TROLLHÄTTAN, Sweden—Cash-strapped Swedish car maker Saab Automobile declared itself bankrupt Monday, nine months after halting production due to a lack of funds. Former owner General Motors had objected to potentially life-saving investment from Chinese partners. Saab Automobile said GM's refusal to approve a rescue plan with China's Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. Ltd. had forced it to file for bankruptcy, the Swedish company said. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204791104577107812414053178.html
Finally - this has been like a soap opera for the last 6 months. A loved one on its death bed, foreign suitors (the Chinese), the cranky old lover (GM), and even hints of the Russian Mob. Growing up in Cambridge MA Saabs used to be everywhere. In fact so many families were either a Saab or a Volvo family - we were a Volvo family and I alway lusted after a Saab. Shame on GM for bleeding the company dry for so many years.
RIP too bad they had some unorthodox engineering ideas (well hated by my mechanic). I wonder who is holding patents to variable compression block design
Real Saabs were great cars until GM infected them with their crappy engineering. GM walks away from almost 100 Billion in obligations, mooches off of the taxpayer because they can't manage their business and then leave Saab in the lurch because of licensing issues for their boring cars. Wait until everyone gets tired of seeing Orgami Cadillacs and that cash cow drys up on them. Deja Vu all over again.
I'm Saabbing in my beer as I type this. Farewell Saab, say hello to Edsel when you see him! :Cry: :violin:
Its a sad story. Bad management by saab forced it to sell out to gm. Bad management of saab by gm bankrupted it. GM owns the patents, and the saab technology is why gm blocked the sale. GM did not want to compete with something it owned, so it would rather flush the company down the tubes, than allow a competitor to be successful with it.
Sad day for the car industry. I loved Saab for their quirky designs and fabulous seats. (Well there's always Volvo seats now)
you maybe onto something with this one. I remember reading about SAAB's variable compression block design a decade ago. It allowed to go from 14:1 to 8:1 in 0.2sec.. basically design a small engine with small engine efficiency and turbo power when needed [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_Variable_Compression_engine[/ame]
Woah! Saab suspends all warranty coverage, cars to be sold as-is If you look at the memo, it sucks to be a current owner who still has err... had warranty coverage.
Saab USA still looking for ways to honor warranties The quote from Saab Survivor's Guide - Edmunds.com is both scary and funny... Uhh... nobody's going to want to pay full MSRP on a vehicle w/such uncertainties now, esp. on models that had $12K in incentives the day before. I suspect there are going to be some very unhappy dealers stuck w/unwanted inventory until this is sorted out. http://blogs.insideline.com/straigh...mullers-post-bankruptcy-press-conference.html says
Where is Saab's current owner Swedish Automobile formerly Spyker Cars in all this mess? Would the GM that owned Saab be old GM A.K.A. Motors Liquidation Co.? If it is old GM are they not a non entity now, how is it they could wreck the sale to the Chinese Co.? [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_Automobile]Swedish Automobile - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] "Old GM" quietly dead and buried - Autoblog http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204791104577107812414053178.html
