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 RobinM
July 27, 2011 in News
A few weeks ago Morries Saab had their first ever Saab Swap Meet & Car Show which took place on July 9th, 2011.
Everybody was welcome and quite a few of you took along your Saabs and Saab Related items!
Anna from Morries Saab has sent us a write up about the event and a few photo’s which can be found on my Flickr Site
by till72
July 11, 2011 in Hirsch
I’ve already mentioned it in the forum but still I wanted to bring it to the front page in case some did not see it: June 20th 2011 marked the date when Hirsch Performance products could finally be pre-ordered through the US dealer network.
From what I’ve heared the first parts and software upgrade tools are on their way to the US now. For details please contact your local Saab dealer. If you want to check which products are available in your market you can also visit the Hirsch Performance homepage.
by Red J
July 1, 2011 in ssd
Update from Jeff
June 2011
. Sales YTD Stock
9-3 216 2,821 2,008
9-5 107 650 1,659
Total 323 (+50%) 3,471 (+155%) 3,667
June 2010
. Sales YTD Stock
9-3 204 1,084 2,253
9-5 5 175 21
9-7X 7 87 11
Total 216 1,346 2,285
Total
June 2011 323 (216 in June 2010) +50%
YTD 2011 3438 (1346 YTD 2010) +155%
Year Total 2010: 5445
9-4X sales will be counted for July, since it hasn’t even been delivered to a single dealer yet. They are in port however (confirmed by dealer sources) and as I drove over the NJ Turnpike last night looking down into the parking areas I saw amongst the thousands of cars a pretty large pool of what looked to be 9-4Xs by themselves with white hood protectors. I’ll try to take a picture next time I go over it next weekend.
by Red J
June 30, 2011 in News
The internet is a fantastic invention, in 1992 you were able to see if the guys from a British University had enough Coffee in the Trojan room of coffee.
Today somebody has left a back-door open and somebody else has found a 9-5SC catalogue for the US market, albeit without prices.
The guys from Saabworld have put it in the public domain, so it should be OK if I talk about it.
The Brochure of the Saab 9-5 SC MY 12 can be downloaded from the SaabUSA site.
This is the most important page of that catalogue.
by Tim
June 24, 2011 in News
Pre-order US Size www.SaabsUnited.com License Plate Frames – US Plate Size from State of Nine! Pre-order – Delivery time for frames is currently 2-4 weeks until initial production is complete.
by RobinM
June 21, 2011 in News
The first ever Morries Saab Swap Meet & Car Show will take place on July 9th, 2011.
Set up is from 8:30 am and the day will continue until 4pm.
Everybody is welcome to bring their Saabs & Saab Related items!
All Models are welcome and encouraged.
For details or to reserve your parking spot, contact Anna at anna.sawyer@morries.com or 763.449.4221
7400 WAYZATA BLVD., GOLDEN VALLEY, MN 55426 763-449-4200
by Carl-Henrik
May 7, 2011 in ssd
Update 1: Graph for Germany 2007-2011 added!
Update 2: Added data for the Netherlands 2007-2008.
by Red J
May 3, 2011 in ssd
April 2011 Combined Sales: 696; April 2010 Combined Sales: 215; +224%
YTD 2011: 2,765; YTD 2010: 346; +699%
I think the YTD for 2010 is wrong. They don’t seem to add the cars of the GM months.
Using the January and February numbers the YTD reads as follows.
YTD 2011 2,765; YTD 2010 956; +185%
Breakdown by model
April 2011 Saab 9-5 Sales: 123, YTD 2011: 450
April 2011 Saab 9-3: 573, YTD 2011: 2,315
by Tim
April 23, 2011 in Editorial
This great story comes from Yahoo finance, a big thanx to Peter from bringing it to us! =)
Over 1 million people are expected to attend the New York Auto show, which opens to the public Friday. The show offers a dizzying array of vehicles to be dissected and critiqued by car aficionados, the media and the general public.
Among all the features being dissected, perhaps the least important is whether the car is foreign or domestic.
“It’s a delineation without a difference these days,” says Jim Resnick, an editor with Yahoo! Autos.
by Jeff
March 24, 2011 in Editorial, News
An article from automotive news spiked my interest this morning. As GM tries to consolidate its dealership network into a tighter more integrated group, some dealers face the threat of becoming used car dealerships or worse, shutting down. These same dealers are now applying to become Saab and Volvo dealers.
Which leads me more to this question for US readers– what’s going on with your dealer? Is their stock finally replenished to where it was a few years ago? If your Saab dealer was part of a larger automotive group (especially GM brands), has your dealer segregated its showroom space to a different building? You’ll remember GM set a deadline of 3 years to achieve this goal. From Swade’s interview with Mike Colleran last September:
Second, the requirement to have separate showroom space was one that GM and Saab/Spyker agreed upon when signing the deal to sell Saab. In short, there was a three-year time period set and all selling spaces should be separated by that time (Feb 2013). Connected to that is the fact that it’s quite normal for brand management, whether it be GM, BMW or Audi, to ask dealers for separate space on their lots.
If your dealer has multiple brands, how do you feel they’re doing pushing Saab vs. other makes? Have you been contacted by your dealer recently to come in to see their new inventory (aside from the standard SCNA mailers for national service promotions).
by Red J
March 11, 2011 in Saabology
Sorry, but I had to find something that wasn’t related to Mr. Antonov.
On Wednesday the première of the movie Jane Eyre was celebrated at NYC’s Tribeca Grand Hotel. The event was sponsored by W magazine, Saab and Focus Features.
Mia Wasikowska, the leading actress, did wear a Elie Saab dress. I hope some of the public assisting to the event did know that there are other companies using SAAB as brand name. 
by Red J
March 5, 2011 in News
In Germany Jan-Philipp Schuhmacher has been appointed as new Country Director for Saab Germany. He comes from Land Rover Germany where he was National Sales Manager over the past two years.
Is this the vengeance for Hallmark ???
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And in the USofA Mr. James Sweeting has also been appointed as new executive national sales director. He comes from Honda USA. I don’t know how Honda is performing in the states, so lets wait what he can do to get the sales figures high.
Both press releases after the jump.
Thanks to TedY and rodmylon for the hints.
by Red J
February 6, 2011 in Saabology
I can’t see the future, thus I don’t know how dark or bright the future of Saab in the states will be, but reading a report from www.goodcarbadcar.net about the Luxury SUV sales in America & Canada I get good vibes about the effect of the 9-4x in the the North American sales figures.
And what makes me feel so good about it? The Saab is the stepsister of the Cadillac SRX, and the Cadillac did sell quite well in the States, leaving everybody behind by far.
Yes, the Caddy is this big yellow pie piece.
In Canada the SRX did only reach the fourth place with 2.918 units behind the Mercedes GLK, Aqura RDX and Audi Q5.
This makes a total of 54.012 units, which is quite a lot. Even comparing the SRX with the Mid-Size SUV, which fits better the size of the SRX, the Caddy would stay in second place behind the Lexus RX in the US.
I’m not saying that Saab will be able to sell even half as much 9-4X as Cadillac has been able to sell SRX, but the figures that are floating in the net indicate that GM will only produce about 9.000 units of the 9-4X in the first year. And if 54.000 North-Americans think that the SRX is worth while buying, why shouldn’t Saab find 9.000 buyers for the 9-4x?
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BTW, Saab seems to know how to market the 9-4X. This is Saab’s full Ad in the March US issue of the Glamour Magazine.
The first page of this multi-page Ad has already been discussed here.
Thanks to AJM !!
by Swade
March 7, 2010 in News
As I mentioned earlier this week, I was fortunate enough to speak with Saab Cars North America President and Chief Operating Officer, Mike Colleran, on Wednesday morning. He is kind to make himself available for us at SaabsUnited, and I hope that this is a conversation that flows pretty freely as the newly independent Saab “follows its own road” to success here in North America.
I’ve not attempted to edit Mr. Colleran’s words much; they don’t particularly need editing anyway. My hope was to convey his message to you dear readers as they were given to me. That won’t always be the case, but for now I think that transparency is of value because we’ve heard so little from the American Saab organization while the battles were raging in Europe and in the GM boardroom.
Finally, I’ll categorize some of Mr. Colleran’s answers as very general. At this point in Saab’s re-organization, that is expected. There is simply too much work to be done before the details come into focus. I understand that, and I hope that you give him that understanding as well.
What are you working on right now?
Colleran: Dealers have been assigned to the company. Now we’ve got to get them product. The second step is to finalize our relationship with GMAC and re-introduce leasing. If you look back historically at the sales loss back to August of 2008, probably 60% of the sales loss is directly attributable to just not having a lease available. This segment, European luxury, penetrates very deeply on leasing as a retail tool. Saab dealers have not had that available, nor have Saab customers, in a year and a half now. High, high priority on getting a lease in place.
A second priority is establishing Saab as a European brand, a Swedish brand, in the market, or should I say re-establishing Saab as a European brand. We’ve transitioned to the global the tag line, “Move Your Mind” which is now out on the website and in the mail campaigns which definitely ties us back to our parent company and our roots.
What’s changed now that you are independent?
Colleran: One, Saab now has the freedom to express itself as an import brand and as a Scandinavian brand. Looking back into our past there were a lot of ties into the General Motors advertising efforts. Along the way, Saab, probably more accidently than purposely, became more identified as a domestic brand. We don’t have to do that anymore. We are free to express ourselves as we would like to.
Another thing being independent allows us to do: we are free to offer retail tools that are built more for Saab and the European luxury segment than for the volume portions of the market. You probably won’t see us involved with the traditional General Motors events that Saab was participating in. You saw those many times. There would be six or seven divisions across the bottom, it would be a “Red Tag Sale” or a “Hot Button” or something like that. It worked well for General Motors, quite frankly, but it made Saab appear more domestic and, too, it didn’t really address the Saab customer’s specific needs. So, we can be more targeted in messaging and retail offers.
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