It’s a long weekend! Woohoo!

Automotive jobs here at TS include the removal exchange of my Monte Carlo’s woodgrain dashboard for the plain dash in one of Drew B’s cars. I’ll then be able to fit my new carbon fibre dash kit.

Website jobs here at TS include the changeover to the new website, which will take place some time tomorrow. I’ll redirect the TS homepage automatically so you’ll go straight there, but if you’d like a quick look around now, go and visit Saabs United.

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The drums of war are beating softly in the Swedish press.

Some of you may know that a GM board member named Percy Barnevik retired during the week. It was rather sudden and unexpected. Barnevik is Swedish and ctm tells me that the sudden nature of Barnevik’s departure has the Swedish motoring press wondering if Saab’s negotiations with the government are failing and Barnevik’s quit to avoid blame.

I don’t think this is true. The reason why is because this very train of through was posted on The Truth About Cars during the week as a “Wild Ass Rumour of the Day”. Those rumours have around a 2% success rate.

And aside from that, I think Saab’s doing OK with the government. It’s the market that’s kicking their backside.

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Swedish tuning company, BSR, recently announced a price reduction on it’s PPC tuning products. Not they’re going the next step and reducing the prices of their chip-tuned products as well.

PPC products plug-in to your car and download the new tuning information. Chip-tuned products require a new chip to be installed in your ECU. The Saab products affected by this price reduction include the Saab 900, 9000 and Trionic5 Saabs.

Hit the BSR website for more info.

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Another dealership selling Saabs closes, in Beaverton, Oregon.

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Look at what Dippen found:

MONTE CARLO, MONACO – FEBRUARY 01: Salvador Albinana and Jose Diaz-Tejeiro of Spain drive a Saab 96 V4 (1973) on the first stage from Monaco to Revest les Roches during the 12th Monte Carlo Historical Rally on February 1, 2009 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Over three hundred cars are entered in four different age categories, all having competed in at least one of the Monte Carlo rallies. The cars compete in sixteen stages over four days in the south-east region of France.

What a way to spend a week, huh?

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I’m going to be pretty tied up with driving lessons in the young fella’s new Subaru and putting the final polish on the new site.

Things may be slow around here as a result.

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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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Someone named “keeneyes” produced what is my favourite photochop of the 2010 Saab 9-5 so far, basically by taking a couple of real spyphotos and making silhouettes of them.

Robert B has done some digging through the archives and looked at the many photoshop predictions that have surfuced in the media over the last 18 months and has come up with a very similar shaped vehicle to compare the real car’s silhouette with.

Here’s the comparison. Click to enlarge.

The image on the left first appeared on this site way back in March 2007 and was noted then as coming from a Danish magazine (i.e. a magazine from Denmark, not a magazine about sweet pastries). As far as the overall shape is concerned, it’s a very good likeness.

I find myself hoping that they’ll have evolved the exterior design a little more from the current 9-5, however.

For comparitive purposes, here are the other images that have surfaced so far….right back to mid-2006.

From Saab:

From Vibilgare:

[Read the rest of this entry →]

This is little to do with Saab, BUT

1) It was sent in by Bill P, who most recently gave us a 46C temp reading on his SID. Temperatures are forecast to be in the 40s again for the next week or so.

2) No-one, and I mean no-one, can resist a baby koala.

These weren’t taken by Bill, but passed on to him and then from him to me. I think they’re now going viral, too, so you can expect news services to start picking them up soon.

Someone get this little fella some ventilated Saab seats! It’s hot out there in the bush!

Bilnorge, from Norway, have some new spyshots of the Saab 9-4x undergoing winter testing.

As you can see, Saab have all but given up on disguising the car, with only a few black triangles covering up the true lines of the vehicle.

Looks great! But how does it drive?

The full library of photos (all of which are bigger than this snippet that I’ve cropped for use here) are available at Bilnorge.

Thanks to you-know-who-you-are!

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!!!!

Carpix have been kind enough to send me a full size photo showing the rear badge of the Saab 9-3x vehicle photographed in northern Sweden in the last few days.

With the name settled, you can now resume your normal whining about how this car is too little, too late, etc.

Personally, I’m with PT on this issue:

Just a foot note for those who have their knickers in a twist about this car. Some Porsche-o-philes had the same reaction to the Cayenne and dittto for the X5 and ML series. All of those cars have basically bankrolled their respective companies to enable the ongoing production of their “true” models like 911s and M3s. Saab needs all the models and range-width it can get with a minimum of expense so please save your bleeding hearts and 4wd-phobia for someone else. If you want this company to hang around, you have to support this car and others like it. Its too late to be sitting on the fence and debating the merits of what is or is not art.

‘Support’ in this context will be different things to different people. Some will ’support’ it by buying it. Some will ’support’ it by just thinking it’s good to have it around.

There are no finger-snap solutions to Saab’s car range. This is a step in the right direction. One of many steps that are needed, but a step nonetheless.

I think this is a great step, and I’m looking forward to seeing it for myself.

If you’re looking to freshen up your wheels and tyres tires, or looking just to preserve the good condition they’re already in, then this pack from site sponsor Saab USA Parts will be of interest.

It’s pretty good value. The bag alone would sell for a tidy sum. With the northern spring coming some time in the near future, now’s probably a good time to get those dry weather wheels and tired cleaned up and presentable before they go back on your Saab.

Here’s the deal from the horse’s mouth (sorry Fred, you’re not really a horse…..)

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The Ultimate Tire Protection Package in a genuine Saab trunk storage bag. All for only $49.95. You can buy yours now at www.SaabUsaParts.com

The package consists of:

Genuine Saab Trunk Storage Bag.

Extreme Black Tire Dressing – The ultimate dressing for your tires. Protects & conditions rubber, vinyl and plastic. Non-greasy car show formula. This EASY TO USE product was formulated to make your tires look as close to new as possible without looking greasy.

Magic Shine Cleaner – The ultimate instant detail spray. Show car shine in half the time. Unique synthetic polymer formula. Fast & easy application.

Wheel Wax – The ultimate protection for your wheels. Resists brake dust build-up. Safe for all wheels. Makes wheels easier to clean. Seals & protects.

AccuTire Key Chain w/ Electronic Digital Pressure Gauge – Extend the life of your tires with properly adjusted tire pressures.