UPDATES below

——

Aussie Saab sales data has come in and like the major markets we’ve covered so far, the Aussies are having a very hard time.

Saab sales were down 59.4% and GM Premium Brands as a group were down 67.9%

There were only 3 Saab 9-5s sold during the month.

Saab 9-3 Sedan & Wagon 22 (-63.9%)
Saab 9-3 Convertible 14 (-46.2%)

The total number of Saabs sold was just 39 vehicles.

Other makes:

Audi Total 1,081 (5.5%)
BMW Total 1,031 (-25.3%)
Ford Total 6,020 (-21.6%)
Holden Total 8,762 (-14.5%)
Hummer Total 45 (-72.9%)
Hyundai Total 3,701 (16.7%)
Mercedes-Benz Total 937 (-42.1%)
Smart Total 35 (169.2%)
Toyota Total 13,427 (-24.8%)
All Total 67,079 (-18.5%)

Thanks Brendan!

——

Zippy noted in comments that there were only 55 Saabs sold in Canada, which was a fall of 48% on the same month last year.

——

Per noted that Saab and Opel sales combined fell by over 40% in Norway, in January. Opel sales were later disclosed as being down around 9%, which means Saab were down by a lot.

——

UPDATE: a few more numbers have come in via comments and I thought I’d elevate them here to the post….

——

Ireland

We reported earlier in the month that the Irish market was in trouble. Sales for the first 10 days were dismal. Saab in Ireland responded with a deep discount on both the Saab 9-3 and 9-5.

It may be too early to tell as orders relevant to those reduced prices might still be in the pipeline, but CAM reports via comments that Saab sales in Ireland during January were down by a massive – I know I’ve used that word a lot this month, but really, this is massive – 94%

There were 19 Saabs sold in Ireland during January, compared with 312 in the same month last year.

——

Another comment that’s worth noting is one from Saabrep. He works at a US dealership that normally sells around 250 Saabs a year, so they should average just over 20 a month.

They sold 2 vehicles in January.

——

UPDATE II

Saab actually saw a sales INCREASE in Latvia.

Unfortunately they sell less than 10 cars a month there, but still……

——

If you’ve got your markets Saab sales, please fill us in via comments.

US sales data is in and as we might expect, it’s not been a good month in Saab’s ‘biggest’ market. Inverted commas are used because there were actually more 9-3s and 9-5s (combined) sold in Sweden this month.

The big news from the GM press release on January sales isn’t so much the drop in Saab sales – it’s the drop in total GM sales. There were a few politicans there arguing that a move to Chapter 11 wouldn’t hurt GM. Well, it seems like just the discussion itself has done enough damage. Along with all the other factors influencing GM sales right now, it seems GM perceived weakness has kept a lot of people away (and several people have mentioned Saab’s perceived vulnerability in yesterday’s 2009 buying intentions post, so it’s a factor).

GM’s total sales in the US were down by 49% on January 2009. GM claim an 80% reduction in fleet sales was the main factor, but retail sales were also down by 40%.

The brands:

Buick: down 47.4%
Cadillac: down 44.8%
Chevrolet: down 50.4%
GMC: down 43%
Hummer: down 61.5%
Pontiac: down 62.0%
Saab: down 48.2%
Saturn: down 61.4%

There’s a pretty clear distinction there. Chevrolet would be most hurt by the fleet sales reduction, hence their move to a 50% drop. With the exception of Saab, all the brands that are “at risk” experienced a sales drop over 60%. Saab’s sales have always been low, so I guess that’s why they fell by ‘only’ 48%.

I couldn’t give two hoots about the future sales of Pontiac, Hummer or Saturn, but for Saab’s sake I hope General Motors does the right thing and comes up with a sound plan for cessation – and quick!

——

So, to individual Saab model sales in the US.

Saab 9-3

The Saab 9-3 figures really do confound conventional wisdom. It’s a great car. It’s the cheapest in Saab’s range, has some pretty good deals on offer and yet there were only 523 of them sold during January. That’s a fall of 56.9% on the 1,167 sold in January 2008.

When I see numbers like this for the bread and butter model, I can’t help but think that General Motors have totally given up on selling Saabs in the United States.

Saab 9-5

Sales of the Saab 9-5 just managed to scrape into triple figures, with 101 vehicles being sold vs the 199 sold in the same month last year. That’s a 51.2% reduction based on the number of sales days in the month.

Saab 9-7x

Bouyed by some pretty strong incentives, sales of the Saab 9-7x fell by 21.6% during January. There were 331 vehicles sold in January 2009 compared with 406 in the same month last year.

Effectively, sales of the 9-7x were the only think that propped up Saab sales and kept them sliding even further than the 60% falls experienced by other GM curb brands.

——

I guess everything’s on hold until ‘the plan’ gets submitted and approved.

It can’t come quick enough, eh?

——

UPDATE: Autoblog have their “by the numbers” post up for January 2009. Only Subaru saw a sales rise in January (based on sales days).

–

Knut Simonsson in Autovisie, recently:

We knew for a long time that 2008 and 2009 would be lean years for Saab. Actually, these years internally were called just that: The Lean Years.

I’m pretty sure that in all the time that I’ve been writing this website, the Saab 9-3 has been at #2 in the Swedish sales figures. Up unitl recently, the Saab 9-5 has been solid at #4, though that changed through 2008 as more flexfuel vehicles made their way onto the Swedish market.

It was a little bit of a shock, then, to see that the decline of the 9-3 when I looked up the Swedish sales figures for January 2009.

Saab Sweden sold just 439 units of the Saab 9-3 during January. This was a massive 61% drop from the 11,35 sold in the same month last year. I know Saab set their forecasts for lean times, but this lean?

There were 220 units of the Saab 9-5 sold. This was another huge fall – 68% down on the 694 vehicles sold in 2008.

——

The 9-3 was still the #2 vehicle in the ‘green’ sales tables, with 307 vehicles sold. The 9-5 was #5.

——

Um.

Suggestions?

GME have just released sales data for 2008 in total.

Saab sales were down less in Europe than in many individual markets elsewhere, but they were still down by a lot so it’s not something to be cheerful about.

From the release:

Saab sold 66,713 cars in Europe in 2008, down 21.9 percent. Cadillac sold 4,556 units, down 5 percent. Corvette sold 1,086 units, down 15.3 percent and HUMMER volume was down 1.8 percent to 2,286 units.

I guess if you were working for Cadillac in Europe you’d almost call that a win!

——

UPDATE:

Saab worldwide sales data for 2008 has just popped into my inbox as I was writing this.

There were only 93,388 Saabs sold worldwide in 2008. That’s 25% down on last year and way less the 110,000 that was forecasted at the end of 2007. I’m pretty sure it’s the first time under 100,000 since the 9-3 Sport Sedan was released, but I’m not positive on that. It’s certainly the first time under six figures since I’ve been writing this blog.

Ouch!

Thanks ctm!

——

UK sales data has also been released in the last couple of days.

Saab sold 886 vehicles in the UK in December, which was 28% down on the 1,228 vehicles sold in December 2007.

There were 16,074 Saab vehicles sold in the UK in 2008. This is a rather massive 32% down on the 23,642 vehicles sold during 2007, though with a lot less pre-registrations if I’m correctly informed.

——

Hold your breath for 2009 folks.

Thanks Dave!

-

Excuse the home French in the headline.

The following is a lightly edited press release from Saab France.

It’s good to hear some positive news coming out of Europe. France, Germany and Spain could all use a lift.

——

Saab is the market leader in flex-fuel in France

* Saab is positioned as the top Flex-Fuel brand in the French market with its BioPower models in 2008
* The Saab 9-3 is the best selling Flex-Fuel car
* Saab sets record for sales of convertibles in France

After a Christmas marked by removing the penalty on BioPower, the year began well for Saab with a cascade of good news.

The most important first: the Saab brand ranks first in the French market for flex-fuel vehicles, with 1028 cars sold during the year 2008, divided between 9-3 and 9-5. It is a just reward for the Swedish manufacturer with an emphasis on responsible performance through the use of bioethanol. Saab now offers its entire range with BioPower engine running on E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline), a fuel with a much less heavy footprint on the environment…..

[Read the rest of this entry →]

34.7% is the final, tragic magic number.

That’s the percentage by which Saab’s new vehicle sales fell during 2008, a year that started with a fair bit of optimism with a newly refreshed 9-3 and a new all wheel drive system. That end result is due to a combination of factors, but the biggest of those factors, of course, is a recession in the US that few saw coming and it’s certainly bitten hard.

Monthly sales

Saab dealers in the US sold 1,179 vehicles in December, a figure that was 57.1% down on the 2,748 vehicles sold in the same month in 2007.

Saab 9-3: There were 684 units of the Saab 9-3 sold in December. This was down by 61.4% from the 1,773 sold in December 2007. Is this just the recession? Or did the “strategic review” talk scare more buyers away?

Saab 9-5: There just 120 units of the Saab 9-5 sold during the month, a fall of 68.7% from the 383 sold in the same month in 2007.

Saab 9-7x: There were 375 units of the 9-7x sold during the month, a mere 36.7% drop from the 592 vehicles sold in the same month in 2007.

Annual sales

There were 21,368 new Saab vehicles sold for the entire year. This is a 34.7% fall from the 32,711 vehicles sold in 2007. Total sales of individual models for the entire year were as follows:

Saab 9-2x: There were 3 new vehicles sales of the 9-2x in 2008. The annualised rate of the decline isn’t really important here, but there were 118 sold in 2007.

Saab 9-3: Sales of the Saab 9-3 for 2008 totalled 15,167 vehicles, which was a 34% drop from the 22,979 vehicles sold in 2007.

Saab 9-5: Sales of the Saab 9-5 for 2008 totalled 2,538 vehicles, which was a 41.7% drop from the 4,357 vehicles sold in 2007.

Saab 9-7x: Sales of the Saab 9-7x for 2008 totalled 3,660 vehicles, which was a 30.4% drop from the 5,257 vehicles sold in 2007.

——

Notes:

Sales of Saab’s certified pre-owned vehicles in the US were up 6% for the year, finishing at 7,705 for 2008. Something to celebrate.

–

The Saab 9-7x posted the smallest sales drop in percentage terms for 2008. That’s right, the SUV that few people seem to like was the one that was least abandoned by customers. If that makes sense.

–

The US Congress might want to take a look at GM’s total vehicle sales breakdown, too. All those efficient vehicles they say the public wants to buy were thrown under the bus in December because petrol prices were so low. GM delivered 221,983 vehicles for the month. Of this amount, 87,506 were cars, and 134,477 were trucks.

Only 2,555 were hybrids.

-

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.

——

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.

——

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.

——

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.

-

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……..

–