Thanks to RedJ for kicking us off on the UK data.
Saab sold 452 vehicles in Great Britain in January 2011, which is 253% up from a very small base of 128 in January 2010.
The UK market fell by 11.5% compared to last January.
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On a sadder note, Gary W has informed me that a dealership close to him, County Saab, is now a former dealership.
County Saab had another dealership in Inverness, which they closed December 31. That region retains a Saab dealer as Ness Saab stepped into the role.
It’s unknown as yet whether another group will take over in Ayr.
Row data, or raw data?
Never mind, the trend is upwards, which is good!
Duh, corrected it while i typed my comment 🙄
Never mind, up = good, that’s the point
I don’t know if they’ve been posted yet, but I have the figures from France. Saab sold 53 cars in January in The Hexagon, (28 in January 2010).
2010 : 574 cars sold (1200 was the target)
-64% /2009
The sales director leaves SAAB AUTOMOBILE FRANCE for CHEVROLET !
Given the 1000 registered cars in December 2010, selling 450 in January sounds pretty good to me. Don’t be expecting any records to be broken next month but it will be interesting to see how many cars get sold in March.
So in total for Saab we are talking about around 2500 cars sold in January?
My guesstimate is that Saab is one year behind with regards to their sales targets. This year they will sell 50000 – 60000 cars and next year they can reach 80000.
We have to remember that the model range is still almost the same as in June 2010… still no deliveries of 9-5SC and 9-4X…
I’m hopeful of greater numbers though Arild as January is usually a slow Month
I hope your wrong Arild!
This year we are getting the Griffin, the 9-5 SC and finally the 9-4X (though I wouldn’t expect too much of a sales boost from the latter), so I do hope for increasing numbers as we progress in the year. Moreover, there is the new sales structure, I hope finally a stable one, and it seems the sales and marketing efforts might be coming together. I do believe there is potential to sell more Saabs.
Gripen, Is that good or bad that he is leaving? To me it sounds like he is moving down in his career!
OT: Does anybody know why the 9-3 Sedan diesel is not counted as a “green car” in this list? The list is Folksam’s annual list of recommended cars, that they find to be both safe and eco-friendly. The little green M to the rights indicates a “green car” according to the official definition from Vägverket (National Road Administration). To find the 9-3, choose “Mellanstora bilar” (medium-sized cars) in the top drop-down box.
Confusingly, they list the car as 9-3 1.9 TTiD Aero sedan, with 119g/km. I didn’t think they had an Aero version of the cheap diesel?
The only Saabs that get the green M are ethanol cars (including the 9-5).
They are listing Linear/Vector figures for Aero SS/SC. Hope they correct it by changing to Linear/Vector rather than increasing the numbers. Makes it M.
I don’t want to be picky on Gary, but the closing of County Saab has already announced in that press release.
Hi Red J. The original press release was only about County closing their Inverness branch. At around the same time, they pulled out of Milton Keynes, and closed the doors without notice at their main dealership in Ayr (33 miles southwest of Glasgow) a week ago. It looks as if the company may have gone bankrupt.
Although not currently a Saab owner, I did use them for my last Saab – they were excellent in every department, and nothing was too much trouble. The will be missed, especially as the nearest dealership group has always made me feel slightly uncomfortable – just a bit too upmarket possibly.
Börjesson, I saw that to. I emailed SAAB and asked see if they answer. 🙂
I think that’s a good result in the UK. As others have pointed out, they’ve advertised consistently over the last few months in Car Magazine/Auto Express etc. Also, Autocar has tested quite a few variants of the 9-5 – to the point that in the Autocar forum people are asking why!
So, in 2 months in the UK, Saab has sold 1200 cars.
SAAB answered and said Folksam are wrong. To me there is something else bind it. Maybe someone can ask Folksam?