YIKES! Saab owners need your regrets.

[Matty Moo]

It is too bad. A friend of mine that works for GM told me that they backed out due to intellectual property. Completely understandable I suppose.

They did get the step-child treatment from GM, kinda like Mercedes and then Cerebus did to Chrysler.

[modabasi]

What happened to Saab (and Volvo) is actually a crash course of how the American auto industry works these days. Let me explain;

Any auto brand needs up to date technology, because they can not sell cars without it.

So, what do you do if you do not have the technology? One choice is R&D; you research for technology, find out how things work and even invent new technology no one else has. The problem is, the auto industry in the USA does not like R&D, simply because it is very costly and has to be done consistently.

Instead, they simply search for and buy a company who has the technology! Exploit the technology the company has to the latest drop, not spend much money on R&D for new technology while making the best profit out of it until the technology gets stale and sell the remaining dregs when the time comes. This is exactly what happened to Saab and Volvo.

When Volvo Group decided to sell their automobile division and concentrate on their commercial vehicles, Ford saw this as a very good opportunity. Volvo was a very innovative company and at the time the S80 series were just launched and the S60 was ready to be launched to replace S70 with the newest technology. According to Wikipedia, Ford paid $6.45 billion USD for the buyout. 10 years later, they sold the remaining dregs of Volvo to a chinese company, Geely only for $1.8 billion USD.

In the meantime, Ford exploited Volvo's technology and used this technology in many Ford models. What they did was using the same technology using cheaper materials and changing names, like they renamed Volvo's P2 platform to Ford D3 and made cost-saving changes like using steel suspension arms instead of aluminum. Ford Five Hundred Sedan, Mecury Montego, Ford Freestyle SUV, Ford Taurus Sedan and Taurus X crossover, Mercury Sable and Lincoln MKS are some of the American Fords that use this Volvo platform. The Ford Focus is a cheap copy of Volvo S40, Ford Mondeo is a cheap copy of Volvo S60 in the European market. Many other models like the Ford Galaxy and S-Max also share the same platform with S60.

I believe same goes for Saab. General Motors was a shareholder of Saab since 1989, but the whole story started to change when they acquired the remaining Saab shares in 2000. GM owns the Opel brand in Europe and they were in trouble with Opel because the technology was getting stale. Saab knew the use of Turbos for example, instead of promoting Saab, they simply exploited the technology Saab had and used it in Opel. Opel Insignia is one of the best selling cars in Europe today with all that Saab technology turbocharged engines and everything.

Now this is interesting;

"On 6 December 2011, GM announced that it would not continue its licenses to GM patents and technology to SAAB if the company had been sold to Pang Da and Zhejiang Youngman, stating that the new owner's use of the technology is not in the best interest of GM investors."

Hey! What a world!

[wheelsup]

SAAB engines were also notorious for sludging up and losing oil pressure. No matter what sort of oil you used.

[precopster]

And in the meantime we see a motoring icon like Saab virtually taken down by giant GM in the name of protection of intellectual property. Pang Da's offer to buy was refused due to IP (intellectual property) concerns.

I'm not saying that American jobs are not important, but I truly believe that any technology used by Saab vehicles that may have had GM funding in its development would impact very minimally on the marketplace as a whole. After all Saab's appeal has always been in niche world markets and as an important player in European markets. GMs current woes are because of a depressed local market and worldwide economic downturn that has affected virtually ALL countries.

I hate corporate politics.

[precopster]

A very nice and comprehensive (if not tongue in cheek) review of the Saab Motor Company by Top Gear:

[xHeart]

June, 13, 2012 - A Chinese-Japanese investment group agreed to buy Saab Automobile and convert the bankrupt Swedish manufacturer into a maker of electric cars. news/2012-06-13/chinese-japanese-consortium-said-to-buy-bankrupt-saab-automobile

[jimmy57]

That is probably a name purchase. GM has put the brakes on the other purchases since Swedish Automotive closed it as they were not acceptable partners GM would share the technology with.

[matthew1]

Bump, and I'm still sad about this. https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/saab-bankruptcy/