Given them the opportunity and I’m sure they’d love to do a lot!

The council had the option of buying an environmentally-friendly Toyota Prius hybrid, worth $44,900, a $34,000 Toyota Grande and Toyota Aurion Presara, which according to the Toyota website retails from $49,990.

It’s the United States of Toyota all over again

Cr Hemphill said the Saab, bought in Footscray, had the full support of other councillors and denied he was snubbing a local manufacturer.

I’m a little bit surprised there’s someone selling Saabs in Footscray. Let’s just say it’s not typical Saab territory. Many of the locals wouldn’t be able to spell Saab, even if you held the word up in front of them.

“We buy or lease a range of cars, we’re not exclusively Toyota,” he told the Leader.

“There was a resolution (regarding biofuels) that was decided in 2006 and we just acted upon it. I think some people are getting mis-information whether we’ve spent more than what we’ve normally done, (the price) is comparable.”

“We’re not exclusively Toyota”

It’s nice to hear that once in a while.

This is swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, commenting on Saab and Volvo at the World Economic Forum this week:

“We do not foresee a Swedish solution to this problem because I think, in the first place, they were sold because they were not able to stand on their own. That’s very important to remember, even in this time of crisis.”

Now Fred…..

The Saab that was sold 20 and 10 years ago (in chunks) was a Saab that was not as modern in it’s manufacturing as Saab is today. It was a Saab that didn’t have access to technology like the Saab of today.

If there’s one thing that perhas we can thank GM for, it’s making Saab put on some big-boy pants and see a little further over the horizon. The fact that they tried to mold Saab in ther own image was a problem, but the ‘bigger picture’ that Saab got to see about their own operations has them well placed; a leaner operation that has the potential to do some great things.

Help them out, Mr Reinfeldt. I bet you owned a classic Saab at one stage or another.

I’m pretty confident that the Swedish government won’t hang Saab out to dry. I can’t help but feel that Saab have a bright future with the proposed independence plan being worked on at the moment.

Still, the good people living in Trollhattan – a city I had the distinct pleasure of visiting and falling in love with back in 2007 – are nervous. And not without reason, too. I’m confident in Saab’s future, but I’m sitting here at home in Australia, far away from the fallout of Saab were to go under.

Reuters have an article from Trollhattan today, where they’ve been talking to some locals about the impact that it would have if Saab were to close down.

“If Saab fell, there would probably be no money for anything beyond the absolute necessities in this municipality,” said Akerlund. “Many street lights would probably have to go dark.”

In Sweden, midwinter days bring just six hours of light.

It’s as if the local economy has gone into suspended animation. Akerlund, who sits on the municipality’s council, says tax revenues in the region are already declining and the town’s budget now needs to be revised.

The few people moving about on Trollhattan’s frigid streets say they are contemplating the possible demise of a company that has been making cars here for six decades.

“Everything is standing still at the moment,” said resident Amanda Frendberg, 24, in a deserted bar. “Nobody dares to buy a house for example, with all this talk about closing Saab down.”

Trollhattan is a beautiful little city. Perhaps I visited during an idyllic time, but I absolutely loved the place and the people I met there. In an ideal word, I’d love to go work for Saab and live right where it all began. The winters might be a trial, but I couldn’t imagine a work or living situation that I’d love more.

The one thing you come to understand after you visit Trollhattan is just how ingrained Saab is to the fabric of the city. There are other things going on there, but Saab is hub of the city. As with the future of the cars we all love, I find it quite objectionable that the future of such a beautiful location was placed in the hands of a bunch of board members in Detroit who couldn’t care less.

It’s a recommended read. To the people of Trollhattan – I’m thinking of you. Hopefully I’ll get to see you again some time later in the year.

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