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

[nordwulf]

Many brand new Saabs have been stored in 3 ports in the USA for quite a while now. They were caught in the bankruptcy of Saab Cars North America since December 2011. Ally Financial claimed SCNA missed payments on outstanding loans and started seizing new Saabs stored at Port Hueneme in California in January of this year.

Many other new Saabs have been stored in Port Newark for many months now and Ally announced this week those new Saabs will be auctioned this month. 300 Saabs are going on the auction block, starting with the first auction of 45 units on June 28th. Only US Saab dealers are eligible bidders so you may see these port Saabs at your local dealer soon.

There are going to be an additional 600 new Saabs available for auction in 6 lots of 100 units each. Eligible bidders are rental car companies and car exporters so these will not end up for sale in the US. Rental Saabs may be on dealer lots as used cars after a while.



SCNA company cars are going to be auctioned as well. Saab dealers in the USA, Canada and Europe can bid on these cars currently stored in Michigan and other storage facilities across America. This includes a few Saabs from the Heritage collection that were stored at transport companies and weren't sold before previously.

Saab dealers still have new Saabs available for sale. After this auction, this is the last chance to buy a brand new Saab from the GM/Spyker era. Discounts of around 30-35% off MSRP have been fairly steady but buyers have been able to buy new Saabs up to 40-50% off. We may not know the auction values of these new 900 new Saabs but 50% or less of the MSRP seems a reasonable estimate.

Download a list of all vehicles: Saab auction - Ally Financial.pdf


Saab of Troy, Michigan storage area a few months ago

Balance sheets from court documents show the value of the vehicle inventory is almost $33 million and company cars is just over US $ 3 million.



Thanks to Aireeca for sharing this available information here on SaabWorld!

This is the information in the letter from Ally from June 13:

Ally is pleased to announce the sale of 67 high content, low mileage Saab company cars for immediate bid. Ally invites eligible parties, as defined below, to bid on the company cars.

67 Company Cars:

• Lot A- 35 units located in Michigan
• Lot B- 32 units located in storage facilities across the United States
• Lot A and B- all 67 units

Eligible bidders- Saab dealerships in the United States, Canada, and Europe Bids accepted through- 5:00 pm Eastern time June 27, 2012.

Neither your submitted bid, nor Ally’s receipt or evaluation of it, constitutes a binding contract to sell the Saab cars at issue. You may revoke your bid at any time before Ally accepts your bid in writing, and Ally may decline your bid at any time.

To obtain a list of the available cars, please contact ---------- by e-mail at --------- or by telephone at ------------.

Currently Ally is expecting to sell the remaining 900 new Saabs in groups, as detailed below.

300 New Cars:

300 new Saab vehicles offered through SmartAuction

• First auction of 45 units to be held on June 28th
• Further information about SmartAuction sales and vehicles offered for sale will be provided at a later date

Eligible bidders- U.S. Saab dealers (subject to sales results)

600 New Cars:

• 6 Lots, each consisting of 100 units

Eligible bidders- Rental car companies and car exporters (subject to sales results)

More reading:
SaabWorld - Many Saabs still waiting for their new owners at Port Newark
SaabWorld - Ally Financial is suing SCNA to seize Saab vehicles at the Port of Hueneme, California
SaabWorld - Last chance to buy a new Saab
SaabWorld - Hundreds of new Saabs stuck in the Port of Newark, New Jersey

[nordwulf]

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.

[Dave T]

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.

[nordwulf]

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.

[rpiereck]

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.

[Deadaphids]

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.

[tunnanxwd]

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.

[rpiereck]

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

[nordwulf]

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.

[Hirsch]

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