Now we have the proof. 4 weeks of no production have an effect on the number of sold cars.
Sweden has sold in April 2011 only 560 cars. It is still more than in 2010, where Saab sold 528, but compared to the almost 900 of last month it is a low value.
YTD Saab has sold 2.626 cars, compared to 1.648 last year it is an increase of almost 60%.
For an increase of 100% over the last year Saab should have sold about 1.200 cars.
The split is:
9-3
April: 433 (330 in 2010)
YTD: 2033 (991 in 2010)
9-5
April: 128 (198 in 2010)
YTD: 593 (657 in 2010)
Just having orderd a new 95SC and spoken a lot with my dealer, I know a great deal of people are just waiting for the storm to pass before ordering.
My dealer was`nt worried at all and expects sales to pick up quickly when people feel a bit safer about what is going to happen.
Is it really a drop due to the stall in production?
Or a “normal” swedish april drop?
If a lease car is ordered in Jan 2011, wont it be delivered in about April and then officially be “sold” and registered in the April sales statistics?
So the consequenses of the stall wont be visible until what? June/July?
Am i completely wrong? 😉
Or are there so many staged cars sold?
Stefan,
those are registration statistics, which represent the cars ordered in Jan/Feb.
Otoh, I think that time gap between production and delivery to a customer in Sweden is not longer than 2 weeks. Therefore I think that some cars that should have been delivered in April, do still wait to be produced, and could not be delivered.
What we may also see in later months is a decrease of registrations, because people stopped ordering cars during April.
The 9-5 sales numbers worry me. Especially because last year it was mainly the last stock of OG 9-5’s.
The new 9-5 should outperform this, even without the new station. In Q1 last year there was almost no production and the new 9-5 was not available.
It’s due to the fact that 80% of 9-5 sales in Sweden are Sport Combis. Just wait 🙂
+1
The best and most positive article about a Saab I have read for a long time.
http://www.expressen.se/motor/1.2421629/bilen-som-kan-radda-hela-saab
A translation of one part of the article for the non Swedish readers:
The 9-4x is better than XC60, BMW X3 and Lexus RX.
It’s nice that 80% are Combi’s, but don’t forget that the new Combi won’t arrive until september.
And in Q1 2010 almost no new cars were build and the 9-5 wad already out of production. A new model, even when it is just a sedan, should be able to perform much better.
Don’t forget that Saab sales were real really low in Q1 2010, so in 2011 they should do much better. Also because production (was) in full swing and fresh products always sell better than 13 year old models.
The 9-3 is selling: http://ttela.se/ekonomi/saab/1.1200494-saab-saljer-men-har-tappat-farten
To many people the 9-5 is a little too big, and and I’m sure the the new 9-3 combi with less than 120g CO2/km is an interesting car to many car buyers in scandinavia.
I know the 9-3 is selling, and that is encouraging. But it is so strange that the brand new 9-5 is doing so “bad”. Even Victor Muller already said that the introduction of the 9-5 is a disaster.
http://www.autonews.com/article/20110420/BLOG06/110429971/1492
Wohoo! Signs of life @ Saab! I hope there is a revolution in product management, packaging, marketing and sales underway!
To many (or most) people big sedans are completely uninteresting cars. But big combis are great if you need big space.
I love big sedans and I love the 9-5. I would have bought one instead of the 9-3 if there was a map for my part of Europe available. For that money, I want my car to do EVERYTHING, and this one bit was too much to overlook. I don’t care for dash decals too much, the plastics are really OK there, there was too much hysteria about it. Saab should better worry about the puckalicious faux wood and the awful window switch casings.
But first, give us a map of CEE and sales will skyrocket!
I completely agree with your comment regarding the FAUX WOOD INTERIOR PIECES!!! As a lifetime SAAB owner the sight of it makes me ill. SAABS are honest, well designed machines. FAUX WOOD screams FAKE FAKE CHEAP CHEAP! Not the message SAAB needs to capture new or existing premium car segment buyers!
I don’t think that I will ever buy anything as big as the New 9-5.
I have tried out the car though, and it is a nice car to be in.
I would never buy a car with Navigation in it, just the fact that the technology is dated upon arrival in any car would make me leave that behind.
I don’t like wood of any form in cars.
So the 9-5 with green monochrome screen and black plastic would be OK by me.
And it is absolutely honest 🙂
But Hey..
I’m an old guy who also likes Pontiac Firebirds, Chevrolet Camaros, DeTomaso Panteras and Caterham 7’s so I am probably stoneage in my attitude towards cars.
For the record: I have also owned one hi-spec BMW..That is probably the worst car I have ever had.
If SAAB starts production of the 9-5 combi in week 20, they could start selling it before september…
They are already selling the 9-5 Combi 😉 But deliveries will not start until September. And I don’t make that up myself, that is the official word of Saab.
I can confirm that. Being one of the first to order the 95cs at my dealer my car will arrive september.
Anecdotal evidence only from dpeaking to our dealer, but in the UK the production halt has affected April deliveries/sales. I know of one vehicle that had an expected delivery date of 19th April that is waiting for production to restart.
This could mean that nearly 50% of 9-3 April deliveries didn’t happen in the UK. We can assume that there is a reasonble amount of 9-5 stock in the UK, but 9-3 stock was very low due to the switch to the MY11.5 Griffins.
Isn´t there any “djup strupe” that can confirm that the order are going good or even great on the 9-5SC. I want to know if It´s good news otherwise please don´t tell. Are we heading a success or not? Only good answer is allowed.
Can you order an 119g 9-5SC now or is it just the engines that´s used now?
Another perspective on the sales of the Saab 9-5.
Sales Sweden April 2011
Volvo S80N 88
Saab 9-5 128
Really nice to see the Saab 9-5 sell better than a similar car at Volvo