End of the Road for Saab

I say add a new 9-3 to the long term fleet and see what kind of turmoil and hoops you have to jump through with warranty and service claims.

Unfortunately, the sale to Spyker was doomed from the start. Really, what could a tiny Dutch exotic car maker offer that a tiny Swedish exotic car maker couldn't? I feel bad for the Swedes; nobody seems to be taking their car brands seriously anymore.

They made uncompetitive cars priced directly against BMW.
But with a much more plasticky interior.

Saabs would be great cars if they were $10,000 cheaper, priced against semi-lux like Buick.
But they're priced against BMW. So fail. Good bye.

My wife always wanted to try a SAAB, but she lost interest when Gubmint Motors converted the product line into ersatz Opels and re-badged Imprezas and Trailblazers. The proposed sale to Koenigsegg offered a brief ray of hope but I guess GM has to be first at something, and they do seem to have a unique ability to destroy once-revered brands.

Weeping for SAAB. Or maybe a great buying opportunity?

Anyway, having had two SAABs and three BMWs, I can say that SAAB is far cheaper to buy and the cars are outstanding in their own special way. Certainly light years ahead of anything Japanese or Korean.

I feel really bad and disappointed by this. Contrary to what some people think, I've always admired Saab's designs - especially their wagons (in my opinion Saab and Audi have one of the best wagon designs). Yes, some quirky details like the center dash ignition but very interesting and clean design lines. Sitting in the driver's seat is truly like being in an airplane cockpit! I guess the competition in this price range was just too much and it does seem to lag behind some of them (according to car reviews anyway) in the ride/handling combination department. But for winter driving, I believe Saab and their Swedish counterpart Volvo are one of the best that's out there. Also, if you plan to keep the car for a long time, both of these Swedes will be up to the task.

Easy to blame The General for this one. But look closely at the shape Saab was in before GM took over. They hadn't launched a new model in a decade, their R&D budget was nil, and they were already buying engines from other manufacturers to satisfy the European appetite for diesel. The real indicator of how bad things were is that the Opel-based 9-3 was functionally superior to its Saab-engineered predecessor despite being a vastly cheaper car to build.

GM merely prolonged the agony by desecrating the brand with the travesty that was the 9-7x. Better to have let Saab die honorably as an independent, or to have allowed it to fall to one of the big Euroglomerates (PSA could probably have made some use of it without completely watering it down).

:( that is all.

Although I wasn't 100% convinced the Ko-segg business plan would work, I did think they deserved a fair chance to get it done. Personally I blame GM and the Swedish government, especially when you consider the help the Germans, UK and French gave their car manufacturers and Opel. Sweden stood out like a sore thumb in the lack of support to keep their auto industry going (and I've owned three Saabs and loved all of them).

Sad, sad, sad. Once upon a time Saabs were very cool cars, although being a small company the cars were not as fully developed as some of the competition. The old 95's and 96's, the amazing 99, the Sonett II, were very distinctive cars, and the original 900 development of the 99 was great in the 1980's. The 9000 was a joint venture with Fiat, Alfa, and Lancia, and I have friends who adore their economical to run and very high utility 9000. Their other car is a 9-5 wagon, another sweetheart. But the later Opel-based cars were really not too special, while retaining the reliability issues of the older designs.

No, SAAB was probably profitable only about twenty years of its sixty year lifespan, so its demise is not surprising. Think of all the other European marques that have either disappeared entirely, or have been watered down like Lancia, Alfa, and Citroen.

By the way, the Saab tradition of the console ignition switch dates back to the first US-imposed antitheft regulations. The proposed rules said removing the key had to lock either the steering or the gearbox to prevent theft, they began to apply just as the Saab 99 was being developed, only their second new model since the company was founded. Saab and Mercedes-Benz engineers argued against a steering lock, thinking that a mechanical failure could cause the steering to lock while the car was being driven. Saab had to make a production decision, so they went with a console ignition switch and a transmission lock. Benz had the luxury to react to the final regulations and overcame their fears, using the now industry-standard locking steering column.

Saab 900 was developed from the 99 so retained the transmission lock, and their new customers in the boom years of the 1980's grew to expect it. So they continued to use it on later models because it was a distinctive quirk.

Farewell Saab, you will be missed.