Inside Saab by Steven Wade

A new week begins for Saab

October 31, 2011 0:11 Line

By: Swade

It was good to have a weekend to get away from things, to recharge a little and come back ready to tackle all the things waiting to be done. Monday morning is upon us and it’s a new week, and another big week for Saab Automobile.

Our Memorandum of Understanding with new prospective owners Youngman and PangDa was signed just last Friday and today that MoU will see its first test – a creditors meeting at the Vanersborg district court. This hearing is a standard part of our reorganisation process and it will see our business plan presented by our Administrator, Guy Lofalk.

We need the approval of 75% of our creditors to see the plan proceed and if that it achieved, our reorganisation will continue.

That will be a good first step. There are a number of other steps to be taken and approvals to be gained before our future is set in stone. There are several Swedish authorities that need to approve this deal, as well as the European Investment Bank, our former owner, General Motors, and of course there is still Chinese approval required from the NDRC.

All of these bodies will be dealt with methodically and in due course. Each represents a hurdle of a different size, however we’re confident that we can present a workable case to all of them.

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I started working at Saab at the beginning of April this year and the story of this company has had so many twists and turns since that time. ‘Twin Peaks’ creator David Lynch couldn’t have come up with a more twisted storyline if he tried. It would be a little bit naïve to think that absolutely everything was tied up neatly right now, but hopefully the remaining curves on this road are gentle ones.

Already, there have been some good stories coming into my inbox. Signs of a ‘Saab Spring’, if you don’t mind the metaphor.

Saab of North Olmsted embarking on the biggest dealership promotion I’ve ever encountered with the Snap Up a Saab campaign that will run throughout November.

A guy I’m familiar with from my old website, Saabs United, writing to me for wheel and tyre advice for the 9-4x he’s importing from the USA into his home country.

And the continuation of the Saab Dealer Tour through Germany, which I’m desperately disappointed that I can’t participate in personally, and which I’ll share some more photos from shortly.

We have so much to do, and so much to share. We’ve got so many good things on the horizon. I can’t wait to have this deal put to bed so that we can get back to building some absolutely fantastic vehicles once again.

It’s a new week. The ride isn’t over yet. It’s just beginning.

Tags: Swadeology

Category: Editorial Post a Comment (6)

Thoughts on the sale of Saab Automobile

October 28, 2011 22:34 Line

By: Swade

Comments (50)

The deal to sell Saab came through in the late afternoon for me here in Australia. There were a couple of conference calls back to the office and a few emails here and there, just to try and share the moment with my colleagues back in Sweden. It’s hard being so far away, sometimes.

I wanted to provide some personal thoughts in a more timely manner, but bottom line……. I had to sleep on this one.

Right now, I have mixed feelings for a number of reasons. They’re much more positive than negative, but I can’t say it’s a case of parades and marching bands inside my head right now.

Strap in. This is another long-ish one.

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The good news – the overwhelmingly good news – is that Saab survives and gets a chance to fulfil the promise that it’s had for the last couple of years. I forget the number of times that I’ve spelled out exactly why Saab should be given this chance, but it goes a little something like this:

Product: We have the biggest product portfolio we’ve ever had, with cars that are going to meet the marketplace better than ever, and more new product on the way very soon. Some of the technical innovations we’ve got coming are very, very exciting indeed. Some will be firsts for Saab and some will be world firsts. I’m so very happy that Saab fans will get the chance to see them.

Tags: Saab company, Swadeology, Victor Muller

Category: Editorial Post a Comment (50)

Victor Muller speaks about Saab sale

October 28, 2011 10:30 Line

By: Swade

Comments (16)

Saab’s Chairman and CEO, Victor Muller, spoke with Swedish Radio this morning about the deal just announced to sell Saab to Youngman and Pang Da.

As you can tell, the whole thing’s been pretty tiring for him and the Saab executive team. Saab lives, as we all believed it should.

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Tags: Saab company, Victor Muller

Category: News Post a Comment (16)

Press Release: SWEDISH AUTOMOBILE SIGNS MOU WITH PANG DA AND YOUGMAN FOR THE SALE OF SAAB AUTOMOBILE AND SAAB GB

October 28, 2011 9:46 Line

By: Swade

Comments (17)

Zeewolde, The Netherlands, 28 October 2011 – Swedish Automobile N.V. (Swan) announces that it entered into a memorandum of understanding with Pang Da and Youngman for the sale and purchase of 100% of the shares of Saab Automobile AB (Saab Automobile) and Saab Great Britain Ltd. (Saab GB) for a consideration of EUR 100 million.

Final agreement between the parties is subject to a definitive share purchase agreement between Swan, Pang Da and Youngman, which will contain certain conditions including the approval of the relevant authorities, Swan’s shareholders and certain other parties. The consideration of EUR 100 million will be paid in instalments. An important consideration for Swan to enter into the transaction is the commitment of Pang Da and Youngman to provide long term funding to Saab Automobile.

The administrator in Saab Automobile’s voluntary reorganisation, Mr. Guy Lofalk, has withdrawn his application to exit reorganisation. The MOU is valid until November 15 of this year, provided Saab Automobile stays in reorganisation.

Tags: Pang Da, Saab company, Youngman

Category: News Post a Comment (17)

Press Release: SWEDISH AUTOMOBILE ISSUES SUBSCRIPTION NOTICE UNDER GEM FACILITY

October 28, 2011 9:40 Line

By: Swade

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Zeewolde, The Netherlands, 28 October 2011 – Swedish Automobile N.V. (Swan) announces that it issued a subscription notice for 3 million shares under the current EUR 150 million equity facility between Swan and GEM Global Yield Fund Limited. The exact number of shares to be issued and the price thereof will depend on the pricing period which commences today.

In light of recent developments, North Street Capital, LP will not subscribe for 2.3 million shares in Swan and revoked its commitment to provide a loan of USD 60 million to Saab Automobile.

Tags: Saab company

Category: News Comments Off

At the end of the world…..

October 28, 2011 2:37 Line

By: Swade

Comments (14)

Could this be the northernmost Saab ….. (cue Clarkson voice) ….. in the world?

Arjan Bronkhorst is a professional photographer – and a Saab fan – so when he spotted an early model Saab 900 abandoned in Spitsbergen he just had to get a shot of it.

Link: Arjan Bronkhorst Photography.

Make sure you click to see this one enlarged.

If you’re like me, you might be asking “Where the heck is Spitsbergen?” Well, if you thought Sweden was pretty far north, think again…..

Forgive me, but I’m doing my work from Wikipedia here. Spitsbergen is part of Norway and lies at 78° north. The Saab might be abandoned by virtue of the fact the place (apparently) has no roads, with snowmobiles, boats and aircraft being used to ferry people around. The island is around 39,000 sq km and is home to a few small permanent communities and a population of polar bears and reindeer.

78° north. That’s why I’m wondering if this could be the northernmost Saab in existence. I guess there could be another Saab further north on the island itself, or something in northern Greenland.

For mine, though, that’s the most extreme Saab graveyard I’ve heard about. My thanks to Arjan for capturing the serenity in pixels and allowing me to share it on site.

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Tags: Saab 900

Category: Miscellaneous Post a Comment (14)

Saabosphere – links we like this week

October 27, 2011 11:05 Line

By: Swade

Comments (2)

I have a feeling that next week, we’re going to be liking a lot of links from Ohio!

For this week, however, here’s a quick run down of some key Saaby stories on the web.

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Life with Saab has what I think is a good outsider analysis of what’s expected to be happening today at Saab. I wish there were more to give, but ‘radio silence’ is the buzzword right now and as always, I’m a good soldier.

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There is some news buzz floating around the web about salaries at Saab. I can pass on that money has been received under the government guarantee applicable for companies in reconstruction. This doesn’t cover the full month of October, however, and calculations are being made to distribute the funds equitably, which will be done ASAP. Arrears will also be made up as soon as funds are available.

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Just Saab, a dealership with two outlets in Ohio, USA, recently participated in an autocross day with a number of their customers.

Saabs United has the full story at that link, with pictures.

The results are here (Saab’s in a separate class). You’ll be amazed at how the 9-4x performed in the Saab group!

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Anyone else see the guy on the Maptun Facebook page who tattooed his foot?

Ouch!

Actually, there have been a number of Saab tattoos turning up recently. Perhaps we need a feature investigation on this?

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Ericsson have sold their stake in the Sony-Ericsson communications venture to Sony, ending the Swedish company’s interest.

Sad for us, as we used to have a wonderful co-operation with them at motor shows, getting people to take photos of the Saab stand with the Xperia phones.

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And finally, a video mashup put together by Saablime that we’ve been liking for a while now.

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Tags: ownership, Saab dealers, Sony Ericsson, video

Category: Saabosphere Post a Comment (2)

We need your Saab images for a Facebook milestone celebration!

October 27, 2011 4:04

By: Swade

Comments (13)

UPDATE: We are now over 99,400 fans and growing. The ETA for 100,000 is somewhere early next week.

We’ve already received in excess of 1,000 images for use in the mosaic but we want more!!!

I’m preparing two mosaic base images, one modern and one historic. They’re looking great in the trial runs so far, so get your images in via the channels below and make them even better!

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As I alluded to earlier in the week, we have a milestone of sorts coming up on our Facebook fan page.

To celebrate this milestone, we thought we’d put together all of your cars into a big mosaic image that we could share with you as a gesture of thanks for your continued support of Saab.

Never seen a mosaic image before? Check these out. A mosaic is where you take many smaller pictures and use them to make a larger, single image. The image to the right is a mosaic I made up a few days ago, featuring the Catherina concept made by Sixten Sason at the Saab Museum. We’d like to do something similar to commemorate our 100,000th Facebook fan but we need your images to do it right.

So, how can you submit your images for this fun-tastic project? We have several options.

Facebook: First you’ll need to “Like” our Facebook fan page. Then you can submit an image to the page and include the tag “Saab100K” in the description. You must include the “Saab100K” wording with the photo and in doing so, you’re permitting us to use the image for the purpose of this mosaic, which will be made available for download and/or use via various Saab media channels.

Flickr: If you’ve got an account on Flickr, you can simply tag any photos you want to submit with the “Saab100K” tag and I’ll do a search on that tag in the next week. Please make sure your tagged photos are set up to be downloadable, that they are your own original images and that you’ve set your creative commons permissions appropriately.

Twitter: Attach an image with the hashtag Saab100K visibile in the tweet. You can ping me @inside_saab as well, if you’ve got space.

Email: You can email images directly to insidesaabofficial@gmail.com with the tag “Saab100K” in the email (either the title or the body text). Again, they should be your own original images, and by sending them to us, you are permitting their use as part of this mosaic.

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The image can be anything you like, so long as there’s a visual Saaby connection. It can be your car, or an event you attended, or a photo of you posing with your car. As long as it’s Saaby, we can use it.

The final mosaic will be made available to the public for personal, non-commercial use. Saab may also use the mosaic image for marketing purposes.

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We will be using automated software to create the mosaic so whilst all photos submitted will be in the pool, there is an outside chance that not all photos will be used by the software. We’ll try to set it up so that all of them are, however.

So, remember the tag Saab100K and get your photos ready to go! We will soon be 100,000 strong and we look forward to celebrating this with you.

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Tags: Facebook, Saab 100K mosaic

Category: Features Post a Comment (13)

HUGE Saab promotion in Ohio – Snap up a Saab!

October 26, 2011 0:45 Line

By: Swade

Comments (16)

Saab of North Olmsted are undertaking a massive Saab promotion next month and if you’re in their region, north-eastern Ohio, then YOU could play a big part in it.

For four consecutive weeks, Saab of North Olmsted will give out 100 cars for week-long test drives as part of a competition/promotion they’re running. Do the math – they’re looking for 400 participants, 100 per week. If you’ve ever thought of actively promoting Saab, this is your opportunity – and you could win the Saab of your choice, too!

How it works:

You register your interest here.

If successful, you’ll get a Saab to drive for a week, with a capped distance of 350 miles that can be travelled in that week. The car will come with two QR codes, one inside and one outside. A QR code is a 2D scannable code (most smartphones have a QR code scanner built in) that will link people to a website.

As a weekly-round contestant, you will get your own microsite where your adventures will be recorded. You’ll have a week to check-in at sponsor outlets, get people to scan the codes on your car, get them to take pictures or make videos to submit to your microsite, and generally just build up your fan-base. The more check-ins, scans, media and fans you get, the more points you get.

Points are tallied each week and the initial 400 contestants will be whittled down to 24 for the semis – the top six point totals each week will progress. Semi-finalists will have two days to whip-up as much interest as possible and increase their point totals. The top five point winners in the semi-finals make it to the final stage of the competition.

The final stage of the competition will see our five finalists assemble at Saab of North Olmsted, where they’ll select a keyfob and press the “unlock” button. One of those keyfobs will send lights flashing and that lucky winner will win the Saab of their choice valued at up to $50,000

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Everyone wins

Discounts on Saab vehicles will be offered to all participants in the competition, regardless of how you participate.

Finalists will be offered the most substantial discounts for their efforts in the competition.

Weekly-round competitors will be offered the next most substantial discount.

But that’s not all……. Just by spotting one of the Saabs on the road and scanning the QR code, you will also be offered an attractive discount – just for being a part of the promotion.

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Get into it!

This is the perfect storm for a competition – limited geographic area, limited participants, heaps of fun and a high value prize. You’ve got everything to gain from being in it.

If you’re in the north-east Ohio area, then click here to register your interest and get ready for the test drive of a lifetime!

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The not-so-fine-print: (the full terms and conditions will be supplied directly by Collection Auto Group, owners of Saab of North Olmsted).

Contestants must be:

At least twenty-five years of age
Have a valid driver’s license
Have full coverage insurance
Have a major Credit Card
Have a clean driving record (no more than 4 points, no DUI)

Contestants may not be employees of Collection Auto Group

Contestants will be limited to 350 miles of driving. Should anyone exceed 350 miles they will pay $1.00 / mile over 350. Contestants must obey all laws. Contestants may not invite anyone under the age of 18 to scan an interior QR Code. Contestants must adhere to all of these rules and the Terms and Conditions of the contest.

Tags: Competitions, marketing, Saab dealers, Saab of North Olmsted, United States

Category: Events Post a Comment (16)

2011 Viking Rally

October 25, 2011 14:43 Line

By: Swade

Comments (6)

The Dutch can lay claim to many things in this world. Historic explorers, seas of orange sports fans, Victor Muller, hash bars (no link between those last two, by the way) and something that might surprise a few of you: the world’s oldest Saab Car Club.

For the last 49 years, Saab Club Nederland has been running an event called the Viking Rally. I’ve been told that I’m going to be there next year for the 50th – and who am I to argue?!

The Viking Rally is a three stage event with all sorts of challenges along the way. As described to me by a friend of mine, Nic S:

There are all sorts of ways to navigate involved. Joep Wanders is the guy who designs and sets out the Tulip Rally, so it IS difficult! There are 3 legs or stages, with hidden time controls, the full rally works. Blind maps, arrows, driving close to a set border on a map, doctored maps, the whole deal….

Doctored maps? I hope it comes with a roadside help service (one that consists of something more substantial than just Nic’s puppy with a Garmin tied to his collar).

The rally is a very social event and the 2011 edition saw sixty teams competing, spread over three classes – Sport, Tour and Recreation. All entries were Saabs, of course, ranging from two-strokes to the new 9-5. Mud was sought, and found, and a good time was had by all.

We have a huge gallery of photos below, with thanks to Nic. Congratulations to the organisers and the club for what looks to be an outstanding event.

Click to enlarge