25 November 2009 - 12:00
Koenigsegg bails
Koenigsegg has bailed out of its deal to buy Saab from GM. This appears to leave the Swedish carmaker orphaned.
Do not confuse this broken deal with what happened at Vauxhall-Opel, where it was GM that pulled out of a deal to sell, not the buyer. GM decided it needed Vauxhall-Opel to maintain its presence in this vital continent, and to keep hold of the huge engineering resources in Germany.
Saab is different. It has never made money for GM, and it doesn’t really contribute a whole lot to GM’s global engineering expertise that can’t be found elsewhere in the empire. Neither does it greatly bolster GM’s economies of scale in the way Opel/Vauxhall does.
Further, GM believes (rightly or wrongly) that Cadillac can become GM’s global luxury brand.
So GM really does want rid of Saab.
What now then? Either a new buyer will need to be found double-quick, with Saab probably kept on life-support by the Swedish Government until the deal is sealed.
Or Saab will be closed.
Among possible last-minute buyers is Beijing Auto Industry Co. It made a bid for Saab but was rebuffed in favour of Koenigsegg. It then agreed to buy 10 percent of the new Koenigsegg-Saab Group. Now it’s saying it will ‘cautiously reconsider’ a full bid.
But let’s look at history. When MG-Rover was in British hands and going downhill, its Chinese buyers simply waited until MG-R went bankrupt and then got all they wanted for next to nothing. That was a lot cheaper than buying the company as a going concern.
So it’s possible the Saab name will fall into Chinese hands, but only after the Swedish operation has shut.
Koenigsegg says it pulled out for a variety of reasons, but won’t say what those reasons are. Time was one: with all the delays over contract, the dealers were rapidly disappearing. It’s also possible that not all of the proposed finance actually came together.
Or maybe Koenigsegg simply came to realise that it had bitten off more than it could chew. The car business is immensely complex and difficult for small players that aren’t part of larger groups. Saab is less than a tenth of the size of BMW or Mercedes, for instance. And it only sells about a hundredth of the cars that the VW Group, which includes arch-rival Audi, notches up.
Paul Horrell
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When was Saab ever a luxury brand. They just make rubbish. And Cadillac... Come on Cadillac. They are not cars they are just ugly plastic boxes with soft suspension.
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Its sad to see any car company go bankrupt but tbh Im not particularly bothered either way. Obviously id rather they didnt but im not really a big Saab fan anyway so meh.
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I honestly hope they let that poor company "die". It's about time! They've made huge losses even when their competitors made huge profits - and that for some twenty years. There's over capacity in the car industry, and has been for a long time. If people do not wish to buy your cars you'd better stop producing them. For the last years they've made a loss of about 6000? on each car sold. Take a hint, please!
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though saab has lost a lot of money, i really liked the brand and am sad to see it closed.i was pretty pumped when i heard koenigsegg was going to buy saab because i think koenigsegg would have brought the company to new heights. to bad...
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my wheely bin is more luxurious than your avarage caddy!!
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i think Koenigsegg will buy saab after they go bankrupt. beware china!
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i like saab cars.they look a great deal better than cadillac's for sure.plus saab had a nice new car in the offing,but then again with all saab's i guess it wouldn't have gone on to be appreciated..
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Oh dear, no Koenigsaab CCX Viggen 4-Door Hypercar. The concern is that after SAIC bought Rover, we haven't heard a wink from them. Any new models? Any plans to expand back into Europe? Nope. I've never really been bothered about Saab, but I don't want small mainstream car companies to all disappear into China. As for Caddy being a "Global Luxury Brand", have they even looked at European sales? Obviously I don't know how they're doing, but I haven't seen any Cadillacs for literally months. And there are reasonably well off oldies where I live. The only one I ever see is an ancient L-reg STS sitting in exactly the same place on someone's driveway waiting to be scrapped. So, er, I don't think that'll work. Partly because the BLS is a Saab 9-3.
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Building (extremely) limited production supercars and building vehicles for mass-consumption are two different businesses. It looks like Koni found that out. In any case, the Swedish government should intervene and purchase from GM the remaining equipment and trademarks of SAAB as "national economic assets" before allowing any corporation or state to purchase those assets at a fire-sale price and remove them from the country. That doesn't mean that Sweden has to run SAAB, but rather, to simply hold it in trust for a willing and competent buyer to emerge later as the economy improves. The UK should have done that with MG/Rover, but didn't.
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i dont know what to think of that, to be honest. i just read it because koenigsegg is involved. i don't follw who buys who and so on. i just want koenigsegg to have money so they can bring us more killers like the ccx.
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What ever they'll do over there: keep the Chinese out of the business! They just want to steal knowledge and wisdom and transform it into cheap and ugly crap then! Remember Ssanyong or how they are spelt? No need to say more, I think...
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Saab should had died ten years ago! models are old, new 9-5 will cover, but if saab doesnt set new pace, in 5-7 years they have once again only old models. And last but not least, when you hit 100000 miles car is just too tired to be bared.
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Not a true SAAB enthusiast but i would like anything better than SAAB to bought for next to nothing. They just do not deserve that. plus i liked the idea of a super super fast Saabnigsegg 4 seat supercar.
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no china.please. im chinese but i do not want china to buy saab.
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I'm suprised Cadillac hasn't died, i mean they havn't made a decent or cool car since the late 60's, I think Saab will unfortunatly end up in China :( which is a shame cuz i quite like them
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Renault migth be interested. Saab could be its luxury global brand as Infiniti is the global luxury brand of Nissan. Sure a lot of synergy are available here ... and what about an koenig Alpine with the Renault F1 V8!!!
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saab arent making profits because they just arent different enough to their german competitors. Even jaguar offer exclusivity and style. However Saab just dont have a market anymore. Why would you say I LOVE SAAB'S. they are nothing special in the market and have suffered massively because of it....
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saabs are awful cars the interiors are very cheap and there not stylish or cheap good riddens
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i bet koenigsegg dropped the offer because of Saab's current financial history, going downhill could screw it's financial security as well, dragging two companys in one. On the other hand, i would rather have the make go down in history than be in the hands of the chinese, all the cars would be terrible.
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The only people that can say SAAB are rubbish are kids and people that have never driven one. If SAAB go tits up, it will be a very sad day for car nuts. I for one hope they survive for a long time. Making cars of small volume size.
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I've never understood the appeal of Saab but for some bizarre reason I think that this is a massive shame. I think Koenigsoegoeogeography pulled out for the same reason as GM... maybe Fiat will take control? Cheap Italian leather with even cheaper Swedish wood. It's the stuff dreams are made of...
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They havn't made a good car since the 900 in the eighties, not helped by vauxhall-based crap.
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I think that the way the automotive industry is today, particularly in Europe where everything is either VW, GM or Ford, Saab really has no place. They always have come accross as a niche brand, and as stated in the article, a niche brand that's never made any real money.
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Saab dose do some good looking cars, the 9-3 convertible looks very nice. And I'm only a 20 year old. I hope GM dose sale Saab to some one in the Europe. But oh well, there is to many car make'is out there. Look like lights out for saab
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IamtheStig1001 commented on this article
25 November 2009
Yay! First comment! I hope that the Chinese don't get their hands on Saab. I think with a little TLC, Saab could be the Little Auto Company that Could.
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