6 replies to this topic

[zencat]

Thank you GM.

http://www.npr.org/t...p...ft=1&f=1006

[Righty007]

Filing for bankruptcy doesn't necessarily mean Saab as a brand will cease to exist.

[HildebrandRarity]

And I thought the depression didn't have an impact on Q0S's box office!



Has anyone seen Sony Corp stock lately?

[K1Bond007]

I thought GM sold their stake awhile ago. Whatever, bankruptcy isn't the end. They'll restructure and come back.

[Trident]

While it's true that generally filing for bankruptcy doesn't necessarily mean a company is about to fold for good, I'm afraid this time it's going to be the end for SAAB. Amongst others.

The Swedish government completely refused considering to bail out SAAB and to give the company any other financial help. They argue they were better off to support SAAB's workers for a few years until they've found another job in some other branch of industry, than to burn good money by trying to succeed with something that twenty years of GM management haven't been able to.

Even if SAAB were to find a way to survive the next few months as an independent company, its days of car manufacturing would most likely be over, a possible future more likely in the field of general plant construction/mechanical engineering of, for example, wind turbines.

SAAB purists argue that the manufacturer has ceased to exist really long before the current crisis, its product range being merely an extension of GM's own for close to twenty years now. The dwindling sales of SAAB effectively prevent any realistic chance of a survival without a major manufacturer as partner for the future. And there really are no potent investors around currently that look out for a cheap manufacturer to buy. Without that, it's curtains for SAAB.


And possible curtains for Opel/Vauxhall as well.

The Opel AG belongs to GM since 1929. It faces exactly the same difficulties to scrape up cash to finance the operative business for the next months. Survival as a part of GM's incorporation has become impossible. Survival as independent company is likewise improbable, the figures too small to keep up with the bigger companies sourcing. The only way to keep in business would be an investor that was able to pump large sums into his new acquisition. Not bloody likely to find one fitting this description within the next few weeks.

The German government considers a bail out, but also realizes the problems an independent Opel company would face on the market. Without a realistic scheme for the near future and zero emission/low consumption vehicles market-ready within the next three to five years, there is a high probability that money spent on a bail out or a state involvement would be lost.

[zencat]

SAAB purists argue that the manufacturer has ceased to exist really long before the current crisis, its product range being merely an extension of GM's own for close to twenty years now.

I'm one of those purists. Saab died when GM bought them. Their design and engineering trajectory just stopped dead. Had Saabs continued to be the car they were in the 80s, I would have a Saab today.

[Trident]

Strangely, I never had the chance to drive a SAAB, neither pre-GM, nor post takeover. But from what I gather the real core of SAAB-development and technology was quickly scrapped after the takeover. What was sold as SAAB from the 90's onwards used to be Opel/GM cars with only a SAAB nameplate attached to it. Shame that the end has to come now...