Reply With QuoteSad indeed, spent many years in Sweden & would, more often than not, drive the convertible '93. Great looking car & not a bad drive ..
Sad day for the car industry - they were brilliant rallycars and quality products !
We used to call them 'The Wintercar ' in Norway !
:(
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/b ... 961723.ece
Sad indeed, spent many years in Sweden & would, more often than not, drive the convertible '93. Great looking car & not a bad drive ..
/vince ..
Had to check the date to make sure it wasn't 1st April. It beggars belief.
Using a Vectra chassis was bad enough, but negotiating with Spyker tells you that the writing was on the wall :roll:
How the world has changed in my short working life. Clarkson once wrote that before too long there will only be 4 car manufacturers in the world. You can actually start to believe it might actually happen when you read these types of news reports.
I know the Chinese have purchased parts of the company - anyone know WHICH parts ???
We laughed at the Japanese products at their inception, beware of what we now might be facing ...
Volkswagen are now producing the Polo in India !
:shock:
Luckily GM will be honouring their warranties though !
Cheers
Simon
Ralph Waldo Emerson: We ask for long life, but 'tis deep life, or noble moments that signify. Let the measure of time be spiritual, not mechanical.
Shame. I always fancied one but they were too big for my needs.
Now there will be Chinese made Saabs.
If Polo is still designed by VW and they have their quality control then it does not matter where Polo is manufactured.Originally Posted by ingenioren
The sad thing about Saab is that whole company is sold :( 2010 model looked very good and promising.
Bloody hell!!!!! :shock:
Has this come unexpectedly; it's certainly a shock to me.
I've had some wonderful Saab's over the years, 900's and 9000's, and really enjoyed driving them.
SWMBO still reckons her 900T 16S convertible was the best car she ever owned and a good friend wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the build quality of a 9000 he was a passenger in.
Sad news indeed.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
I've had a 99 Turbo (insane car), 900 Turbo saloon (1984) and a 900 CS; loved them all. I never drove the earlier 2-stroke but I loved the sound of them :) .
Eddie
Whole chunks of my life come under the heading "it seemed like a good idea at the time".
My one remaining hope is that someone buys the name and re-invents them as the niche company they once were.
Like Eddie, I have had most Turbo models and loved them for their sheer ability to excel from day to day.
I have a book called 2 Stroke to Turbo which chronicles the rallying years..... some great anecdotes in it.
I had a 900S and though I loved the looks and the way it drove it cost more to maintain it in the 5 years I owned it than it did to buy it new. I read the Chinese had purchased powerplant technology what ever that might be.
True SAAB's went years ago. For the last few years they have been selling "fake" SAABS . They use to be so good and the build quality was amazing
I had a "Abbott" and thing was bloody scary !
For me, that's a very sad day. I just loved the 99 and the 900. Great cars, and so much character.
I'm not as think as you drunk I am.
Quite right mate. I had two 9000s which were the last real Saabs - marvellous to own, drive and tune ;) . Saab engineering was simply amazing, GM came in with their fat overweight American business ideas and completely destroyed everything. Then they wonder why people don't want to spend premium money on skimped and shoddily built mainstream tat-wagons in drag.
Ford almost did the same to Volvo, but luckily someone got in their shortcut manufacturing ways.
This phoenix will rise again, too good a brand and history to simply slide away :wink:
A sad day,indeed. Saab has become an innocent victim of the American car industry's short-sighted, unimaginatve greed. The world would be a better place if all of the American car companies were left to sink without trace, which is what they deserve, because for years they have ignored the obvious truth that their rubbish, inefficient products use far more fossil fuels than is sustainable. Unfortunately their tentacles spread far and wide and Saab will not be the last casualty of their folly.
Regards
Ian
Although no trees were harmed during the creation of this post, a large number of electrons were greatly inconvenienced.
I had 2. First was a 1984 900 T16. To my mind that still is the best car I have had, it was light years ahead of other cars around at the time. I tuned mine myself to a spec similar to Abbott racing. I used a 9000 aero intercooler, custom self made hard pipes etc. similar to the Abbott chargecooler kit. Thinking back the only problems where weak brakes and suspension arms/mounts but on a standard car this wouldn't have mattered. Oh and it was faster then both my 944 S2 or 968 in its tuned up state.
Last Saab I had was a 9-5 from 1998. As Eddie knows it died the same day I bought the 968 from him. That car was the worst car I have ever had, it never went more then a month between needing something else fixing/replacing. The suspension for example was refreshed at huge expense by me in the first year I had it and 2 years later some of those same bushes needed replacing again. I see modern Saabs as nothing more then GM junk. The only good parts in the car where the engine, the seats (both Saab in house) and the A/C (the only thing GM seem to do well). Due to lack of investment the Saab turbo engine that was hugely impressive in the 1980's was decidedly second rate in recent years. Many 9-5's suffered from oil sludging and generally short engine life. A mate of mine bought the car from me and was using it with his own 9-5 to cobble together one good car. Very sad state of affairs.
Not sure if its worth saving the brand tbh. They have a very poor reputation in this country, and generally the only ppl buying Saabs in recent years seem to have done it inorder to avoid buying a BMW/Audi/MB. These ppl IMHO account for a very small % of the car buying public and I believe this is reflected in the very poor sales going back more then a decade.
I wouldn't buy another Saab would any of you?
Early cars were great, unfortunately GM killed Saab, later cars basicly rebadged Vauxhalls, the 9-5 was 10 years old with hardly a refresh and the 9-3 terribly packaged, mind you the new 9-5 was looking sweet, heck of a shame though!!!
Would I buy a SAAB again... only if it had the same ethos of the 60/70/80's. I want something well thought through that is just a little bit different.
This one is mine and she stays in my family. 8)
Sad day - suspected it was not going to last though looking at the secondhand values and the discounts on 'pre-registered'.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
that is a shame. very nice pieces of engineering.
Good luck everybody. Have a good one.
My grandfather had an 99, my father a 900 turbo and I a well thrashed 9000i as a first car.
I grew up with many family voyages done in the 900 turbo and my father warning us children
that we would soon lift off when the turbo-needle reached the red...
My 9000i was already thrashed and stayed with me for my military service, a really good winter-car
but the spare parts were bl**dy expensive. The gearbox "exploded" in the end and they wanted
1,5x the price I had paid two years earlier for the whole car to repair it.
I switched to Mercedes, often looking back, I actually spent this summer browsing for 1st Gen. 900
but when you face the reality this would have been an expensive adventure.
Some brilliant ideas like "Nightpanel", I wonder why you can't have that in every modern car.
That GM was so stupid to misunderstand what made the brand so special will find its way in
management textbooks (not that this would help anything :evil: )
Frank
Great cars, had 3 of them, designed from the drivers seat outwards. Top marque.
Jez
ONE of the worst looking car's on the {used to be} forecourt.
:shock: very saad.
I want a to get a 900 turbo now, but a friend bought a dead one about 10 years ago, tried to reserect it but ran out of love so it was sent to the sky.
It is on my list along side, a land rover, mercedes 190E, Volvo 240, Lancia fulvia, Porsche 914 and a Ferrari 250GT SWB, of things I want but will never get round to own.
Obviously the 250 SWB is out of reach but I can dream, and with claudia winkleman is sat in the passenger seat while I am in dream land.
I must stop watching dancing programmes with the wife.
I thought it was Koenigsegg? I'm glad he didn't as it may have taken that fine company down too.
Koenigsegg fell through a few months ago.
My experience of the 900/9000's that I've had was that a) they were very reliable and hardly ever needed any parts but b) when they did need replacement items they were very expensive! But by chance I was introduced to a guy who broke Saabs and then sold the 2nd-hand parts and that took out the pain! My last Saab was a 2.3T 9000 and that was one of my cars I hold the fondest memories of. I sold it over a decade ago with >150k miles on the clock and it' still seen driving around Bristol.
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
when gm took over in 1990 SAAB had two models and sold 93000 cars a year.
in 2008 those figures had not changed... says it all really about GM... Sad to see it go but it was always going to happen.
GM ruined them.
Very sad news. Part of me thinks they'll be back, but then you remember to Rover....
Used values on their modern range will collapse. I suspect the older models, 900's etc will remain desirable.
I'm gutted by this. My Dad had three of them when I was younger and I still remember the rush when the turbo kicked in.
Loved the old 900 turbos. What happened to Koeniggsegg buying them??
Very sad news loved my 93 turbo
Its seems they pretty much tried everyone but were turned down each time.
How's that?
If they were in such a great financial position back in 1990, how'd GM buy they in the first place?
They'd have gone under much earlier if GM hadn't stepped in in 1990.
http://www.answers.com/topic/saab-automobile-abBy 1992, it appeared that Saab Automobile was destined for a more profitable future, thanks in large part to the assistance of General Motors' management, who greatly improved the segment's manufacturing efficiency. When GM management arrived at Saab in 1990, it took 100 hours to produce a single car, but by 1992 the hours required per car had been whittled down to 50 or 60 hours, cutting in half the production quota required to generate a profit. Although Investor and General Motors needed to effect further improvements to spark a complete resurgence of Saab automobiles, progress was being made. The introduction of an all-new Saab 900 in mid-1993 fueled hopes for a recovery of Saab's U.S. sales, a necessary ingredient in Saab's revitalization.
Read today Spyker and GM talks are back on. Probably some boardroom bullying going on.
And that's the problem quantified. Cut the quality, leave the price as it is and hope the public don't notice. Thing is they do notice, within the first 1000 cars or so. The issues with poor quality start and within a few shakes of a lamb's tail a reputation that took years to acquire is destroyed. On a similar note, Mercedes were damn lucky to escape intact for exactly the same reason, and thank goodness someone stepped in and sorted it out. Hopefully the same will happen to Saab as it would be a tragedy to lose the marque.When GM management arrived at Saab in 1990, it took 100 hours to produce a single car, but by 1992 the hours required per car had been whittled down to 50 or 60 hours, cutting in half the production quota required to generate a profit.
Their fighter planes are fantastic.
I'll have to take your word on that, I've never flown one. :D
LOL
I love the cars, hopefully thet won't dissapear :roll:
Every car company had to do the same, the problem is that as the premier GM europe brand they should always have got new platforms first. Someone over on PH made the example about how VAG has used Audi. For me he pretty much hit the nail on the head. VAG generally start from Audi and then filter stuff down to the other VAG products. This makes a Skoda or a Seat look like a cut price Audi. GM have worked the other way round hence the reputation they have here of being 'tarted up Vauxhalls'. Its a tragic example of gross incompetence at a strategic level more then anything else. Look at the new Insignia as an example. Why does this GM europe product exist when the premier GM europe brand is still languishing selling basically decade old cars? Then of course to add insult to injury GM go and invent the VXR brand. This IMHO has massively damaged Saab as in effect Saab technology has ended up being used in Vauxhall/Opel products which by definition are tarted up Vauxhalls, so why buy a Saab at all in that case?
I really don't think GM ever really knew what to do with Saab. As an organisation the turbo engine technology has been very useful to GM but apart from that it has seemed clear to me GM europe see their main Opel/Vauxhall brand moving up market. The new Insiginia proves this and sadly it makes Saab pretty much redundant. IMHO GM do not want a deal for Saab to go through, its better for them if Saab is not in the market place.
100% agreed. Very good post.
And now Volvo are going to China:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8428066.stm
I have worked for saab design,
the word on the street is that there still developing new products, with the help of grants from the swedish goverment.
They did go bankcrupt last year but there still alive.
I had a tan 99LE that I drove my last year of high school through my second year of college. What a snappy little car that was! It was back in '82-'84 and I recall not seeing another Saab on the road for weeks or months at a crack. Saab owners up in Minnesota were few and far between.
You could always tell back then when a Saab was heading in your direction because it was the only car at the time (I believe) whose headlights would turn on and off with the ignition key. I recall many, many American autos flashing their headlights at me during the day hours as I'd approach in my Saab. They thought my headlights were on by mistake!
Dan
I reckon the 99 will go down as one of the all time classic car designs - wonderfully fit for purpose. I guess I feel the same way about Saab as I did about Rover: they were both fabulous, innovative companies once, but have long since fallen into shared platform mediocrity. At least Saab will be given the opportunity to go quietly, rather than being raped by the Chinese for its technology, then reborn as a feeble zombie brand.
Yes, but all the Saab owners will face big difficulties if they want to resell it (at a ridiculous price). I had a friend who faced the problem with a Rover.
Just as an update lads there is an online petition gathering pace here:
http://iwontbuyfromgm.wordpress.com/
Resales on Saab have always been poor in the UK for as long as I can remember. I tried to lease on a couple of years ago but the cost was huge due to poor resale values.Yes, but all the Saab owners will face big difficulties if they want to resell it (at a ridiculous price). I had a friend who faced the problem with a Rover.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
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