Mistakes that Saab made

[Dave T]

With Saab gone for 5 years and producing cars on the assembly line for 6 years (some minor exceptions), what mistakes were made?

I start off with 2. Some may have been unavoidable.

Mistake 1. When Saab was spun off in 1989, it did not own the rights to the Saab name. This was not corrected when GM bought 50% of Saab the following year. If Saab had the rights to the Saab name, even if not the logo on the emblem/badge, then the company would have been worth more. Now, NEVS has only Saab history to brag about and that is losing value by the year.

Mistake 2. Saab did not expand to new car models until late. The 9000 did not come out until 1985. Other car models might have been built in countries with lower labor costs, such as Spain or the U.S., possibly even Thailand, Brazil, Slovakia, or Mexico.

In contrast, BMW's model lineup was not much bigger than Saab. Opportunity comes and goes. For Saab, after the SAAB 99 was started around 1967, the chance to develop a second model wasn't done in the mid 1970's but happened with the 9000 in 1985. BMW expanded with the 5 series in 1972 and the 7 series in 1977. BMW now has the 1, 3, 5, 7 series. Also the X1, X3, and X5. It also has lower volume Z series, as well as the 6 series, X4, X6, and i series not to mention MINI and Rolls Royce.

On the other hand, correcting mistake 2 would have been difficult and expensive.

[Dave T]

Balancing the above post, here are 2 things that were not mistakes.

[turbojohnny]

In all honesty, I think the problem that led to the demise of saab was really mismanagement by GM. SAAB produced a really quality product. GM started to meddle with their lineup and gave them cross-bred vehicles like the 9-2x and 9-7x. I really don't think that helped.

[Digger]

In all honesty, I think the problem that led to the demise of saab was really mismanagement by GM.

It wasn't just Saab, GM killed off Pontiac and Saturn the year the year they sold what was left of Saab. Don't forget what they did with Oldsmobile, rather than produce cars that could compete in the world, they shut down an entire dealer network and Saab started selling a Euro badged crossover SUV.

Gm is more than cars and trucks, it's also GMAC and we may never know how much money went from cars to keep that afloat when the mortgage crap hit the fan.

[Dave T]

I usually treat my cars well. So I was surprised when my rubbery 9-3key fob started to crumble. The rubbery coating is rubbish. Another mistake

Years ago, people would burn out their battery by leaving their headlights on. Not with Saab. With the classic 900, and maybe before that, the headlights would go off when you turned the car off. Therefore, I always left the lights on and forgot about it. Not a Saab mistake!

[Dave T]

Another mistake. GM developed the Cadillac BLS, a really poor seller and copy of the 9-3. It charged the development costs to Saab, making Saab look worse on paper.

Not a mistake. Saab loyalty built up over the years.

[swisssaabist]

Definitely the faults on GM and the arrival of super managers at the head of that kind of companies, a fucking self esteem, interested only by their own profits,golden parachutes and so on ...
BMW still a company driving by a single family that's the reason they made decent cars and don't want to absolutely eaten all the others, making cars in China ( nobody had understand Chineses want to grab tech from us, and later selling to us their products copied on ours, see the new Chinese line aircraft )
Saabs peoples in Sweden was even been too naive and honest, they was crooked by GM.
And unfortunately that cars are too expensive to buy for the rest of the world, and certainly under estimated in the U.S.
that's my 2 cents

[nordwulf]

It's easy to put the blame on GM. But Saab could have been more integrated with the GM family of cars and management at Saab fought hard to keep doing things their way. One example is the 9-3 with its complicated fiber-optic system. They could have used GM infotainment systems but they decided to develop their own.

The 2nd gen 9-5 and 9-4X was finally getting it right by using mostly GM technology but still have their own distinctive design and drive qualities. But it was much too late at that point.

They were also too late to the market with things like AWD, new designs and a good crossover. And at the end, they had to move their cars with huge discounts which really devalued the brand.

This is an interesting read if you haven't seen it before: Who killed Saab Automobile? Obituary of an Automotive Icon

[GeoffR]

Should I point out that many in the UK, and possibly also in Europe, don't consider the 9-2 and 9-4 to be Saabs at all. To the best of my knowledge neither was ever sold here.

Mistakes?
Saab cars are too robust, as a result owners kept them for longer that other makes and thus suppressed the demand for new cars to some extent. Being different also meant that attracting buyers was difficult, is that a mistake?
There were never more than a couple of models in production at any one time because Saab was small and quality was generally high making them more expensive to build than comparable cars from other manufacturers. They still had to compete on price.
Development of a new car became more expensive as international standards were introduced and Saab didn't have the money to design from scratch, see above for part of the reason.
Drivers wanted the latest "toys" and Saab were slow to introduce them, for good reasons, but buyers didn't want to know why though they paid for it when they switched brands and found the toys to be unreliable.
Production runs were, by industry standards, too long meaning that the new Saab on the drive looked just like the old one despite the longer interval between buying cars.

It is possible to remain a small manufacturer of cars but not if you sell at mass market prices, ultimately the very features that made Saab attractive contributed to their downfall.

I know some see Saab management's fight to retain brand integrity as a mistake but in my opinion it resulted in better cars than the equivalent GM models on similar floor pans. Thicker metal and higher specification steels made for stiffer, more crashworth vehicles, and Saab were always about safety..

[Saab 9-5]

I think a big mistake was the lack of an estate until the 9-5 1998. In Sweden Volvo introduced the 850 in 1991 and the estate sold better than the saloon. Byers wanting an estate could't buy a Saab. And buying a Volvo estate many just got stuck with that brand.