There are a number of reasons why February 17th has a circle around it on the calendars owning to some particular Saab nuts.
First of all, it’s the day that General Motors have to hand in their homework assignment to the US government. Failure to do so means more than just a poor grade. It means the US administration will have to make a decision to either show some tough love to Detroit (i.e. call in their loans) or cave in and give them an extension.
Second of all, it’s the day we all expect to hear what’s in that plan. More to the point, what’s in that plan relating to the future of Saab. GM’s last plan had exactly one reference to Saab in it, and that reference included the words “under review”. Will they have an outcome from that review by then? If so, I don’t think it’ll be any different to what we already know: that Saab will still be owned by GM but spun off to either sink or swim with funding backed by the Swedish government.
And finally, a GM dealer dropped a remark in at Trollhattan Saab some time ago to the effect that we’d see images of the 2010 Saab 9-5 around this date. There are a number of people really hanging out to see those.
Can I just warn against getting too strung out on this……?
I haven’t heard anything from anywhere else about the possibility of seeing imagery of the new Saab 9-5 around that time. On the contrary, whilst Saab know that people aren’t holding out on the current 9-5 (they just ain’t buying it, period), Saab also know that there’s no advantage to showing it now, so far in advance of production. The only potential effect is a negative, where people see an image that may not show the car anywhere near as well as a real live model, and make up their mind without taking the chance to see the car in the metal.
——
For what it’s worth, February 17th is going to be just another day for me (I hope). If we hear anything about GM’s plans then all well and good, but I don’t expect to hear anything of consequence until late March or early April.
And 9-5 photos? I think we’ll continue to see plenty of spyshots, but the finished product will remain a mystery for as long as Saab wants it to.
Just my 2 cents.
I’ve got 2 great Saabs in my driveway right now and it’s probably time I thought about those a little more.
Comments are closed.