Topic: Saab Is Dead.

[MG]

There will be no reprieve this time. Saab is done, finished, cooked.

Kinda sad, actually. They were pretty decent automobiles. Before GM stepped in and started mucking things up.   

Anyway, you can read about it here.

[Ultra]

Sobs for Saabs.

[Otto Puzzell]

...Before GM stepped in and started mucking things up.   

Now THAT'S the MG I remember!

Let's be honest. SAAB, at the time they were purchased, had been losing money for half a decade, and were flogging a mix of oddball cars that were little more than a leftover flavor of a month long since past, and some clone-mobiles shared with Lancia and others.

After GM took over, they de-wierded the oddballs, and moved the clones over to equally mediocre GM platforms. Some of their employees got a multi-year reprieve on their inevitable layoffs, had lutefisk at Christmas, and all that jazz. They should be thankful.

my 2 cents.

 

[MG]

Well, I DO tend to overstate things a bit. Just seeing if anyone's listening!   

Saab was born in weirdness. A three cylinder two stroke driving the front wheels through a clutch that free wheeled on deceleration? Man, you couldn't GET any weirder than that. Some of us were disappointed when they switched to the V-4 motor.

When you look at the history of the automobile, there must be thousands of manufacturers worldwide who have sunk below the waves.

I think GM bought Saab solely because Ford bought Volvo. It was all part of a big game of boardroom bravado. As you say, after they bought it, they had no idea what to do with it. My mother once got in a huge power struggle with my ex-mother in law over a settee that had sat unused for decades at the local club. They beat each other's brains out to acquire it. Why? Just so the other one couldn't have it.

My mother "won". After she got it, she didn't know what to do with. She never really wanted it. So it went up in the attic and stayed there till she died.

Up in North Conway, NH, there was an old railway line. It was about 10 miles long. When the company went bankrupt, two old geezers went to the "yard sale" that was held to liquidate the assets. One bought the rolling stock. The other bought the tracks. The guy with the tracks wouldn't let the guy with the trains use his tracks. So everything stayed status quo for about 20 years until both were dead. Now you can go  to North Conway and ride the train if you want. Its a pretty fun thing to do in the autumn during foliage season.

People are such idiots, you know?  Just because you're a big muckety muck in some global corporation doesn't stop you from acting like an immature, spoiled brat. In fact, it probably encourages such behavior.

I don't think GM ever made a dime on their investment. But they had a "prestige" Swedish brand, just like Ford.

In an odd sort of way, Saab was just as influential on the development of the automobile as the original Mini. Both were quirky little things with the engine driving the wrong wheels. But each presages the advent of the front wheel drive model. Once the manufacturers figured out that you could slap an entire drivetrain, complete with brakes and suspension into an automobile on the assembly line using just four bolts in about 10,7 seconds, they never looked back. But Saab and the Mini led the way.

Those who lead are oft trampled by the mob that follows the trail they blazed.   

[TheItalianJunkyard]

Surely GM's management didn't help Saab, but I think those who killed the Swedish brand are the non-thinking buyers who thinks you can't be a good car/company if you're not German, who thinks everything must have a bazillion of BHP to move your fat rear end and who think you have to buy what other people buy to be recognized as one of them while showing off in front of the local club.

I used to like Saab, then GM made it mainstream. That made run for their life all those still interested in the brand.

I just wish GM will keep the factory running and rebadge the new 9-5 as the new Opel Omega. Not that I care much about Opel, but the car is ready to be produced and everything required to produce it is ready as well.
USE IT.

[Otto Puzzell]

From the WSJ this morning.

AMSTERDAM--Spyker NV will make a new offer for General Motors Co.'s Swedish Saab brand Thursday, the Dutch sports-car maker's chief executive said.

"We will make an offer today," Victor Muller said, adding that GM has set a deadline at 2200 GMT. He declined to say how Spyker plans to finance its offer and said that he has "no idea" if Spyker is the only bidder for Saab.

On Wednesday, GM's CEO Ed Whitacre told reporters that a deal to save Saab is unlikely and that the company expects to begin shutting the Swedish car maker down by the week's end. "We said, 'Just show up with the money and you can have it,' and they haven't shown up with the money," Mr. Whitacre said .

Mr. Muller said he wasn't surprised by Mr. Whitacre's statement as Spyker needs the time to draw up a bid. "[This is] a very complicated matter, we're working 24 hours a day to make a new bid on time."

[Ultra]

Apparently the 29 Saabs at the Ren-Cen to protest Saabs death have helped to keep the death rattles flowing.

[Otto Puzzell]

Such a caustic wit!

[Otto Puzzell]

Time to merge this with the "F1 Coming's and Going's" thread? 

F1’s Ecclestone Joins Genii Capital in Bid for Saab (Update1)

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone and partner Genii Capital emerged as a rival to Dutch super-car maker Spyker Cars NV in making last-ditch efforts to buy General Motors Co.’s Saab unit.

Genii Capital, the Luxembourg-based private-equity firm that agreed to acquire a majority stake in Renault SA’s F1 team last month, is offering cash for Saab, said Lars Carlstroem, the Swedish investor who is working with Genii. Spyker put in a revised offer before a 5 p.m. deadline in New York yesterday, Chief Executive Officer Victor Muller said.

Forbes’ 2009 list estimates Ecclestone and his family’s net worth at $3.7 billion. After two attempts to sell the 72- year-old Saab brand failed in the past two months, GM CEO Ed Whitacre said Jan. 6 that the Detroit carmaker was proceeding with a decision to close Saab and that no qualified buyer had emerged.

“It’s a good brand that has probably been neglected by the current owners,” Ecclestone, 79, said in a phone interview. “We don’t own it yet, so let’s see what happens.”

Ecclestone declined to disclose any financing details.

Genii Capital “has decided that given an adequate and short timeframe for finalizing its offer, it will aggressively work towards a successful closing of the transaction with all the relevant stakeholders of the company,” the private-equity firm said in a statement. Genii said it will bid for a majority stake in Saab together with Ecclestone.

No Qualified Buyer

“It’s real easy -- show up with the money and you can have it,” Whitacre told a roundtable of reporters Jan. 6, when asked whether GM had made a good-faith effort to sell Saab. GM doesn’t foresee a sale, he said.

Also planning a bid is a third group of investors, headed by former MAN SE CEO Hakan Samuelsson and former Swedish minister Jan Nygren, Dagens Industri reported, without saying where it got the information.

Trollhaettan, Sweden-based Saab is scheduled to hold a board meeting today where it will examine if it can restart production Jan. 11 after a four-week break, board member Haakan Danielsson said. Board members may also discuss new bids for Saab, he said.

Saab’s board could be dissolved as early as today as the wind-down process begins, a person familiar with the matter said. Even so, GM could still decide to accept a bid, he said.

‘Wait and See’

Negotiations to sell Saab to Spyker collapsed Dec. 18 and Spyker submitted a second offer Dec. 20, which it further revised yesterday.

“Now there’s nothing more we can do, we just have to wait and see,” Muller said in an interview. “Whoever is the shepherd of Saab, the main thing is that it survives.”

Genii plans to use former bidder Koenigsegg Group AB’s Saab business plan and make the automaker profitable by 2012 with production of 105,000 vehicles a year, Carlstroem said.

“It is a true opportunity and we’re surprised that more investors haven’t identified this opportunity,” he said. Genii Capital “loves brands and Saab is a strong brand on the same level as Porsche and BMW.”

Saab is among four brands, along with Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer, being unloaded as GM focuses on Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac in the U.S. after its July 10 bankruptcy exit.

Swedish sports-car maker Koenigsegg, which had backing from Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., walked away from a deal to buy Saab in November. Beijing Auto paid $200 million to buy some car technologies from Saab to use in its own vehicles.

‘Build the Cars’

“We have customers who have ordered cars, especially the 9-3” model, Saab board member Danielsson, who is also head of Saab’s engineering union, said in a telephone interview. “We have the materials and we’ll just go out and build the cars unless we hear differently.”

A Swedish government delegation will travel to Detroit at the start of next week to meet with GM’s management, Svenska Dagbladet reported yesterday, citing Joeran Haegglund, state secretary at the Industry Ministry.

“As we have understood the situation, GM has not yet closed the door for a sale even if a wind-down is the official track,” Haegglund told the newspaper. “Now, we want to make absolutely sure that they have all the necessary information and that there are no misunderstandings” on issues such as a loan for Saab from the European Investment Bank, the European Union’s lending arm, he said.

Wind Down

“We made the decision last month to wind down Saab, but in that process we have said that we will review any bids that come in sincerely,” said Stefan Weinmann, a GM Europe spokesman.

Saab sales in the U.S. slumped 59 percent to 8,680 vehicles last year. European deliveries through November also fell 59 percent to 25,093 cars.

About 50 Saab enthusiasts in around 35 vehicles gathered outside GM’s headquarters on Jan. 5 to appeal to the carmaker to sell its Swedish brand to Spyker or one of the other potential bidders, according to Ryan Emge, who organized the meeting.

“What we need now is for GM to sell Saab so that they can get back to selling cars again,” said Emge, who operates the Saab History Web Site from Portland, Maine. No enthusiasts had rallied for the other car brands GM is shedding, he said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aByRt2Zw6xWQ&pos=4#

[MG]

Saab is a strong brand on the same level as Porsche and BMW.”

If that is the sum and substance of Genii Capital's knowledge of the car bidness, they better hope they DON'T get involved in this boondoggle. Just as those other financial whiz kids at the  Three Headed Dog wish to the Almighty that they never heard the word "Chrysler".

Number crunchers should never be allowed in the same zip code with car manufacturers. Or car racing, for that matter. All they want to do is squeeze the juice out and put nothing useful or exciting or worthwhile back in.

Bernie Ecclestone is a joke.  And a bad one. at that.   

[Ultra]

Rather than get in bed with Bernie the board will liquidate the company.

[Djetset]

As someone who worked for Saab HQ for 14 years and helped shape its future product portfolio, I feel extremely sad that one of the last remaining 'interesting' car marques is being messed around like this. 

Under GM's ownership, the shocking lack of support and investment in the brand was appalling and its current behaviour with Saab is nothing short of disgusting.  It just shows what a complete bunch of short-sighted idiots run General Motors.  Apart from a Saab, I would never dream of buying any one of GM's lacklustre products designed by bean-counters, not by engineers with vision and passion. 

GM should hang its head in shame.  Let's hope GM's final act is a decent one that lets this fine Swedish brand be saved and taken seriously by a suitable investor.  Spyker gets my vote.

[Ultra]

The Saab board voted to liquidate.

[Otto Puzzell]

I felt that way about Renault's stewardship of AMC. The demise of Studebaker and AMC greatly shaped my view of the auto business, of which I was a part for about 20 years. I did a brief stint with Renault in the early 80's, just before they retreated (I know, I know) to France, never to return. Boy, did they ever look down their noses at the Americans they were forced to work with! 

I think the intent by GM was good - purer than Renault's vis-à-vis AMC, but the long-term spirit was not willing. BTW, I know some GM folk, and they are not short-sighted idiots. I won't tell 'em what you said about them. 

[MG]

Boy, did they ever look down their noses at the Americans they were forced to work with! 

Really? That surprises me. The history of French automobiles leaves little to be so high and mighty about......   And the Renault Alliance was one of the greatest shitboxes ever foisted off on the buying public. I should know. I owned two of them.   

[Quiller]

Now Bernie Ecclestone wants to buy Saab ! 

[Djetset]

Thanks for your words of support Otto, but i stand by what i said about the short-sighted idiots at GM that wouldn't recognise a decent car if it ran them down!  I worked with some really great folk at GM (one of which was ex-AMC as well) but most of the good people either spotted GM's failing and tollerated them (myself included) or chose to leave (as I did eventually).

Very interesting to hear that you where an ex-AMC guy.  I wondered why there was a strong AMC link to some of your puzzles!  As a European that didn't fully understand many of Detroit's look-alike products of the 1960s and 70s, AMC always made the most interesting and appealing cars for me.  It's a real shame that they've gone.  Let's hope it won't be the same story for Saab!

[Allemano]

It's not dead (yet)! Obviousely Spyker is the new owner. Will there be SAABs with Variomatic ?

[Ultra]

(Yet!)

'xactly.

[MG]

The Saab story is finally over. Spyker gets the hand of the princess in marriage. I hope they know what they are doing.   

Here's MORE

[Paul Jaray]

Just today I started again my reading of Grisham's books, starting from the 1st one, "A Time To Kill".
In the author's note, at the beginning, he wrote that the main carachter of the book has many things in common with the author himself, for example they both drive a red Saab. The carachter Jake, is proud to have the only Saab in Ford County, and a red Saab at that.
I always thought that Saab cars were the logical choice for people trying to operate different choises.
They are good cars, well made, but why should someone actually bought one of them?
The answer was: to be different, but not like someone who buy a big SUV (showing off) or a Prius (tree-hugger) or a sportscar. Just different.
You can add a tag to each brand (here we come again with tags...) and my tag for Saab was 'different'.
The departure of the marque is another proof of the levelling in progress of the global manufacturers.

[Tackitt]

Spyker is certainly getting Saab cheap enough. Seventy-four million dollars for a car company is chump change.

[MG]

The departure of the marque is another proof of the leveling in progress of the global manufacturers.

Excellent point, Paul.    Oh for the days of Bugatti and the custom coachwork houses, eh? 

I am more than a little surprised to hear that Spyker intends to offer the new 9-5 in America later this year. It seems to be more or less a direct competitor in terms of size and features to the Buick Regal GS, aka Opel that GM plans to roll out at more or less the same time. I'm surprised GM didn't prohibit sale of that car in the US.

For more on your "leveling" observation, please see my new thread entitled "The Industrial Revolution, Karl Marx and The New Digital Age", which I am going to create just as soon as I am done here.