Wars of Perception

August 20, 2011 18:11 Line

By: Swade

Comments (11)

I was talking earlier this week with a prominent Saab person (a non-employee) about the situation Saab is in right now.

He opined that there were two ‘Saab’ entities going around at the moment. One is the Saab that’s constantly the subject of automotive news reports, a company in desperate need of resources and constantly struggling to get to the next safe-point in its existence. The other is a car company that has great new vehicles, some brilliant engineers and designers, a rich history, a great philosophy behind what it does and lots of promising technology.

I tend to agree. I try and write as much as I can about that second Saab because it’s the one that I always wanted to work for, the one that I represent now and the one that excites me when I think of the future.

But of course, the two are inextricably linked. The first cannot operate without the second and right now, the second is very busy getting its house in order. When that happens, we’re going to be very busy rebuilding the confidence of our stakeholders – our customers, dealers, suppliers and others. And this is just another area where we’re going to have a battle to fight.

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Category: Editorial Post a Comment (11)

Updates from the 2011 Saab Owners Convention

August 20, 2011 1:15 Line

By: Swade

Comments (11)

The 2011 Saab owners Convention is well and truly underway and it’s been great to get some updates from people on the ground there.

Of course, our own girl-on-the-ground, Stephanie from SCNA is there and she’s been having a lot of fun, meeting a lot of attendees and getting a feel for what a Saab owners gathering is all about – great cars and great people.

She’s also been getting a good feel for life in the convertible lane…..

Following is a nice gallery of shots sent in by Stephanie, Steve C and Greg Abbott.

Steve C attended one of the tech sessions held earlier on Saturday. The session was held at Reinertsen Motos, a Saab dealer and one of the SOC sponsors.

Jack Lawrence of Motor Sports Service was the featured speaker talking about lessons learned from his illustrious racing career with building and maintaining race cars based on Saab Sonetts and 96s. These shots include Len Schrader’s vintage racing 96s. The red one is signed by Erik Carlsson. Len is Principal and co-owner of Reinertsen Motors, Denville NJ.

The photos from the tech session were taken by Paul Ostensen.

Greg Abbott has sent in some beautiful images, including some from the dyno session held at the SOC as well as the parts sale.

Stephanies shots include images from Tim Colbeck’s presentation on the opening night (which by all accounts, went very well) as well as some images of the cars being shown at the event. A personal favourite of mine is Ralph B’s white Saab Sonett II, which I was fortunate enough to take for a drive around this time last year. Another personal favourite is the Blue 1980 Saab 900, which I believe belongs to another friend of mine, though I haven’t driven that one (YET!)

Click an image to enlarge…. (order of appearance – Greg’s, Steph’s, Paul/Steve’s)

SOC 2011 - Saab Convertibles
SOC 2011 Parts sale
SOC 2011 Little red Saab
SOC 2011 - 1980 Saab 900
Saab 96 with pooch
SOC 2011 - Saab Convertible on Dyno
SOC 2011 - Saab 96
SOC 2011 - Saab 9-7x and 96
SOC 2011 - Saab Turbo X
SOC 2011 - Saab NA Chief, Tim Colbeck
SOC 2011 - Saab 96
SOC 2011 - Saab Quantum racer
SOC 2011 - Saab Heritage Vehicles
SOC 2011 - Saab Convertibles
SOC 2011 - Saab 96
SOC 2011 - Saab Sonett II
Stephanie in Saab Convertible
V4 tech session at 2011 SOC
V4 tech session at 2011 SOC
V4 tech session at 2011 SOC
V4 tech session at 2011 SOC

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Category: Events Post a Comment (11)

Early arrivals at the Saab Owners Convention

August 18, 2011 23:52 Line

By: Swade

Comments (10)

People are starting to drift in to the Parsippany Hilton Hotel in New Jersey for the 2011 Saab Owners Convention.

Stephanie from Saab Cars NA is there and she recently tweeted the following:

Look what arrived today at the Owners Convention…..

A good friend of mine, Greg Abbott, has just driven from Minnesota to be there and he’s sent the following early images in via email (click to enlarge):

Custom built Saab 96 convertible….

Beautiful 99T badge shot…..

The goodie-bag given to attendees…..

Parking lot (there’s going to be a lot of wandering around in there over the next few days)…..

The Saab tent in the parking lot with a few of the heritage cars….

When I grow up I wanna…….

Early Saab Sonett dashboard…..

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Saab comments on recent media

August 18, 2011 14:50 Line

By: Swade

Comments (18)

Earlier today we saw media headlines about raised remuneration to members of the Swedish Automobile supervisory board. These reports contain a number of factual flaws.

Firstly, the reports claiming that Mr Hugenholtz is the only person remaining on the supervisory board of Swedish Automobile are not correct. The three members (Hugenholtz, La Noce and Roepers) are all in place and continue working to secure the future of Saab Automobile.

Secondly, when Spyker Cars NV (now Swedish Automobile, SWAN) acquired Saab Automobile AB, the company became much larger and the responsibilities of the board members increased significantly. Because of this, and as there was already an imbalance in fees between various members of the board, the issue was on the agenda for the Annual General Meeting on May 19 this year. At that meeting, a decision was taken to regulate the fees to make them more in line with each other and also to adjust them to reflect the extended responsibilities caused by the acquisition of Saab. These kinds of fees are paid retroactively for the work done since Saab was acquired by Spyker (now Swan).

It is important to note that remuneration decisions of this kind can only be taken with the support of a majority of shareholders and timing for the Annual General Meeting for May 2011 was set well in advance of the meeting taking place.

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Brief comment on recent events regarding debt enforcement

August 17, 2011 17:56 Line

By: Swade

Comments (8)

For various reasons – legality and confidentiality – we can’t comment in detail on proceedings that are taking place from today via the Kronofogden enforcement agency here in Sweden.

All I can do for the moment is simply repeat what I wrote earlier this week in an editorial on this site – The Deal and the Future:

There are now day-by-day accounts of the legal mechanisms that are in place for our stakeholders in this situation. Those mechanisms are a matter of procedural fact. We’re aware of them and the deadlines they involve, we address them as best we can, as methodically as we can, as the various situations arise. We want nothing more than to be rid of them, to re-establish normal relations with our stakeholders. This is why we’re negotiating The Deal with such vigour.

A process is in place. The core focus for us, whilst we fully cooperate with this process, is to do the right deal to get our business back on track. That’s the one solution to address this issue, and other issues as well.

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SOC (USA) – Make sure you say hi to Stephanie

August 17, 2011 15:18 Line

By: Swade

Comments (3)

I’m not going to make it to the Saab Owners Convention in New Jersey this weekend. I’m sure all the attendees are going to have a fantastic time and it’s disappointing that I can’t be there to share in it. I’ve been doing this Saaby stuff for more than six years now and I still haven’t managed to get to SOC yet – very sad.

We still want to share some stories from the SOC, however, which is why Stephanie from the Saab Cars North America office will be attending the event.

Stephanie’s going to have a flipcam with her to capture all the good stuff from the gathering. We’ll put the footage together and show it on our various channels shortly thereafter.

So if you’re attending SOC this year, keep an eye out for Stephanie and make sure you say hello. She’d love to talk to you, check out your Saab or lead you around a quick tour of our new Saab 9-5 and 9-4x to get your thoughts. She’ll be doing photos and video at the event, so if you want your car (or yourself) featured, Steph’s the one to talk to.

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Readers comments – Saab 9-4x

August 16, 2011 12:33 Line

By: Swade

Comments (7)

I know that there is a degree of skepticism about anything I write about the Saab 9-4x. I’m a company guy, right? True. Whilst I’ll never write something here that I don’t believe in, I can understand the filters people will apply when they read it.

Right – Saab 9-4x 3.0 Premium

So even though I might tell you that from my recent test drives (Stockholm and back, Finland and back) that I think the Saab 9-4x is an outstanding new Saab, it would pay for you to check it out for yourself.

Two guys who did that recently were Steve C and Mitch. Steve emailed me directly over the weekend about his test drive. Mitch left his thoughts in comments to this website yesterday after taking a look at the 9-4x at his local dealer. Here’s what they had to say…..

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Steve C:

I chose one of the better summer weather days (Thursday) to take the day off, get an oil change and finally take a drive in a 9-4X. Reinertsen had 4 parked out front. This was a non-Aero XWD model and it lived up to expectations. I have a usual test drive course that offers me a fair comparison of vehicles.

The first thing I talk about when describing my first impression is that the 9-4X feels and drives smaller than you might think. When I set the mirrors to eliminate blind spots, I feel comfortable on multi-lane highways. On the narrow twisty road near my dealer, I was wondering how that would feel and the answer is great! I didn’t feel too conscious that it was too wide to stay in my lane and it felt great cornering.

I was impressed with the ride – even in sport mode it wasn’t bad. Probably better than in the 9-5 given the 9-4X tire size/aspect. That V-6 naturally aspirated engine likes to rev! I didn’t think I was too heavy on the gas but it still liked to rev before shifting, even in comfort mode. I liked that in sport mode, it showed you the gear it was in – even if you were still in auto mode. You don’t see that in comfort mode.

The other new thing for me was that the turbo gauge was replaced by a mpg gauge. And those side mirrors make for interesting visibility when looking out the side windows.

When I first saw the 9-4X prior to the NY auto show when my dealer had it for a week, I did all the things you can do when it is standing still with the engine off. This trip was just for driving and, taking everything together, I can say there is no question that this is a Saab!

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Mitch:

The 9-4x is brilliant. Too bad this piñata phase at Saab is detracting from it and other great products like the new 9-5 sedan and upcoming 9-5 ‘Combi. I spent some time this past Saturday with Chad at Just Saab Dayton OH and their showroom floor 9-4x Aero. Wow. The owner of the 9-4x reported as a sale on July 23 over at SaabsUnited pulled into the lot as we were talking. Wow. Just wow. The 9-4x looks even better in motion.

… I really need to hurry up and pay off my 2009 9-5 Combi …

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As always, don’t take my word for it. Get in and check out the 9-4x for yourself. It really is a cracker of a car and I’m sure you’re going to love it.

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‘The Deal’ and the future

August 15, 2011 16:38 Line

By: Swade

Comments (48)

This is a long one….

Another week of work has begun here at Saab. Another week to be patient whilst the deals that are in the pipeline are worked out and negotiated. It’s certainly not an easy time for people here. They are anxious, for sure, but they’re still here; that’s the most important thing.

We remain in somewhat of a holding pattern at the moment. We’re waiting for The Deal. While we’re waiting for The Deal, employees are returning from their customary summer vacations, arriving at work and going about whatever business they can. The carpark here at Saab was more full this morning than at any time over the last five or so weeks, a sight that was a pleasure to see on this cool, rainy Monday.

The Deal that our executive team are currently working on is the one that will carry us through this near-term liquidity shortfall and into the future, so that we can re-start production and get back to being a car company again, which would be a nice relief from our present role as a corporate piñata.

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Saab decision on Frankfurt Motor Show

August 15, 2011 14:17 Line

By: Swade

Comments (8)

Saab has decided that the company will not be present at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show.

Presence at the show requires resources that Saab are currently allocating towards the restart of production in Trollhattan. Whilst it would be desireable to be at the show to help further Saab’s global presence, it is not considered an appropriate use of resources at this time.

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And some thoughts to add some context…..

There will be some consternation and hand-wringing over this announcement. Of course, it’s quite regrettable that we can’t be at Frankfurt. It would be great to be there and show our vehicles off to the world’s press and visitors to the show. We do have new vehicles to show there, too, cars that will be significant for us in various markets around the world (more on those here).

Right now, though, an exhibition at Frankfurt is just not doable and out of respect for our various stakeholders, it would have been very irresponsible to allocate resources in this direction at this particular time.

We need to get back to being a car company first, which is what we’re doing. There are a number of motor shows coming up in quick succession after Frankfurt and we can get back on that wagon pretty quickly when circumstances allow it.

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Press Release: Swedish Automobile Issues Subscription Notice Under GEM Facility

August 15, 2011 9:16 Line

By: Swade

Comments (6)

Trollhättan, Sweden: Swedish Automobile N.V. (Swan) announces today that it issued a subscription notice for 4 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.

Swan and Saab Automobile AB continue their discussions with parties to obtain further short-term funding to be able to restart and sustain production.

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Category: News Post a Comment (6)