SAAB on the Brink

[Mega]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/n...-deadlock.html
Mike

[cobben]

Re: SAAB on the Brink

Swedes did good selling SAAB personal cars to GM back when.
Why in the world would they want to buy it back now?

The guvm'nt looked at SAAB and reportedly said:

"Your not profitable and you don't even have any plans how you could become profitable. No thank you."

(This is SAAB personal cars, not the SAAB miltary industrial complex that makes the Gripen fighter planes.)

Volvo personal cars (which Ford bought back when and now wants to sell) on the other hand has 3 potential suiters, whereof 2 Chinese.

Back when the Swedes sold Volvo to Ford, some Volvo boss, when asked if he didn't think it was a shame selling out the Swedish crown jewels, replied something like "Who wants to be nr. 9 in a market where there soon will be only 8?"

(This is not Volvo trucks, which is a separate co.)

Sum total, the Swedes sold out their car industry at the right time.
Timing is, as you all know, everything . . .

[cobben]

Re: SAAB on the Brink

Now GM is willing to give away Saab & Opel, according to an article in Financial Times today writes Dagens Industri.

Any takers?

[cobben]

Re: SAAB on the Brink

A rather fascinating if rambling discussion of Saab lovers, car lovers in general take warning . . . having owned a few Saabs many years ago, I never fell for the Saab mystique . . .

the citroen CX "spaceship" was my favorite, all categories, through the years - who cannot but love a car capable of unexpectedly doing a 180 degree turn at full speed on the highway? :eek:

Why the Saab inspires intense feelings
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3ba64a08-7...44feabdc0.html

" . . .
The phenomenon has even attracted academic attention. Albert Muniz, an associate professor of marketing at DePaul University in Chicago, has written repeatedly about Saab in his work on “brand communities”. Examining the behaviour of Saab drivers, he has discovered hierarchy, also known as “Snaabery”: often defined by owning an original, pre-GM Saab; rituals and moral responsibilities: flashing your lights at other Saab drivers and helping them out of trouble; oppositional loyalties: despising BMWs; and myth-making: notably “How Saab saved my life” stories about crashes in which the cars lay down their lives for their owners. The fixation is apparently international. After studying 1.2 million postings on “Motor Talk”, Germany’s largest motoring web forum, Rüdiger Hossiep, a psychologist at the University of Ruhr in Bochum, concluded this summer that Saab drivers have the highest levels of “psychological involvement” with their cars: more than 10 times the passion of the average Volkswagen driver.
. . ."

[plinko]

Re: SAAB on the Brink

Saab is getting purchased by koeniggsegg. They still have some decent future car plans. Check autoblog for more info

disclaimer: I own a saab