I was only there for a short time and it was an absolute pleasure. I didn’t have the stress that others had because I had a job to come back to if things went awry. Other employees at Saab had their eggs all in the Saab basket. What’s more, they’d been living on the edge for two or three years by the time the company declared bankruptcy. Some of them have now gone elsewhere, whilst others are still looking. While everyone I know loves the company to bits, I’m pretty sure they’d want to feel some security before taking a decision to return.

If Saab is bought and returns to the automotive market, it will need to change. That much is a given. But change in what ways?

If I could sit down with each of the prospective buyers and have a chat with them, here’s what I’d want to know based on my own personal needs and interests…..

–

YOUNGMAN

What I’d like to know: Nothing. There’s nothing you can say to convince me that you’d be a good or competent owner for Saab Automobile, or that you’d be even slightly interested in preserving any of the Saab company that I know and love. Thanks for coming.

–

BRIGHTWELL

What I’d like to know: As you’ve been the most vocal, I’m going to ask you the most questions. All in the interests of getting to know you better, of course.

Who are you, exactly? And what do you plan to do with our car company?

I ask this because so far, you’re making all the right noises, but that’s not so hard to do if you’re just a little bit studious. If you’ve got any notion of the public sentiment around Saab, then you’ll know that talking about production in Sweden and retaining key staff (engineering, design, etc) is key to retaining any brand equity that you might be buying. But what are your plans, really?

What do you know about the car business? Because to me you smell a little like Cerberus, the group that took over Chrysler and nearly run it into the ground a few years ago. If you are indeed a holding company like that, then what are your long term plans for Saab, and who will you install in place at the company to execute those plans?

Who you put in place is important. One thing that came up time and again when I spoke to colleagues at Saab is that we carried on too much like the GM days after we had been sold. It was like very little had changed, except the logistical changes that were forced upon us. None of the key senior staff changed, for example, and that was probably a big mistake.

So what are you going to do, and who are you going to put in place to do it?

And finally, who’s behind you and how deep are your pockets? Can Saab be assured of a period where they can talk about their cars and their brand without having to worry about diversionary stories from the press? Are you going to list Saab on a stock exchange, or maintain life as a privately held company?

Thanks for being interested in Saab. I know some of your people attended the We Are Many, We Are Saab event in Holland a few weeks ago and hopefully you got a taste for the passion that exists for this company. All we need is something/someone to believe in.

–

MAHINDRA

What I’d like to know: What’s your angle? Are you in or out? Are you interested in building Saab cars, or not? And as with Brightwell, what sort of model would you put in place for managing the company?

You’re an interesting case. A lot of us have stars in our eyes when it comes to you, probably because of the relationship between Tata and Jaguar LandRover. We want to believe that you could do the same for Saab.

But why do you want Saab? There’s a wonderful ownership community and probably even a fair portion of the motoring press that would love to jump behind you if you would only come out and engage the public a little.

–

OTHERS

See MAHINDRA, above. I understand there are comercial confidentiality requirements, but it’d be great to know who you are and what your interest is in this wonderful brand.

——

Swade now writes mostly about cars at Swadeology.

Some reports/rumors we could read last week told us that there are bids for parts of Saab. Is that a surprise? No, not at all. Those who’d like to get a piece of the cake of course try to mention that just in case the sale-as-a-whole thing should fall apart. And even if it is not a nice thought the positive thing about that is that is shows the value Saab still represents. Because of that many parties placed such bids on Saab. The local rival also is one of them. But even if a bit of rivalry can be fun I would not want to take it as far as stating that Volvo wants to butcher Saab. They are just doing what many more are doing, too. No need to start bashing them as they are not the ones who decide if Saab is sold in pieces. In the end I could imagine that Volvo would be happier with a Saab that is alive. There are synergies they could explore and those are worth more than a few machines they can buy cheaply.

I have been one of those stating pretty clearly that GM will refuse to give their licenses to any buyer since it was not supporting their own interests and I still think that is true. Still, reports said that parties interested in Saab are in talks with GM on licensing. This seems to be a contradiction on first look. But if you give it another look there could be parties who have somthing to offer to GM. Not just money, someting else that can be interesting enough to let them change their mind or at least give it a second thought. GM is driven by shareholder value, so if you got the right package, you might get them on your side.

Right now nothing is certain but everything is negotiable. Keep the faith and be careful when it comes to rumors. This may take a bit more time but if it leads to a proper result it is sure worth it.

Yesterday Tim posted about his attempt to fit 331 mm Hirsch brakes on a 2007 9-5. I got some additional information about this issue directly from Hirsch today.

Those 331 mm brakes were originally designed for the Troll and Saab Performance by Hirsch 2002 model versions. Since it was originally destined for those models and due to its size they it only be installed in combination with the Hirsch Performance 17″ or 18″ 6-spoke wheels. It looks like exactly that issue caused the problems for Tim and his friends when they tried to install it.

From model year 2006 on Hirsch offered the 345 mm brake for the 9-5 and 9-3 that fits the standard rims, too. This one could have been installed without problems. I got it in my 9-3x and I just love the performance it offers.

So if you are offered a Hirsch Performance brake kit for your 9-5 make sure to check the diameter to be sure if it really fits.

Anyway, back to the point. He wanted to upgrade the standard brakes so he found some used Hirsch brakes that were more or less un-used. We started to remove the brakes and right away ran in to a bit of trouble. One of the wheel bolts snapped, right before I had measured the torque at which it had been fastened, over 200 Nm, a wheel bolt should not be exposed to more than 110 Nm.

The small screw that held the brake disk also gave us trouble, it had been affected by the wonders of rust and was really stuck there. After getting some good tools to get these bolts out of there, we could continue our work. Everything went fine until we mounted the brake calipers, they were pressing against the brake disk on both sides. We were pretty sure that we had not made any mistakes but just in case we consulted some mechanics at SAAB and ANA, no we had done it the right way. After about a week of investigation into what could be wrong or how we could get the disks to fit we gave up, the Hirsch brakes would have to wait for another car.

One other thing that surprised us a lot is that these brakes were made to fit on a 9-5 from 2002-2009, but the 18 inch original Saab 9-5 wheels did not fit, the calipers actually hit the spokes of the rim making them an impossible combination. The wheels we used are the 18 inch 3-Spoke Double Blade.

The main problem is that the mounting for these Hirsch brakes are too big to fit on the outside where the mounting is normally placed, it has to be placed on the inside. The screws for mounting the calipers are then located too far on the inside so the calipers are pressing against the outside of the brake disk.

Friday afternoon, after almost one week of investigation and different ways of solving the problem we gave up. I placed a call to my good friend Fredrik at MapTun and asked for a quick solution. We jumped in my car and drove the 241 km up to MapTun Performance in Örebro. Even though they had officially closed that day to attend a motor-show the guys were kind enough to head back to MapTun to help us out, at 19:00 in the evening! We got a smilier brake, the MapTun 330 mm brake kit.

We started out fairly early on Saturday morning and the installation of the MapTun brakes was very easy and went without any setbacks. The brakes were a bit of a surprise to us, having only seen the photo on the net and then actually opening up the box and seeing them in real life really made us think that MapTun should place a bit of extra effort on proper photos of their products on the website! We know that they know about this and that they are working on it! =) The brakes look really cool! =)

With Mattias satisfied with the result we mounted the same double blade rims, which fit perfectly and then that beautiful 9-5 rolled away with another happy Saab driver in it.! =)

The photos below show the 330 mm MapTun brakes with the complete brake kit, including 330 mm discs, 4 pot calipers, steel braided brake lines and street performance brake pads. There is also a comparison photo of the 331 mm Hirsch brakes and 330m MapTun brakes.

So far we have not found out what the problem was with the Hirsch brakes, we have consulted Hirsch and they are going to try to find out a bit of the history of these brakes and why they might not fit properly.

ovloV= the other car maker in Göteborg/Gothenburg, it’s a habit I have never to write the arch rivals name in printing.

You have to look no further then their website to find out where they came from. They talk about how Mahindra and an independent India began their rise together. In 1945 two brothers, J.C. and K.C. Mahindra joined forces with Ghulam Mohammed and started the Mahindra and Mohammed steel company in Mumbai. Two years later the Mahindra brothers decided to manufacture Willy’s jeeps in Mumbai when India got their independence and Ghulam Mohammed left and they became Mahindra and Mahindra.

When you do some digging, you come across many companies and many different areas where Mahindra has a presence. It is eye opening to say the least to see just how many areas they are involved in.

Systech is a part of the Mahindra Group and is one that catches my attention for many reasons. Their website says “Come Innovate and Create” and “one stop shop -art to part- design to delivery” all things that get me thinking and excited because that is the way to produce so that you don’t have to worry about supplier issues because you are your supplier. This is the kind of thinking that would solve a lot of issues that Saab has seen and with the Sytech model of design to delivery if put in place at Saab, you could see a self sufficient company.

In 2011 Ssangyoung Motor Company joined Mahindra & Mahindra. This South Korean company has a presence in more than 90 countries and employs more than 4,800 people. The company is said to be focused on strengthening their global presence by producing environmentally friendly engines and have plans to strengthen their global distribution network in the next few years. Ssangyoung has a number of vehicles offered including the Korando which is a contraction of “Korea can do”.

You can check their website for more of their offerings. Personally, I quite like the look of the Korando.

Automotive

Automotive companies of Mahindra include:

• Mahindra & Mahindra Automotive Division- The flagship of the company and market leaders of automotive and farm equipment.
• Mahindra Graphic Research Design- Based out of Italy, this is the design hub that is responsible for designing the brand image. Clients include Fiat and Honda Europe.
• Mahindra Navistar Automotive- Joint venture with Navistar (USA) for creating light commercial and heavy commercial vehicles for Indian terrain.
• Mahindra Navistart Engines- Joint venture with Navistar (USA) to produce diesel engines for commercial vehicles in India.
• Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles- Mahindra acquired a majority stake in Reva in 2010 and aims to have the lowest dust to dirt carbon footprint in the automotive world. Click the link to read about their plans for the factory, really cool.
• Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers- Set up in 2007 to push technology to the edge and has the capacity to build 3.2 million vehicles per year.
• Ssangyong Motor Company- Acquired in 2011.

Mahindra Auto January sales numbers look great too. Auto numbers are up 22% from 36718 January 2011 to 44717 January 2012. YTD for 2011 was 348,440 in automotive sales 156,547 in passenger vehicles alone.

Mahindra is involved in aerospace, agribusiness, automotive, components, construction equipment, consulting, defense, energy, farm equipment, finance and insurance, industrial equipment, information technology, hospitality, logistics, real estate, retail and bikes and scooters and is a company that is always moving forward and looking at ways to be better.

Below is community initiatives from Wikipedia on Mahindra:

The Mahindra Group is extensively involved in philanthropy and volunteering. It is considered an active participant in the Indian Corporate Social Responsibility field and received the Pegasus Award for CSR in 2007.^[13] Mahindra engages in philanthropy primarily through the KC Mahindra Trust, which serves as the CSR arm of the group (although many subsidiaries have their own CSR initiatives, notably Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam).^[14] Founded in 1953 by K.C Mahindra, the trust focuses primarily on fostering literacy in India and promoting higher learning through grants and scholarships.^[15] Mahindra operates several vocational schools as well as the Mahindra United World College.^[16] The KC Mahindra Trust’s primary project however is Project Nanhi Kali, which targets the education of young Indiangirls.^[17] The foundation currently supports the education of approximately 51000 underprivileged girls.^[18] Other initiatives include Mahindra Hariyali (a 1 million tree planting campaign)^[17] as well as sponsorship of the Lifeline Express, a mobile hospital train. Mahindra employees also plan and lead their own service projects through Mahindra’s Employee Social Options Plans. In 2009, more than 35,000 employees participated. ^[19]

The Mahindra Group was responsible for the creation of Mahindra United World College, a UWC campus located in Pune.

Mahindra also supports the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards to recognize Indian theater talent, the Mahindra Indo-American Film Festival, and the Mahindra Lucknow Festival. In 2011, it held the first annual Mahindra Blues Festival with guests like Buddy Guy, Johnny Lang, and Shemekia Copeland.^[20] Mahindra also partners with the NBA and Celtic Football Club to bring grassroots basketball and soccer to India.^[21]

In 2011 Mahindra had revenues of 14.5 billion US and a work force of 144,000 worldwide and were listed as #21 in a list of top companies of India in Fortune India 500 in 2011. I’m sure there is so much more to write about Mahindra and the companies they own and I would if I had the time. From what I have found in my searches of this company, I would say it is easy to see that they would be a great fit for Saab as they understand the industry and the people. I am not endorsing anyone because none of us no how this will look in the end, but I will say that I like what I see and hear from Mahindra and I have provided a lot of different links in this post for you to check things for yourselves.

If in the end Mahindra is the winner, I will not be sad, I will be excited to see what they bring and how they let Saab be Saab.

As the receivers said there are five parties in the game who want to take over Saab as a whole. To me this is the best news and my hope is fed from that statement. I’d expect many more to be around who are, just like Semcon, interested in bits. Despite that, the last statement from the receivers said that they try to sell Saab as a whole. And as far as they don’t state something else this is still valid. I may not agree with all of their moves but they know that a complete sale to someone who offers a future to the Saab brand in Trollhättan would be the most desired outcome.

Regarding those rumors that they are already on the way to split Saab – take them as what they are: rumors. There are so many floating around right now. Some come from “people with insight” who like to be heared, some may be conclusions by the press. Everybody colors those rumors in a way they support their position or view of course. We and you have to be pretty careful about this and that’s why I already told you in my last post that those conclusions are based on rumors.

The receivers and the interested parties are at work, discussions are ongoing on various levels. Lots of white noise are surrounding this and it is a challenge to find those pieces that have substance. Some people have asked us why we do not run one or another story. This is exactly the reason for it. We are working hard to bring the essence to you.

I did not want to use that term anymore but keep calm and carry on all we can do at the moment.

P4 Väst can now reveal how the bankruptcy trustees for Saab have stipulated conditions which may stop a complete solution for the bankruptcy case, according to several sources.

- In practice, the trustees have set conditions which make it impossible to conduct a complete sale of Saab in one piece, according to a source with good insight into the process.

The Saab bankruptcy trustees have recieved lots of criticism since being appointed on dec 19, and now they are facing the worst criticism so far. Because in the beginning of this week, Youngman placed a bid on the company – a bid worth several billion kronor, and meaning production in Trollhättan. According to sources to Dagens Eko, it would mean Youngman needing to employ more than 1000 people.

But the trustees have been bordering on indifference towards the bid, according to a source.

- In practice, the trustees have set conditions which make it impossible to conduct a complete sale of Saab in one piece, according to another source with good insight into the process.

The conditions contain, among other things, that GM must approve of a deal, according to a source.

The trustees are said to encourage bidders to bid for parts of the company, rather than for the whole thing.

- The trustees have no intention of selling the company as a whole, but prefer a split-up. It is very surprising that they have made this choice, and totally impossible to understand, says a source.

The two main courses of action that the trustees are entertaining are said to be that either Geely, Volvo’s Chinese owner, start a development center in Trollhättan – or that Chinese BAIC, in cooperation with Panasonic, start producing electric cars. But neither of these two options mean as many jobs in the future.

- If you don’t sell the company as a whole entity, you risk losing thousands of jobs.

P4 Väst have tried to get hold of the trustees for a comment, without success.

While we got the rejection confirmed we have to be careful with those sources regarding the plans for Trollhättan as there are many rumors out there. We’ll keep you updated as soon as we get to know more.

This afternoon I got to know that GMAC chose BCA to sell their leftover Saabs. The auction started today and ends on the 07th of February at 14:59. Those 25 cars are surely worth a look, they are all more or less new 9-3 and a few 9-5. The cars will be available for pick up at BCA Hamburg 7 days after auction ends.

As far as I was told this auction is open to everyone but to make sure about the details on how to bid cou can check their international site. They have offices in many European countries so it should not be a problem to buy the cars within Europe.

Go get one…

The Ombudsmen for Justice (JO) or the Parliamentary Ombudsmen to give them their official title are elected by the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament) to ensure that public authorities and their staff comply with the laws and other statutes governing their actions. The Ombudsmen exercise this supervision by evaluating and investigating complaints from the general public, by making inspections of the various authorities and by conducting other forms of inquiry that they initiate themselves.

Peter Smedman is very critical to:
a. The way the three lawyers where appointed
b. Disqualification issues regarding one or more of the lawyers

The two governmental agencies who Peter Smedman wants JO to look at are:
- Tingsrätten i Vänersborg (The Vänersborg Court)
- Tillsynsmyndigheten i Konkurser (Control agency for bancruptcy supervision)

Last time he visited the Saab Museum he had a swedish 500 SEK note left over once he got home and now that the city of Trollhättan has bought the museum he wanted to make a contribution.

- It’s very nice. We have to investigate if we can accept the money in a legal matter and send them on to the museum, say Peter Asp, head of information at the city council.

There are surly many other Saab-friends who would want to donate money to the museum, donation would perhaps become a good addition to the running costs of the museum which are estimated to about three million SEK per year.

- We’ve not had time to investigate if it is possible for a government establishment to gather money in this way but we are looking at every solution.

Original article and interview performed by TTELA

We are many, we are SAAB. (Trollhättan, Sweden) from mioh on Vimeo.

In January we’ve done a major upgrade on the server and I hope you feel that the site is much faster and reliable. I can tell you that the amount of visitors have been high.

What is most amazing is the amount of unique visitors, it actually went up in January.
December: 174’682
January: 183’555

Total visits to the front page:
December 2011: 1’251’057
January 2012: 1’167’648

Total visits on the front page for 2011 was: 9’904’914
Average visits on the front page for 2011 was: 825’409

Monthly visitors in 2011:
JAN: 578’115
FEB: 654’490
MAR: 758’809
APR: 764’807
MAY: 787’822
JUN: 710’466
JUL: 720’357
AUG: 868’258
SEP: 875’820
OCT: 967’191
NOV: 967’722
DEC: 1’251’057

Total hits on SU in January: 27’947’735
Total amount of page views in January: 3’740’799

Total amount of uploaded data: 1399.87 GB

BOTS and other automated traffic is not included in the stats!

One thing is clear, the Saab fans are very much alive =)