by TimR
June 25, 2011 in Uncategorized
Today me and Johanna are attending our fellow saabsunited writer Rune and his lovely wife’s marriage.
We have just arrived the Norrqvarn Hotel which is located beside some locks connecting Göta Channel to Swedens largest lake Vänern.
Of course they arrivred in a very beautiful car as well 
by Jeff
June 24, 2011 in News
Here’s a great little video that shows when the 5 Best of the Road teams got acquainted with their new Saabs for their trip from NYC to LA. We’ll be retweeting a lot of the Best of the Road tweets and coverage when it pertains to Saab (hear that teams? The more you cover Saab the more coverage thousands of Saab lovers will get ). I think I speak for all of us when I say I’m a tad jealous.
by TimR
June 24, 2011 in News
Pre-order US Size www.SaabsUnited.com License Plate Frames – US Plate Size from State of Nine! Pre-order – Delivery time for frames is currently 2-4 weeks until initial production is complete.
by Red J
June 24, 2011 in Saabology
Victor Muller is either in the US, or in China working with Pang Da and Youngman to find a solution. In any case Eric Geers says that he is working 24/7 to find a solution.
Further the people of Hemfosa are also working over the weekend to get the real estate deal done.
Quote from the CEO of Hemfosa Jens Engvall:
….We’re working on this now, and will keep working over the weekend if necessary. Monday is an important day. It’s vital now that we find a solution, he says.
Thanks Börjesson for the tip.
And there are also people like Steven, Swade, Wade who are not going to let it go, not now and not later.
For me its time to switch off the computer till Monday (I’m too much of a junkie, so I think I will peek a couple of times over the weekend).
Today I will spend a nice evening with my wife, and tomorrow I will be nice to my car and clean it inside and outside.
Have a nice weekend everyone and be nice to your Saabs.
by TimR
June 24, 2011 in News
Today has been a fairly good day with the news and I’m about to give you gusy some more good news! We have received orders for 32 plateholders to SaabsUnited readers around in the first 10 hours since we posted that we will give all the profit to Saab Employees in need.
by Red J
June 24, 2011 in News
Somehow the discussion with the suppliers are moving forward.
DHL is a German logistics company, but in Trollhättan they also build the wheels (they mount the tyres on the rims) for Saab, and deliver those just in time for production.
DHL had fired all 55 employees that worked at that place, but it seems like they are, cautiously, preparing for a re-start.
Read the rest of this entry →
by Jeff
June 24, 2011 in Editorial
Friend to SaabsUnited Robert Colin of Aftonbladet has written a very to the point and worthwhile summary of how the politicians at the top of the Swedish government reacted to the news of Saab’s troubles yesterday. Usually I leave the Swedish media or government rants to Tim as I’m American, but I can plainly see all the way from over here just how poorly they’ve handled this situation. I love Sweden– the history, the design heritage, the culture, and most of all the people. But right now, I’m not so in love with the ministers that run the place. For all those of you who live in Sweden, please bookmark this article so the next time that election cycles come around, you can remember how Prime Minister Reinfeldt feels about Saab and vote accordingly to elect politicians who value the Swedish auto industry.
Full English translation after the break.
by Jeff
June 24, 2011 in News
This is the news from Bloomberg this morning, who reached Wang Yin, board secretary of Pang Da.
“There’s no change to our previous plan,” he told Bloomberg in a phone interview. “Saab is having temporary financial difficulties and the problem isn’t fundamental.”
Gasgoo, a China based Auto Industry news site published a translation of an interview with Pang Qinghua, CEO of Pang Da, that was printed in Beijing Times. It was published yesterday, so I’m not sure if it was conducted before or after news of the salary payment freeze was available to Mr. Pang. Read it after the break.
UPDATE
According to GP.se which cites Swedish radio news, Youngman and Pang Da are helping to find a way to help Saab with the liquidity crisis. One of the directors of Youngman who is Pang Da CEO Pang’s daughter told them that they are working together with Saab, including Victor Muller. Clearly they want their deal still, and don’t see the problems as fundamental. Considering they’ve worked on their due diligence for quite some time, I’d trust their assessments, not repeat hit pieces from news organizations who have only recently picked up the story.
Eric Geers also told Swedish radio that Victor is working around the clock and that he thinks the property sale looks good.
by TimR
June 24, 2011 in News
We have been asked by a lot of people how they could give money to help Saab Employees and after some discussions I came to the conclusion that some kind of fund is no good. Its very difficult to manage and to control. BUT what we can do and will do right now is to give the whole profit when selling of our license-plate holders to the employees in need.
Food for one week per person can cost as little as 30 Euro, ask any student living on a tight budget, they know! The profit margin for one complete plate is 10 euro and selling price is 15 euro, so 3 plates sold would feed one person for a week! Depending on the number of plate-holders sold, we will transfer money to employees in distress within 24 hours in sums of 30 euro per person per week.
So with the orders that we have received already and all future orders we get, 100% of the profit will go to Saab Employees in need of fast money starting right now!
All orders and transfers will be made public knowledge on SaabsUnited so that you guys can make sure that we are doing what we promise to do!
Delivery-time for the plate-holder is aprox. 2 weeks right now.
by Jeff
June 23, 2011 in News
If you live in the US, that might just be the case. In the midst of all this negative press, the day to day operations of selling Saabs continues. I’m confident in Saab’s long term prospects, the products really just need to gain visibility to be sold. Saab has partnered with Rand McNally and USA Today and offered their Best of the Road event 5 Saabs, a mix of 9-3s, 9-5s, and a 9-4X. The winner who writes the best journal entry gets a brand new 9-4X. Teams were selected on the Best of the Road Website and are being judged on how many towns they visit and the quality of the journal entries by the time they all reach LA on July 15.If you’d like to meet each of the teams, you can read about the lucky Saab drivers here. You can see each city that readers of the websites nominated in each category, Most Beautiful, Fun, Patriotic, or Best Food. Full press release after the break.
Just tweeted from team CaptainandClark: Here’s our ride for the next three weeks & hopefully forever if we win!!! #bestoftheroad http://twitgoo.com/2d6y5h
And here’s Joanne S. who is part of the McNavigators team. They’re driving their Saab 9-5 in search of the most beautiful small towns in America, and are headed south to Coral Gables, FL, a suburb of Miami.
by Jeff
June 23, 2011 in News
Seriously folks, the game isn’t even remotely close to being over. As Swade said on his blog, he (and I’m sure many others) isn’t throwing in the towel anytime soon. Victor Muller as reported is in the US tonight trying to iron out a quick solution. Both of the links covered here were reported in comments earlier, but for anyone not patient enough to wade through them, I’m putting them up on the main page.
by Jeff
June 23, 2011 in News
Remember this Press Statement from a month ago?
SPYKER ISSUES SUBCRIPTION NOTICE UNDER GEM FACLITY
Zeewolde, The Netherlands, 16 May 2011 – Spyker Cars N.V. (Spyker) announces today that it issued a subscription notice for 1 million shares under the current EUR 150 million equity facility between Spyker and GEM Global Yield Fund Limited. The exact number of shares to be issued and the price thereof will depend on a 15 day pricing period, which commences today.
You read that right, Saab has a credit card essentially for up to EUR 150 million when times get really tough. They initiated the agreement as backup financing when they purchased the company from GM, and after this latest share issue if my math is correct they still have most of it left. It’s expensive debt, it involves issuing shares with a 15 day pricing period, but it’s cash nonetheless to at least stop the bleeding. I wish Saab had tapped into this or something similar sooner to prevent today’s situation, but it seems that only a few legal documents are the culprit holding up the property sale deal, and they misjudged the timing on it’s finalization. From all indications, it appears to be a big mistake at legal on this one.
According to TTela, Victor Muller is in the US right now looking for immediate liquidity injections. GEM is based out of New York. Something tells me it might not even be the GEM funds that Victor ends up finding the best deal with this time around, but for all of you out there who suggest Saab is out of lifelines, I’d ask you to remember this major one.
by TimR
June 23, 2011 in Uncategorized
Dagens Industri DI.se (original article here) IF Metall to begin preparing a request for payment to be sent to ”Since the employer has seven days to respond. If that happens, we go out with the call for funds and the company still does not fix this, we have to consider bankruptcy.”“I have worked at the factory and know many who worked there. This is terrible. You should never give up hope, but right now it looks extremely bleak. I do not know what to say,” said Veli-Pekka Säikkälä, agreements Secretary of IF Metall, said. Read the rest of this entry →
by Red J
June 23, 2011 in Saabology
The Guys from SaabWay, the Italian Saab club, have been asked by an Italian film production company if they know about somebody who could lend them a c900 for a couple of months.
The whole thing is quite urgent as they need the car by July 11th.
Here is the mail from SaabWay.
—
Hello Guys,
I’m writing you asking for a post to help us find out a Classic Saab 900 (not Convertible).
An Italian production house which is making a TV Series for our National TV “Rai” contacted us to help them find a particular Saab 900 to be part of the series. The car must be a c900 not convertible the same colour of this one (bronze, walnut brown metallic)
In Italy we don’t know anybody who owns a c900 with that colour.
For different reasons they prefer to rent the car instead of buying it.
They have two potential offers:
1- Pay around 3,000-4,000€ for the rent of the car. After the work, the car will be given back to the owner, obviously.
2- Free (they pay for it) total repaint of the car in Bronze colour if the car is borrowed for the film.
Is quite urgent because they must start working with the car from the 11th of July until mid of December.
Filming will be in Trieste and for a some of weeks in Trento.
If there is somebody interested write to info@saabwayclub.com sending some of pictures of the exterior of the car and we will forward it to the production company who will get in touch with you.
Can you help us give the chance for another Saab to be part of a movie?
Many thanks, regards.
Luca (SaabWay)
—
So if you want your Saab to be in a movie and yours is in the right colour, do not hesitate.
by TimR
June 23, 2011 in News
- On the question of why the government did not say a clear YES to Vladimir Antonov, Maud is avoiding the question as usual by stating that they have not said no…
- She did point out that Saab had very good products coming that were well received in the media and that Saab could have a good future by selling these products…
- She is very happy that Pang Da was interested…
- They are positive to decrease the government guarantees if needed
Very tough questions, she is obviously stressed…
Basically she said the same thing as always, she is sorry but wants to do nothing…
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