SaabsUnited.com

This one is strange.
It does have the words “perennial loss maker” in it, but like here, they’re in quotation marks rather than as a judgment. This could be the first US-published article about Saab in a long time that looks at the whole picture.
The big question is – why did it take so long?
You can read the Detroit News article here.
Whilst it’s US-published, the article is written by Neil Winton, a writer for the DetNews based in England.
Finally, someone looks at what we know of Saab’s business model and concedes that it has merit. Finally, someone indicates that Koenigsegg had some great technology to contribute and that the deal had some merit. Finally, someone looks at Saab’s coming model range and indicates that sales could rise reasonably quickly.
This is all stuff that’s been reported on Saab sites for ages.
What’s happened is that finally, someone in the mainstream motoring press has taken the time to really look at what’s going on with Saab and write about it, rather than parrot-fashion regurgitation of a news clip from Reuters.
It’s not all rosy, but it’s realistic and it looks at the facts as we know them.
Congratulations to Mr Winton and I hope some of the other mainstream press offices in the US can follow your lead.
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On another note, I’ve been a little disappointed by some of the larger motoring blogs not covering the iwontbuyfromgm.com campaign.
I sent an email directly to one of Autoblog’s writers rather than using the tips page, and still there’s nothing.
The blogs were little guys once, too, and I’d have thought that a story of fans rallying to help a beloved brand would have been of interest to them and their readers. This is the heart of motoring fandom, yet it’s not worthy of coverage by them?
The only question I can think of is whether or not their invitations to GM events would stop flowing if they published it. Maybe a dent in their ad revenue?
My thanks go to the sites that have covered the campaign.

A bunch of news sites (here’s DN.se), probably all using the Swedish TT news service, are today quoting that GM’s original deadline for a deal (December 31) has been extended out to January 7, 2010.
The TT news service quotes as coming from Victory Muller, as spoken to Reuters.

The deadline for business between Spyker and the GM who first translated to 31 December has now been moved forward. It was confirmed on Wednesday, according to Reuters news agency referring to Spykers CEO Victor Muller.

So we wait another week……

I’ve been out this evening (20/20 cricket) and only recently got back and caught up. Lots of news tonight, so posts will be coming thick and fast.

Many of the links are already in comments, but they need to be front-page as well.

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The first bit of good news is that the iwontbuyfromgm.com website has now crossed the 4,000 comment mark.

The even better news is that the press release is now being picked up by news services, the first of note being the Oakland Press. This is significant as it’s right under GM’s nose in Detroit. Oakland was going to be the new home of Saab Cars North America (and may still be).

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The bad news is that with this story out there, it’s possibly going to bring in a few people who’ll basically be coming along for a fight. They’ll be trolling. We’ve already had our first one leave a couple of comments earlier today.

Let these people be. I’ll be policing comments pretty hard over the next few days just to combat this. Today’s troll got through because I’m pretty sure I know who he is (you’re an established web user at a popular GM site and should know better) and I want to deal with what he said in a future post – in a respectful way.

Newbie trolls will not be trollerated (yes, it’s a new word I just made up). Don’t feed them, just leave them be and I’ll delete their stuff as it comes. I have no time for people who aren’t part of this community and just turn up with the purpose of upsetting people.

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GM – The spotlight is on.

We’re doing our little bit. It’s good to see that those with the resources and contacts to do more are starting to do so.
From Swedish Radio:
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The union at Saab will contact the U.S. government for reviving negotiations on Saab’s future.
- We have decided to do everything we can for this to be as good as possible. We want to know that when this is over, no matter how it ends, we have done our very best, “said Stefan Löfven, president of IF Metall.
IF Metall, The Union, and Swedish engineers are trying to contact the U.S. government to influence negotiations on Saab’s future. The U.S. government is, since the financial crisis started, the majority shareholder in GM.
Exactly who the union will talk to and what will be said, Stefan Löfven will not reveal. He thinks that it is reasonable to try to get help from the U.S. government to influence GM to actually sell Saab and not close it.
- The market determines. Hopefully it will be a business deal. What we want to point out is that if a buyer can finance the deal they have to put their best foot forward and actually do so. It is also about the thousands of people’s jobs.
Do GM want to sell Saab?
- I assume it but nothing is certain and that is why it is so important that GM actually eliminates any doubt, “said Stefan Löfven, IF Metall chairman.
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My thanks to Magnus W for the translation.