Saab may die as GM deal fails
Hopes for Saab seem to have died.
DETROIT – A deal for General Motors Co. to sell Saab to a specialty carmaker has collapsed, leaving the storied Swedish brand born from jets in 1947 close to extinction.
Koenigsegg Group AB, a consortium formed by Swedish luxury sports car maker Koenigsegg Automotive AB, said Tuesday it pulled out of the deal in part because it was unable to agree with investors on how best to move the brand from mass-market to premium.
For GM, it was the third time this year that a deal to shed one of its brands fell apart as it tries to recover from a stay in bankruptcy protection by focusing on a core of four: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.
via Saab likely to close as GM fails to sell car brand – Yahoo! News.
Saab's star-crossed 2011 9-5
Saab built up a small, but intensely loyal following in America since debuting here in 1956. The brand was never very profitable, even before GM effectively took it over in 1989. It had languished over the last several years, but was starting to look up with news of the Koenigsegg deal and the beautiful (and long overdue) new 9-5.
I doubt the brand as it exists today will have much of a future, but defunct nameplates from the past do get resurrected from time to time – such as Triumph Motorcycles, Bugatti, and less successfully, MG Cars – so there’s always hope.
How this will affect GM – in public perception, legal fees and lost revenue – remains to be seen, but it won’t be pleasant.
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After the “9-7x” (aka TrailBlazer) and to a mildly lesser extent the “9-2x” (aka Subaru WRX), I’ve found it terribly difficult to care.
Not to mention if TTAC is to be believed, there were a lot of shenanigans going on thanks to UAW and Government Motors:
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/saab-koenigsegg-deal-falls-through/#comment-1566633
Summary: GM balked at having Saab HQ go back to Sweden, GM/UAW demanded that Saabs be built in USA and Sweden, UAW demanded that other brands’ workers be bundled along with Saab.
If that’s truly the case, then f–k them, let Saab die.
Hi Mathew,
The 9-7 is horrible. I don’t know what they were thinking. I actually like the 9-2, though. It was the only way to get a refined WRX (leather seats, extra sound insulation) in the early part of the decade. But you’re completely right that it wasn’t a real Saab.
GM leadership and the UAW have managed to gut what was once the largest company in the world, but I’m not ready to trust the reference you cite – where a commenter to an article references a separate message board, where someone paraphrases an anonymous “private equity guy.”
The Truth About Cars is an awesome site, by the way.
Thank you for the comment. I hope you like Auto Neurotica.