Bye bye Saab.

Oh dear - An end of an era - I have driving Saabs since 1971 - boring you will say.

Good job GM, well done !

Another success of capitalism and the love of a good old take-over to boost your numbers !

Once you take them over, you can destroy the former glory of a good marque, but that's okay, as long as you meet the next quarter's target and you'll get your bonus - it's all good.

And if he economy slows down, you can cut them loose, they've been raped and emaciated, but they'll be fine. As long as we made our quarterly numbers and got our bonuses ...

Ask me and I'll tell you what I really think ...

No surprise.

Without major intervention a number of big names could have/yet might go the same way.

JLR, Renault, PSA, Volvo-all bigger names than Saab needing considerable support or dramatic upturns to survive.

Bruce

(Shoot. If Sabb had not been taken over by GM would they have lasted any better in the current market? The track record of small/medium independents is far from good.)

Kinda the opposite to Skoda then Shoot?

Bruce -

It's a fair question to ask. However, I'd say that they would be more likely to shrink to a niche making cars that people would love - as i loved my 1983 900 turbo. This could be a pipe dream however.

Steve,

Who knows what would have happened if SAAB were purchased by VW and not GM ?

A possible difference is the direction the technology flowed. As I understand it a current Octavia has many components from older A4's and Passats, which is a great thing, making an Octavia a desirable budget car.

But GM's passed their 'wonderful' technology to SAAB, dragging down it's quality, and making a niche cool car into a piece of crap.

I'm also bitter as this whole take-over thing is close to home, the last two companies I worked for were taken over and after a few years following economic turndowns they started cutting back staff to keep their bottom lines and let the execs pick up huge bonuses.

Admittedly, one of those companies would have failed had it not been taken over, but the other would have survived as a medium sized player in the business.

On a macro level the expansion of large companies by merger is like a flood. The area that the water covers expands as the take overs happen, but when business slows the water recedes and leaves devastation behind.

My last employer took over three smaller companies in my region and quickly assimilated them, five years later, they laid off more than the equivalent number of people they had absorbed in the mergers. But instead of having work opportunities for those who were laid off with these three small to medium companies now there are no employers in that field anymore, just the big corp..

Over the medium term, they basically took the market share of those companies and got rid of the people.

A Chinese connection
see
http://www.google.com/hostedne...93qzIXuNlbQD9CLNES80

A great shame but was probably on the cards the moment GM took Saab on and then strangled it through lack of investment.

My favourite car of all was a Saab 900 Aero turbo. It's still around giving good service to it's current owner. I sold her with over 250,000 miles on the clock (lots of driving to Scotland and across Europe!) and the local Saab garage reckoned it was good for the same again without any major engine work. A beautiful old bus.

Mine was pre-Aero a 3-door 900 turbo. Surprisingly agile for such a heavy car, would love to have kept her but couldn't bring it to Canada when I emigrated ...

Have had several SAABs over the years. A 9000 LPT, then a 900 full TURBO. I picked up a 2000 95 AERO 2.3 Turbo a couple of years ago. it only has 150,000 KMs ( not miles) on the clock. I love it and due to managing to find a small garage who only does SAAB's and loves them himself am hoping to run it into the ground many years on from now.

How very sad - when I was a lad one of my friends Father's was the chief development engineer on the 99 Turbo and ran one as a development car - it was so cool, so comfortable and I recall had heated seats in what must have been 1975 when they were unheard of in any other car.

Gosh I loved that 99 and have always been tempted by the 99 and 900 models.

Frankly if I was GM I'd ditch Vauxhall and keep Saab!

Jonathan

I almost bought a new 2000 93, but thought that it was going to become a speeding ticket machine ...

It was fairly sedate around town, but on the highway went from 90 to 140 kph in a blink !

One of the best and most comfortable cars I've ever owned - was thinking of getting another one - very sad to see the demise of Sweden's most prestigious car maker.

To use football parlance, I'm gutted. As the man said earlier, thanks a bunch GM.

I still have my fingers crossed that the fat lady hasn't sung yet.

steve (who has a 9-3 Cabrio, a 9-5 saloon and a 9-5 Aero Hot Estate parked on the drive.)

What was once a highly respected brand has been starved and strangled in a war of attrition driven by totally incompetent bean counters in GM. A real shame.

Peter

quote:

Originally posted by northpole:
What was once a highly respected brand has been starved and strangled in a war of attrition driven by totally incompetent bean counters in GM. A real shame.

Peter

They weren't exactly thriving before GMs take over.

Had a 900 Gls and a 93 Vector and I have to say the Gm influence was more than apparent in the 93, nowhere near the car the 900 was. Sorry to see the company go. Still, another thumbs up for capitalisation. As said above, take a great marque in a niche market, maximise it's 'capitalisation' then hang it out to dry after loading it with excessive un-needed debt. Phillip Green managed to bag a Billion and a knighthood for himself doing that to the British high street (whilst avoiding as much taxation as he possibly could in the process).

A real shame. I was hoping to see Saab keep going. I love my 2001 9-5. Hope to have it for a few more years.

We should welcome the survuval of car makers who can produce transports that can run on sustainable energy sources.

GM/Saab is not an obvious example a company that diserves to survive, any more than Volvo ...

A new Spyker deal in the works ?

quote:

Originally posted by shoot6x7:
...Good job GM, well done !...

I've been watching GM starve that honorable brand for the past decade, as they've done to their U.S. Saturn division.

My condolences to the 3400 Saab employees worldwide who will lose their jobs.

Mark

The fat lady hasn't sung yet:

http://www.autoguide.com/auto-...ts-new-proposal.html

steve

I remember in the early 70s a SAAB 2 seater I was quite enamored with tho the insurance companies would have called it a sports car and charged me big time. 15 years later driving with dad he saw one and really liked it...... if only he'd seen it in '72

But 4 years later I was landscaping and needed a Toyota Truck.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Dane:
A great shame but was probably on the cards the moment GM took Saab on and then strangled it through lack of investment.

My favourite car of all was a Saab 900 Aero turbo. It's still around giving good service to it's current owner. I sold her with over 250,000 miles on the clock (lots of driving to Scotland and across Europe!) and the local Saab garage reckoned it was good for the same again without any major engine work. A beautiful old bus.

Yes, but part of the problem. The lovely old 900 Turbo we had was ridiculously over-engineered. SAAB were in serious trouble well before GM, appalling as GM are.

Joe

quote:

Originally posted by Jonathan Gorse:
How very sad - when I was a lad one of my friends Father's was the chief development engineer on the 99 Turbo and ran one as a development car - it was so cool, so comfortable and I recall had heated seats in what must have been 1975 when they were unheard of in any other car.

Gosh I loved that 99 and have always been tempted by the 99 and 900 models.

Frankly if I was GM I'd ditch Vauxhall and keep Saab!

Jonathan

Jonathan, et al,

I take it from the "tempted" that you have not supported that sainted mark SAAB with any actual business. Maybe if you (and the other GM naysayers) had actually bought the occasional SAAB product it may not be up for sale, let alone wind-down.

As BigH47 said "They weren't exactly thriving before GMs take over" and the greatest incompetence of the GM bean counters was the arrogance to believe they could take a loss making anachronism of a company and turn it round.

I too am sad at the possible loss of SAAB because I am fond of quirky engineering (anybody seen the announcement about Harley Davidson winding down Buell), but to blame GM is naive, particularly when the SAAB management team is still predominantly home grown,

regards

Paul..

Not guilty of being always tempted but never bought.

I have bought - 96, 99, 900, 900turbo, 900turbo, 900turbo, 900, 900turbo, 900NG turbo, 9-5 estate chipped, 9-5 Aero Estate.
Still have the 13 year old 900NG turbo and the Aero.

The last two weeks has been a sad time for us as the companies that we have received good service from - namely Saab and BA are in various degrees of clag.