Saab, Swedish officials in Detroit to decide brand's fate

2010 Saab 9-5 World Debut at 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show

New bidder possible?

In an effort to save Saab, CEO Jan Ake Jonsson and several Swedish government officials have traveled to Detroit to lobby GM's board of management for an emergency rescue plan.

While details are unclear, it appears the officials will try to get GM to sell Saab to another bidder. Since Koenigsegg backed out of plans to buy Saab, reports have indicated several bidders (Beijing Automotive Industry Corp, private equity firm Renco, and investment company Merbanco) are still interested in the company.

At a China-European Union business summit, Beijing Automotive's general manager, Wang Dazong, said "I would just say, stay tuned a little bit." This likely means Koenigsegg's former partner is now considering purchasing Saab (or a large share of the company) by themselves.

Source: Automotive News

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tootall

Well if they are going to save them, then they will need to do it fast.

December 1, 2009 5:48 pm

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2010S5

That 9-5 looks so promising. Hopefully something good will happen.

December 1, 2009 7:13 pm

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EDavis

Let's have a REALLY big bake sale and give all the proceeds to Mr. Koenigsegg. Or... We can look at the bright side; If the Chinese end up with Saab they'll finally get a chance to blow all that dust off the old Saab 900 tooling that they picked out of a Trollhattan dumpster back in '93 and they can do so without having to worry about a lawsuit from a now-neutered company whose profits used to equal the GDP of...well, China, and therefore kept a couple million really good lawyers on retainer just because they could. Hell, it's not like GM wants anything more to do with a brand that, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't earned a profit since Moby Dick was a minnow anyway. Therefore, if we send Saab over to China perhaps it will continue its hot-streak of begging its host country for bail out money and the Chinese will in turn be forced to take out a loan to save their economy (which the U.S. will be OH SO WILLING to provide...at a 52% interest rate of course). In the end we'll finally get to slap the smug little grin off the face of that cocky little panda down at the zoo (you know the one) and we'll all be driving around in 16 year-old Chinese built "Saab" 900s fresh off a coal-fired assembly line in Chongqing. I reckon it'll be the 2011 European Car of the Year.

December 1, 2009 7:59 pm

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radmeister

LoL yeah ok there buddy, china borrow money from the US. That's a good 1. When china has a surplus of 680billion $/year, which 320billion they lend to the IMF and the US borrows at like 1%(international lending rates are very small). The US is over 1trillion in deficit each year. They have no money to lend out, and currently owe in the region of 11 trillion dollars. But it's all ok though Obama in all his wisdom will carry out the plan set way before his time and start another world war. Just hope your americans win this 1 otherwise things are not looking very promising. And you may laugh your ass off but a very high percentage of top quality rated consumer products are fabricated in China. Everything from Apple, and most of Sony, so i wouldnt sit there and laugh at the Chinese. They have 6x the brains of the US, and about 5000 years more of recorded history....

December 1, 2009 9:22 pm

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EDavis

If I were to presume that you believed my message was in any way based on actual facts then my response to you would be BWAAAAAA HAAAA HAAAAAAAA! And as a student currently enrolled in an American university I can report to you with great confidence that the place where the Chinese acquire their education that allows them to have "6x the brains of the US" is in fact the U.S. Furthermore I agree with you that the Chinese are excellent at fabricating things...they just really suck at inventing them.

December 2, 2009 1:50 am

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GTurbo

If GM should make a mistake by selling SAAB to the wrong buyer, SAAB/Scanna can kiss their future good bye!

December 1, 2009 11:21 pm

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abdool

GM made a bad move when they aqquired SAAB in the first place. Neither SAAB or GM benifeted from each other, as a matter of fact GM actually brought SAAB to a lower standard. Now it would be great to let the Swede's reaquire what was theirs in the first place and get some soul and passion back into SAAB. The only car SAAb made in it's GM era worthy is probably the 9-3 turbo X. Although it could have been of better quality. Now, if SAAB can go back to an era where it was building turbo 900's and viggens, no doubt SAAB will get back on its feet.

December 2, 2009 3:06 am

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