Bye Bye Saab! :(

[iCraig]

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

Although I think the death knell sounded along time ago, when GM bought in 1989!

[Fisty]

How sad, I really like saabs. 900 turbo is my fave by far.
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[Carl_steveo]

It's quite sad really, but what can you do.
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[silky666]

My old 9000 CSE Turbo was a legend.
Solid, Never went wrong, and so tatty and big that no one ever messed with me.
Inside it had all the mod cons (which were advanced and top spec on its day) ... elec heated seats and windows, climate control (not simple air con), cruise, the lot.

Bought it for £500 .... put 50,000 miles on it ... sold it with 180,000 for £300
Still miss it ... and been thinking of getting another old one.

aaaaah! many a good time grinding down the sides of new mercs and bmw's .. as they try to cut in a line of traffic ... good times !

https://www.gnetagalten.se/images/00040/0/saab-9000-cse-2,0-t-150.jpg
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[mistergixer]

Shame to see them go, but they haven't really done anything 'new' or innovative for a while now - i think that their reliance on GM platforms has been a major factor in their own demise.
Probably circa 1980, my next door neighbour had a Saab 99 Turbo - compared with my dad's Mk4 Cortina, it looked unusual and slightly exotic to a 5 year old kid:

https://www.saab99turbo.co.uk/99turbo.jpg

However, there must be something about Saabs, as everyone i know who has owned a Saab, has always carried on buying Saabs. For example, my old next-door-neighbour traded in his 99 Tubby for a 900 Tubby (which, co-incidentally, is probably the last decent car Saab made).
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Saab_900_3door.jpg
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[Paivi]

Good riddance, a bloody useless car.
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[Carl_steveo]

I was there was a rating for talking shit about a subject they won't ever understand because they were born the wrong gender.
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[Paivi]

[map]

Sad news for a classic marque.

As said above the rot set in when they became Vectras in drag (Vauxhall Vectra with a different body). Ripped the soul out of the cars.

Looks like Volvo may go the same way. Although the Focus chassis based Volvos have a good reputation although there's the feel of something missing (says more for the originalFocus design).
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[Faldo]

[iCraig]

[Kickstart]

Hi

One thing that article mentioned is that Saab have been losing their fanatical customer base. They have made their cars more generic over the years to try and expand their customer base but instead have mainly succeeded is loosing their existing customer base.

Interesting that one of those who had a Saab that they loved had a 9000. This was a joint venture with Fiat / Lancia and Alfa (Alfa was still independent at the time), and underneath it is a Fiat Croma / Lancia Thema / Alfa 164. Possibly shows that sometimes sharing a platform isn't that bad.

However similar has happened recently. The current Alfa 159 (and Brera) is based on a platform whose development was shared with Saab. Result has been (for Alfa) a badly overweight car that has suffered in sales because of it (so overweight that the 2.2 litre petrol version appears underpowered, rediculous for something Mondeo size, when the 156 it replaced went well enough on a 1600 engine).

I am not surprised that the deals GM were trying fell through. I really don't see Koenigsegg or Spyker as having any kind of management or engineering skills that Saab do not already have, and certainly not the money to pour in that GM had. If someone was to buy them then I suspect it would need to be someone like Renault / Nissan or Fiat.

All the best

Keith
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[Moonie]

Koenigsegg (sp) were planning on taking over Saab at one point, shame we'll never see what wierd and wonderful creations that could have produced...
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[Ed Case]

I had a Saab 900i 5 door for some years, beautiful. GM killed the brand when they took the Swedish-ness out of it and tried to flog the world tarted-up Astras and Vectras and they were rubbish. R.I.P.