Blackraven

haha

So saab, so saab.........it's a a saab saab situation. And it's getting more and more absurd

Stormwind

Can't blame GM for the ruins of Saab, GM is simply trying to make them profitable again so they can stand on their own.

Saab wasn't able to make and sell their own design and product with any efficency or profit and that's how they ended up being bought by GM in the first place. With Saab going ch. 11 (again?) under Spyker it looks like they still don't have a clue on what they're doing.

Sometimes garbage just needs to be taken out so it doesn't stink up the place.

mmarshall

Yes, Saabs, at one time, were indeed popular in the NE. That gets back to what I said earlier. For bad-weather areas, Saabs were considered an upscale alternative to lower-priced FWD cars like Subarus, Toyota Tercels, and domestic-brand FWD compacts.

mmarshall

I have to disagree, at least to an extent. GM, when they bought Saab, clearly took a bad situation and made it worse.

Before the sale to GM, Saab, I grant you, was not a particularly large or profitable company in automobiles (though they had an excellent aerospace division producing jet-fighters and commuter-airliners). But, what core customer group that they had(and I'll by-pass the sterotypes here) was very faithful, and stayed true to the brand. My former boss, for example, had a Saab 99 (or was it a 900...I don't remember?), loved it, and probably would have bought another one if it had still been available. But when GM took over, they got rid of the Swedish-designed hatchbacks that most of he Saab faithful liked and, in the typical GM bean-counter, cost-cutting tradition, tried to market a new generation of so-called "Saabs" (9-3, 9-5, 9-7X, etc....) that were, like some other GM products, simply re-badged/re-engineered Opel and GM platforms. Saab also tried a version of Subaru's AWD Impreza (9-2X) that was a good car but failed from lack of publicity (GM, at the time, also had a stake in Subaru). So, needless to say, GM managed to drive away a lot of Saab's core-faithful, while not getting many new customers in return. You simply cannot run a car company like that....and, of course, the same thing happened at Saturn, which, unlike Saab, was a GM division (at least on paper) right from the start.

Fizzboy7

I don't recall Saab having any dynamic vehicles that've stood out from the crowd in any sort of way. Their lackluster products are the main reason the company has struggled and this outcome is not surprising.

mmarshall

That's part of it. Another big problem, like with Suzuki and Mitsubuishi, is simply the low number of American-market dealers. You won't find a Saab franchise on every block, like with Toyota, Ford, Chevy, etc.....

If you can't go look at and test-drive a company's products with reasonable ease, then, in most cases, you are not likely, as a potential customer, to actually buy one.

2BENVD

iTrader: (1)

so did I, 2 of them. My first car was a Saab 900 5spd, second car was a Saab 93 5spd, I had nothing against them personally. besides the little body roll and weak alignment it was smooth sailing and a different design, I've actually got plenty of compliments on my blk/blk 5spd 93 but ever since I landed a 97 5spd sc I'm happier here