GM sets end of road for Swedish brand Saab

[Lets Gekiga In]

AFP: GM sets end of road for Swedish brand Saab

I'm so sad. My car is a Saab and they're being discontinued and my major was discontinued at my alma mater earlier this year.

The best part of 2009 for me was finding the love of my life.

[Ferrer]

I was about to post it.

Well, GM can burn in hell as far as I'm concerned.

[Wouter Melissen]

Well, GM can burn in hell as far as I'm concerned.

Why don't you buy it then?

[Dino Scuderia]

The Swedish gubbermint should buy it.

[culver]

I'm a SAAB owner and sad to hear it. However, I don't agree with the anti-GM attitudes I've seen on several forums. GM is doing what is needed to turn it's finances around. SAAB hasn't made any money for GM. It would be interesting to get the inside scoop on SAAB. I've never read a good account of what has been going on with SAAB during the GM ownership. My impression was that in the early years GM left SAAB largely alone and SAAB didn't do much. Then GM got active and tried force some action and products at SAAB. However, this didn't work out. Rumor has it that the 95 was twice supposed to be replaced with a new joint venture product. One was supposed to be a Fiat-SAAB thing but that fell apart when GM and Fiat parted ways. I'm not sure about the other (perhaps there was just one). Subi and SAAB were going to release an SUV together but that died when GM and Subi split up. I think the Subi-GM split was about GM getting cash to pay off the UAW.

In any case, I think there were plans for decent SAAB cars in the works but they died. The stop gap products (the Trailblazer SUV and the Impreza) were all we ever saw. That certainly made it look like GM didn't care about the products. I suspect it was instead GM reacting to the loss of what ever they were developing for SAAB combined with the dealers demanding SOMTHING to sell.

I hate to see SAAB go but I also hated to see Pontiac and Olds die off. I don't know why none of the deals went through. I've read some claims that GM wanted the deals to fail. I find that hard to believe. GM wants to extract the most value/lease liability from SAAB so that they can finish turning the rest of the company around. I can't see how letting SAAB simply die vs finding a deal was better for GM.

Finally, do note that SAAB wasn't in great shape when GM got them. They had the 9000 which wasn't that new and the absolutely out of date 900. SAAB needed a partner because they couldn't make it on their own.

Don't worry, SAAB will live on in their jets.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Sad, really sad.
And yesterday when I saw the first official image of the 9-5 Estate I thought it was really good looking.
I hope the new car will survive somehow, new Opel Omega, anyone?
As far as the brand is concerned...Saabs suck the last years, no doubts on that. Even if I always liked the current 9-5 it was as old as myself and therefore having it still for sale was a good indicator of how things were going to end.
The new 9-3 was just an average car, surely not a Saab, let alone a good replacement for the 900. Even if it is a good car, it was too average for such a peculiar brand. probably the same reason why the BLS (Cadillac) didn't sale well here since people in Europe expects something almost exotic from a Cadillac. Eventually the car (platform) performed pretty well, even if heavily modified, as the Fiat Croma, a truly average car, designed to be the horse carriage of the family and excellent at that I must say.

So, Saab was dead since a while it seems.

Damn, I was already imagining some sort of an uber Spyker designed Saab (as I did with Koenigsegg), but that would have been a Saab either, wouldn't it?

[Ferrer]

As far as I know, Saab was never a massive money maker, but a small car factory which made well enginereed cars and which could financially survive on its own. At least before the GM takeover.

I'm gonna be simplistic, but globalisation, greed and regulations are killing many interesting car maker that we used to have.

Why don't you buy it then?

Only if you bring the finance.

[henk4]

As far as I know, Saab was never a massive money maker, but a small car factory which made well enginereed cars and which could financially survive on its own. At least before the GM takeover.

if that was true it would not have been taken over, it was an already ailing company. GM was not the correct remedy.

[Ferrer]

if that was true it would not have been taken over, it was an already ailing company. GM was not the correct remedy.

I'm not saying it was Saab's case, but not all companies are taken over because they need help. Sometime the firm that's the who's paying just wants to expand their bussiness.

[Badsight]

As far as I know, Saab was never a massive money maker, but a small car factory which made well enginereed cars .

debateable

you ever had to work on them ?

[Ferrer]

debateable

you ever had to work on them ?

I'm not a mechanic.

[LeonOfTheDead]

I hope the new car will survive somehow, new Opel Omega, anyone?

In before GM.

[G35COUPE]

Failed american management style has led to a failed Saab.

Five lessons that GM can learn from the Saab debacle - Drive On: A conversation about the cars and trucks we drive - USATODAY.com

Can anyone tell me why american managers can no longer manage in a globalized world where competition is fierce?

[culver]

Failed american management style has led to a failed Saab.

Five lessons that GM can learn from the Saab debacle - Drive On: A conversation about the cars and trucks we drive - USATODAY.com

Can anyone tell me why american managers can no longer manage in a globalized world where competition is fierce?

Funny, Ford seemed to have done a good job fixing Mazda. BMW is generally really well run but they did a miserable job with Rover and Mercedes all but killed Chrysler. Unlike SAAB, Chrysler was fairly healthy before the Germans invaded. Perhaps you jumped too far with that conclusion.

[G35COUPE]

Funny, Ford seemed to have done a good job fixing Mazda. BMW is generally really well run but they did a miserable job with Rover and Mercedes all but killed Chrysler. Unlike SAAB, Chrysler was fairly healthy before the Germans invaded. Perhaps you jumped too far with that conclusion.

But if you remember, Chrysler was always on the edge of collapse as far back as the early 80s. My opinion is that Chrysler gained more from Daimler Benz than Daimler Benz would ever have dreamed of gaining from Chrysler. Chrysler nearly sucked the life out of Daimler Benz. During that period when Daimler Benz owned Chrysler, Benz suffered almost irreparable quality and reputational issues, as well as a degenerating auto design--their autos got uglier. Thats how bad Chrysler nearly ruined Daimler Benz as a company. I call the Chrysler period, the lost years for Daimler Benz. In fact, during that period, BMW which has always been the fiercest competitor of Daimler Benz, produced better and more sophisticated performance cars than Daimler Benz.

BMW was left unchallenged during those lost Chrysler years of Daimler Benz. It was also that period that allowed Infiniti to replace Daimler Benz as the true competitor of BMW. Infiniti made BMW work hard during that period. And BMW was constantly on the edge because they knew Infiniti was going to eath their lunch if they blinked for a moment. Daimler Benz was no where to be found in the race for better cars during this period. I would argue that Daimler Benz's foray into Chrysler allowed cars like the Nissan 350z and Infiniti G-35/M-35 or M45/ FX 35 and FX 45 to flourish exceedingly well. Without Infiniti, the only true choice out there for performance and luxury at the same time, were BMW cars. Of course, this story is limited to the USA.