It's crunch time... does anyone believe Saab deserves to survive?
The very existence of Saab ? the withered and unwanted Swedish arm of General Motors ? hung in the balance late last week.
Then, early Saturday our time, a Swedish court gave it three months to find a means of keeping the company afloat while an administrator negotiates with creditors.
Saab's managing director, Jan Ake Jonsson, says Saab is seeking to create a fully independent business.
"What would happen during the reorganisation phase is more preservation of cash and making sure we have the financials to go through it. Exactly what that means is too early to say."
How very confidence inspiring …
One feels for the workers, dealers and thousands of various job descriptions whose livelihoods will exist no longer when the Trollhattan marque eventually succumbs to the inevitable.
Honestly, though, does anyone believe Saab deserves to survive?
Can anyone – except perhaps the ever diminishing number of clueless and chronically dizzy types who mysteriously continue buy them – say with sincerity that they care a Viking’s frozen digit for Saab?
The 9-5 is so hopelessly obsolete, so thoroughly behind the times, driving it is the equivalent of wearing spats. To the beach. The numerical designation might as well indicate its year of origin; the 9-5 belongs firmly to the previous century.
Next to that the 9-3, with its near-decade old Vectra underpinnings, is positively effervescent. But with at least a half dozen sounder and more desirable alternatives for every one of the barely numerable variants in the line-up, the 9-3 is also very possibly the most futile car on earth.
And as for charging $90K for the top model, on what planet – or more to the point – in which era do these people dwell?
The only possible thing Saab could do to justify its continued existence is to make an entirely new car. A proper new car, that is, as opposed to minor embellishments of two decomposing model lines.
That’s not going to happen, at least not in a hurry. Saab is wedded to a decaying US former auto giant, whose embattled execs want nothing more than a quick divorce. And Saab can’t afford to live on its own.
The contrast with compatriot Volvo is glaring. But while Ford remains attached to life support, its Swedish subsidiary has at least continued to produce new, competitive and even – in terms of its fusty image – exciting new models, a la the C30 T5 and XC60. So Ford will eventually find a buyer for Volvo, because it’s making cars that you’d cheerfully spend your money on.
Whereas Saab … well, the best thing it could do is to stop making them altogether. Please.
