Saab lives?

[DGthe3]

From Autoblog

The new owner of Saab, National Electric Vehicle Sweden, has bolted together its first two new cars at the company's traditional home in Trollhättan. The two 9-3 sedans were built to work bugs out of the production line and test newer components before full-scale production starts near the end of the year.

NEVS acting President, Mattias Bergman, issued a statement saying, "Prior to our decision to start production of Saab cars, we need to finalize a few remaining dialogues to build partnerships with suppliers. We now know that the plant is ready for production." First up for NEVS will be gas-powered, turbocharged 9-3s, before bringing a facelifted, electrified variant later next year. There are also plans to rejigger Saab's never-was Phoenix architecture for production, although NEVS needs to excise the remaining General Motors tech from the platform before building anything.

According to a report on Automotive News Europe, once under way, NEVS has set an optimistic target of 120,000 units per year by 2016, with sales focused in Europe and China – there's no official word on if NEVS ever plans to bring the Saab name back to North America.

I thought the brand was dead and gone after they had to shutter the plant a year or two ago. Guess not.

[FenwickHockey65]

Just won't freaking die already.

[derklug]

Where's Daryl Dixon when you need him?

[CamaroSkooter]

[sizl1]

That's mean. GM ran it into the ground. This is sounding a lot like "let's fire the lowly worker so that the CEO can keep his million dollar bonus and the shareholders happy - and then let's make Walking Dead jokes about the lowly worker when he tries to get another job."

GM is at fault here, not Saab.

[FenwickHockey65]

Originally Posted by sizl1

That's mean. GM ran it into the ground. This is sounding a lot like "let's fire the lowly worker so that the CEO can keep his million dollar bonus and the shareholders happy - and then let's make Walking Dead jokes about the lowly worker when he tries to get another job."

GM is at fault here, not Saab.

Saab ran itself into the ground, GM bought it and kept it going for longer. Heaven knows why.

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by sizl1

That's mean. GM ran it into the ground. This is sounding a lot like "let's fire the lowly worker so that the CEO can keep his million dollar bonus and the shareholders happy - and then let's make Walking Dead jokes about the lowly worker when he tries to get another job."

GM is at fault here, not Saab.

Their problems have a lot less to do with GM than they do with money. The previous [to National Electric Vehicle Sweden] owner, Spyker, didn't have enough cash to pay the bills, which includes workers wages & suppliers. I don't know how that is in any way GMs fault. Its almost as if the tiny supercar manufacturer had no clue how much money it actually costs to run a real car company.

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

Saab ran itself into the ground, GM bought it and kept it going for longer. Heaven knows why.

You think people retain any memory all the way back to 1989?

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by CamaroSkooter

You think people retain any memory all the way back to 1989?

Thats no excuse ... Fen himself can't even remember that far back. Actually, I can barely remember back that far. But I don't recall anything automotive from when I was 3 or 4 years old, besides maybe not liking my parents 'brown car'

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

Thats no excuse ... Fen himself can't even remember that far back. Actually, I can barely remember back that far. But I don't recall anything regarding cars from when I was 3 or 4 years old, besides maybe not liking my parents 'brown car'

No, I'm agreeing with Fen.

I think it's funny how people automatically lay blame on a company's failing without doing any research first.

sizl1 stuck up for Saab like it was GM's fault the company died in 2011 when really the company died way back in 1989 and GM just pumped a bunch of money into it for 21 years to keep it on life support.

[FenwickHockey65]

I think it was Bob Lutz's book where he spent pretty much an entire chapter ranting on how stupid of a decision it was for GM to buy Saab.

[CamaroSkooter]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

I think it was Bob Lutz's book where he spent pretty much an entire chapter ranting on how stupid of a decision it was for GM to buy Saab.

It was the 80's, man!

[derklug]

Ok, a little history as I remember it(so basically unreliable).
In the late 80's, GM, Ford and to some degree Chrysler had some cash and were trying to buy into the high end markets by buying up troubled European manufacturers. GM's experience with Saab was always a matter of GM setting the rules, and Saab doing whatever it damn well felt like. The final straw was when Saab basically reworked an Opel design that GM wanted them to just rebadge. When GM sold Saab, they refused to allow all of their proprietary work to be used by Saab at no cost. The price for Saab to rework these systems made the whole enterprise collapse.