With thanks to Drew B, who dropped me a note to point out this classic early Saab 99 currently for sale on Ebay.

It’s a 1972 Saab 99E with an automatic transmission. It looks like it’s in very good condition, too. It’s finished in Harvest Gold with matching trim and some soccerball rims.

This certainly brings back some memories for me as my first ever Saab was a 1972 Saab 99E, auto, but in red. It gleamed like a fire engine. Unfortunately I don’t have even one decent photo of it, and the crappy ones I have got aren’t digital.

Anyway…..

Anyone interested in a classic Saab 99 in what appears to be pretty decent condition should check out the sale and see how it goes. As I write this it has just over 9 hours to go and there’s been 24 bids. The current price is a shade over $3500.

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I’ve just been attending to an appointment with the insurance assessor covering the recent claim on my wife’s car. She had a minor accident in her workplace’s carpark when she swung a little wide and clipped a pole with the front end of the car. The repair quote has come in at around $3,300.

Whilst speaking with the assessor, we were chatting about the Viggen claim as well and he asked me if I had the car insured at an agreed value or at market value. I told him it was insured at an agreed value, but that the 9000 is just at market value.

He had a quick look at the insurance schedule for our 9000 and noted that it said the “sum insured” was around $8,000. What the schedule doesn’t tell you, though, is that your actual level of coverage is generally the lesser of the sum insured or the market value, as determined by the assessor. So the “sum insured” is basically a maximum level of coverage only, not a fait accompli.

When my wife had the accident, I looked up the market value using one of our industry sources here in Australia, the Red Book. The market value of the 9000 topped out at around $4,700 so a $3,300 quote might be pushing things into writeoff territory. I let the insurer know, though, that we’d much rather have the car fixed given that it’s very reliable and my wife likes to drive it.

The moral of the story is this – if you don’t have an agreed value established with your insurer then there’s a very good chance that your Saab might be under-insured. It didn’t cost me any more to have an agreed value placed on the Viggen when I bought it, and the fact that I did it might be the only thing that sees it getting repaired as the payout figure for a writeoff would be quite a bit higher than the current market value.

Check your policies, people.

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Saab GB head honcho, Jonathon Nash, recently did a rather long interview at Just-Auto (reg req’d) where he goes to great lengths to emphasise that GM are very committed to developing Cadillac as a global luxury player.

I should mention that he’s also the Cadillac head honcho for the UK. And the Hummer head honcho. And Corvette, too, I believe. Anyway, some Cadillac confirmation:

….This move has coincided with a determined effort by GM to really put Cadillac on the map globally…..

….for GM to be able to say this is a global premium brand along the lines of Mercedes-Benz, they had quite a lot of work to do…..

….lots of things that indicate GM is very serious about going global with Cadillac.”

….We’ll be helped by the fact that there is this absolute determination at GM to make Cadillac a global brand which means they will bring product to market quickly which will help me match to product requirements.

OK, we get it.

There’s a lot of talk there. Talk about the analysis they did when the last arrangements with Kroymans failed. Talk about how they didn’t point the finger of blame at anyone (I suspect it was mainly because the finger would have pointed back at Detroit, and they NEVER make a mistake there). Talk about how they’re going to learn from the Saab experience of managing a small brand. Talk about how they’ll be small enough to be personal where BMW and Audi can’t.

Can I just mention something that some management type guy emphasised some time ago, probably in another industry but relevant as all heck right here.

IT’S THE PRODUCT, STUPID!

The product is basically the CTS when it comes in RHD, and when it comes with a new diesel. There’s also the industry-proven BLS, which hasn’t proved itself to be any good, but has provided proof GM’s commitment to Caddy in Europe regardless of what common sense, the market or even my dog might tell them. There’s the STS which is really old and the Escalade which is limited by being LHD only. In short, it’s a fleet of luxobarges in a country where entry to the capital is controlled by a bloke named Red Ken.

Extreme luxury will work in small quantities, but Cadillac isn’t extreme luxury. And what’s more, the overwhelming evidence points to the fact that it’s not wanted, needed, desired or barely even thought of outside of GM walls.

Cadillac are going to try and sell 500 units this year. They’re hoping that they can lift to sell 5,000 units a year in 5 years time.

These modest targets are, of course, revised from the five-figures-by-2010 targets that were set and missed by a wide margin (4.5 out of 5 figures) previously. This was when GM were in partnership with Kroymans, a Dutch distributor who were contracted to sell Cadillac and Hummer in the UK a few years ago.

Kroymans spent big on real-estate for the venture and were planning on 15 dealerships at a cost of around $5 million each when the plug was pulled. How much do you think it cost GM to cancel that contract.

No sales, big costs, and still no appreciable market recognition for Cadillac in the UK, or in the rest of Europe for that matter.

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If there’s a silver lining in this deity-sized cumulonimbus it reads as if they’re intent on pitting Caddies up against bigger BMW’s in Europe. There’s numerous references to the 5-series and bigger Mercedes Benzes.

Theoretically that would leave Saab to duke it out with the 3-series, but I don’t trust that that will be the case whatsoever, not with the CTS being the poster-child for all things Caddy in the foreseeable future.

If Saab could get just half of the seed and development money GM wasted on Cadillac in the last five years it would have made well and truly more than 5,000 units difference.

/rant…..

…for today, at least.

Over the last few months, I referred to the fact that one of our regulars here, Robin M, was participating in a campaign for Saab GB. Robin is, of course, the unofficial Saab Ambassador for the UK, a title conferred on him by TS in recognition of the fact that he works harder on Saab’s behalf than some of their employees in the UK do. Just my humble opinion.

Anyway, the task set during the campaign was as follows: Robin and around half a dozen other people were all given Saab 9-3 TTiD’s for a period of six weeks. In that time, they had to offer the car to as many people as possible for a test drive. Logs were kept and the person with the most test drives at the end of the period wins a prize.

And who won? Of course, it was the hardest working unofficial Saab Ambassador in the UK – Mr Robin M!!

And it’s a prize worth winning, too. Robin and his wife will be off to Åre, Sweden for a bit of an adventure. The itinerary isn’t set in stone yet, but there’s talk of some rafting, cycling and all that outdoorsy type stuff.

Congratulations to one of my favourite poms on a job well done!!!

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And here’s some video from Robin’s most recent efforts on Saab’s behalf – Swedish Day UK. It was shot and edited by a mate of his, Alex, and has lots of vision of the cars in attendance (some great cars there, what) as well as a bearable Abba soundtrack.

Good show!

This should be confirmed with a GM press conference soon, but the local Trollhattan newspaper, TTELA, is reporting that GM have signed an agreement that (as much as you can guarantee these things) guarantees production in five European plants until 2016.

A quick snippet courtesy of ctm:

The plants are Antwerpen (Belgium), Gliwice (Poland), Bochum (Germany), Ellesmere Port (UK) – and Trollhättan. GM has not yet commented on the statement, but a press briefing is scheduled today at 4 PM CEST in Rüsselsheim.

It certainly adds some interest to question of what might be built at Trollhattan. Of course, it needn’t necessarily be Saabs that are built there. The plant will be set up to build cars on the Delta architecture soon and the main volume going through there will the Opel/Vauxhall Astra. Hopefully, in time, that will be joined by a Saab 9-1. Perhaps this announcement might be a prelude to the Saab being confirmed?

It’d be nice to think you could continue to buy a Swedish made Saab until 2016.

I’ll pass on any news as it comes to hand.

Thanks, ctm!

I know that most of us like to bash “Born from Jets” because it seems to value flash over substance. However, take heart: We could be Mini fanatics that have to endure this advertising campaign for the new Mini Clubman:

zig, zag, zug

That’s right. zig, zag, zug. Really.

To quote Mini themselves:

“ ‘Zig, zag, zug’ allows us to position the Clubman as another member of the Mini family, and also allows us to promote all of the vehicles we have,” said marketing manager Trudy Hardy for Mini, Woodcliff Lake, N.J.

I’m sure that Ms. Hardy said this with a straight face. I’m not sure that I could do the same.

To make matters worse for Mini devotees, I became aware of this advertising campaign upon viewing a billboard along I-65 near my house that pictures a Mini Clubman S in a three-quarter rear view against a black background with the slogan “Someone’s been sleeping around.” in huge white lettering.

I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean. I guess that it means that the Mini and some other vehicle, perhaps a wayward Honda Element, have given birth to the Clubman? I choose the Element because its doors are arranged in similar fashion to the Clubman, with the extra rear-hinged opening on the passenger side and the large upright rear opening. This is strictly on speculation; I’ve got no inside track on the sexual habits of faux English cars built by German companies.

In any event, Born from Jets looks good by comparison.