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Automotive News have conducted a pretty good interview with Mike Colleran, head of Saab Cars North America.

Some of his answers raise good questions.

What else is Saab doing to rebuild the business? ......you have to do some other things. You've got to instill confidence in the consumers that they can buy these cars and not be concerned about buying the cars.

That raises the question as to what the warranty period is going to be for the new Saab 9-5, and the rest of the range, too.

We've previously heard Victor Muller say that their warranty costs so far are less than anticipated. I'm not suggesting they invite tragedy upon their own heads, but if those costs are down for good reason, then an attractive warranty on new Saabs will go a long way. If you've been watching the broader automotive market then you've seen what a good warranty (along with good product) has done for Hyundai in recent years.

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In terms of image, what else has to be fixed? Awareness that we are here. I think there are a number of consumers who have the perception that Saab is gone.

That makes me wonder what we can do, as an enthusiast community, to help. Maybe some sort of viral video contest? All in good taste, of course. Maybe a make-your-own-print-ad campaign?

I've got my hands full writing all this stuff, but my ears are open to ideas I can co-ordinate.

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Are all Saab dealers using GMAC? No. GMAC is our preferred partner. I would say roughly three quarters of the dealers use GMAC for wholesale. And then on the retail side, dealers are free to choose whomever they want.

For that retail transaction, go find the absolute best lease deal you can.

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It's very good reading. There's some good stuff there about sales targets and currency movements. In short, things are looking positive.

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Thanks to Vince for the link.

As is the way of the internet, there's a lot of secondary stories coming out now, stating that Beijing Automotive are going to take over the distribution of Saabs in China from Shanghai Automotive (GM joint venture).

I posted the story myself, then added an update when I heard from Sweden that this is something that's been written in China only, and hasn't come from Saab or been confirmed by them.

With the proliferation of more stories on the web, I thought it prudent to get a headline out there stating that the base story is, for all intents and purposes, not true.

From what I've heard, the relationship between Beijing Automotive and Saab does not extend beyond the outgoing technologies they've bought from Saab and whatever contracts are in place to assist with engineering those vehicles for production.

Whilst I can say that the story hasn't originated from Sweden and is not confirmed by Saab, I can't say categorically that BAIC won't distribute Saab in the future. However, the fact that Swedish sources wrote to me to jump on this so quickly suggests that the story is basically untrue.

UPDATE: I've received some email about this story, from Sweden, indicating that this story is one that hasn't been confirmed at all by Saab and is therefore, only to be considered as rumour on the part of China Car Times.

As noted in my original post, they didn't cite a source for their information, so this email from Sweden is therefore understandable. I'd now take the story as being false pending further announcements.

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This one's a few days old, but needs to be passed on for those who haven't seen it yet as the ramifications are significant. File it in the "I thought that might happen" file.

From the China Car Times (they don't cite a source):

As well as buying old Saab platforms, Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC) has gained the rights to distribute Saab vehicles in China. It is still unclear how exactly BAIC plans to distribute Saab vehicles in China, if they plan to set up a new Saab dealership network totally devoted to Saab, or use its existing dealership network that already deals in Mitsubishi, Jeep and Chrysler products under one roof nationwide.

Whilst we saw a great turnout at Saab Support Convoys in China, the market for Saab is comparatively small, with just 800 vehicles sold in 2008.

Given the release of a new, larger Saab 9-5 (the Chinese like their cars big) and the fact that China is now the world's largest automotive marketplace, this is an appointment with real potential for Saab.

The report goes on to say that they hope to sell 5,000 vehicles in China in the first full year of business there, which would zoom China up into around fourth place in terms of Saab's sales ladder.

This is significant additional volume and with the addition of a 9-4x, 9-5 wagon and a new 9-3 coming in 2012, the sky's the limit.

Here's hoping that BAIC can get their network in place quickly. This is turning out to be a very nice partnership.

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Thanks to Justyn and Johan!

UPDATE: I have received email from Victor Muller directly, stating that he has been misquoted by NRC Handelsblad.

He has provided the following clarification:

.....I said that Antonov lent me - read Tenaci capital BV - the 74M euro (so not dollars) required to pay for half of the first instalment (so 50% of 50M dollar was approx 18M Euro) and to refinance the 56M in loans Spyker had obtained from Antonov's banks, which had to be refinanced as part of the restructuring which saw Antonov withdraw from Spyker. The second half of the first instalment, 25M dollars, was funded by Epcote, a investment company of Pieter Heerema. So of the purchase price of 74M dollar, 50M was paid on closing (23feb) and 24M dollar will be paid on July 15th.

My thanks to Victor Muller for providing this information and clearing the story up.

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In an extraordinarily frank interview with NRC-Handelsblad, Victor Muller has virtually disclosed that the GM/US government hand wringing over the sale of Saab was more or less an exercise for public display rather than any genuine concern.

You might recall that when GM and Spyker were in initial discussions about the sale of Saab, any potential deal was halted quite abruptly on December 18. The apparent reason was discomfort on the American side with Spyker's part-owner and board chief, Vladimir Antonov.

In what must have been a rather humiliating exercise, Antonov gave up his shares in Spyker and his aspirations to be an official part of the Saab deal. And whilst that was happening, his character was being assassinated by anyone with a byline.

From this interview, it seems this was all an exercise in rearranging the deck chairs so that the initial appearance would be palatable to those involved in facilitating the sale:

A condition for General Motors in selling Saab to Spyker was that Antonov should sell his shares in Spyker. Is it true that he privately helped finance the acquisition?

"That's correct. Antonov financed me 100 percent. He lent me the 74 million dollars cash we had to pay for the take-over. The Americans knew that. That's why it made no sense. It was a pointless discussion, I found. He was unjustly associated with criminal money and laundering.

$50 million of that amount has been paid already. $25 million was paid on signing and another $25 million paid on closing the deal back in February.

The final instalment is due on July 15.

Previous disclosures about financing indicated that Antonov's shares had been acquired by Muller's own private company, Tenaci Capital BV. Spyker also secured $25million in finance from Heerema Holding Co (VM previously worked for Pieter Heerema). Tenaci was financed by debt providers who wished to stay anonymous and with whom Tenaci entered into non-disclosure agreements.

All this is fine and dandy. I'm not concerned by who's providing the money. The deal got done and that's all that matters to me. Saab survived.

What I find strange, however, is the positioning that was required in order to make someone comfortable with the deal for what's turned out to be a pretty short period of time.

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It's also nice to think that we've got the key financier behind the Saab deal driving for the Saabs United Historic Rally Team at the Midnight Sun rally in July :-)

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The Handelsblad article also features some other good stuff, but it's this financial angle that fascinated me the most.

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An article has come online from Ny Teknik talking about an order Saab has placed for 9-5 wagon body tooling.

Jakob has been kind enough to provide a translation:

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Saab 9-5 Combi comes next year

Saab Automobile has ordered new body tooling by Novacast in Tyringe, with delivery in spring 2011.

According to the company, the tools will be used for the manufacturing of body components for the new Saab 9-5 in Trollhättan. The sedan model with four doors are already in production here. But next year, it will be followed by a combi model. The order indicates that the serial production of the combi is planned to start during summer next year. For Novacast and the daughter company Camito, this order is worth five million SEK.

In Sweden and the rest of Northern Europe, combi models are big sellers. But on the other markets it's, in this size segment, cars with four doors that's the primary target.

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The timeline for the 9-5 wagon has always been known to be 2011, but I guess it's good to hear that things are underway, as well as a more definite idea of the timeline involved.

It pays to remember that the Saab 9-4x has been talked about quite directly as coming in April 2011, before this 9-5 wagon.

So, no news in the real sense, but some good reassurance.

Seriously.

Saab has signed a new contract with JATO Dynamics, ahead of the Swedish firm's launch of its important new model, the all-new 9-5.

After reading an entire report in the news about it, I still have no idea what signing up JATO means. Maybe that's why I'm stuck here writing about these cars instead of helping them sell them. I just don't get it enough.

"Other than getting the fundamental engineering of a new car right, the most important factor to a model's success is to have a thorough understanding of the market and for us to have a detailed and complete comparison with competitor products, including specifications and pricing in each of the core markets", says Svante Kinell, manager, Global Business Management at Saab.

"Only then can we establish the perfect specification and pricing strategy of our own. Without the right intelligence, our marketing objectives for the launch cannot be met."

I don't know if this is an after-the-fact report, but it seems they might be cutting it fine with that, given that pricing and spec have been released in a number of places and the launch is just over a week away.

Here's the low-down from JATO's website:

JATO has set the industry standard in the delivery of effective intelligence to the automotive arena. Information is delivered in consistent formats, across multiple user-friendly platforms: internet, desktop and portable media.

Posted today at Edmunds.

Click to enlarge.

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I'll have more 9-5 pricing information for a few other markets tomorrow (getting late here).

With thanks to John B.

We've seen plenty of them and the car has already been shown at plenty of motor shows and customer viewings. Pricing is available in many markets and some dealers have even started taking orders for them.

But the new Saab 9-5 is has not yet been 'officially' launched.

I'm not sure what constitues an 'official' launch, but Dutch news services reported overnight that the Official Launch of the new Saab 9-5 will take place on Friday, May 28.

What I do know is that shortly thereafter, members of the motoring press will be taking test drives of the car in a media event that will last for several weeks. We heard from Victor Muller at the Saab Canada announcement that Saab have built facilities in the reception area around the factory that will be part of this procedure.

I'm sure it's going to be pretty special for all involved - and maybe some of those doubters in the Swedish press will change their minds a little about the future of this company.

Victor Muller did an interview on Dutch Business News Radio (BNR) today. It's a brief piece, but in it he expresses some measure of pleasant surprise at the financial health of the company.

Thanks to Tim for the translated transcript:

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Introduction: Saab recovers faster than expected, says Spyker's CEO Victor Muller, which took over the Swedish car manufacturer in February. Critics said it was impossible what Muller did when he took Saab over from General Motors, but the CEO of the combined Saab Spyker company said after three months the company is performing better than expected.

VM: We see a clear increase in order intake. We see confidence in Saab increasing after a rather dramatic eighteen months. People are ordering Saab again, dealers have ordered in large numbers. And they do so because they expect that they can sell again. So we see a clear recovery of the business.

BNR: Following the takeover have you encountered any financial setbacks?

VM: No, we haven't encountered any setbacks. The remarkable thing about this transaction is that you usually anticipate some setbacks but at Saab we have seen the opposite. So far we have actually only found that things were better than we thought.

BNR: Like what?

VM: Improved cash position for example. Less cost of warranty than we thought. There are quite a number of things that were better and together those count for substantial amounts of money which we can keep in our pocket. So we see a better Saab than we thought.

BNR: Saab itself as a car, has somewhat gone to the middle. You said during the acquisition Saab should be more Saab-Saab, an almost new brand. What's Saab-Saab after three months?

VM: Well, I've said that before, we are extremely lucky GM realized in 2005 Saab went the wrong way. It allowed Saab to develop a completely new brand DNA, which we have seen as the Saab Aero-X. In March 2006 this car was shown to the public. That car is the Saab DNA. The real Saab DNA, what I mean by Saab Saab. That car has been reflected in the new Saab 9-5, which now runs on the production lines. So we do not need three or four years between when we took over the company to build Saab-Saabs, we already do it. And for the new 9-4x which is on the market in April 2011 we will see the same. Fully developed and modeled on the Saab brand DNA.

BNR: Saab should be more exclusive.

VM: It should definitely be more premium and I think that Spyker has so much to add. The gap between Saab and Audi and BMW must be reduced quickly and that is already done with the 9-5 and that happens especially with the 9-4X, the crossover model like the Audi Q5. And in 2012 we see the new Saab 9-3 which will go one notch further as far as DNA is concerned so people will say it's unmistakably a Saab.