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We are many, We are SAAB: Australia

January 17, 2012 in News, We are SAAB

Here’s the reports on the We are many, We are Saab Australian events.

Sydney

We met at Saab Salvage and chatted about all things Saab. Steve from Saab Salvage also organised a morning tea for us. Here are the Saabs at Saab Salvage.

After about an hour those of us who could go on the drive headed off to Pie in the Sky in Cowan. Where we met up with some people along the way. Here we are waiting for the Ferry at Berowra Waters.

All in all about 16 Saabs showed up to support Saab, and we all had a great time too.

More photos at Phil’s Flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/unknownlatitude/sets/72157628860583273/

Adelaide

Here’s Mark’s report on the Adelaide event.

We only had a small rally here in South Australia.

It began at Ikea at 8.45 am for breakfast. Proceeded to Adelaide Saab (South Australia’s only Saab dealer) at 11.30 am. Coincidently Adelaide Saab has a Mahindra dealership next door and there was an almost new 9-3X on the lot. Very strange.
Anyway we proceeded to the National Motor Museum at Birdwood, arriving at around 12.15 pm. By then it was getting close to 30 degrees Celsius. We had a tour of the Motor Museum before taking a few photographs.

BTW there is a white 1986 5 door Saab 900i in the Birdwood Motor Museum.

Melbourne

Here’s Alex’s report on the Melbourne event.

This morning (15th) the Melbourne event was held at Albert park lake , where the Melbourne F1 race is held. This was a meeting point for 24 Saab owners and families , who drove their cars to the lake side car park , Saabs included a brand new Saab 9.5 Aero and a 9.3X, and a range of Saabs owned by a group of dedicated supporters added our voices in support of Saab

Photos can be seen here http://www.flickr.com/photos/74371652@N04/sets/72157628874179011/

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Australian Convoys – UPDATED

January 10, 2012 in News

As apart of the worldwide “We are many, We are Saab” events, there will also be a convoys in Australia, and the Australian convoys will likely be the first of these convoys (because of timezones).

Sydney – Updated
The Sydney, Australia convoy will be on January 14th starting at 10:00 AM, meeting at Saab Salvage in Riverstone, for details on the route see this map http://g.co/maps/hzgy8.

After meeting at Saab Salvage, having a chat, and taking some photos, we will drive to Pie in the Sky at Cowan on the Old Pacific Highway for Lunch.

Adelaide

The Adelaide event will be on January 15th. And is being organised by Mark.

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Saab on Amazing Race Australia

June 10, 2011 in Editorial

As a fan of The Amazing Race it was great to see them using Saabs when they were in Sweden during the last season. Now I’m watching the first season of The Amazing Race Australia, which I recommend to any Amazing Race Fans.

In the latest leg the teams find themselves in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Those of you who have been avid followers of SaabsUnited for a few years, do remember the link Saab has with Port Elizabeth, South Africa?

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Saab Car Club of Australia National Event

May 2, 2011 in News

Over the Easter Long weekend (which was 5 days long this year) the Saab Car Club of Australia held its national event. The event was held in Coffs Harbour in New South Wales and its surrounding areas.

The weekend began with dinner and drinks on Friday night, as most had driven to Coffs Harbour that day.

Saturday was a river cruise on the Nambucca River from Nambucca Heads to Macksville. It was a chance to catch up with Saab club members from other parts of Australia we don’t normally see very often. Along the cruise our guide informed us of many facts about the river and the towns on the river. One that we’ll remember for a while is that oysters take 4 years to reach the stage at which they can be eaten! Saturday afternoon was left free to clean and prepare cars for the Concours D’elegance.

Sunday morning was the Concours D’elegance, in total there were 12 cars on show, there were 4 trophies for the Concours and many had been busy cleaning their cars the day before and that morning. Here’s a photo of the cars on display and the trophies.

On the Sunday night we had a dinner and the winners of the trophies were announced, here they are
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BAIC and their SAAB purchase

April 15, 2011 in News

The Shanghai Auto Show is starting next week, with the media days on the 19th and 20th April. Ahead of the show Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co, known as BAIC, are showing off what they have on offer, and there is a lot to be interested in for Saab fans.

I’ll take a look at all the offerings after the jump.

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Saab Typos

April 8, 2011 in Uncategorized

In my searches around the interwebz for Saab news relevant to Australia (Saab Australia are running Saab 9-5 press days yesterday and today) I came across an amusing (well amusing to me) typo.

The Sydney Morning Herald have posted up a gallery for the 2011 Saab 5-9.

Have a look at the Sydney Morning Herald website or there’s a screenshot after the jump

Has anybody else seen any other amusing Saab typos/mistakes out and about?

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Australian Saab Sales 2010 and 2011

April 6, 2011 in ssd

I’m just wanting to let you guys know what is happening Down Under in terms of sales. I’ve just got my hands on the new car registration data.

In March the following was reported

  • Saab 9-3: 12
  • Saab 9-5: 5
  • Saab 9-3 Convertible: 7
  • Total: 24

That’s 24 cars for March, and the current year to date is 24 (so no sales in January and February). Last year after March the year to date sales was just 1.

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NG9-3 Hatchback Confirmed

March 24, 2011 in News

Autoblog are at the 2011 Saab 9-4X launch event and they’ve been talking to Magnus Hillerborn, Saab’s Vehicle Validation Engineer. They are now reporting that a a five-door hatch is confirmed alongside the convertible.

The changes are so significant that Hillerborn says he imagines GM executives will be “very surprised” when they see the production car, which is tipped to take design cues from the PhoeniX concept car that debuted earlier this month at the Geneva Motor Show. Hillerborn says that the hatchback will likely be five-door only (presumably a SportCombi wagon variant will follow), though we imagine there are some three-door renderings knocking about in Trollhattan. Hillerborn promises a very sleek and unique hatchback, one that should appeal to traditional sedan buyers as well (read: not bulbous and overtly hatch-like, but more streamlined).

There’s no word on a 3 door hatch or a sedan at the moment, feel free to head over to Autoblog for a read:
http://www.autoblog.com/2011/03/23/2012-saab-9-3-hatchback-confirmed-but-is-a-sedan/

With all this speculation, we’re curious as to what everyone here would be interested in purchasing. Sound off in the poll below.

What 9-3 variant would you like to buy most?
5-door hatchback
3-door hatchback
5-door 9-3x
3-door 9-3x
4-door Sedan
2-door Coupe
Sportcombi
Convertible

 

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New Saab USA Advert

March 23, 2011 in News

Just a quick one, there’s a great not so new advert for the United States market has just been posted up on Facebook for people to comment on.

Here is the ad on YouTube or after the jump

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Mid Week Snippets

March 23, 2011 in News

First up, GoAuto have a very comprehensive article about Swade and his Job at Saab. Swade’s comment on the article

“…this is pretty much the most complete article about what I did and how it got me a new job with Saab. GoAuto do the job better than any other motoring publication in Australia.”

So head over and have a good read
http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/E94A6A2C2451C644CA257856001FC824

–

Today marks New Salem Saab‘s 50th Birthday, below is from their website:

However, during the purchase the financial institutions of the day would not lend the money to my grandparents for a Saab franchise. Remember Saab was a foreign front wheel drive car with a three cylinder two stroke, which only arrived in the states in 1956. The banks along with everyone else didn’t know anything about this funny sounding little Swedish car hence there reluctance to assist in the purchase. Never the less our family pressed on and sold off many things to help raise the money needed including a chunk of the families savings which grandmother was “fit to be tied” over. They managed to scrap together what they needed and our franchise was awarded on March 23, 1961.

Congratulations, and all the best.

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Saab have come in at number 7 on Sweden’s 10 Greenest Brands.
http://www.swedishwire.com/business/9057-swedens-10-greenest-brands

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SNORAS, a Lithuanian bank, has released a news article about the addition of 7 Saab 9-5 Aeros to their fleet.

Bank SNORAS has innovated its vehicle fleet by seven new business class cars Saab 9-5 Aero 2.0 Turbo. Heads of Bank SNORAS will use the new model cars complying with the highest requirements of safety and environment protection.

Vladimir Antonov is the main shareholder of SNORAS, so it’s not a big surprise they’ve picked Saab.

http://www.snoras.com/en/about/news/archive?item=3065&metai=2011&page=1

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Peab are building new apartments south of Innovatum. For those unfamiliar with Trollhättan, Innovatum is the area which is home to the Saab Museum.

http://ttela.se/start/trollhattan/1.1159010-regissoren-till-forsaljning

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GM has sold of the rest its preferred shares in Ally Financial for US$1 billion. Ally Financial handles financing for GM, Chrysler, Saab, Thor Industries and Fiat Mexico. GM still holds a 9.9% interest in Ally Financial’s common stock.

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Finally, if you’re a Saab convertible owner in Sydney, Australia and you and your Saab are available on 2nd July 2011 please get in contact with me. My email address is brendan@burdon.id.au

Brendan

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Car and Driver waiting for Saab 92

March 23, 2011 in News

Car and Driver have put together a list of 25 cars worth waiting for, and included in the list is the 2014 Saab 92. It great to see the motoring press getting excited for future Saabs.

There are also a couple of interesting comments, that I doubt the validity.

  • the 9-3 successor, which will likely be called 900
  • At first, the 92 will get Mini’s turbocharged gas four-cylinder; diesels and a three-cylinder gasoline engine are possibilities.

It’s not a long piece, feel free to pop over and have a look
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11q1/2014_saab_92-feature

Brendan

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Saab Australia – Where are you?

March 22, 2011 in News

A journalist at Forbes wrote the following as an introduction

Sitting in a movie theater a few weeks ago sleepily waiting for the previews to begin, a sleek add jolted me to my senses. It was an advertisement for the latest cars built by Saab, supposedly the automobile brand that had vanished due to bankruptcy.

While many have doubted whether he was really unaware of Saab’s survival, the point is that the advert would of let the average punter know that Saab was still around. Saab in the USA are letting people know they are alive and kicking.

Meanwhile a look at an article in the Sydney Morning Herald written by Elizabeth Farrelly, a columnist, author and architect, on the 3rd March 2011 tells us that Saab have suspended sales in Australia. Farrelly is on the quest for a car that is “green” and has flair.

In the end, I decided a Saab, and only a Saab, had the right mix of intellect, Left Bank queerness and reliability. I do like a car that goes. It was also moderately green, in terms of road-load, with a good turning circle and an enjoyable acoustic, as evidenced not just by the satisfying thunk of its door-closure but also by the lovely flickety-sound its indicator makes.

But the clincher, re the Saab, was the room. It may be Saab’s airplane-making origins that led them to it, for the interior is as much cockpit as car (to the point where you expect push-button machine guns on the dash). But as a room, especially for the driver, immensely flattering. As a good room should, it makes you feel loved. And of course, I love it right back.

Only now, heartbreakingly, I’m back at square one, for Saab has temporarily suspended selling cars in Australia.

A trip out to my Saab independent mechanic always ends up in a chat about all things Saab. A trip out there just last week found us discussing the new offerings from Saab. The guys told me that many of their customers were asking about if Saab were still selling cars in Australia.

The Saab enthusiast would know that Saab is still alive down under. The average punter on the other hand, who recycles the motoring section in the weekend paper and never picks up a Motoring Magazine, thinks that Saab isn’t doing business down under.

Brendan

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Bankruptcy: Saab, GM and the Banks

March 21, 2011 in News

There’s an interesting article/blog over at Forbes

The author, John Tamny, writes that the United States government feared that jobs would disappear if they allowed the auto-makers and banks in the United States to go into bankruptcy. So the United States government stepped in with bailout packages.

Tamny then goes on to look at Saab and how they dispelled the myth that bankruptcy means that the jobs will disappear. Saab went into the Swedish equivalent of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and came out the other side at its “market clearing level”. He then goes on to outline bankruptcy as a positive, and companies come out of it with better management practices ready to succeed.

Saab’s story is a reminder that as opposed to something we should fear, bankruptcy often is what ensures the perpetuation of things we like. Saab survived bankruptcy and lived to tell the story, and it’s time we apply the lessons of Saab to other corporate entities living off of the money of others.

Feel free to pop over and read for yourselves.
http://blogs.forbes.com/johntamny/2011/03/20/bailouts-bankruptcy-and-the-revival-of-saab-automobile/

Brendan

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BAIC buys WEIGL Transmission Plant AB

March 16, 2011 in News

After purchasing the technology for the old Saab 9-5 and pre-2006 Saab 9-3, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) have further move towards manufacturing the Saab 9-3 and 9-5 as Beijing Auto branded cars in the Chinese market.

BAIC have purchase WEIGL Transmission Plant AB, the company that manufacture gearboxes for Saab and GM. Early reports say that the deal, worth 31 million Euro, has included the factory, production equipment and IPR for the F25 and F35 gearboxes that are found in the Saab 9-3 and 9-5.

Brendan

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