by till72
October 18, 2011 in Editorial
It has often been said that the next 9-3 is crucial model for Saabs future. And that is right. It’s Saab’s bread and butter model and it has to sell most of the maybe 100k cars needed for break even earn most of the money to get the business viable again. That’s a big burdon it has to carry even before it has been released. Lots of expectations are there – these are mine.
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by Jeff
October 18, 2011 in News
This is cool. Reeeeeally cool.
It’s what happens when you combine modern technology with an old fashioned contest to get customers excited about a product. I’m thrilled to report that Saab of North Olmstead (yes, they’re the ones with the swanky near showroom), has teamed up with software design company Whisteo to launch a truly novel use of QR codes to get customers interested in spotting Saabs in the wild. Many of us complain that new 9-5s are a rare sight, and 9-4xs are downright exotic. This contest should raise their visibility in Northeast Ohio by quite a margin.
For four weeks, 100 drivers each week (for a total of 400) will drive around locations in and around the Cleveland area and have their codes scanned by other drivers and at contest sponsors (Dunkin Donuts is the headline sponsor, the morning drive thru line is usually 30 cars deep during rush hour and should be an easy target for contestants). The top 24 become semi-finalists and will have friends and family vote for them on their own contestant website (that Whisteo created and we’ll link to when we get word of). The final 5 finalists are eligible to win any Saab of their choice up to $50K value (9-4X Aero, please…).
How in the world Saab of North Olmstead is loaning out 100 brand new Saabs and racking up hundreds of miles on each of them is beyond me, but good for them for figuring it out. I’ll be in touch with them for more info on this in the next few days. Their press release is vague on exactly how the winner will be picked among the 5 finalists, but we’ll update this post when we find out.Read the press release after the break.
Thanks to Fred for the tip! Read the rest of this entry →
by RobinM
October 17, 2011 in News
Dear Friends,
today I found out that good friend from us died. His name was Stenczel Kiss but we all called him Georg. He was trainer for all Polar Mobil (CEE Saab importer) management. He train us to be best of the best in promoting Saab and it was not just part of his job but he really loved brand Saab an> always tried to pull out from us max. He was not only my trainer but also good Friend to all of us and kind of mentor to all Saab CEE management. Today Saab lost great promoter but I have lost good friend and there is nothing what can compensate him. I know there is lot of bad news in last days but Georg was one of positive things that I loved with Saab and always with happy face coming to learn more from him. I would appreciated lot if you make one sentence with picture about him as this is smallest we all from CEE can do for this great man.
Best regards,
Daniel Trojak, BDM for Adriatic Region
Marek Šafarčík BDM,Česká a Slovenská republika
Marcin Posłuszny,Dyrektor Operacyjny,SAAB – Polar Import PolskaTiberiu Ioanovici, BDM Romania market
by TimR
October 16, 2011 in Editorial
The most common question I always get from people (not saab drivers) who want to talk Saab with me is, why don’t they sell any cars? I usually reply well they do sell cars, just not that many! =)
The best brand to compare with Saab in any case must be Volvo, they have the same customer base, at least here in Sweden and they have historically always sold 2-3 times more than Saab. Why is that? Is there a problem with the cars? Absolutely not, the cars are as good as they can be, compared to Volvo’s they are just as good or sometimes even better! Read the rest of this entry →
by TimR
October 15, 2011 in News
P4 West (original article here):
The Swedish NDO still has not yet received all the information requested to make a decision about Pang Da and Youngman entering into Saab as part-owners. According to Linda Rudberg, press-manager at the National Debt Office, they are working as fast as possible to give a decision.
by JasonPowell
October 14, 2011 in Uncategorized
I was a little confused this past week when I was hearing the date of October 14th being the date for a decision to be announced by the NDRC as I didn’t know where that date had come from. Well, the day has come and gone for some and no decision. A bit of internal news from Saab was posted on Inside Saab by Swade about that date and what this does or doesn’t mean.
by Red J
October 14, 2011 in Saabology
The amount of news relating to Saab today are almost zero, it seems like all the people are waiting for the resolution of the NDRC on the Saab case. Yesterday some Swedish news outlets said that we may have to wait till next week, but this statement was only based on speculations, not even on rumours.
But nevertheless I’ve found an interesting article on the Czech site Autoforum.cz. The contents of the article has no news to frequent SU readers as it tell what has happened since the weekend, but they have managed to compress the whole story in one picture, and because this picture tells the story so well, I wanted to share it with you.
From the grave to the stars in 48h
To describe what happened this week we could also use the scene from Kill Bill Vol. 2 where “The Bride” is buried alive by Budd, Bill brother, but manages to escape using a technique she learned from her martial arts master Pai Mei.
Any other propositions?
by Red J
October 13, 2011 in Saabology
Was it really a petrol powered 9-5 in the UK MPG Marathon?? Their own site says this “and the test model’s twin-turbo 190 hp version, which also comes in all-wheel-drive” Did they compete in Class 4 for diesel cars with CO2 emissions over 121 g/km?
In June Saab Spain showed in the ALD Ecomotion Tour that the Saab 9-5 TiD can have 17% better mileage values than the European test cycle (NEDC).
This time ALD and Shell have organized a similar event in the UK the 2011 MPG Marathon. Saab entered the UK event with a 9-5 Saloon Turbo4 Aero, which has already quite decent mileage values for its size.
The Saab 9-5 was driven by motoring journalist Iain Robertson accompanied by navigator, Robert Marshall, returning 43.81mpg, a 27.35% increase over the official combined fuel consumption figure of 34.4mpg and a place on the podium.
You can read a rather long press release from Saab UK after the jump
Read the rest of this entry →
by Red J
October 13, 2011 in Saabology
Yes, I know that production is still halted, and thus no 9-3 is being build for the North American market, but Saab Cars of North America seems to prepare for the best (and only) outcome of this affair, and information about the MY 12 9-3, also known as the 9-3 Griffin in some parts of Europe, have begun to arise.
by Red J
October 13, 2011 in News
Trollhättan, Sweden: Management of Swedish Automobile N.V. (Swan) and Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile) confirm that the reorganization is progressing and that a first payment by Youngman under the bridge loan funding commitment as announced on September 12 was received by Saab Automobile.
Further payments under the amended and final bridge loan agreements signed between Youngman and Saab Automobile are expected to be made during this week and by October 22 of this year. It is the intention to repay the bridge loan with the proceeds of the EUR 245 million equity investments by Youngman and Pang Da, which are still subject to approval by relevant authorities and parties which Swan expects to receive during the next weeks.
by JasonPowell
October 13, 2011 in Dealer Profiles, Editorial
This is our second dealer profile and if your remember we had asked Saab dealers around the globe to share their stories about who they are and what they do. One such dealer to take us up on that is Saab of Bellevue, Washington. We were contacted by their brand manager Hunter Ross, asking if they could have their story included. Saab of Bellevue is actually located just across the border from me and close to Seattle. I may need to make an excuse for a road trip to visit their beautiful showroom. Here is their story as told by Brand Manager, Hunter Ross. Read the rest of this entry →
by till72
October 13, 2011 in News
Good news finally, not only will the October wages be paid, but that an agreement for technology sharing with Youngman has been reached. According to TTELA, the money will hold Saab over until November when the rest is due. Read the translation after the break.
by TimR
October 12, 2011 in SaabsUnited Related
This is just a small update to the SU shop that is supporting the things that we do here at SaabsUnited.
We have added an item that many of you have requested for a long time. An inside window sticker! It took as a while but we managed to get a really great supplier for it and a very nice price as well, they are sold for 6 euro for one or 10 euro for two and they look really great. The one below is mounted on Till72′s car. We were hoping to get them in time for the october fest but that didn’t work out. We’ve also managed to negotiate some better prices on our licenseplate-frames so we’ve lowered the prices a bit on those now and also added a lower price if you buy a pair which most of you guys have done so far, and we are truly grateful that so many have chosen to support the work that we do with a small contribution.
For those of you who visited our stand at ANA during the OctoberFest you might have noticed that we also sold T-Shirts. These were a limited order of 30 in total that we did just for the october fest and we’re happy that we sold almost all of them! But now we are also bringing them to the store in various “saaby” colors. Photo’s will be available soon.
The sticker below features 35 x 3 cm and can be ordered worldwide. Please visit the “STORE” in the menu if you would like to buy one.
by TimR
October 12, 2011 in Technical
Recently a serious corrosion problem has been discovered on Saab 9-5′s from year model 1998-2010. It’s the front: right and left control arms that are attacked by corrosion and the cost to repair this could be significant. The problem is so significant that some owners of older model 9-5′s have found it too expensive to fix and have had to scrap their cars. In Sweden cars with this problem are issued a drive-ban from the control-ageny who checks each car on the road which is older than 3 years annually. We still don’t know if this problem also exists on the 9-3 range.
The front right and left control-arm are sold either separately or as a pair and the price tag could be well over 300 Euro per side excluding the work needed which is about 3-5 hours depending on the amount of corrosion on the car, the final price tag could very well land at a sum over 1500 euro’s.
This is of course not a problem that is in any way covered by any type of warranty and for people owning a 9-5 it might be well worth considering some kind of rust-protection on these parts.
___________________
UPDATE:
We have made more research into the matter and also had contact with Saab about this issue and they have said that they will look into the matter.
by Red J
October 12, 2011 in News
Swan, Saab Automobile And Pang Da Respond To Media Reports
Trollhättan, Sweden: Swedish Automobile N.V. (Swan) and Pang Da Automobile Trade Co., Ltd (Pang Da) have taken notice of media reports questioning the validity of the partnership agreements between Swan, Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile) and Pang Da after Saab Automobile entered into voluntary reorganization. Swan, Saab Automobile and Pang Da underline that these reports are based on a misunderstanding.
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