Zamani wrote:Looks like it.
I think SAAB died because they failed to evolve, and the SAAB Impreza didn't help.
Saab had
nothing to do which way the brand was heading, GM all the way. All decisions were made by GM and they only looked at the ned three months, like all stock market companies.
Saabs biggest problem was the similarity to Opel, Opel being much larger and
always releasing the cool stuff first. Since Saab was "integreted" into the GM Europe umbrella Saab and Opel was more or less one company, on paper. All the high ranking bosses or head of departments were either German or American. That was not at all good for Saab since all the german bosses always took side for Opel and all the Americans (except one, he put his foot down and made the Turbo-X happen.) did exactly what the bean counters in Detroit told them.
A few Examples:
-9-3 wagon was ready in 2002, released much later.
-9-3X was also ready in 2002, only just released...
-9-5 was very much on the way on the premium platform (AR 159) but was put on hold, it has been pushed ahead more times then you would think.
-9-2X was a stupid GM badge engineering f-up
-Caddy BLS was a stupid GM badge engineering f-up
-9-7 was a stupid GM badge engineering f-up
-New 9-3 was being moved around the platforms a lot too so they effectively made sure that wasn't going to happen any time soon either.
-New 9-5 wagon was on the way even though it was being done mostly in the US prior to the carve out.
-New 9-5 is currently (well, prior to Friday) being built on the
production line in Trollhättan. It's
done, all paid for and now ready to make money
-9-4X is ready to be built in Mexico, ready to make money...
Other interesting facts:
-All 4WD work in europe was done at Saab, the Alfa 159 system was also done at Saab. Hence all the development hardware is at Saab.
-All brake dynos available in europe are at Saab.
There are a number of lead areas at Saab, so this is I guess bad news for the Germs too since they just lost quite a few engineering departments, even though the carve-out has been going on for over a year.
Do I sound bitter? Well, I am. Very bitter.
And for the record, there were a shitload of great guys in the US that I had daily contact with (when I was at Saab, which I'm NOT anymore), these are the guys that were
good for Saab and provided tools for getting projects done and were really focusing on getting
all the models out realizing we were all in it together. There were a few ot those at Opel too but they were scarce...