Letter from a Saab dealer to The Koenigsegg Group

Nice one Darryl. I know my dealer here would feel exactly the same. Thanks for posting Swade. As ever SAAB is grass-roots stuff. Bring on the innovation, reliably of course.

BTW: My previous dealer still 'sells' SAAB but is building a brand-new state-of-the-art AUDI showroom within a few metres of the SAAB section of their GM showroom. I wonder if they will service the AUDIs in the GM workshop as they do SAABs. Anyway shows how well SAAB has gone for them, and they were SAAB dealer of the year a while back. Good lucj to them anyway.

It's this kind of commitments that makes it so great being part of the Saab community. I am sure the new leadership will take it to their hearts, because at the end you are the ones that counts. Thanks for your posting and good luck to you there at New Salem Saab.

Hello again Darryl - hope you get great XWD models in time to sell for what will undoubtedly be another brutal NY snow belt winter!

Thanks Darryl. I couldn't have said it better. We are celebrating our 41st year as an exclusive Saab dealer. This paragraph says it all:

"It is imperative you know the exclusive Dealers in the United States have hung on waiting for this type of possible dream solution. We, the exclusive dealers of the States, are so committed to Saab, its engineering, safety and potential, profit and loss seems to be second over the love of the brand"

I couldn't agree more. The future definitely looks bright thanks to our new owner.

Thank you Koenigsegg Group, if there's anything my dealership can do to help with the transition let us know.

Kevin Brewer
President/Owner/General Manager
Brewer's Saab Inc
Maugansville, Md
301-739-0420
www.brewers-saab.com
kwbrewer@myactv.net

Amen to that! As a Saab owner this is the kind of dealer I want to support! I hope these guys can all hang on for the new models and that the new models are great.

Wow, that's real passion! The kind of passion Saab needs to rise again. I sure hope the new owners read Darryl's letter.

Here in OZ I would be interested to hear how the OZ dealers feel
GB

I hope that your dreams come true Darryl. I also hope that a lot of other Saab dealers do the same thing and write to the new team because they have stuck in there waiting for a result, and what a result! The new owners seem to appreciate what they are buying into, but get confirmation from the dealerships (they have plenty of owner appreciation show on this site) won't harm them one bit. It has been a long time coming, but with the stats that Steve has been showing for the sales figures, these guys need something pretty quickly or they won't be able to wait.

Thanks Darryl for your words, I was half expecting you to write "My twin boys Turbo and Viggen" but that aside....
I think you are not alone as a long standing dealership that has stood the test of time and supported the brand through good and bad. This new era for SAAB will see the company returning to what made them so special in the past.

Darryl I hope Koenigsegg help provide some products that bring in heaps of customers!

Well said Darryl!

I had the "opportunity" to be a SAAB sales manager back for a brief period in the late '80s, when I needed employment while the airline I worked for was on an extended strike.

The store was a part of a Chevrolet/Oldsmobile dealership on the east end of Long Island, New York. When I say that the owners could have cared less about SAAB, I am making a gross understatement. When I started there, they had NEW cars on the lot that were TWO model years old! They were spending somewhere north of USD$15,000.00 per month on advertising for the Chevy/Olds store, which was fine, yet screamed bloody murder when I spent USD$1,000.00 one month. However, my 1k was reaching people in a six state area, whereas theirs was used only in the local area. As a result, I was able to sell the ALL of the old stock in a matter of months. Did I get any thanks for that? Well you all know the answer to that one.

I had customers come in to the store who said they had been driving past the place for YEARS, and never even knew it existed, until they had seen my two line add in the Sunday New York Times. Truly tragic.

Their interest in the SAAB store was so bad, I told the area SAAB rep, after about eighteen months of frustration, that SAAB should pull the franchise from these clowns, as they had absolutely no interest in the brand. I quit the job, and within six months SAAB did just that! A very rare occurrence when a manufacturer pulls a franchise. I am now an IT manager for a large university, but do miss the excitement I had selling a brand that I was, and still am, very passionate about.

One of the friends I made along the way was another SAAB dealer/salesman, who was the number one SAAB salesman in the US for decades. He and I became fast friends, and remain so to this day. I had made a verbal promise to him to sell him one of my two year old “new” cars, then had a chance to sell it myself, yet did not, because of my word to him. He was flabbergasted that a fellow car salesman would do such a thing. I told him that I have given him my word, and that was that. The car was his. Twenty plus years later, he is still giving my wife and me serious discounts on automobiles.

His name shall remain nameless, as he is still in the automobile business as an owner, just not with SAAB any more. That came about only recently, however, and NOT something he really wanted to do. His store was a part of a Lincoln/Mercury dealership in a very affluent area. (Those of you current long time SAAB dealers, carefully following along, will probably know of whom I refer. :-)) He was, and I assume still is, very passionate about SAAB, but because of some terrible treatment from GM (surprised?), such as being charged MORE for cars from the factory because he didn’t have a standalone SAAB store, and the fact that it shared space with a Ford store, he finally threw in the towel. He just got too much crap from GM. I haven’t had the chance to speak with him regarding Koenigsegg, but am looking forward to our conversation.

I too share the excitement of Darryl, and am looking forward to new and exciting products that will hopefully emerge from the partnership.

Ted Sneed

Very interesting letter. I wonder if Koenigsegg knows what a valuable thing they purchased in U.S.A.?? They have purchased a dealership network that can sell and actually fix their cars.

If we contrast that with what Fiat brought..a series of Chrysler/Dodge dealers that haven't seen a Fiat since the late 1960's or 70s.

While some people buy a car based on brand reputation and magazine reviews, some buy a car with some forethought of "where will I get this fixed later". I can't tell you how many of my friends with Honda's are surprised when:

a.) Something breaks on the car (Oh, my Honda is not suppose to ever need brakes?).

b.) The mega-giant Honda dealer service department is
crowded, scary, and hectic place where their car will
be given about as much attention as the ones driving past it.

I think SAAB and Koenigsegg should move quickly to bring us some long needed products and service to the U.S.

I was just at my local SAAB dealer yesterday and they are extremely excited about the sale. They want to go so far as to get a CCX and put it in the middle of the showroom. They can't wait to get their hands on the new line. And just while I was there, a customer was buying a Turbo-X. Hw as actin like a kid in a candy store.

Thanks Darryl for the support and letter,just hang in there,good time are on its way.

happy midsummers eve to you:)

No bigger smiles can be found than on the faces of the long-suffering and neglected standalone Saab dealer principals. The end of the twenty year "association" with GMNA is thankfully winding down.

I still curse and shake my head when I see a NG clutch cable or a V6, but that too will pass. The future does hold great promise and Im confident that K-Saab will reexamine some things that GM seemed to overlook.

The first should be easy. Clean diesel/biodiesel technology is a market area that is being persued by all the German manufacturers and could be a part of a new Saab US strategy as well. Trust me...50-something guys(or gals) driving diesel Jettas are looking for ANY alternative.

Second is electric/hybrid/belt-alternator-starter tech. Koenigsegg has indicated they want to head in this general direction and this would be a fantastic growth opportunity.

If anybody can make 150K units a year work, K and Saab could and should.

Karen,

Sadly no, my screen name makes me appear to be Reinertsen but alas I am only another long time customer of them. It didn't dawn on me how the name appears until I have already been postinhg here.
Been using it on saabnet for years without thought.
I certainly didn't mean to represent a dealer on any discussions.

I purchased my 2003 9-5 from Saab of Edison who lost their franchise last year or the year before.
But I alway knew I would take it to Reinertsen and my local indy. I had looked at some Audis but couldn't imagine getting better support for one.

Sadly my wife had not gotten another volvo as there were very few dealers and places to get them worked on. But we see many of them. I suppose tehre are many Audi places now.

RMinNJ: ah, mystery solved. Yes, Reinertsen is superb for Saab service. Will spare the global readership a New Jersey geography lesson, but there is also JMK Saab (and BMW) dealer in Springfield on Rte 22 since 1979. Effectively creating a 'Saab envelope' around prime Saab socio-economic demographics.

GOOD MORNING DARRYL: THOROUGHLY ENJOYED "MEETING" YOU ON THE 'PHONE LAST FRIDAY. ONLY WISH WE HAD KNOWN EACH OTHER DURING MY CRANBERRY BOG ERA ON WOLF ROAD........IF SO, MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH SAAB WOULD CERTAINLY HAVE STARTED LONG AGO. AS IT WERE, MY WIFE BOUGHT HER FIRST SAAB 9-3 IN 2003( HER 5 CHILDREN FINALLY OLD ENOUGH SO NO LONGER A NEED FOT STATION WAGON, SUBURBAN ETC.) AND SHE WANTED A FUN TO DRIVE CAR. SURPRISE, SURPRISE.......I CAUGHT THE PASSION ALMOST IMMEDIATELY! JUST TRADED THE '03 FOR A NEW '08 9-3 AERO. WE BOTH LOVE THIS SAAB AND SHARE YOUR PASSION FOR THE NEW OWNERSHIP GROUP AND THE FUTURE OF THIS GREAT BRAND. AN INITIAL PROBLEM WITH THE COOLANT SYSTEM(AS WE DISCUSSED) HOPEFULLY NOW FIXED. IF NOT, I THINK I'LL HAVE TO DRIVE TO ALBANY TO VISIT OLD FRIENDS, MEET YOU & HAVE OUR NEW SAAB SERVICED. YOUR PASSION IS REAL & CONTAGIOUS. THANKS AGAIN

I was the number one SAAB salesperson in the U.S at the number #1 SAAB store in the country which is SAAB of Troy in Troy, Michigan so I was curious what years the person who was not in Michigan which leads the country in SAAB sales was the number #1 salesman. SAAB of Troy and Glassman SAAB (Southfield, MI) sold hundreds of SAAB's every month, the only other person in our region that would be at the top of the list was a guy named Andrew I believe from somewhere in NJ and no one else would even be close, individually I sold more cars some months than entire stores did. I left Michigan in 2008 and I currently drive a SAAB Aero convertible I absolutely love so I hope they can get it together it is a great brand!!