End Of The Road For Saab?Posted on Monday, January 4 2010 by Greg in category Spare Parts More bad news for the motoring industry before Christmas as it appeared Saab would finally be going down after all. The writing had been on the wall for the luxury car maker for some time, with chronic underinvestment from parent company GM resulting in a series of sub-standard models since the 90s, leading to a loss of confidence in the brand while other luxury manufacturers screamed ahead. Increasing costs from inefficient production processes and difficulties modifying existing Vectra parts for the 9-3 served to even further reduce future interest from GM HQ. Saab was then pimped out to various other European manufacturers in a series of poorly considered partnerships, eventually being left in the farcical position of supplying cars to the US from a manufacturing base in Sweden.
 
However the amount of suitors Saab has managed to court recently shows the level of respect many still have for the badge. Spyker was the most recent of these, with the suspected aim of using Saab's expertise on the forthcoming S-SUV Spyker D8. Unfortunately with this deal now also falling through, it appears that Saab will be sold off in parts as GM continues its downsizing process, with rumours abound that some facilities may be rolled over in to producing Land Rover Discovery parts. Fortunately the D8 project is still scheduled to continue. |
