R.I.P SAAB Automobile

[SuperSwede]

1947 - 2009
Saab Automobile AB, better known as Saab, was a Swedish car manufacturer last owned by Motors Liquidation Company (aka the old General Motors). It was the exclusive automobile royal warrant holder as appointed by H.M., the King of Sweden. Since its inception, Saab had been known for its quirkiness; as it evolved and adopted ever more advancements to its turbocharging, safety and green technology.
On 20 February 2009, the district court of Vänersborg received a request for reorganization from Saab.[3] Parent General Motors planned to divest itself of the company by the end of 2009. On 11 June 2009, a letter of intent was signed by Koenigsegg and a group of Norwegian investors to purchase Saab.[4] On 24 November 2009, however, Koenigsegg withdrew its offer to purchase the operation. On December 1, 2009 GM's board of directors decided to give SAAB until the end of the year to evaluate potential buyers for the company.[5] On 18 December 2009, GM announced it would be winding down the Saab brand.[6

 

[Robert]

No SAAB, how sad. I've always liked SAAB. In the car industry, they've been like Apple in the computer world dominated by PCs and Microsoft...

 

[tjcurtin1]

Couldn't quite believe it when I heard it... I had an old '67 SAAB way back - a cool kind of Frodo mobile Now I have a Saturn, once described as the American version of the original Saab - and they've deep-sixed the Saturn, too! I imagine it must be felt pretty hard in Sweden.

 

[deeaa]

Yep it's sad but it was to be expected...SAAB hadn't been the same in a long time, it's been basically an Opel re-branded for a long time...GM homogenized the vehicles until they differ very little from other GM Europe products and lost their ingenuity and specialty. Times were different before, up to the days of the 900 and 9000 series, great cars at the time. I remember way back in the late 80's the first car I ever broke 200km/h driving was a Saab 9000 Turbo. In those days it was a helluva beast for a family car, quicker to go from 80 to 120 than a Ferrari Testarossa

 

[Spudman]

I head this on NPR today. That's pretty sad.

 

[SuperSwede]

About 12 000 people have to go from the company only in Sweden, what a horrible "christmas present". They said on the news that about another 8 000 people from the local small enterprises that make parts for SAAB also will be unemployed after this. And that doesnt include the long term effects that this will have on the network of retailers and service shops.

I guess the rest of the SAAB divisions just have to make more of these instead:

 

[Retro Hound]

Quite a saab story.

 

[sumitomo]

I am surprised not to see Subaru step up to the plate,You guys do know about Saaburu's dont you?Sumi

 

[hubberjub]

I am surprised not to see Subaru step up to the plate,You guys do know about Saaburu's dont you?Sumi

I assume you're speaking of the WRX/92x project. That was discontinued a couple years ago. As the owner of a '99 Saab 93 Convertible, I will miss Saab and hope the availability of parts continues on for a few years. I like quirky cars even if they aren't the most reliable.

 

[ZMAN]

Hey they cut the Saturn loose, and it was one of the best vehicles they put out. I have owned 5 of them and not a problem or ever a rust spot. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.
Sorry to be uneducated about Swedish automobiles, I already know about their beautiful women,(Elin), and their hockey players, but what cars do you buy in Sweden? Does that mean a portion of the Saab workforce is out of work, or is it just like North America where half of the auto related workers are unemployed.

 

[SuperSwede]

In sweden we love station wagons! Volvo V70, Saab 9-5, VW Passat Tourer and so on..

We already have a large number of auto related workers unemployed and another 10-15 thousand is a seriously bad thing considering that we only are about 10 million citizens in Sweden!

There is still a lot of big companies left but we are really starting to feel the worldwide financial crisis!