I have one more event from the Saab Festival left to cover – the track day at Kinnekulle.
Kinnekulle was the primary event on the Saturday, the second day of the Saab Festival. Kinnekulle is about 80km away from Trollhattan. It’s a nice easy drive, but one that you want to be committed to if the weather’s looking dubious.
And dubious it was.
So dubious, in fact, that I chose to stay in Trollhattan. The forecast called for a reasonable amount of rain in the morning, clearing in the afternoon. I was jetlagged and doubly tired due to a late nights on Thursday and Friday. Given that I was driving a borrowed car that wasn’t suited to the track, the weather was enough to put me off making the trip.
Others did go, however. One of them was a friend named Thilo Bubek and those who know Thilo, know that he’s almost always got a camera stuck to his face.
Here’s a small sample of Thilo’s work from Kinnekulle. You can view more of Thilo’s work on his website – Bubek Fotodesign. His 2015 Saab Festival photos aren’t up yet, but his Northern Lights photos from Tromso, in Norway, are mind-boggling. He’s also on Facebook.
As you can see, it was pretty moist at Kinnekulle. When I was there in 2007 it was stinking hot and watching the Saab 2-trokes being flung around the corners at high speed in the dry was almost the highlight of the whole festival.
Today was the last day of the 2015 Saab Festival, which saw the big car display in the car park surrounding the Saab Car Museum. I don’t know how many cars were in attendance but I can tell you it was a LOT.
There was a special tribute to mark the recent passing of Erik Carlsson and that’s as good a place as any to start. A stage was set up near the entrance to the museum and the museum director, Peter Backstrom, conducted a number of interviews with Erik’s friends and co-conspirators.
Erik loved his food and the photo of Peter Backstrom on the stage, above, was taken from behind the sausage stand set up by Orio. Free hot dogs were given out to the crowd (and they were good – why do you think I was standing in the Orio area taking photos? 🙂 )
Erik lived a long life and he lived it well. A minute’s silence is nice, but it wasn’t really Erik’s kind of thing. Instead, some two-stroke owners got their cars together and put on a two or three minute tva-takt tribute of their own. Here’s a sample….
To the display, then…..
Unicorn Saabs
This looks like a regular old line of NG Saab 9-5s, doesn’t it?
It’s not a regular line of 9-5’s at all, though.
A small number of Saab 9-5 SportCombis were sold by the administrators when Saab went bankrupt. These cars were considered to be un-registerable but a tenacious bunch of owners tiptoed through the red tape and actually managed to get their cars road legal. That there were 7 of them attending this year’s Festival is a tribute to their dedication.
A couple of Saab 9-4x’s were spotted in the crowd, too. Here’s one of them…..
And parked behind the 9-4x was one of the most unloved ‘Saabs’ of all time – normally prone to rust but this one was in outstanding condition. It’s a Saab-Lancia 600.
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Saab 9-3
I should apologise to Saab 9-3 owners this year, because I didn’t really take much time looking over your cars at all. 9-5 owners, too.
A Viggen always catches my eye, though, and this three-door in Lighting Blue was just perfect…..
This convertible in Monte Carlo Yellow looked the business, too…..
The Turbo-X’s were out in force. It almost looked like a Star Wars convention 🙂
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Classic Saab 900
It’s getting harder and harder to find a classic Saab 900 in good condition – even in Sweden. And when you look at the magnificent 900s present here at the Saab Festival, you know why. Nobody in their right mind would ever want to sell one, would they?
Click to enlarge.
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Saab 96
The Saab 96s were the stars of today’s display for me. I’ve developed a big soft spot for the old V4s and the two-strokes sounded glorious all day. What really got me, though, is just the sheer base-level character of the car, which lends itself to all sorts of custom presentations.
It’s probably be the rally heritage that makes this OK on the 96. More than OK, actually. It’s perfect.
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Saab 99
The 9-3 Viggen and the Saab 99 Turbo remain as my two favourite Saabs of all time. There were plenty of nice 99s in attendance this year, including some excellent turbos.
This Cardinal Red turbo was said to be in 100% original condition. It was incredibly clean and so popular that it was hard to get a clear photo of, as you can see.
Some more 99s…..
My first turbocharged Saab was a 99 Turbo 3-door in Marble White. This 99 Turbo 2-door in Marble White was for sale and it’s mighty, mighty tempting…..
All three generations of Saab Sonett were on display today….
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Saab 9000
The Saab 9000 was this year’s feature car for the Festival and there were plenty of excellent examples on display.
Saab designer Bjorn Envall once referred to the Saab 9000 as the most complete Saab in his eyes. I’ve had three of them in my driveway and it’s hard to disagree. The 9000 is exceptional value if you can find a good one. It’s a car that looks incredibly smart, is supremely comfortable, practical and quick.
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NG Saab 9-5
There might have been comparatively few of them sold, but the NG Saab 9-5 was prominent all weekend at the Saab Festival. This little gallery doesn’t do them justice.
This first car had a pearl white finish – a wrap, I think – that looked absolutely superb.
Note the little front spoiler on this one. A nice touch…..
I saw a write-up on this ‘Saab 9-5x’ a few months ago. It was nice to see it in person.
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The Oddities And Others
It wouldn’t surprise me if this Saab 99 turned out to be the most photographed car of the day. It’s hard to miss. Earlier in the Festival, it was seen towing a trailer with another (pristine) Saab 99 loaded on the back.
A rolling nightclub? I call it FrankenSaab 🙂
I’m not quite sure what was going on with this Saab 99. The 16V engine was pushed waaaay back.
I thought this Saab 9-3 might have been wrapped, too, but on closer inspection it looked like actual paint.
This Saab 9-5 looked pretty special. I had to look twice to figure out what was going on and finally got an explanation from a friend of the owner. It’s had some extensive re-working to make it a 9-5 widebody. The level of finish was outstanding. A look inside the back door shows you just how wide the arches have been flared.
Saab 95 wagon in motion….
Saab 92 with patina….
Saab 92 and 93s….
And I couldn’t resist a shot of this early Saab 96 in MCY….
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And there are my picks from the Sunday display at the Saab Festival. 100-odd photos means that probably missed about 600 or so cars. Apologies to those owners but there’s only so much time to write things up.
Thanks to the organisers and participants for what was yet another memorable Saab Festival in 2015.
At any other time, this would be an extraordinary photo. This weekend, it’s just another day in Sweden 🙂
Congratulations to the graduates, too. Every time I’m here I seem to wake up to this Swedish tradition – students on trucks making lots and lots of noise now that their basic schooling is over. Time for the real world, kids.
It’s Saab Festival time once again. The sun is shining (mostly), the people are smiling and a convoy of two-strokes screaming down the street is no longer unusual.
As usual, there are all manner of Saabs here. As I sit here in the foyer of the Scandic Swania (without a camera!) I’ve seen a NG Saab 9-5 Combi and that most disregarded unicorn of all cars to ever wear a Saab badge – a Saab-Lancia 600!! That’s the Saab Festival for ya.
The feature events for yesterday were the open day at NEVS, the parts sale and various events at the Saab Museum. The open day at NEVS was the real feature and I’ll do a separate article about the tour at Technical Development later, but first…..
The visit to NEVS
It was a bittersweet experience going back to the Saab factory. Sweet because it really is the heart of the company. Bitter because…. well….. you know.
But I have to say I was heartened by the visit with NEVS yesterday. I missed the speech by Matthias Bergman about the future of the company, but I’m not overly fussed by that. From what I heard, it was a presentation that nearly anyone even remotely familiar with the situation could have written. i.e. it didn’t really give away much and I got basically the same information chatting with a few people in private.
The news is that we can all expect a significant press conference this coming week. Probably Wednesday. The word is that new partners/investors are on board and progress will continue.
The news behind the news is more interesting (to me).
I met at least one key recruit who has only recently come back after leaving Trollhattan at the end of 2011. This is a recruiting coup straight from the top drawer, a man in the prime of his career who could pretty much work anywhere he wants.
You can have all the PR-vetted speeches you like, but the fact that this gentleman has bought what NEVS is selling tells me they’ve got something real to sell.
The other news from the day, not completely new but nice to have confirmed, is that NEVS is shifting its focus back to electric propulsion and range-extended hybrids; away from internal combustion cars. Now, I’m an internal combustion guy so this leaves me with mixed feelings, but it’s somewhat of a relief that they’re re-focusing on their original plan after the spanner thrown in the works by their recalcitrant Chinese investor.
What I took away from yesterday: I feel quite confident that NEVS will come out their recent troubles and build cars. Whether they build cars that either you or I find interesting is another question. But they’re going to build something. They may or may not be able to call it a Saab but cars will roll out of Trollhattan (and China) in the future and if they stay here, that’s a good thing for the city.
NEVS allowed people to tour some of the technical development area at Stallbacka. I’ve got exclusive photos and video from the tour, which I’ll share shortly.
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The Parts Sale
The parts sale kicked off in earnest at 9am yesterday. It was smaller than last time, which was smaller than the time before. I guess that’s the nature of selling parts of finite supply.It’s always good, though.
This year the punters had the added fun of being able to strip a number of wrecks mounted out in the yard. That looked like fun. They even had a few old V4’s out there.
Click any of the photos to enlarge….
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Rony Lutz
Saab’s wonderful in-house artist, Rony Lutz, has an exhibition at a gallery near the Saab Museum. Rony made a presentation about his work at 2pm yesterday but I can’t tell you much about it. I was there, but it was all in Swedish 🙂
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In The Car Park
The two biggest attractions at any Saab Festival are the cars and the people. Accordingly, I spend much of my time chatting with friends that I almost only see at events like this, and with my camera out in the car park.
The cars here are always amazing. It’s a rich collection spanning all of Saab’s near-70 years.
Ironic that this should happen just a few hours after NEVS’s positive news……. but it’s turned into a sad day for Trollhattan and Saab fans in general.
It’s with great sadness that I report today on the passing of a Saab legend, perhaps the biggest Saab legend of all – Mr Erik Carlsson. Erik passed away in his adopted England today after a short illness. He was surrounded by family.
“Mr Saab” was born in Trollhattan, Sweden, in March 1929 and the story of his life is inextricably bound to the city and the car company that was based there.
Erik drove his first rally victory in a Saab in 1955 when the company was less than 10 years old. That was a two-cylinder Saab 92 and he went on to experience rally success with the Saab 93, Saab 95 and the Saab 96 with both two-stroke and V4 engines.
Saab fans will be well aware of his successes. While Erik won various events between 1955 and 1959, it was his winning of the RAC Rally of 1960, the first year of the Saab 96, that cemented both he and Saab on the motorsport map. Erik’s legend goes hand-in-hand with the Saab 96, which he took to first place in the famous Monte Carlo Rally in 1962 and 1963. He also won the RAC Rally two more times in 1961 and 1962. The 1000 Lakes Rally, the Acropolis Rally, the Swedish Rally, the San Remo Rally, the Czech Rally – all of them have Erik Carlsson’s name in their history books under “Winner” and many more have him as being placed on the podium.
Erik even drove the heavier Saab 95 estate vehicle at Monte Carlo, finishing in 4th position in 1961. I’m not sure that a two-door, 7-seat station wagon has ever been so close to glory, either before or since!
After his retirement from rallying, Erik became Saab’s most prominent ambassador. The amount of frequent flyer miles he would have accumulated travelling for Saab to events around the world would have broken most airline computers, I’m sure.
It must be said, however, that Erik’s days as an ambassador for the company took shape even when he was still rallying. When accepting victory trophies in his Saab 96, Erik always insisted that the car was cleaned before it was presented. He and his co-driver would always show up in dress suits rather than racing suits to accept the trophy. Presentation was paramount.
Erik famously promoted the Saab 900 at events around the world, driving it at speed over a large blade that would puncture the front tyre. At the time of the puncture, Erik would raise his hands out from the sunroof to show how well balanced the Saab was even under pressure.
Erik’s longevity as a Saab ambassador – a role he played well into his Eighties – can be attributed to his personal charm. Erik loved the role and he played it well. He had a cheeky smile, plenty of stories to tell and a willingness to engage anyone in conversation. And so prominent was Erik as an identity at Saab that they released three Carlsson edition vehicles in his honour – a Saab 900, a Saab 9000 and a Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan.
There would barely be a Saab fan that’s travelled to a prominent Saab event that didn’t get a handshake, a photograph or an autograph from the great man. He had time for everyone, even in his later years.
I had the good fortune to spend an afternoon with Mr Saab back in 2012. The day was organised by mutual good friends Mike and Hilary, who have spent a lot of time with the great man in the last 20 years. I encourage you to read that story as it says a lot about him outside of the spotlight.
That day taught me a lot about Erik Carlsson. It showed me the way he cared for the company, talking about it in an educated fashion like a man who still had his finger on the pulse, even in his advanced years and at such a distance. It showed me the way he loved his RAC replica Saab 96 (see video, below), which he drove with such exuberance on the day. More than that, though, it showed me his warmth as a man. He was deeply charming, extremely generous with his time and compliments, and he loved his family deeply.
Erik Carlsson married Pat Moss, the sister of Sir Sterling Moss, in 1963 and like his heritage from Trollhattan, this partnership shaped the rest of his life. Pat Moss was an accomplished driver in her own right and they wrote a book about the art of driving together. The couple settled in England, where Pat indulged her other passion – horses – which she passed on to their daughter Susie. Erik still lived just down the road from his daughter right up until his passing.
Erik Carlsson lived a full life, passing away at the age of 86. It was a life worth celebrating, a life to be remembered with fondness.
I’m grateful to Alex at Saabtala for posting about the Saab Car Museum Support Organisation last week. I didn’t even know this group existed prior to that post and for those of you who missed it, I figured it might be worth writing about it here. I’ve just sent through my support donation and I think it’d be worthwhile if you consider doing the same.
The Saab Museum is the spiritual home of Saab Automobile. Peter Backstrom, Ola and their crew of contributors and volunteers do a sensational job of keeping Saab’s legacy alive. The Museum is visited by thousands of people every year and this year, once again, it’ll be the central hub for activities linked to the Saab Festival.
The Saab Museum nearly went under a few years ago when the Swedish debt agency went and put stickers all over the cars, marking them as items to be secured for sale. Thankfully, the city of Trollhattan stepped in along with Saab AB and the Wallenburg family to secure the immediate future of the Museum.
That doesn’t mean the Museum is flush with funds, however. It cost money to save the Museum but it costs more to run it on an ongoing basis, too.
That’s where you come in.
The Saab Car Museum Support Organisation is a non-profit organisation, set up to allow supporters of the Museum to ‘join’ and provide a small amount each year in support of the Museum’s activities. The fee is 200SEK per year, which is around A$30 in my money, or $22 American dahllahs. Payment can be made by PayPal or a number of other means.
Thanks in advance for your support. And please make plans to visit the Saab Museum some day. June 5-7 would be perfect, as that’s when the 2015 Saab Festival will be on.
Whether it’s this year or another year, though, make sure you get there. It’s a truly magical place.
Well, hasn’t there been some hoo-haa in the last few days, eh?
There was an article posted at Saabs United, written by Jorgen Trued, with a sensational headline saying “ANA Group Takes Down The Saab Flag!” (now changed) and it caused a reasonable sized storm in a teacup.
The claim – based on unlinked stories at TTELA and Swedish Radio – was that ANA were letting a number of people go (true) and the inference in the headline, and the included editorial, was that ANA would let their Saab business die (untrue).
“Today, the ANA Group’s connection to Saab is over”, it said.
Thankfully, a few other websites actually sought comment from ANA’s Joachim Lind and published the real story. I contacted Joachim tonight, to ask some questions myself and he simply pointed me to Saabblog.net, which was carrying his key quote.
ANA will keep the SAAB flag high for as long as there is a single SAAB left on the face of this planet. ANA is SAAB
Saabtala also did the right thing and sought a direct comment:
We have not taken down any SAAB flags but are infact in talks to buy some of the newly completed SAAB 9-3 Aeros from NEVS
ANA’s Saab business is less than what it was. We all know that. ANA is selling other brands now and quite appropriately, they’re giving marketing resources, showroom space and service space to those brands. That’s business. That Saab might be taking a back seat is perfectly understandable. To suggest they’re going to stop servicing the Saabs in their considerable local market(s) is more than just a little stretch of the truth, however. It always smelled a bit fishy.
So what’s the lesson here?
I editorialised plenty in my days writing about Saab. Editorials should be confined to opinions, however. If you’re going to include facts, confirm them. If you’re going to include a statement as definitive as “Today, the ANA Group’s connection to Saab is over”, make sure you get your story straight. If it means you’ve got to delay publishing your article while you wait for someone to call back, so be it.
The choice is pretty simple – confirm the facts and print the right story, or go out on a limb and look like a hero (if you’re right) or a knob (if you’re wrong).
Saabs United is a good website. Stuff like this is beneath them.
And well done to Saabtala and Saabblog.net!
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Those 100 cars NEVS are ‘building’
Time for my own mea culpa
My opinion on NEVS has been pretty harsh for some time now, so when I read that they were completing 100 cars on the production line, I wondered why. And I wondered why in no uncertain terms:
I’m a little perplexed as to why they’ll spend money and time building more cars that are highly unlikely to sell.
The source stories online were a little mischievous in that they led readers to believe that production lines would be rolling again, etc. This was my main beef – why spend money on production staff to build 100 cars that were likely to be a very tough sell?
I’ve since had some contact with NEVS and found out the following in relation to this story:
It’s not a production re-start. The 100 cars are simply those that were completed and remained at NEVS. They were intended for China, but stayed in Sweden because the Qingdao deal fell through.
There will be a little work needed before they can sell them in Sweden (the cars were made for the Chinese market) but the work does not mean a production line re-start in any way.
As you can see from the quote from Joachim Lind, dealers in Sweden are already interested in taking the cars on.
The sales will raise some cash, which can go to reduce finance obligations and interest payments.
The cars will be sold as MY2014 vehicles but will carry a suitable discount to reflect this.
So there you go. It makes more sense than I first thought as there’s already interest in them and far less work involved in preparing them than was first hinted at.
There was news today that Saabs will be rolling off the production line again soon. Yes, really.
NEVS is going to finish off the 100 or so cars that were left incomplete when production halted in 2014. NEVS registered just 264 cars last year in total, and most of those were company testers and dealer demonstrators, so I’m a little perplexed as to why they’ll spend money and time building more cars that are highly unlikely to sell.
Note: they’ll be 2014 models, even though they’ll be built in 2015.
Then again, there’s very little that NEVS has done in the last few years that’s made much sense to me. Add this latest news to a very long list of head-snappers.
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The Deal
The same stories in the Swedish press today also mention that The Deal is ongoing and NEVS are likely going to have to seek another extension when their Reconstruction period expires at the beginning of March.
Naming rights are still the issue, presumably. And suppliers.
There is a critical piece. It’s part of the whole, we have a brand that must be loaded with quality products that must be designed and built here in Trollhättan. You can not take a bite, it’s a package deal to the prospective new principal owner.
If Saab’s going to continue as something interesting (IMHO) then being Swedish is core to its character. That a potential new owner cares about this is encouraging.
Don’t hold your breath. Watch this space. Etc.
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Peter Wallenberg
The Wallenberg family are big players in the Swedish business world and were crucial in the birth of Saab. Although Investor AB parted ways with Saab Automobile some time ago, the car company they helped begin still occupies a place in the family’s heart. After all, it was the Wallenbergs who stepped in to help ensure the Saab Museum’s future when the museum cars were about to be sold to the highest bidder, back in 2012.
Peter Wallenberg died recently, aged 88. He was particularly fond of Saabs and had been photographed arriving in them at many official and social events over the years.
TTELA tells the story of the phone call made by the family to Peter Backstrom at the Saab Museum. Their father’s final journey had to be in a Saab.
Back in 2009, I visited ANA Specialbilar in Trollhattan and they were building a customised Saab 9-3 hearse. It’s the only one of it’s kind, apparently.
Peter Backstrom got in touch with the funeral home and the car was prepared and driven to Stockholm for the ceremony.
Vale, Peter ‘Pirre’ Wallenberg.
Thanks for your contribution to the rich history of Saab Automobile.
Are there any collectable Saabs yet? I think some of the traditional favourites are on their way to semi-collectable status. Recent content online seems to suggest that certain models are starting to pop up on people’s radar.
I wrestled with using the word ‘collectable’ in this headline because it implies dollar figures far in excess of what you’re going to see here. But the word ‘interesting’ didn’t seem to be enough. And Saab 99’s have always been interesting, as you know 🙂
Anyway….
Something happened as I trolled through my feeds this morning and it was enough to prompt this post. It’s a first-time occurrence, significant enough to be noted. One of the websites I subscribe to is Bring-a-Trailer (BaT), a site from the US that features what it thinks are interesting cars for sale. They invariably are, too. Though they’re not always interesting to me, I’m sure they’re all interesting to someone out there.
This morning’s review of BaT saw not one, not two but three Saab 99’s appear. Just one would have been unusual, but three??!! Saab 96s are a semi-regular sight on BaT, with Saab 95s, Sonetts and 900s less common. 99s don’t really show up much at all.
They were all quite worthy, too.
The first was featured on January 7 – a 1970 model Saab 99 with the early Triumph 1.75 engine. I even learned something from the post about the earliest 99s having a freewheel (I don’t know why this had escaped my attention in the past, but there you go)
The second car featured on January 9, and is one of my favourite model 99s, a combination bought to my attention by Christer Nilsson, one of Saab’s old PR guys in Sweden. It’s a two-door notchback 99 Turbo in Acacia Green. Mmmmmmm.
The third car was featured on January 10, making it three Saab 99s in four days. It’s a Saab 99 Turbo rally car built by members of Per Eklund’s team and driven occasionally by the great man himself.
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I’ve noticed the prices of good Saab 96s and 95s going up a little. I haven’t taken a look at Sonetts for a while, though. Even Saab 900s in desirable spec are starting to at least hold their value.
As BaT mention in one of their posts….
It hasn’t been long, but the more time passes the more we miss Saab.
Have you noticed values for any particular Saab models going up in your favourite marketplaces?
It’s well past December 31, which is the time we all expected a decision from Mahindra as to whether or not they were going to invest in the ghost of Saab.
NEVS’s money was expected to run out by then and Mahindra were going to provide two tranches of funds IF the deal was going to go ahead – $5mil for January and $5mil for Febraury – to keep the ghost afloat in ‘reorganisation’ (bankruptcy protection) until the deal is finalised.
NEVS got a financial lifeline by selling tooling for spare parts to Orio, which explains why there was no urgency around the end of the year. The price paid in the deal wasn’t mentioned in the press release so the amount of time they’ve bought is unknown. It wouldn’t be too long, however.
When will Mahindra make a decision? It’d be nice to know.
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Koenigsegg V4
My mate Tompa has been speaking with Christian Von Koenigsegg about engines. Specifically, the potential for cutting a Koenigsegg V8 in half and using the resulting V4 in a passenger vehicle.
You can read the article here, at a site I hadn’t seen before called Saab Tala.
The good news is that Christian believes it’s entirely possible. And considering that Christian knows more about cars and engineering than anyone else I’ve met, I’ll take that as given. In fact, not only is it possible, but Christian estimates that a half-Koenigsegg V4 could reliably produce plenty of power.
Quote from Christian:
If [you’re] looking at a 2 litre engine with 4 cylinders with a slightly smaller turbo to get a fantastic response, we are talking about 450 hp and 500 Nm on Unleaded 95 octane.
Sounds fascinating, doesn’t it?
There’s no bad news in this story, but the $64,000 questions remain unanswered – how much would it cost? And would that cost gel with the market(s) Mahindra would pursue with Saab if they got control of the company? Are they looking to take on the Audis and BMW’s of the world?
They’d better be. Because the engine won’t be cheap and consequently, the car won’t be cheap, either.
I don’t agree with Saabtala’s point of view about the BMW/Mini 1.6 engine being a mistake. I think it would have been a great engine for Saab, as it has been for Mini. The salient point is this: That BMW/Mini engine was considered to be a very expensive choice and it’s an engine that was used across several brands and made in the hundreds of thousands of units. How much, then, for a purpose-designed V4 from one of the most expensive carmakers in the world that’d be made in the tens of thousands?
Quality has its price. Your level of comfort with that price depends on the market you’re chasing.
It’s an interesting story and I know Tompa’s going to chase it a little more. I’m keen to see what he comes up with, if only from an engineering point of view. You can build whatever Saab you like if you’ve got the money, but you’ve got to be able to sell it to someone. That’ll be the hard part – whatever path they choose.
Side note: Tompa first met Christian when I asked via SU for someone in Sweden to provide a convertible Saab for Tompa’s wedding a few years ago. Christian was the only person to respond to the request, so Tom and Carola got to drive Halldora von Koenigsegg’s car on their wedding day. Result! 🙂
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Double Dip
I remember the early days of Spyker’s ownership of Saab, with Victor Muller saying that the biggest threat to Saab’s future was a double-dip recession.
It’s interesting to ponder, then, what might have been if Spyker had access to finance and stuck it out until 2015.
Why?
Well, 2014 saw Western Europe record it’s first rise in new vehicle sales since 2009. And they’re forecast to grow in 2015, too. From Just Auto:
The US market also saw sales rise in 2014, but then the US market has been rising for a while. The US market’s recent low was also in 2009 with just 10.4 million vehicles sold. There were 16.5 million vehicles sold in 2014 and the last time the US market was that big was in 2006.
I wonder what would have happened, then, if there were no ban on Vladimir Antonov’s money (and no Antonov charges in Lithuania) and no supplier backlash in March 2011. What if all the new vehicle launches went ahead according to schedule and Saab kept making cars through 2011 and beyond? Would Saab have sold enough with the 9-4x, the new 9-5 and whatever would have happened with the 9-3 between then and now?
Such a prolonged slump was the economic situation that Victor feared the most in those early days. I wonder if ‘we’ could have survived it to prosper in 2015 and beyond?
I got this question in from a friend in Sydney today. Any of you 9-5 owners had the same problem? Any of you know of a fix?
Fire away in comments…..
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Hi there,
I have a 2006 SAAB 9-5 Sports Wagon which apart from one issue is an awesome car.
The one issue seems to be related to the usage of the air-conditioner, which reduces the cars power down to a fraction of its normal power.
This doesn’t happen as soon as the AC is turned on. Perhaps 10 minutes later… it can vary. I most notice the effects in start stop city routes.
If I could describe the behaviour from a driving perspective:
– it’s most pronounced when moving off from a complete stop.
– pushing down on the accelerator has a distinct lag.
– then after the power kicks in, it has a very sluggish feel. Perhaps only 30% of normal power.
– turning off the engine or the AC will typically get rid of the issue…. but not instantly. After a few minutes.
I’ve taken it to a couple of mechanics and they seem unsure what could cause that behaviour. Because it doesn’t kick in straight away, they don’t get to see it in action.
Any ideas or thoughts would be most appreciated.
As I said, it’s a great car and I’d love to have my AC back in use this summer.
Piers.
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As I said, if you know of a solution (that doesn’t involve selling the car 🙂 ) then please feel free to enlighten Piers in comments.
