Spyker CEO, Mr Victor Muller, has promised to rebuild the Saab brand around the upcoming 9-5 model if it gets the nod to buy the Swedish brand from General Motors.
Mr Muller also said that Saab’s Swedish HQ, engineering and production facilities would remain in place with all Saab vehicles except the 9-4X (due to be released later this year or early next) being manufactured in Sweden. A new 9-3 model will follow in 2012.
In fact the only downside to a Spyker takeover at this stage appears to be the shelving of Saab’s compact 9-1 model (pictured below) which has now been suspended indefinitely.
Mr Muller went on to say that GM would continue to produce engines for Saab, and that Saab would use GM parts in vehicles such as the 9-4X and 9-5 as the brand struggles to break even. Saab sold 93,295 units in 2008 with 2009 figures expected to total less than 60,000.
Spyker, which is backed by Russian and Arabic investors, lodged a renewed fast-track offer to buy Saab on December 20. Money-losing Spyker made 43 luxury cars last year.
GM has extended a Dec. 31 deadline to sell or close Saab until January 7, giving Spyker more time to come up with financing to buy the brand.
With Russian and Arabic investors, you’d thinkit would be easy to come up with the 600million needed.
Go SAAB!.
That is the problem GM is worried that there tech might get into russian hands.
Yep, and then GM will compete with the product they created lol.
the new 9-5 is a good looking car, it would be a shame for it not to see production,
because gm has no money or no one wants to buy saab…
OSU811 – It’s not if GM can find a buyer, it’s if they want to sell Saab. There are plenty of potential buyers but I fear the problem is that GM is worried about competing with a revitalised Saab in the future. They seem to be making to process so difficult that it is practically impossible for a buyer to meet all of their terms. Then if someone does they raise the bar again. IMHO
And here ladies and genltemen is the true problem…. GM want someone else to come in, anti up for the Euro Brands and revitalise them all whilst leaving a get out of Gaol free card that allows GM to buy back the company when it sees fit… When the German Chancelory withdrew that clause Bob Lutz pulled the sale of Opel. When K>G (can’t be bothered spelling them :-P) wanted the clause withdrawn GM said No and the sale fell over.
It will be interesting to see what happens now that GM has played it’s card and said it will close down the Business, one would think that the Government would apply a lot of pressure to ensure that clause is withdrawn..
I suspect the Chinese on the other hand will sign up for a sale with that clause with no intention of ever honouring it and knowing that the Chinese government will back them when they refuse to sell the Brand back to the Americans after it is back on its feet and profitable.
The Chinese government now has the biggest stick for trade disputes: The Americans owe them trillions of dollars and China only needs to demand repayment to crash the American economy.
The 9-5 looks great, I just hope that they can finally do something about that god awful dashboard that all saabs have had since jesus was a boy…..
Not sure about Safety First’s claims there. Bob Lutz wasn’t involved in the Opel deal at all and Koenigsegg pulled out because the govt mechanisms involved in a loan from the European Investment Bank dragged their feet.
Saab has buyers. It’s just a matter of whether GM will deal.
And Victor Muller was mis-quoted in the AOL article that this one is based on. He’s already doing sketches for a 9-1, which he has said would be reminiscent of an older Saab (older than the iconic 900) in a phone interview I did with him a few days ago.
Poor SAAB is again having to go through the stupidity of its parent while it trys to make good cars ala 9-5, and 9-4X. I really dont care who gets them now as long as its not GM
…………Spyker sold 43 cars last year……….that does not sound like the ideal owner for SAAB. I think it’s funny how the above posts are blaming GM for the “slow process”…..if anything it will be that potential buyers like Spyker will be wanting so many guarantees and freebies from GM that in the end it will probably just be worth more to close SAAB then to underwrite someone else’s attempts to save it.
My prediction is that if Spyker gets SAAB then it won’t be long before they are in trouble again. The ideal situation for the new 9-5 etc seeing the light-of-day is for GM to close down the brand and sell the tooling, engineering and designs off to a Chinese group who will not be burdened by SAAB’s existing structures and debts.
Similar to the Roewe brand? Isn’t it the old Rover tooling?
What would it be called? Saavv?
I agree with SAAB producing the potentially hugely profitable 9-4X, but choosing not to build the 9-1 hatchback is a serious mistake. It would seem that SAAB has elected to make medium and large sedans in a market that is literally shrinking towards small cars. Most car companies have small cars these days, and buy electing not to introduce a premium, unique offering in a market that is craving for just that, is a recipe for disaster. Just Look at the succcess of the Volco C30 (the 9-1′s most realistic rival), the BMW 1-Series, MINI and the Fiat 500. My advice would be to adopt instant moneymakers like the 9-1 and 9-4X, and then worry about niche vehicles (in the scheme of things)like the 9-5.