SaabsUnited.com

Here’s an interesting thing for you guys, we have received some photos of some kind of project cars that are parked somewhere at SAAB in Trollhättan, we dont know what these cars are but they are big, bigger than the new 9-5 and they are registered as Holden cars…

Basically there are three of them, all white and they do have some items we find on the 9-5 Sedan, the rear bumper with the “aero” exhausts is one thing, rims is another…

These photos are under COPYRIGHT©SAABSUNITED.COM

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A trusted source to SaabsUnited from within the government has confirmed some information that make us strongly believe that the government has had communication with Volvo & Geely about SAAB.

Last weekend was a very nice one. On friday I got to meet our great writer and good friend of mine RobinM who brought a gang of Saab crazy englishmen (and women) with him. They were from South West SAAB and here are some great photos of their adventure! =)

It seams as if there is some delay to the launch of the 9-5 SC for the US market, originally it was set to be available for the US customers more or less at the same time as the European customers. The new SAAB USA website has this written on it:

One can only speculate why, but there is a lot of changes between the EU model and the US version of the 9-5 SC, some things we have seen here at SaabsUnited is a whole new bumber and lowerpart of the hatch. There are a lot of differences in regulations guiding car manufacturers between EU and the US. These together with the current economic situation for SAAB could be some reasons for the delay.

From Reuters:

‘Volvo is interested in Saab ‘

LONDON (Reuters) – The Swedish carmaker Volvo expects soon a “request” of the Swedish government to take over Saab.

This is reported bij De Financiele Telegraaf (DFT), which relies on anonymous sources within Volvo. Swedish government officials would already have held discussions with the management of Volvo, which would not be unsympathetic to acquiring Saab.

For Sweden, acquiring Saab by Volvo, which since last year is in the hands of Chinese car maker Geely, gives more certainty about the repayment of the loan of 400 million euros that the European Investment Bank has provided to Saab. The Swedish government guarantees the loan.

Saab was acquired early last year by Dutch luxury sports car manufacturer Spyker Cars, but is in serious financial trouble. Production came to a standstill in recent weeks because suppliers refused to supply spare parts due to late payment.
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There is some speculation about if this is true or not? Personally I dont think there is much truth in this story, probably just some wild speculation going on again…

Alrik Söderlind from Auto Motor & Sport meets Victor Muller in NY over a quick lunch.

“This is the first time a bank must approve us for borrowing less money… But thats the way it is with SAAB. Everything we do is unique.” Victor Muller is in a good mood and the New York auto-show, he has only slept 3 hours last night but now the EIB-Loan is very close to being finished.

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According to TTela (english version), Eric Geers says the plan is to get factory staff back in by Wednesday next week. No news on when production may start up again.

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Also from TTela (english version), Valdemar Lönnroth has put together a fantastic article about Vladimir Antonov’s background. Some things you might have already read, and maybe even some new ones. Did you know CPP which Vladimir owns a major share of also owns Zagato? The list of automotive cousins keeps expanding for Saab.

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Alrik Söderlind from Swedish car magazine Auto Motor & Sport sat down with Victor during lunch yesterday (English version). I hope to have a short opportunity as he did today. We were actually sitting together when he got called in to the office, and we both remarked to each other how absolutely glued to his phone Victor was. News is coming soon we all hope.

Alrik invited me to write a piece about SU for AMS, and I’m very excited to share the positive and exciting changes we have in store for the site with the greater Swedish auto fans.

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