April 17, 2012 - Swadeology

A small ray of hope for Saab, thanks to Brightwell

For months now, we’ve heard GM spokesman James Cain come out and say things like this:

TT: Why did you not agree to meet them?

– We stand by our policy not to sell technology licenses to a new owner for Saab.

TT: Not in any way?

– No.

TT: Typically in business, everything has a price tag.

– Not in this case, says James Cain.

So…… They stand by this policy and from earlier in the original article at e24, they responded to Brightwell’s requests for discussions with a big, fat “not interested”.

Not according to Brightwell’s President, Alphan Manas.

We have to rely on a Googletrans from Manas’ own blog here, but it sounds very much like they reached some agreement with GM in relation to the 9-4x before GM demanded a $73million “tooling fee”. This was apparently an unexpected development and it’s quite possible that tactics like this are part of the reason that Brightwell dropped out of the race to acquire Saab.

Of course, it’s not the first GM has done something like this, either. Back in December 2009, GM halted negotiations with Spyker – quite suddenly – and announced that Saab was to be liquidated. Later they backflipped once more and ended up selling the company.

What does all this mean?

Not a lot, really. The changing of terms in business deals is commonplace and GM are as prone to it as anyone else. The fact that a Saab fan might find it distasteful doesn’t alter the fact that it happens (nor that PR people would ‘forget’ such things in public statements).

Perhaps the ‘tooling fee’ is a blessing in disguise for a Saab fan. If I’ve interpreted what Manas has written on his website correctly (a significant “if”, but I think I have), it means that GM might actually be willing to negotiate with a possible purchaser of Saab Automobile under the right circumstances. I’m sure they’ll charge a massive fee for such access, but it’s a glimmer of hope if ever I saw one. The 9-4x deserves to be produced for longer, and as a Saab, too.

Again, I have to stress that I’m relying on a web translation of Manas’ blog. I tried to get in touch with Manas via Twitter last week but got no response. The translation is all I’ve got to go by at the moment. If you know Turkish perhaps you can clarify things a little for everyone.

——

Thanks to Gregg for the tip.

I used to work just below the B

Seen on The Local and recorded here for posterity.

See the row of darkened windows on the top floor? I used to work one floor below those, around where the “B” is on the Saab sign, on the roof.

*Sigh*

I’m a 42 year old Australian male and I love Prince

Or…..A 20+ year journey with a guy who looks and sounds like a poof*.

1987 has a lot to answer for. Well, maybe it’s just the 1987 version of me that has a lot to answer for. I was 17 years old and militant in my attitude towards anything I didn’t like and if it wasn’t loud, hard and metallic, there was a very good chance that 1987-me wasn’t into it.

In 1987 I was a long-haired wannabe guitar player who had a hard time accepting that anything not involving a hammer-on guitar solo was real music. Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen were gods and as soon as I got a car in early 1988, it became a rolling church, blaring their hymns at maximum volume wherever I went. I used to have a 25km commute to work and I can remember winding down all four windows in my LJ Torana and having the music up so loud that I couldn’t hear the traffic around me. Yes, I was that guy.

It was around 1987 that I first met a certain guy who just happened to be a Prince fan. It was three years after Purple Rain, but he still wore the T-Shirt from the film at every opportunity and of course, I gave him heaps for it. Let’s just say that with all the frilly shirts, the heels and the high-pitched singing, Prince wasn’t regarded as much of a man’s man in suburban Melbourne. The recipient of my mostly good-natured derision was much nicer about it than I would have been, taking my constant ribbing in his stride and turning out to be a very decent guy in response to my constant asshattery.

A potential conflict of interest arose in 1989. My favourite superhero of all time, Batman, was the subject of a new feature film. I didn’t know it when I arrived at the movie theatre, but the soundtrack to the movie was written and performed by Prince – and I loved it. Thus began what was for me a minor personal cultural revolution, one that would later see me accepting all sorts of things that 1987-me would have considered rather ‘poncy’ – like European cars, for instance.

It was a guitar solo that got the ball rolling. Skip ahead to 2:20….

Who knew that Prince could play the guitar like that? Well, aside from all the people who weren’t boof-headed, loudmouth idiots like me. If I’d actually seen Purple Rain back in 1984, I would have known that Prince had significant guitar chops. But I didn’t. I preferred to base my opinion on how the guy dressed.

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