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by Swade

Vladimir Antonov in SVD.se news today

January 26, 2011 in News

It’s January 26, the first anniversary of Spyker signing the agreement to buy Saab from GM.

SVD.se are celebrating the anniversary by having a punt. They’re betting the anniversary brings about some news about Saab’s ownership structure. Antonov hinted that there could be some news in this regard and he pointed to January 26 as a notable date where something might come about. As a consequence, SVD.se are covering Vladimir Antonov in depth today.

Article 1 – Saab needs Russian money

You know the drill – sales are down and Saab are under pressure so having Antonov on board could be the financial tonic that Saab needs.

This is the introduction article, inviting readers to take a closer look at Spyker Cars and Antonov himself.

Article 2 – Ownership structure of Spyker Cars

SVD.se look at the ownership structure of Spyker, trying to connect various dots and place Antonov in the shadows where they can’t put a name to an ownership figure.

For his part, Antonov says….

Neither I nor any of my companies have involvement in the Spyker/Saab. Unfortunately.

That’s a Googletrans and by involvement, I think it’s referring to ownership.

SVD.se tie him to investment funds that lend or otherwise financially back the formal big-stake owners, namely:

  • Gemini investment fund – ownership unknown – 11.9%
  • Tenaci – 51% owned by Victor Muller, 49% by un-named shareholder – 27%
  • Dorwing Solution – owned by a Brendan O’Toole, who owns the company that manufactures for Spyker in England – 7%
  • Mubadala – Abu Dhabi investment company – 22%

SVD.se imply financial connections between the first three of those groups.

Article 3 – Profile of Vladimir Antonov

The final article is a timeline-style profile of Antonov’s career. It’s unfortunate that they leave off his 2010 tilt at the Midnight Sun Rally with the SUHRT (though they do have a photo of him and his car in the second article) :-)

——

Will there be any news today?

I don’t know for sure, but from brief contacts I’ve made today, I’m not expecting anything. Not from Saab’s side, at least.

What Mr Antonov decides to say is completely up to him.

–

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by Swade

Saab Sport Video: Masters at the wheel

January 26, 2011 in Uncategorized

Mellde, Molander, Carlsson, Moss, Skogh, Blomqvist, Eklund, Lampinen. Monte Carlo, RAC, Swedish Rally, Finnish Rally, Liege-Sofia-Liege, Midnight Sun – even a stint in Australia! Swedes, Finns and the odd bit of English. Two strokers, formula juniors, V4s and 99s. Snow and Safari.

The Saab Club Nederland YouTube channel has just blessed the rest of us with this fantastic video from the Saab Rally Department, documenting Saab’s rally history through the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s.

It’s absolutely brilliant. If you can’t watch them now, bookmark them and come back.

Kudos to the SCN guys. An outstanding catch.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKxRiP2RLQs

–

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEjYkweyCPE

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by Swade

Wednesday Snippets – Australia Day Edition

January 26, 2011 in Saabology

It’s a national public holiday downunder.

Time for the annual “eat lamb on Australia Day” ad…… and this year, all of Europe is invited to shed it’s UnAustralianism and join us.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C89osd7Eic

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The Saab Independence commemoration in Dallas has been run and DONE!

There’s a great photo gallery here. Wonderful to see people getting together to celebrate.

——

I’ve written before on Bob Lutz’s tirades against beancounters at GM and the need to build the best product a company possibly can.

GM’s most recent products have benefitted from this approach. As much as I dislike Cadillacs, the new CTS range has received rave reviews and much of it is down to this commitment to quality of design and execution.

Autoblog have a great post from John McElroy today, talking about a secret weapon that Lutz employed in developing these cars – a group of motoring journalists.

It’s a very worthwhile read. Maybe Saab should get some British journos on the phone….

——

This is a great photo, dug up from some US national archives by Hemmings.

Check out the Hemmings post for the background and some thoughts on it. Great work by Mark McCourt.

——

Next Monday is D-day for my Monte Carlo upgrades.

I took the car in yesterday for a quick look because there was an unexplained noise in the front end. Turned out to be just a front end brace that needed tightening and the difference it’s made with that brace properly torqued is just fantastic.

The work should be finished on Tuesday and I can’t wait!

–

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by Swade

Free Shipping at State of Nine until January 31

January 26, 2011 in sponsors

Just a quick note…..

Site sponsor, State of Nine, is running a Free Shipping offer from now until January 31st.

The offer is available to all Continental US orders over $50 and International orders over $499 (and if you’ve priced international shipping on some stuff, you’ll know that’s a pretty decent offer).

My own personal winter recommendation would be the custom floor mats they offer – a huge range of custom options that will protect your interior in the winter months.

They also do a great range of Thule accessories, clothing, books, car covers and more.

My thanks to Dan for his continued support of SU through State of Nine.

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by Swade

Update – Hirsch in the US and Canada

January 26, 2011 in Saabology

There are a couple of updates to be posted following yesterday’s publication of a Hirsch dealer list for the United States.

Timing

People should note that Hirsch won’t be available in the US until the second quarter of 2011. A more exact date is not known. The publication of a preliminary dealer listing doesn’t mean it’s available now.

The reason why it will take until Q2 is that certain equipment is needed to do the software updates and they’re trying to secure adequate supply and distribution before things get underway.

Completeness

As mentioned, the list was a preliminary list and in fairness, it was too early to place it online. It had a good list of Saab dealers, but there are more who are very likely to jump on board (it’s a dealer’s choice as to whether they opt in).

Hopefully a complete list will become available in Q2.

Canada

Questions were asked in comments to that post about availability in Canada and whether or not Canadians can go south of the border, get tuned and still be covered by warranty. From what I’ve heard, the answer is “No” to that particular scenario….. BUT……

The good news is that SCNA are currently working with Transport Canada and plan to launch Hirsch products there (no timeframe given) and of course, they’ll be covered by warranty there just like everywhere else.

–

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by Swade

Till’s Saab adventure

January 25, 2011 in Saabology

Till72 is a SU regular living in Germany. He owns a Saab 9-3x and pretty soon, he’ll be heading off to the Saab Ice Experience for a bit of ice driving and ice hotelling.

Prior to all that, though, he’s been having a few more localised adventures. This is what he’s been doing.

——

Driving a couple of 9-5s, including one owned by Rene Hirsch

Early in the morning, last Wednesday, I was heading towards Sankt Gallen, Switzerland to get a new goodie for my Saab 9-3x. This alone would have been exciting enough but in addition I had a special appointment that day.

But first, I have to rewind a little…..

A week earlier my dealer was kind enough to leave his Aero6 to me for two days so I could get a proper impression. One night I took a ride on a route I often take, in normal life and when I test drive a car. It’s a small winding road with some hills, some serpentines and at the end a few kilometres of Autobahn. The Turbo6 was super impresive – not for a single moment did I feel that the 9-5 was underpowered when accelerating out of the curves or overtaking. XWD and drive sense do a great job and I had it to “intelligent” all the time. I even tried to overdo it a bit in some occasions but nothing really could ruffle the car.

As I got on the Autobahn, I had no traffic ahead (it was quite late) and the road there is absolutely straight so I kicked the pedal down and the 9-5 accelerated eagerly until the HUD showed 252. I lifted my foot a little as there were some bends ahead (I’m a bit shy when I’m driving someone elses car), which I took at 240 without feeling unsecure for a second. To prevent comments about going that fast on public roads: I was literally alone on the Autobahn at that time.

I came away with a very good impression of the Aero V6, which was useful as I had another V6 to drive the next week :-)

That brings me back to the trip to Switzerland. We had real Saab weather on that day. First sleet, then snow, then sleet again. As I crossed the Swiss border it was snowing heavily, one of those days when you’re even especially happy that you’re in a Saab.

As I arrived at Hirsch’s service area, I handed over my car keys and Manfred from Hirsch and I went up to the dealership where René Hirsch handed us the keys to his personal Saab 9-5 Aero V6. I can tell you that I was pretty excited getting the chance to drive Mr Hirsch’s own car. So with Manfred as navigator I went for a spin through that heavy snow…

I had expected that this test drive would be somehow slower than the week before. Swiss law makes speeding quite expensive to start with. And with the weather, it was maybe the slowest test drive I’ve ever done (remember, I’m shy when I drive someone elses car). Nevertheless it was an excellent test for the handling under those conditions. On our trip we took small, hilly and winding roads and had at best up to 20cm of snow with ice underneath. We passed quite a few cars that could not get up the hills but XWD had absolutely no traction problems.

Towards the end of the test drive we had some clearer roads and I could experience the performance of the engine and the tweaked suspension a bit better. The car feels sportier than the standard version but is still comfortable. The 20“ wheels also play their role in improving handling and they look just awesome.

The extra kick in acceleration with that 330 hp/430Nm performance upgrade is the icing on the V6 cake. We went on the Swiss autobahn where I had the chance to feel acceleration up to some speed I won’t mention here but you can really feel the additional thirty horses. I would have loved to take it to top speed but I have no doubt that you can reach the 260 kph (electronic) limit.

It’s no secret that I’ve always been a fan of the Hirsch stuff. Now I am even more so, and I’d recommend the upgrade to Aero6 owners who’d like some extra driving pleasure.

Secretly I hope to get a chance to try that car again in dry conditions someday… :-)

As we came back to the dealership I took a look at the showroom which was filled with eight Saabs and ten Lamborghinis. Even though I am not a particular fan of Italian sportscars I have to admit that it’s much better if Saab is to share a showroom with Lamborghini than, for example, with Opel as it was quite often here in Germany.

I can predict quite a few comments as I write this and to those concerned about engine power, I say this: those 330 hp are well suited to the 9-5. Most people would even be fine with the 300 hp base version but those ten percent more power add more than ten percent of additional fun. Combine it with the tweaked suspension and the 20“ wheels and you’ve got a real sporty but comfortable car. It may not be enough to race a 911, but that’s not the purpose of a 9-5, is it?

Thanks again to Andi at Autohaus am Goetheplatz in Munich and René and Manfred at Hirsch for making these experiences possible.

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by Swade

Don’t try this at home

January 25, 2011 in Saabology

Achieved on a clear autobahn, by an experienced autobahn driver in his new Saab 9-5.

The display of this photo is not a challenge. It’s merely a statement of capability (and there was some left, too, but the car is still quite new). The car is a 9-5 Aero V6 with Hirsch tuning to 330hp.

The drive was a 500km drive to Berlin, during which the car averaged 11.3 litres per 100km.

Thanks to GerritV.

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by Swade

Saab 900 exhaust videos – love that sound!

January 25, 2011 in Uncategorized

One of the things I miss most about my old 1985 Saab 900 Aero is the sound. It sounded like a beast.

The car had a 3-inch exhaust system that used to scrape a little on our driveway as I backed in. That was a problem, but there’s no way in the world that I would have changed that exhaust because it provided the ultimate soundtrack.

Fooling around on YouTube earlier today, I came upon a few Saab 900 videos and it occurred to me that there are people out there who are relatively new to Saab, and may not have experienced the aural phenomenon that is the original Saab 900. For mine, it’s about as close to a V8 sound as you can get with just four cylinders (yet another example of Saab’s rightsizing :-) ).

Enjoy – and if you feel so inclined, go out and find one to preserve.

–

The music cuts just in time on this one….

–

–

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by Swade

USA Hirsch dealer listing

January 25, 2011 in News, Saabology

Hirsch recently loaded up the dealer listing for the United States on their website. As you can see, it’s a small selection of dealers, but most of the Saab-populated areas should find themselves with some coverage.

The Hirsch website’s listing seems to be sorted by the name of the town the dealership exists in. I’ve organised this one by state, which hopefully might give you a quicker reference.

UPDATE: Whilst this list does appear on the Hirsch website, since posting it here, I’ve been advised that it’s a preliminary listing and may not be a complete representation of dealers that will carry Hirsch products. More may opt-in in the near future.

Also note that Hirsch products won’t be available in the US until the second quarter of the 2011.

Thanks to Sapan for the tip.

——

California
Continental Motors, 617 South Coast Highway, Oceanside, CA-92054, Phone +1 760 722-1868

Connecticut
Mitchell Saab, 384 Hopmeadow Street, CT 06070-Simsbury, Phone +1 860 408-6065

Iowa
Meyer Garage, 2687-480th Street, IA 50455-McIntire, Phone +1 641 737-2239

Massachusetts
Charles River Saab, 570 Arsenal Street, MA 02472-Watertown, Phone +1 617 923-9230

Shaw Saab, 22 Pond Street, 22 Pond Street, MA 02061-Norwell, Phone +1 781 982-7222

128 Sales Inc., 614 North Avenue, MA 01880-Wakefield, Phone +1 781 224-3700

Hyannis Saab, 600 Yarmouth, MA 02601-Hyannis, Phone +1 508 760-2700

Pioneer Valley Sales & Service, P.O. Box 254, MA 01373-South Deerfield, Phone +1 413 665-2140

Maine
Stetson Auto Sales, 1174 Eastern Road Route 131, ME 04864-Warren, Phone +1 207 273-2345

O’Connor Saab of Augusta, 268 State Street, ME 04330-Augusta, Phone +1 207 622-6336

Michigan
Saab of Troy, 1819 Maplelawn, MI 48084-Troy, Phone +1 248 205-1333

Trio Motors, Inc., P.O. Box 190178, MI 48519-Burton, Phone +1 810 742-7250

Minnesota
Morries’s Cadillac – Saab, 7400 Wayzata Boulevard, MN 55426-Minneapolis, Phone +1 952 544-0096

Montana
Dana Saab, 2046 Grand Avenue, MT 59102-Billings, Phone +1 406 656-7654

New Jersey
Reinertsen Motors Inc., 295 Route #53, NJ 07834-Denville, Phone +1 973 627-0616

New York
Sports Car Centre of Syracuse, Ltd., 3105 Erie Blvd. East, NY 13214-Syracuse, Phone +1 315 446-5010

Checkpoint Foreign Car S&S Inc., 487 Kenmore Avenue, NY 14223-Buffalo, Phone +1 716 836-2033

Brownell Motors, Inc., P.O. Box 413, NY 12524-Fishkill, Phone +1 845 831-3000

Pennsylvania
Kunkle Motors, RR 1, P.O. Box 386, PA 18612-Dallas, Phone +1 570 675-1546

Virginia
International Motors Ltd., 540 S. Washington Street, VA 22046-Falls Church, Phone +1 703 534 0770

Vermont
P J’s Auto Village, 2073 Williston Road, VT 05403-South Burlington, Phone +1 802 862-0875

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by Red J

Something is going on in Austria

January 25, 2011 in Saabology

OK, Austria is not a big market for SAAB. In the years before 2006 Saab sold only about 450-500 cars per year.

Nevertheless Austria is showing the sales figures till the 20th of January, and I thought I could be interesting to see how Saab is performing, at least in Austria.

Let’s look at the previous Years.
Those are the total January Saab sales

- 2004 : 32
- 2005 : 32
- 2006 : 39
- 2007 : 16
- 2008 : 22
- 2009 : 10
- 2010 : 00

And in the first 20 day of 2011, Saab has already sold 16 cars in Austria.

I know that some of you will say that those numbers don’t say nothing, but 16 is also in-line with the last months of 2010, which means Saab is continuing in 2011 at the same level as at the end of 2010.

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by Red J

Press Release: Saab Automobile Launches New Engineering Structure

January 25, 2011 in News

• Shaping highly efficient and capable engineering organization
• New organization gears up for developing competitive future vehicle program

Trollhättan, Sweden: As it continues to establish itself as a successful independent premium car manufacturer, Saab Automobile today announced a new organizational structure for its engineering department. The new structure will optimize Saab Automobile’s ability to build competitive premium cars for the 21st century and allow the company to realize its ambition of creating one of the most efficient engineering organizations in the automotive industry.

Since becoming an independent company on February 23, 2010, Saab Automobile has worked intensively to revitalize its engineering department which until then was integrated in the General Motors structure. The new engineering organization is now well-equipped to support Saab Automobile’s extensive development program and current product offensive, with vehicle electrification and the successor to the current Saab 9-3 being two major focal points.

Announcing the new structure, Saab Automobile’s Executive Director Product Development Vehicle Mats Fägerhag said: “The car industry has changed immensely in recent years, as flexibility and sharing know-how have become keys to success. Virtual tools such as CAD and computer simulations have changed the way we work and have led to increased efficiencies and class-leading development times for new vehicles, as well as the need for a new mix of skills and competences within Engineering.

“The new engineering organization embodies the new way of working at Saab Automobile, for instance in the new highly advanced vehicle architecture we have developed for future Saab models. This architecture, on which the successor to the current 9-3 will be built, is based on a modular approach with a set of components and systems, as well as a bandwidth flexibility allowing it to serve multiple vehicle needs.”

The fresh approach within Engineering is also reflected in several strategic technology partnerships with parties such as BMW, Boston Power, American Axle Manufacturing and VICURA, while Saab Automobile is also sharing its engineering know-how with third parties.

In order to facilitate all this, Engineering is creating the right balance of skills and competences for the future through retraining, new hirings, internal redeployments, voluntary separation packages, specialist consultants and other ways. Going forward, the department will continue to improve this balance by hiring highly-skilled people and experts in key areas, which will be instrumental in developing and meeting customer demand for highly-competitive premium vehicles.
–
Red J here:

It seems like Saab is slowly throwing away all those GM structures that a small company like Saab doesn’t need, and is getting ready to play the game of the future, which means: No more isolated OEM’s, a OEM can also e a supplier or even a consultant, and sharing is the word of the game.
I think it is a bet against the point of view of those that think that only bigger is better.
GM failed, Toyota failed, Mercedes failed even trying, why should someone else succeed???

–
UPDATE:
TTela.se has an interview with Mr. Fägerhag on that.

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by Swade

Saab to kick off independence anniversary with US ad blitz

January 24, 2011 in News

The deal was closed in February 2010, but the initial deal to sell Saab to Spyker Cars was actually agreed on January 26th.

I’ve heard earlier today that it will be on this date in 2011 that Saab kick off a big advertising blitz in the United States, including:

  • Four straight days of significant ads in the Wall Street Journal
  • Ads on cable channels – Discovery, Food Network, NatGeo, History, Travel etc
  • Billboards in major US cities (kudos to all who talked about billboards a few months ago)

It’ll be interesting to see the content of the print and TV ads as they come online.

The good news is that this campaign is apparently scheduled to run until April. That’s a long time to tell a story. I trust they’re going to tell the right one.

I believe the update to the SaabUSA website is due to come online very soon, too, so it’s going to be very helpful to have these points of customer contact properly sorted.

Things are moving, people.

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by Swade

Saab aiming to cut weight in future cars

January 24, 2011 in News

Here’s an aspiration I can relate to…..

Ny Teknik has a report today, talking about Saab’s plans to reduce weight in future vehicles from between 20% to a massive 40%.

Cue the Googletrans:

The concept car which will be completed by summer 2013 will include solutions that make it possible to build cars 20 to 40 percent lighter than today. Without making major compromises elsewhere. Last fall, invited Saab therefore the Scandinavian suppliers to a workshop to reflect together on new solutions.

- We thought it would be difficult for suppliers that are competitors to cooperate in the forms, but it went really well, “says project leader Anders Holmkvist….

….The clear and specific goals will mean reduced weight. But another equally important part in the project according to Anna-Lena Björkstam, purchasing director for bilmaterial at Saab, cooperation with and between suppliers

it goes on to talk about Saab’s different practices now that Saab are out of the GM fold. They key point is the freedom that Saab now have to talk to supplies of their choosing, with goals of their choosing.

You don’t have to be Einstein to see the potential benefits of such substantial weight cuts. Reduced fuel consumption and emissions are obvious benefits. Cars of such weight, depending on the powerplant, could also be quite entertaining. The key will be maintaining ride comfort and safety.

I imagine the goal of putting these brains together is to figure out the solution to that question.

The whole thing sounds quite Saaby to me. Clever stuff. I really hope they get it done.

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by Swade

Screenshots – the 2011.5 Saab 9-3 front facelift

January 24, 2011 in News

You guys do this so fast in comments :-) Nevertheless, it should come to the front page.

Factory footage from the ‘Agenda’ story concerning Saab seems to have given us a first glimpse of the mild facelift to be made on the Saab 9-3 for the second half of the 2011 model year.

Here’s the money shot:

The red car in front appears to be the 2011.5 model. The grille at the front seems to be not quite as deep (though it could just be a perspective issue with the image – it’s pretty close to the outgoing model) and features a more prominent SAAB wordmark in the center, a-la the Saab 9-5.

Conveniently, it looks like there’s a non-facelifted 9-3 behind the red one so you can see the different openings in the bumpers, too.

Here’s a clearer image of a 2010 model for comparison:

It’s only a glimpse, and a fuzzy one at that, but it’s looking good so far.

——

Thanks to multiple persons for supplying screenshots. The one used above is from Brett, in comments.

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by Swade

Victor Muller interview – ‘Agenda’

January 24, 2011 in Saabology

Following is the video from the Swedish current affairs program, Agenda. Victor Muller was a guest on the show Sunday, January 23.

Some thoughts to follow….

–

It’s slightly frustrating to watch someone asking questions that are so obviously based on worst-case scenarios. The sales numbers they picked – worst case from the ranges given. Attitude towards Vladimir Antonov – worst case after he’s been cleared.

What’s even harder is watching an interviewer bust in for the next question without giving VM adequate time to explain a situation that the interviewer clearly didn’t understand, or want to understand.

e.g. the sales situation.

Saab – the car building company in Trollhattan – has dealers for its customers. What finances the Saab car building operation is the number of cars it sells to its dealers, who then retail those cars on to their customers.

When we report sales, we frequently refer to deliveries made to customers. That’s the glamour stat: how many end up in customers’ hands. That’s a very important number because dealers have to sell the cars in order to buy more from Saab, but still, it’s not the stat that finances Saab’s operations so directly.

Before VM could fully explain the difference, the interviewer was off asking about the next issue.

As to Prof Karlsson’s bit about having to build new cars in the future? Well, he was kind of right and kind of wrong. VM managed to address his point very effectively in talking about the replacement for the Saab 9-3. But of course, Prof Karlsson was right in that Saab will always need to plan and build future models to replace the current lineup. That particular mission is constant and Saab will always have to rise to meet it.

It was a good performance by VM in what I would call circumstances that lacked a proper measure of cordiality and respect. Saab should expect hard questions, but I think the Agenda people could have allocated a bit more time to the interview so that those questions could be properly addressed.

——

Thanks to ARUK for the video link

Tags: , 79 Comments »

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