Ally Financial to auction 900 new Saabs stored at seaports in the USA

A car exporter could buy these 600 Saabs and they could be shipped back to Europe? Not sure if there is much of a profit to be made but it is quite interesting many of these new Saabs could end up being sold outside the US. Or they can be rented at airports around the US.

Does it appear that a dealer must bid for 45 cars? Many dealers will not bid for that many cars. Although online inventories may not be accurate, in the Seattle area, there are 2 dealers. One has 2 2010 9-3 and 1 2011 9-3. The other has about 9 Saabs. I doubt either will want to buy 45 Saabs. This could lead to very low bids.

As far as rental car companies, they are used to getting cars cheaply so I suspect they will also bid low.

Selling to individuals will get a higher price but takes more effort.

Perhaps dealer groups that own more than one Saab dealer will be able to by these? Elder Automotive Group owns Saab in Troy, MI (largest Saab dealer in the US), the former Saab of Lakeside, MI and a Saab of Tampa, FL.

However, they still have new Saabs in stock (Troy has 7, according to their website) so I can't imagine they'll be waiting to buy more new Saabs. As you said, bids probably will be very low.

I imagine if they are bought by some European dealer they aren't going to end up in Germany, Sweden, France, etc. They will end up somewhere in Eastern Europe.

While we're catching up on these post-NEVS developments -- this one in particular -- let us not lose sight of the fact that Ally is the renamed-and-I-believe-still-owned-by-General Motors GMAC -- the company that quashed a number of better-financed-than-NEVS purchasers of Saab and also pulled any warranty coverage for most or all 2010-2012 Saabs (including, no doubt,the ones they seized and are now about to sell). Ironies abound.

Kind of funny that the "service now" light will be light up on each car the minute the key is turned ..... if the battery charge held.

At the poor rate new SAABs are already selling nowadays, I can only imagine at what prices these new cars will sell for.

Here is a list of all vehicles: http://saabworld.net/attachments/f14...-financial.pdf

There are 3 heritage vehicles listed but I am not sure if those will be auctioned as well. 1970 Saab Sonett III, 1985 Saab 900 SPG and 1966 Saab Quantum.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ally auctioned the Heritage vehicles.

Five 9-4x are for parts or display, estimated at $5000 each. Buy a road-worthy 9-4x, buy one or two parts-only 9-4x, and you should be good for a while with replacement parts!

I imagine those 9-4x in Trollhättan will stay in Europe, someone buys them and then sells a few to SAAB collectors (I am sure there are plenty in Sweden, Netherlands and elsewhere), and a few others get sold to the public.

I bet the Quantum goes to one of the vintage-ophiles. Bruce Turk (he owns many vintage Saabs) picked up some--or was it just one--from the earlier auction to buy them from the heritage collection. I can't remember who bought some of the others, but most if not all were purchased by guys in the VSCNA circle. Good to see that they oldies were picked up by lovers. I hope these three can be as well.

Just to clarify.. That list is taken from the court documents, it is not a list provided by Ally or necessarily all the cars that are going to be auctioned. I noticed that wasn't clear from my earlier post.

Interesting that there are cars at dealerships, what's up with that? Also 2 at Chateua Elan where the Aero Acadamy attendees were housed.

Quantum's seem to command around the 20,000 mark. I can see the SPG going for arouond 8-12 maybe. I would love to get my hands on it.

I was lucky to drive that 1985 SPG. I have never driven a new Saab 900 but I imagine this one is better than new.

The German Saab blog saabblog.net mentions they have exclusive pictures of Saabs stored inside but they can't publish them for some reason. Not fair! I tried to contact them but no response yet..

Die Bilder bei Saabworld.net sagen – was gut ist – nicht die ganze Wahrheit. Sehr viele Fahrzeuge stehen nicht auf dem Aussengelände, sondern waren und sind in Hallen untergebracht. Waren also nicht im harten Winter Wind und Wetter und salzhaltiger Meeresluft ausgesetzt, so wie es zu befürchten war und wie auf anderen Seiten auf Grund von Dritthand-Informationen vermutet wird. Exklusive Bilder aus den Hallen sind in unserem Besitz, dürfen aber nicht veröffentlicht werden.

Translated

The pictures in Saabworld.net say - what is good - not the whole truth. So many vehicles are not on the outside grounds, but were and are housed in warehouses. Were not exposed to harsh winter wind and rain and salty sea air, so feared as it was and is suspected as on other sites on the basis of third hand information. Exclusive pictures from the halls are in our possession, but may not be published.

The pictures we have seen only show the 50 - 60 that are parked outside and there are many of those warehouses in the area.

Originally Posted by Frank Wulfers

The pictures we have seen only show the 50 - 60 that are parked outside and there are many of those warehouses in the area.

The majority of the cars are outdoors. If you didn't go down by the importer's offices, you missed an entire field of 9-3s, 9-5s and a lone 9-4x peeking up out of the roughly 100-150 cars in that section at the NE corner of Navy and Neptune. There's also another section on the left just before you turn right to reach the offices that has at least 60 cars in it. Also, the pack of 9-5s between the warehouses stretches pretty far back. I would say, of the roughly 600 cars in Newark, at least half if not two-thirds are outside.

The first two of a series of auctions will soon take place for Saabs at ports in the United States. Ally Financial obtained a court judgment to the cars after Saab missed payments on the cars. About 900 Saabs have been in storage in Newark (near New York), Port Hueneme (near Santa Barbara, California), and Brunswick, Georgia. There are a few cars in other locations, including a few in Sweden.


Saabs inside a Port Newark warehouse of FAPS, Inc., the company that processes Saabs after they are unloaded from cargo ships at Port Newark

On June 27th, there will be an auction for assorted cars, such as former company cars and several 9-4X vehicles that have no title and can only be used for display or parts. Parts of the Heritage Collection are not included.


On June 28, 2012, the first lot of 45 cars will be auctioned. This lot is part of about 300 cars that will be eventually auctioned to Saab dealers. These cars were selected with the assistance of Tom Backes, part of the Saab National Dealer Council, and others based on their assessment of cars that will likely be sold easier in the United States. Some of the cars are described as "high content" cars.

About 600 cars will be auctioned to car exporters and/or rental car fleets. By not unloading all 900 cars in the U.S. market, it is hoped that the price of Saabs will not be severely depressed.

Ally Financial is auctioning the first 45 cars through its established system called Smart Auction. Only Saab dealers may bid as they are already established in the system. Individual cars are being auctioned, not a combined lot of multiple cars. The first lot is being auctioned to gauge interest. There is a minimum bid of 50% of MSRP (retail price). Information of the cars in the first lot of 45 is being submitted to dealers so that they may gauge public interest in the cars.

Some dealers are open to discussion with the public to bid for a car for an individual customer. Some dealers did not respond to requests from this editor to consider the idea.

The source at Ally Financial, who requested that the public not contact him because they are unable to handle a high volume of calls or e-mails, said that some dealers might cooperate with each other and arrange for one truck to deliver 10 cars to them. This suggests that shipping costs are additional. If there is a car that an individual is interested in, there are several theoretical possibilities, ranging from the dealer submitting a bid for a fixed fee or the buyer signing a purchase order for a car for a specific price (contingent on the dealer getting the car) and the dealer deciding the bid price and transport arrangements.

Of the 900 cars to be processed, slightly more than half of them are Saab 9-5. Slightly more than 400 are 9-3 Sports Sedans. Nearly 60 of the cars are 9-3 Sport Combis (wagons). Roughly 28 are 9-4X vehicles with titles. There are few convertibles, roughly a dozen.



The 45 cars are:

all at located in Newark, all with moonroof (except as noted). Minimum bids are 50% of MSRP

9-3
9-3 convertible, Manual, Laser Red
MSRP of $43,455

10 9-3, 2.0T, Automatic, Glacier Silver, Diamond Silver, Nocturne Blue (3), Jet Black (3)
2 9-3, 2.0T, Manual, Jet Black (no moonroof), Nocturne Blue
12 9-3, XWD, Automatic, Arctic White, Black (2), Carbon Gray (2), Java, Diamond Silver (2), Nocturne Blue
1 9-3, XWD, Manual, Carbon Gray
1 9-3 Aero, Automatic, Jet Black
1 9-3 Aero XWD, Manual, Glacier Silver

1 9-3 SportCombi, Automatic, Carbon Gray
1 9-3X, Automatic, Laser Red,
MSRP of 9-3 cars: one $29,725, others are $32,570-40,095

9-4X
1 9-4X Premium, Automatic, Birch White (with panoramic moonroof)
MSRP of $41,920

9-5
2 9-5, Manual, Jet Black, Fjord Blue (neither with moonroof)
5 9-5, Automatic, Arctic White (2), Carbon Gray, Diamond Silver, Fjord Blue
4 9-5 V6, Automatic, Carbon Gray, Granite Gray, Oak, Black
3 9-5 Aero, Automatic, Diamond Silver (2), Black
MSRP: two for 39k, others are $46,655-53,780

Any more information on which dealers are open to accept requests from customers for individual cars? It all depends on the dealer markup and if you want to get an aftermarket warranty to determine if these are going to be reasonably good deals.

I don't know what a reasonable markup is for dealers but say it is 5 - 10% of the MSRP. Add an aftermarket warranty for $2,500 so that's 5 - 10% of the MSRP, depending on the price of the car. So 50% plus 10 to 20% will be a discount of 30% to 40% off the MSRP for consumers.

This is about the same discount what new Saabs have been selling for, except dealers will make a profit and warranty is included. Less if you don;t want to add warranty. But will it be an attractive discount for buyers?

if anybody finds out the specs on the 2 manual 9-5s, i'd be interested. thanks.