If you’re in the US then you might be interested in this Turbo X SportCombi that Wulf found on Ebay:

The good news – it’s only got 25 miles on the clock and it’s selling for $29,000!!!

The not-so-good news – it’s an auto. Not ideal, but I’ve been in an auto at 170k/h – on dirt – in a Turbo-X so they’re still quite capable.

The story – apparently a few cars suffered some ‘minor’ hail damage while they were sitting at the port. They were all fully repaired by Saab and auctioned off to dealers by SaabUSA. This is one of those cars. it doesn’t say “hail damage” on the title, it’s all clear, and it comes with the full warranty, etc.

Not a bad opportunity, that. The car’s physical location is in New York. The online location is on Ebay.

——

There’s two ways to look at Saab Australia’s sales for November.

The glass half empty: they only sold 80 cars this month, despite offering huge loyalty discounts to current Saab owners and a great sub-$50,000 deal on Vector Sport models (extended to Dec 31).

The glass half full: they sold twice as many in November as what they did in October!!

Woohoo!!

——

I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry at this one. Scanned from his local newspaper and sent it by Saabob in Canada:

Only 38 left……..

–

We’ve had Black September, which was quickly followed by Red October. This month, it’s Noooooooooo!vember as Swedish car sales lead us off into what is sure to be another trek into a sea of deep red ink.

The Swedish car sales market was, as a whole, down by 36% compared to last year. For the year to date, the market is down by 14%. So if you were expecting a better month for Saab sales, please think again.

Just remember, things are tough all over.

Saab sales

Saab Sweden sold 908 units of the Saab 9-3 during November, which was down 42% for the month, from 1,557 in the same month last year. So far in 2008, there have been 11,946 units of the Saab 9-3 sold. This is down 4.25% on the 12,477 sold to this point last year (but falling fast)

They also sold 427 units of the Saab 9-5 during the month, down by 51% from the 877 sold in the sme month last year. So far in 2008, there have been 6,764 units of the Saab 9-5 sold in Sweden, which is down by 31.65% from the 9,897 sold to this point last year.

——

Green report

There were 698 Saab 9-3 Biopower models sold during the month compared with 1,285 in November last year. The 9-3 BioPower is still the second best selling ‘green’ car in Sweden.

There were 375 Saab 9-5 BioPower models sold during the month, which was down from 728 sold in the same month last year.

——

The Caddilac report

That bastion of strength and banner of wisdom, the Cadillac BLS, didn’t even rate on the report that I saw, but ctm tells me that there were 4 units sold, which was down from the 6 sold last year.

Money well spent.

–

OK, we’re officially at crisis stage right now.

I don’t know how to approach this delicately. In past years when there was a prolific downturn in sales I would have got up on my high horse and demanded all sorts of heads roll and tasks undertaken. Right now, I just feel a whole bunch of sad on behalf of some good people that I’ve met in person, am pleased to know (if only just a little), who work on behalf of Saab here in Australia.

I’d better get to the numbers, I guess. In October last year, Saab sold 77 vehicles, which was a shock. In September 2008 (last month), Saab Australia sold just 40 vehicles, which I figured was about as low as it could go.

This month, there were only 26 Saabs sold in Australia. Percentages don’t mean a lot at this stage.

——

As I said, there’s no ranting here. There’s nothing much to say.

Saab Oz are facing numerous problems and I don’t think they’re getting too much help with them.

For starters, there’s the fact that what was formerly just Saab Australia has had Hummer lobbed on its plate and I don’t think they’ve received a boost in financial or human resources that matches the extra load. You can add Cadillac to that shortly, as well.

Second, there’s the Volkswagen Eos.

The 9-3 Convertible makes up a good proportion of Saab’s sales here in Australia and the Eos is eating its lunch. It’s cheaper, it’s a four-seater and it’s a trendy hard top (I’m still a soft-top guy myself, but the hardtop is the one making waves).

If Saab want to thnk of a product they need to prioritise, there’s a good candidate.

Best wishes to Saab Oz for a better November.

–

Red October indeed!

Holy cow. All companies had negative sales during Red October, but GM took the cake amongst the bigger companies with sales dropping f-o-r-t-y-f-i-v-e percent in October.

Given that the arse fell out of GM’s sales so dramatically, it’s pleasantly surprising to report that Saab sales actually bucked this trend. They were still down for the month, but at only 13% down, it almost feels like a win!

There were 1,975 Saab sold in the US market during October, a 13.2% drop from the 2,275 sold there at the same time last year.

Year to date, there have been 19,337 Saabs sold in the US, which is still a massive 30.8% drop on the 27,960 sold last year.

——

Saab 9-3

SaabUSA sold 1,471 units of the Saab 9-3, down by 12.3% on the 1,677 units sold this time last year.

Interestingly, in the press release, it says the following about Saab and the 9-3 in particular:

Saab retail sales were up 7.4 percent compared with a year ago, driven by the strong retail performance of the 9-3, which was up more than 16 percent.

Retail sales were up by 7.4? Retail 9-3 sales were up by 16? What are the non-retail sales, and how far did they fall through the floor to lead the brand down over all?

I suspect they’re sales to GM employees, etc, which if I remember correctly were going to be restricted for MY09. Perhaps that’s taking hold? If so, those employee sales must ba making up a significant chunk of the total.

Saab 9-5

Saab USA sold 188 units of the Saab 9-5, down from 282 this time last year. That’s a fall of 33%.

Saab 9-7x

The Saab 9-7x was stable in October, selling 316 units – the exact same number it sold this time last year.

The 9-7x was most likely boosted in the second half of October by a gasoline price that fell to below $3 a gallon.

——

There were also 506 Saab Certified Pre-owned vehicles sold, which was down by 2%.

——

From the press release:

[GM's PR guru, Mark] LaNeve announced that GM’s no-haggle Red Tag Event starts nationwide tomorrow, Nov. 4. The Red Tag Event will provide great deals on most new vehicles in GM’s portfolio by offering a special Red Tag vehicle price and customer cash back. In addition, GM’s recently announced “Financing That Fits” program enables consumers to find financing at affordable rates from GMAC and thousands of other banks, credit unions and financing institutions.

——

A few days ago, Robert Farago wrote at TTAC according to one of his sources, an announcement would come from GM on Monday that would effectively put Saab and GMC on the same starvation plan as HUMMER.

Farago expanded on his doomsday scenario for Saab yesterday when he asked how come you can’t build a 2009 Saab on the SaabUSAA website?

Monday’s come and gone in the US and guess what – nothing. Well, that’s not quite true. There was something…..

I got an email from Jan-Willem Vester at SaabUSA indicating that the delay in getting the 2009 models on the website was primarily due to them using a new vendor for the “Build your own” section of the website. It’s not ready yet, but should be by around mid-November.

——

GM’s other brands in the US were down during October, as follows:

Cadillac 55.1%,
Buick 46.3%,
Chevy 40.3%,
GMC 52.5%,
Pontiac 48.2%
Saturn 54.6%
Hummer 64.6%

–

The international quest for sales now is to crack six figures. Saab sold 125,000 cars last year and were forecasting 110,000 this year – and that was before the financial storm hit the US and extended outward from there.

So with that in mind, it’s time for a look at Swedish sales data for October. We know it’s going to be down on last year (as is everything else). The question is, by how much?

——

Saab 9-3

Saab Sweden sold 1,305 units of the Saab 9-3 in October, down 23% from 1,698 last year. Year to date, the Saab 9-3 is actually up by 1%, though: 11,038 for this year vs 10,920 last year.

The Saab 9-3 was still the #2 seller for the month in Sweden, and is the #2 seller for the year so far.

Saab 9-5

Saab Sweden sold 677 units of the Saab 9-5 in October, down by 31% from the 983 sold in the same month last year. Saab 9-5 sales are down by 29% for the year so far, with 6,337 sold this year vs 9,020 sold at this time last year.

The Saab 9-5, despite the down year, is now stable at #6 in the Swedish market.

——

The Saab 9-3 BioPower is also the #2 “green” car sold in Sweden, behind the Volvo V70II flexfuel.

The Saab 9-5 BioPower is the #4 “green” car in Sweden.

——

The Cadillac BLS is stable at #100 in the Swedish market, having sold 17 units in October, a huge increase on the 12 sold in the same month last year.

There’s been 343 sold this year, it’s second calendar year on sale and first full year.

–