OT: Saab filed for bankruptcy, Sign of the times. Options

[Mark Henry]

Swedish carmaker's Chinese investors fail to take over former GM company.
Too bad, nice car at one time (Saab 99), but they couldn't compete.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/12...bankruptcy.html

[flipb]

Been hoping against hope that they'd somehow survive. My dad's first Saab was in 1986; he ordered a 9000 Turbo sight-unseen from the first shipment into the US. That was followed a few years later by a new one.

My parents later had a 900 convertible and two 9-5's.

The saddest part is that the new 2011 9-5, despite GM ownership, is probably the best car Saab has ever made. I wonder if the demise of the company means the 9-5's on dealer lots will be sold for peanuts...
(IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)

[SirAndy]

Saab filed for bankruptcy

What a surprise, didn't see that coming ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

[zymurgist]

Saab will be missed. Saab and Porsche both looked at car design differently from "the rest of the world."

[Mark Henry]

Saab filed for bankruptcy

What a surprise, didn't see that coming ... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Sort of like a relative with cancer, you know it's going to happen, but it's still sad when it does.

[r_towle]

I am kind of curious.
What happens to the new cars on the carlots?
Do they get sold off by the judge?
Do they get super discounts?

I guess the warantee work would be NADA....but it may be a cheap enough deal to buy one....

Rich

[minnesota loon]

I have 2008 2.0 turbo sport combi. I love it fast and fun to drive.

[rick 918-S]

This is what should have happened to GM and Chrysler. Now we have Government Moters and electric cars that start on fire when the battery goes dead. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) Nothing wrong with bashing a dying company on the head and putting it out of it's misery. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

[76-914]

Yep, fine car. My wife and I had a 95 9000CSE Aero. Had to use cruise control or I'd be running 100mph before I knew it. The turbo was mounted in front of the engine. Such a quite and fast car. I think they've been in bankruptcy before. Hope they emerge OK. Remember they're 2 cycle engine?

[eric9144]

I'm surprised, that you guys are surprised...

Saab has always been an "odd" make that does't have mass appeal (not saying they aren't good cars or innovative designers). But they defiantly had a niche market.

There were a lot of bad moves in terms of guidance and leadership at Saab that ultimately led to financial woes they've been battling for the past year or so and it finally all caved in. They'd been stiffing their suppliers for quite a long time and I don't think the manufacturing had been active for a while now either...

Certainly makes me wonder what would have happened here if we weren't busy being Socialists and bailing out US companies in the same boat.

[zymurgist]

ILBT (IMG:style_emoticons/default/popcorn[1].gif)

[rick 918-S]

I'm spectulating here but I can only imagine the hidden contractual obligations Saab was saddled with from their association with GM. As large as GM was/is they couldn't break free of the financial chastity belt they negociated themselves into. It's very likely some of the bad debt left with Saab last year with the sale hidden in the fine print and GM still couldn't free themselves.

Bash em in the head and let the courts figure it out.

[Elliot Cannon]

This is what should have happened to GM and Chrysler. Now we have Government Moters and electric cars that start on fire when the battery goes dead. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) Nothing wrong with bashing a dying company on the head and putting it out of it's misery. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

Unless of course your job depends on Chrysler and GM.

[DBCooper]

This is what should have happened to GM and Chrysler. Now we have Government Moters and electric cars that start on fire when the battery goes dead. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) Nothing wrong with bashing a dying company on the head and putting it out of it's misery. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

Unless of course your job depends on Chrysler and GM.

Or any company that supplies Chrysler or GM, or any company that supplies any of their suppliers, or any children in the family of anyone who works for any of those companies.

[somd914]

Saab has always been an "odd" make that does't have mass appeal (not saying they aren't good cars or innovative designers). But they defiantly had a niche market.

Thus part of the problem - GM in their infinite wisdom tried to take a niche car mainstream, and it backfired like so many other things they did, e.g. their purchase of Fiat and then selling it back at a loss! Who owns Chrysler these days?

But I have to say, it seems the car culture anymore is homogenised, people for the most part don't want a car that is different.

[EdwardBlume]

Cool cars back in the day. A maintenance nightmare thanks to low UIOs.

IMHO - cars with character are worth so much more than Toyotas, but what do I know...

[rick 918-S]

This is what should have happened to GM and Chrysler. Now we have Government Moters and electric cars that start on fire when the battery goes dead. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) Nothing wrong with bashing a dying company on the head and putting it out of it's misery. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smash.gif)

Unless of course your job depends on Chrysler and GM.

Or any company that supplies Chrysler or GM, or any company that supplies any of their suppliers, or any children in the family of anyone who works for any of those companies.

All the companies that supplied GM took a hit anyway. All the investors took a huge hit when the law was on their side. Why is it up to us all to take care of everyone because of bad business decisions?

No one ever bailed me out, my employees, their families or my suppliers. I man'd up and took care of my business and everyone that took a chance on me and my big ideas. I had some really hard times. I dug into my soul and found a way to take care of everyone.

Call me heartless if you want but I suffered the results of my decisions as a businessman and came to terms with the decisions I was responsible for. I fixed my problems myself. You can't borrow yourself out of debt and you can't expect people that are forced to take a hit at your expense to respect you.

This isn't Greece. Sometimes we need to take a hit and get it over with rather than drag the entire economy down into the next generation.

If big business is allowed to get away with opporating with no consequences this kind of stuff will never end until we are all like Greece. IMO Saab is a victim of an association with loser like GM.

[championgt1]

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/agree.gif) Well said Rick.

[veltror]

Perhaps you guys need to read what happened to BLMC, shit management, bollocks business decisions and just no idea what to do next.

Cannot save every company, sometimes the arrogance of management astounds me, Lehman brothers for instance..

Studebaker died Saab has died, all I now need is Hyundai to go the same way...

[DBCooper]

I started with Saab in a Type 96 and loved that car, had three or four others up through the 9000's, then changed to Volvos. I'll miss Saab.

If big business is allowed to get away with opporating with no consequences this kind of stuff will never end until we are all like Greece. IMO Saab is a victim of an association with loser like GM.

No real argument, but fact is that GM's paying back what it owes, has some better product now, all their supplier companies are still in business and their employees mostly still have jobs. Recession's bad, but if all those company's had all disappeared the decades-long Depression would have been a lot worse. Sometimes you gotta just hold your nose, do what needs to be done, then change the rules of the game (the "regulations") so the leeches can't prosper the next go-round.

Too bad about Saab. Like I said, I've been a fan, but when they started giving up their character they lost a lot of business, even before GM. Unlike the U.S., Sweden is probably just too small a country to support an auto industry without consistently delivering highly desirable cutting edge cars. That's a hard thing to sustain.