Lets take a little break for a moment if we can on the discussions on NEVS and what it means to the future of the Saab brand. Everyone has their own opinion of what this means and a lot of predictions good and bad. I want to discus for a moment here the newly formed Saab Automobile Parts North America.
With all the comments about whats going on right now and some of the people who are lets say less then thrilled, I find it important to state that regardless of some predictions of what any of this means for future cars, your present car is still worth driving and parts will be easy to once again attain. Weather you’re happy or sad about the buyer of Saab, your Saab is still just as much fun to drive today as it was yesterday and dare I say it maybe even more. I only mention this because I’ve heard crazy comments about “well I guess I’ll get rid of my Saab now” and I think that would be a shame.
As noted in Tim’s post on the press release on SPNA, they were formed June 5 and will be responsible to provide genuine Saab parts to North America including the USA and Canada. This newly formed company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Saab Automobile Parts AB in Sweden. As we have seen in a couple of posts from RedJ, Saab Parts AB has been taken over by the NDO which some see as a bad thing, I personally see this as a great thing as the NDO will bring Saab Parts AB back to where it once was as they have no real option, they need to get it making money again to get their money back. We also saw from the press conference today that NEVS have an option to buy Saab Parts for 200 million Euro in 3 years allowing the government time to rebuild Saab Parts and the Network.
Back to the North American Saab Parts piece of the puzzle, I received a very welcomed email from Tim Colbeck. If you remember, he came on as the head of Saab Cars North America just as everything fell apart. I know a lot of people in his shoes would have packed up and walked, scratch that, ran away from the issues he had to deal with in his first few months at a new job. None of the issues Saab was facing were issues he at that time could have changed or fixed but this man has been there through every step of the process with us all. He attended two of the We Are Many, We Are Saab events and to me has proven to be everything that Saab is meant to be. The important parts of the email are as follows:
With the sale of the parts, the wind down of SCNA is near complete. I have agreed to support SCNA as needed going forward. Now that there is a new company for Parts Distribution I have signed on to be the CEO for the initial period to help bring that company up to speed. Hopefully the new company can make life infinitely easier for Saab owners and Saab retailers going forward. I am happy to be working to that new goal, versus winding down operations.
So again, Tim is with us all through this and I see this as great news that someone who knows inside and out what to do and how to do it is at the helm. I have spoken to people that worked for him under SCNA and everyone has had great things to say about him and his commitment to the brand, the customers and the dealers. I think we are fortunate to still have him there to help get things back on track. He has also told me they will be contacting Saab owners shortly too, so we will continue to monitor.
I know some will ask the big warranty question here and before you do, I have to tell you that I right now know the same as you which is nothing in regards to warranty. Saab Parts is its own company run by the NDO so I think it’s safe to say that they will not be the ones to get those answers from.
