Saab’s relationship with General Motors has been questionable at best. What fueled GM’s acquisition of Saab was the demand to have a premium European brand to compete with Ford and its Euro brands – none of which Ford owns today. But Saab was a low-volume brand when it was purchased, and under GM’s management Saab remained low-volume.
In addition to being unable to produce impressive sales, Saab increasing produced substantial losses, which made its eventual sale (or shut down) almost inevitable. But little has been mentioned about the 218 Saab dealers in U.S., which are going to be closed as well.
In the first 11 months of 2009, only 7,812 new Saab models were sold in the U.S. That’s a far cry from the 47,914 cars sold in 2003, which marked the best sales Saab ever had under GM’s ownership. Such dismal sales have put many dealers at risk in terms of just keeping the lights on. To make matters worse, dealers now face the task of selling the few remaining Saabs on their lots at extremely discounted prices.
Interestingly, 2010 could have been a game-changing year for the Saab brand. With the upcoming release of the long overdue 9-5 flagship sedan, Saab would finally have a large premium sedan that would be able to compete with the likes of premium models from Germany or Japan. Sadly, it looks like the 2010 9-5, which continues to receive praise, will never see the light of day. Despite the passion for the brand and for the vehicles, it just goes to show how the economy, and possibly questionable management, continues to fuel
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Catch more on the Saab-Spyker-GM drama here.
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