It’s been a tough winter in the north. Whether you’re a Saab dealer, Saab employee or an interested observer, the brand’s taken a battering and it’s been hard to watch.

These cars are born from a pretty tough place, though, and are made to thrive in such conditions. Hopefully a winter of positive XWd road tests (and there have been a few) will open a few eyes.

Tough conditions? How about life on Ted Y’s alpaca farm?

Here’s some others, sourced from Flickr with special mention to Robin M for finding a goodly number of snowy cars in the last few days.

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).

–

Another shot I’ve seen tonight whilst going through images for Saab Pride book entries.

This C900 is owned by Valter P, a GM employee in Brazil. Click to enlarge.

Character. Cool. Class. Utility. Design. Style.

Discuss.

I thought it high time to provide you all with an update as to how the Saab Pride book project is going.

It’s fair to say that the book has sat on the backburner for a little while. It’s been some time since I asked for extra entries for the book and since that time, there was a lack of clarity as to whether or not we’d still have a Saab brand to celebrate.

With Christmas out of the way and some hope for a brighter future on the horizon, work is now well and truly underway.

There is no time frame as yet for the availability of the book, but what I can tell you so far is as follows:

* We will most likely use an on-demand publishing service. This is where we collate and design the book, sotre it on the publisher’s servers and it’s printed when you order it. This does increase the price, unfortunately, but I can’t afford a standard color print run. Even if they were printed at $20 a book it would come to an amount well into the thousands of dollars (you need high volume to get lower unit prices), which is a huge investment.

* The service we’ll most likely use is blurb.com. I’ve checked out their products and the printing is quite good. Of course, we’ll do a test copy or two before offering it for sale, but I’m happy with what I received so far from them.

* The most likely scenario is a 120 page book, featuring around 50 or so vehicles and their owners’ stories. The likely cost is around US$40 plus postage. That’s more than I wanted to charge but may be as low as we can go for this type of on-demand service.

* I haven’t got all the images into a file yet, but the total number that we have to go through is over 400 so far. And many of them are truly amazing. Seeing them all again has been a great motivator for getting this work done.

* When I say “we” I mean myself and Stu the Lens Genius. I’ve enlisted Stu’s help because a) he’s got a great eye, and b) this is way too much for one busy blogger to handle.

——

Here’s just one of the images I’ve been looking through tonight.

From Craig R in New NW England. Click to enlarge.

——

If anyone’s got any ideas as to how we can lower the price without a significant investment, I’m all ears.

-

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.

——

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.

——

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.

——

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!

–

In November last year I asked if anyone had bought a new Saab in 2008. Well….. new, used or otherwise.

We had a pretty good response rate with 76 commenters chipping in about their new cars. I’m yet to bill Saab for services rendered in that regard

I thought it might be worth checking out people’s intentions for 2009.

Later this year, if all the pundits are correct (and providing Saab are still around) we’ll have the 9-3x to consider as well as the all-new Saab 9-5. One a variation on a great existing model and one a much anticipated all-new model.

So, are you considering upgrading or changing your current vehicle during 2009? Maybe you’re a newbie to Saab and considering one for the first time? Maybe you’re a Saab owner already and considering a change to another make (Nooooooooooo!)

Maybe you’re like me and can’t afford to buy new. Maybe you’re thinking about picking up a used Saab or even adding a classic Saab to your garage.

If you’ve got plans for this year, let us know. And if you’re cautious, let us know why.

——

Personally, I’ve done my share of Saab purchases in the last few years. I bought the Viggen in 2005, then crashed it in 2007. I bought the C900 to get me around in 2007 and then the Monte Carlo in the first few days of 2009.

I’m currently working on selling the 900 and will spend my 2009 automotive dollars on getting the Monte Carlo up to scratch.

If I make a Saab purchase this year, it’ll be an unexpected one and the most likely scenario for that is my wife’s 9000 popping it’s thongs and needing replacement. In that event we’ll most likely look for a 2002 or so Saab 9-5. The 9000 is running pretty well, though, so I’m expecting a purchase-free year.

Dear Swedish politicians.

Saab is important to us. Saab is important to you, too, though for different reasons, of course. Saab is important to us because we love driving their products and we’d like to see them get the chance to return to continue making the kind of products that no other company in the world makes.

Saab is important to you because the automotive industry is a significant sector in the country that you’re charged with governing. They’re also important to you because these are tough times, and voters get restless in tough times. Saab employees are voters. So are the members of their respective families. Saab suppliers are comprised of voters. That’s a lot of people to annoy for the sake of looking all tough and overly diligent.

I am quite convinced that both Saab and General Motors are not taking your interest in the automotive sector for granted. We’ve all been reading recent reports that members with industrial portfolio responsibilities are not satisfied with the proposals for the future as presented by Saab and General Motors. You want more details. You want more downside scenarios.

Swedish automotive sales figures for January 2009 were released yesterday and showed that sales of both the Saab 9-3 and Saab 9-5 were down by more than 60% for the month. This has been a fairly sudden and sharp decline.

For most of 2008, sales crept along at a level that was below 2007, but within reach of those figures for most of the year. In the last quarter of 2008, things started to get really nasty. We are now five months or so into the real dark age for the automotive sector and haven’t heard much from you except demands for more jumps through your governmental hoops.

Saab’s model lineup has not changed in that time. They have no fresh new model to help stir interest. They are trying to sell the same cars now as they were this time last year. They’re good cars, but they’re the same cars. Saab are totally vulnerable to the conditions around them. Conditions that you can influence.

Ministers, et al, my point is this:

You are demanding more downside scenarios from Saab and saying nothing yourselves about how you can improve conditions in the marketplace – not only for Saab but for the entire Swedish automotive sector. If you demand downside scenarios that plan for sustained periods of sales at more than 60% below normal levels, then you are failing in your jobs just as much as Saab and GM have failed in theirs.

Give Saab a chance.

As seen somewhere near Trollhattan today…..

Hmmmm.

Ill-fitting panels and a sooty rear end.

It could be anything, I suppose. But I bet it’s not just anything…..

–