Sports and cars go together. So much so that there is such a thing as a “sports car” and a “sports sedan”. And then there are motor sports. Heck, Georgia Tech has the nickname of the Ramblin’ Wreck which is actually a car.
One of my favorite car brands is SAAB. They went out of business as part of the bankruptcy of General Motors. SAAB, with the moniker “Born from Jets” sadly was no more.
I got turned on to SAAB as my friend Dave Barnhart had a SAAB growing up and then he had one as his first car. My cousin Richard drove one as well. It wasn’t a BMW or Mercedes. It was the same, but different. My cousin Eric had a SAAB for a few years.
To add to it, my best friend Ira showed up with a red two door SAAB. His family had a history of SAAB’s as well.
A history of SAAB ownership exists among other close friends, like Neil Agate who actually got his 9-5 a little before I got mine back in 1999. A fellow North Hagerstown alum Chip Alsip is rockin a 2007 SAAB convertible.
It made sense to me that my first European sports sedan was a SAAB. A model 9-5 Aero stick-shift (of course). Then I transitioned to BMW and stayed there until May. I went back to SAAB as I was looking for a car to teach my 15 year old how to drive stick-shift. I am quite pleased with the car, we will see about the 15 yer old.
I also bought the car because I felt that it was a last chance to get a brand that I was fond of and that was quickly passing from the automotive landscape.
Well, it looks like SAAB might not be dead for good. Rising from the ashes could be a new SAAB.
When GM went bankrupt, they went looking for a buyer that would not compete with GM or steal the plans. It seems that GM was using all the newest parts and platforms at SAAB. It was a proving ground for the newest in GM technology, especially in the platforms. GM’s Epsilon platform is in use in the new Cadillac automobiles. Even the new ATS.
What that meant is some buyers, especially Chinese car companies were not going to get the chance to purchase SAAB.
GM did find a buyer, it was a small Dutch super car maker Spyker. They did not have the cash to make a go of it at SAAB. It looked like the end for the Trollhattan, Sweden based company.
Several Chinese companies were interested. The country of Sweden and all the workers in Trollhattan were interested. GM was not interested in making a deal. It went so far as a court case heard in Detroit as to whether the sale to an interested buyer could be forced to happen over GM’s objections.
GM won and the company remained closed.
Now the story takes a happy turn, according to a story in the Detroit Bureau –
For now, though, the new parent, National Electric Vehicle Vehicle Sweden, or NEVS, is focusing on building the old Saab 9-3 as it fires up the maker’s flagship Trollhattan assembly plant for the first time since April of 2011.
Now they only got two cars down the line last month, but two beats zero. “We need to finalize a few remaining dialogues to build partnerships with suppliers (before a formal decision is made) to start production of Saab cars,” cautioned a statement from Mattias Bergman, the acting president of NEVS. But the goal is to have a turbocharged version of the 9-3 back in production before year end.
The plan is to build the existing 9-3 model for now. Then work on the Phoenix (experimental SAAB design) as an electric car. To boil it down, in my opinion SAAB is aiming to be Europe’s Tesla.
Maybe we will see SAAB back in the USA some day. The new Japanese-Chinese consortium has aggressive plans for the revived Saab, reportedly targeting sales of 120,000 9-3 models alone by 2016, which would come close to the brand’s previous peak of 133,000 sold in 2006. The goal is to restart distribution in Europe, open a dealer network in China and possibly re-enter the U.S. market – once Saab’s largest – later on.
According to Wikipedia
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