Club Arnage

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8102432.stm

General Motors has reached a tentative agreement to sell Saab to the Swedish sports car manufacturer Koenigsegg.

Just read this bit,
I wonder what their long term plans are?

Hopefully thay'll go back to building proper cars like the last 'real' saab - the old 900.

If they do, maybe I'll think about another one. I had a 900 T16S, which as epic fun, and bombproof, and then a 9-5 estate, and comfort aside, it was shocking.

My first car was a 900 turbo....... now that was a kick..........

saabs are fantastic cars hope they carry the company on :)

You're spot on there!!

Bring back the 2 strokes! Now they are real SAABs.

Many people have  forgotten how the 'classic' 900 could perform.............(http://)

and, before air bags etc, safe.  The driver of this one walked (well, hobbled) away from this.....

Didn't they have a freewheel system, for running down hills?

and I not talking about taking the car out of gear either!!!

I believe they did.  It was quite common up to the late  50's.  My old Rover 75 'Cyclops'  (wish I still had that!!) had the system.  Get up to speed, find a gentle incline, and you could coast, literally, for miles.

They did, because if you 'coast' a stroker, there's not enough lubrication. So, the engine ticked over on the mix, and you shot downhill with no engine braking.

I do hope they start building proper cars again. If they do, I will buy one. Unless they're too expensive, in which case I shall violently covet one.

I'm on the thick end of a few pints of homebrew, and Ebay is calling me.

Best not. It'll only end in tears, and I don't want to see a pregnant woman crying. Well, not agani anyway.

Read today, that Koenigsegg have pulled out of buying Saab.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/06feb5ea-da2c-11de-b2d5-00144feabdc0.html

Not looking good for Saab.  :-\

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8421007.stm

looking even worse now!!

To reply to the Subject statement: -

"not"

Most of the news sources over here today are reporting that GM is shutting down Saab...shame
Fax

just read today that Spyker has put down a new offer for Saab. Maybe a new mark at Le Mans?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8447365.stm

Bernie E is part of a planned bid as well now!!

Spyker now owns Saab

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE60P2JX20100126

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article7003593.ece

quick faster saabs.

I may be now able to afford a spyker/Saab watch.

Thank god Bernie didn't get them

Here Here ;D

You're kidding!! they'll go up in price as they have to cover the losses Saab have been making!  ;)

This does sound very similar to the Rover de-merger from BMW, yes, I know the price paid is very different, but the reaility of not having someone to share development technology and costs with is much the same.

And we all know what happened to Rover....

Why?

It would have been hilarious to see Bernard lose $millions. You can imagine loads of potential buyers saying "I'm not having one of them if Saab's owned by that c**t!" They'd close within months...

...as opposed to the two years theyll survive with Spyker...  it's completely obvious the whole thing will come crashing down pretty quickly once the cash runs out. Spyker have no real internal resources or experience of this kind of thing, I just can't see what they bing to the party. Just like their F1 disaster, they've bitten off far more than they can possibly chew. No platforms, no plans, a poor current model line-up, the whole thing is Rover again. Sad but true.

Bye bye Saab.

SAAB developed in Holland.


.

People say, I have a couple of relatives with Saab cars, that once you have owned one you will never change the marque. Not sure how true this is but all the people I know that have had them have stuck with them.

That is a bit like Hyundai over here, but for another reason, when they first came out they were obviously cheap, and the other garages would not touch them as trade ins or would offer ridiculously low prices for trade in. Subsequently the dealer had to buy them back and over the years had quite a lot of incentive to increase sales so had a lot of offers on which Hyundai owners were taking up because no-one else wanted their cars. The dealer subsequently, and still has, an enormous amount of used Hyundai cars on his list and very few other Marques.

Anyway, I hope Spyker make a go of it and get the whole thing moving.

Unlike Mr Z. I do not wish to see the downfall of what was once and could again be a great Marque, remember they did race at LM, and won, so should deserve some respect from CA members.

Sorry if I went on a bit...

>Martini...LB

Oh go on mr. Zarse, let us have some fun for a little while please ;)

(http://www.drinkingforholland.com/Paddy/Spyker2010_2.jpg)

^ That's great.  ;D

Hi Paddy,
             Lovely Logo. Is that this years orange T shirt design?
 Phil

It is a possibility :)

PS When did they win LM? I never even knew they'd ever competed?

Hey Mart, you misunderstand me. There's nothing I'd like more to see both Spyker and SAAB flourish. It's just that sadly, based on the proposed set-up, I can't see it happening realistically, that's all.

The only thing we can hope for is Spyker will develope a new kick azz 900 (with a lil' touch of a Spyder?) and dump the Government Motors' models asap. Saab's customers are pretty loyal, and all they want is stick to the odd models...

Well a view of the takeover, by good' ol James.

From Sat Telegraph -

By James May

Saab's saviour
Who better to buy the troubled Swedish marque from General Motors than a small, wacky Dutch company?

The first proper and enduring girlfriend I ever had came into my world in the passenger seat of a Saab. It was a 99, white with a blue stripe down the side, and trimmed within with a velour that I'm forced to describe as ginger.

It was her father's and he loved it. This was the late Seventies, in the industrial north of England, when even driving a Mercedes-Benz whiffed faintly of treachery. Driving a Swedish car marked you down as a dangerous radical in need of careful monitoring.

I liked it, too, and so did Geoff Boycott if I'm remembering the ads correctly. It was a good looking car, with a quirky cabin and that nonsense with the ignition key. A year or two later, when we were old enough to drive, we were allowed to borrow it occasionally. But then she pranged it on a roundabout which, as usual, was somehow deemed to be my fault, and soon after that this particular avenue of youthful pleasure was closed to me.

I remember the Saab very clearly. There was something creative and artistic about a Saab that just wasn't there in the Austin Allegro. The father of another girl I liked had a Volvo 244, but that car merely gave automotive substance to his attitude towards my approaches to his daughter – square, edgy, overly concerned with safety. I rarely made it up the driveway, to be honest, because a Volvo just said no. The Saab father was more liberal. I've always liked a Saab.

Eventually, I had one, a 900, in the mid-Nineties, but by then we all knew a Saab was really a Vauxhall/Opel pro-forma with a space marked "insert curious Swedish bit here". The key still went in the wrong place and there were some funny buttons, but driving a Saab was not the wheeled act of defiance it once was. And now, thankfully, Saab has this week been rescued from the scrapheap onto which General Motors threatened to throw it by that wacky Dutch lot, Spyker.

I think the fate of Saab is indicative of what has happened to the art of the car in my lifetime. Once, an individualistic maker like Saab could go its own way and tempt the odd free-thinking father away from the convention of British Leyland and Ford. But then the pressures of legislation and the prohibitive cost of research and development forced them to seek mentors in the form of huge organisations such as GM. This would safeguard the future of smaller marques, and we said this of Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, Jaguar and their ilk.

The downside is that when times are tough these marginal car makers are the obvious ones to cast aside, rather in the way that people give up the lobster thermidor rather than the Sunday roast during a recession.

But a part of me also thinks that the argument about research and development costs is nonsense. Yes, the amount of engineering required of a car to meet modern demands has grown enormously, but then modern technology has made, for example, the production of one-off components – "prototyping", to use the industry jargon – much easier. Small volumes, production flexibility and personalisation are the vogue these days, so really the time is right for small car makers, surely?

And here we are (at least at the time of writing) with Spyker and GM reaching a binding agreement over Saab. Spyker can hardly claim to be a big car-making concern. It employs fewer than 200 people and its yearly output equates to what Toyota manufactures every eight minutes or so.

I think this might be interesting. Other, massive car makers would consider Saab as a slightly left-field curiosity; something of an indulgence and a way of making themselves appear more interesting. GM owning Saab is really no different from my old girlfriend's father owning a Saab back in 1978. But to Spyker, Saab is a towering mainstream colossus. Spyker buying Saab is like the treasurer of a residents' association buying Barclays Bank.

But now fire up your internet and take a look at the Spyker C8. Do we really want the people who came up with that to be building a regular four-door saloon?

Yes please.

I was stretching the truth a little as I thought they had won their class but they were actually 2nd in class and 12th overall... in 1959

>Martini...LB

Great read from JMay. thanks

im currently somewhat involved with a Saab convertible chick

I'd avoid convertible chicks if I were you... :o

I don't know, I have no problems on chicks going topless  ::)

What he says ::) 8)

The end game approaches...


http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110406/COPY01/304069876/1265

Its Rover all over again (The old 900 always did remind me of a Vanden Plas Allegro, except I might be seen dead in one)

"Saab production remained shut down for a second day today after the company failed to pay some bills."

Well I can't see Saab surviving but what about koenigsegg and Spiker, all the money they got in loans from various eurobodies did not last very long, I expect they might have difficulty getting anyone else to stumpup more cash.

Well as long as the Saab directors have managed to lined their pockets like the Pheonix Four, then who cares? 

Yes, the whole enterprise was a total waste of time and money. I dare say we'll soon discover there won't be enough left over to pay the redundancy costs. Such a sad end to a once great company.  >:(

Maybe it would help if they spoke Portuguese!