A few weeks ago there was a story about GM playing chicken with the Swedish government over the future of Saab. I never saw the outcome. Do they still exist?

Yes. Although they’ve nothing in their range worth buying!

LOL

Funnily enough they are doing some cracking discounts just now…

Are they as good value as a Rover 75 now then?

In the intrests of balance best car I’ve owned is a Saab 93 estate
OK, I’ve only had 20 years worth of Vauxhall company cars…but still the Saab 93 is definitely not a Vectra rebadged

Yup, it’ll say Hyundai next year 😛

More GM mismanagement.

Heres the latest: saab files for bankruptcy

And: GM Having there cake and eating it

So basically they are separating the company allowing it to sink or swim on its own but still want to take advantage of its innovative technology. Even if someone does want to buy the company they will be saddled with a completely biased tech sharing agreement.

I think its a shame when an innovative and different car company is taken over by a company like GM.

Saab was always seen as a prestige brand. Being under the umbrella of “general” motors just takes away the individuality of the marque.

What would of happened if GM had never been involved I wonder…..

If GM hadn’t been involved earlier then Saab would have gone bust in the last century, like Land Rover, Jaguar and Volvo would have done as well if Ford hadn’t bought them.

You’re prob right there tbh.

I just think Saabs used to be cool, but can’t get excited about the vauxhall ones. Thats not to say they aren’t good cars though.

I was just about to post a wanted ad in the classifieds for a 07 9-3 and I wont offer more than 2 grand (sorry).

Its doing a Swedish Rover 😆

If you think about it GM also saved Lotus, and Ford saved Aston Martin so they can’t be all that bad can they?
Unlike BMW.

Unlike BMW? Didnt they sink alot of money into Rover before they realised the main part wasnt a viable business? They even gave a £400m loan to the 3 greedy chunts.

And now Proton have “saved” Lotus

My Saab still exists, I can see it from the living room window.

’96 900 bought for £850 a couple of years ago and running like at wee clock at 121,000 miles.

Im quite glad car companies are going bust. Is this not the market telling them that most people have a car, its still working and they dont actually need to change it for reasons of fashion. We have dug enough rescources out of the planet already, making more cars than we need and then convincing us to buy new ones is just daft.

Im sorry people have lost jobs, but in the long run we stand to loose more if we keep on making cars no one actually needs that much.

Trimix speaks alot of sense. Its what the Governments wanted pre-recession however they couldnt think it through clearly. Did they think we would all buy brand new hydro-cars annually as well?

More need to go, buying a new car every year is crackers and the governments proposed scheme to get everyone into newer cars to save manufacturing jobs is ioditic.

My Saab still exists too. It’s a 2001 9-3 SE TID close to 150000miles and I think Trimix speaks sense. It’s a fact that a new car would use less fuel, pump out less CO2 etc but that would mean dumping this one, with all its plastics, oils and metals. I wonder sometimes where the balance lies.

Trimix,is dead right. There are too many car manufacturers,making too many cars and especially too many different “types” of cars. Niche markets,soft roaders blah,blah blah. A Ford Focus(or equivalent) is all most of us need.

Lammy, my dad always said his gun metal grey sabb 900 turbo with those later aero alloys was his most favourite car.

I’ve just parked my 1998 146,000 mile Saab 9.5 SE in the garage.

I hope it’s still there in the morning otherwise Mrsjova is walking to work.

“In the intrests of balance best car I’ve owned is a Saab 93 estate
OK, I’ve only had 20 years worth of Vauxhall company cars…but still the Saab 93 is definitely not a Vectra rebadged”

Ah so you have driven one of the worse brands of car for 20 years, and then moved up to a car based on said worsed brand of car, you would hope they could improve on it slightly for charging more money for bascially the same car!

They might be mechanical marvels, but god they’re ugly!

Big SAAB van myself – have had 900’s, 900 turbos and a new 93 Sportswagen – last year downgraded to old 1998 900 – 50k on the clock and as good as new!

GM have a lot to answer for, for what they did to SAAB but my understanding is that SAAB is now under the jurisdiction of the Swedish courts with (I think) a month or so to sort itself out!

I heard that new models are on the cards but not sure if it’s too little, too late. GM progessively downgraded the marque to the Vauxhall Vectra hybid nonsense we see today.

Still a great car company tho’

Ah so you have driven one of the worse brands of car for 20 years, and then moved up to a car based on said worsed brand of car,

FFS! an Audi is more of a rebaged Skoda than a Saab is a rebadged Vauxhall.

the only things common to both the vectra and the 9-3/9-5 share is the GM2900 platform (and later the Epsilon platform for the 9-3 and vectra) and a few of the engine hoses

other than that – suspension mountings, petrol engines, interiors are all SAAB.

The good thing that’ll come out of this?…….a reborn and smaller Saab, quirky, interesting and different. Sorry post-98 you can throw them all out of the window. No offence to anyone (after all taste is subjective), when the 93 sportswagon first came out I test drove one, its not connected to the road and it was an indifferent experience. Same with the 95 Aero I testdrove- great for motorways (read straight lines). Again ‘vague’.

They arent petrolhead cars, true you can enthuse about the engines of the Aero additions etc but the rest, well. Plus the recommended oil changes every 4-5,000miles to avoid sludging WTF?! Then theres the 1.9 diesel from Fiat.

Same with the 95 Aero I testdrove- great for motorways (read straight lines). Again ‘vague’.”

eh?

yes great on the motorways (in fact it excels at crossing continents with the minimum of fuss, in comfort), but i do enjoy throwing it through the twisties (it was great fun on a trackday at Oulton Park – and the brakes held up far better than the BMW/Vauxhall/Audi equivalents who where coming in after 2 or 3 laps with cooked brakes. where as the saab was still stopping fine after 5 or 6 laps when i came in)

It does need a particular driving technique to get the best out of it – but i would suggest that if its feeling vauge – then i would be looking at what tyres are on it, and getting the aligment checked.

dont actually need to change it for reasons of fashion

People don’t change cars for fashion but for desire. I don’t give a rat’s arse about what everyone else is driving but I still like new cars. Just like bikes really.

Btw I like the idea of their TTDi twin turbo diesel thing.

Lord Summerisle ‘cushioned’ (noise reduction etc) is probably the right word. I definitely wouldnt track day one either and most certainly not an Audi.

I had a ’90 900 16v. 160000 miles on the clock and the engine oil was still clean. I only ever saw that once before on my folks Corniche.

95 turbodiesels are very fast. I was caught speeding on the A9 in my Legacy by an unmarked grey eatate. It didnt help that I overtook it! Feds saw the funny side.

I think its a shame when an innovative and different car company is taken over by a company like GM.

Saab was always seen as a prestige brand. Being under the umbrella of “general” motors just takes away the individuality of the marque.

What would of happened if GM had never been involved I wonder…..

SAAB haven’t made a profit in over 20 years, its the reason it was sold to GM in the 1st place. All GM have done is prolong its death…

Autocar recently ran a piece entitled ‘marques facing extinction’ with Subaru in there as ‘they had made their first loss since 1994’ (LOL)- they put Saab and Volvo ahead which I found hilarious. Mind you Autocar have a very ‘UK-view’ of the world. Idiots.