| Author | Message | ||
     Unrealtrip |
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/business/global/ 19saab.html?_r=1 | ||
| Xb12xmike |
At least they tried to sell it. | ||
| Old_mil |
I used to have an old Saab 900 many years ago. Great little car, and a lot of fun to drive. My understanding was that after GM got ahold of Saab the later Saabs shared a platform with the Saturn LS300. At least Harley didn't tell Eric to strap hepco bags to a sportster with knobbies and call it a dual sport... | ||
| Paralegalpete |
I loved my Saab over 100 hp per litre  | ||
| Dmmblaze |
My 87 was a great car. Bought it in 2000 for cheap transportation to college. Ended up keeping it as a spare car when I upgraded to newer vehicles since it was such a simple and reliable car. Built like a little tank so it was heavy and slow though the stick could be made to compensate for that a bit. Great cargo storage with the nicely designed fold down rear seat which GM ended up tweaking in later models and ruining a bit in my opinion. It's been 2 years now since she left me, and some days I miss her. To bad Saab can't go back to being the small company it was before GM drove it to this apparent dead end. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I love my Saab... Geesh. I sold the Saturn to buy a Saab, and ride a Buell. Is it me?  (Two Kawasaki's in the garage also... they must be next...) | ||
| Court |
It took GM to bring a great car company down. | ||
| Sprintex |
I own a 91 900s Turbo convertible and my my wife drives a 97 900s which she will never sell. Very fun cars. Now I have two more collectibles! I was thinking of selling the convertible but when I do drive it I enjoy it to much. Its to bad small car companies can not make it anymore. And GM really messed up Saab but at least the 900NG's sand early 9 3 till have there Saab essence, after that they where pretty much like every other car, though I do have to say I like the 9 3 Combie. | ||
| Tastroman |
Reepicheep Its not you. I own a Daelim Scooter-now defunct Isuzu Trooper- now defunct Buell Uly- you know the story. Maybe we just have an eye for collectibles. At least thats what I tell my friends. | ||
| Billyo |
Saab (pre-GM) was very much like Buell. They were quirky but cool. Nobody else built cars the way they did, from the somewhat odd looks to the engineering, and they liked it that way. So did their buyers! Their enthusiasts love the cars as much as we do our bikes. Saab would be a hard sell because so many of the parts are sourced from GM, but the 1125 line of Buells could easily stand alone with no HD involvement. At least GM tried to sell. | ||
| Froggy |
GM had some good plans for Saab, but they never saw the light of day, and it ended up neglected. It is a shame that someone couldn't pick it up and continue the legacy. | ||
| Ray_r |
GM had originally tried to strike a deal with Koenigsegg to buy the Saab brand, but I guess that deal fell through. And Penske was supposed to buy Saturn, and that deal fell apart. Then there's Magna Intl who was going to buy Opel, and, you guessed it, that deal went into the crapper too. There seems to be a pattern here...with the common thread being the General. | ||
| Towpro |
The first Saab I meet was a Model 96, with a 2 stroke motor! | ||
| Froggy |
Yes 3 different companies tried to buy a GM brand and all 3 deals fell apart, it must be GM's fault! If that was the case, explain GM selling off Subaru, Suzuki, and Hummer without issue. Large deals like this are attempted all the time, and sometimes they just don't pan out. It is possible that the government involvement in GM as of late was a factor in the deals falling through. | ||
| Ray_r |
True. It could be that some brands simply aren't worth buying. But did GM own 100% of Subaru and Suzuki? (Message edited by Ray_R on December 21, 2009) | ||
| Dr_greg |
YES! I was going to bring up the 2-stroke, but didn't think anyone would believe me. Saab and DKW. Three-cylinder, no? --Doc | ||
| Sprintex |
A friend of mine's older sister had a Saab 2 stroke. She would take us to the beach in the summer. I remember being stuck in traffic in the back seat on a hot summer day inhaling two stroke fumes, turning green, and when she stopped for gas she would hand the kid pumping the gas a quart of 2 stroke oil and tell him to put it in the gas tank, and she would get that WTF look. I think she would just add a quart every time she got gas, car smoked like a sky writers plane! | ||
| Sprintex |
Here is my 91  | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Here in the US, Saab sold only 21,000 vehicles in all of '08 - Volvo sold 73,000 and Honda sold 1.3 million. Saab never has been a real player here, regardless of whether or not they are good cars. ** http://www.leftlanenews.com/decembe.html | ||
| Unrealtrip |
Here in the US, Saab sold only 21,000 vehicles in all of '08 - Volvo sold 73,000 and Honda sold 1.3 million. Saab never has been a real player here, regardless of whether or not they are good cars. ** http://www.leftlanenews.com/decembe.html And that is exactly the reason why Buell is gone, setting aside all the conspiracy theories about people Erik may have disagreed with. | ||
| Johnboy777 |
""And that is exactly the reason why Buell is gone, setting aside all the conspiracy theories about people Erik may have disagreed with."" Good Point, Unrealtrip, but here’s the thing. The XB frame was originally designed to have a water-cooled power plant. HD nixed those plans and took the engine that Erik was working on and reconfigured it for their V-Rod. I know hindsight is 20/20, but Erik was moving forward to compete with the water-cooled bikes way back when, but got cut off by HD. HD killed his plans to be competitive in the market place, and then killed off the company when he wasn’t (based on sales volume). Hell, Steve Jobs came back – I bet (hope) Erik will as well. . | ||
| Unrealtrip |
The XB frame was originally designed to have a water-cooled power plant. HD nixed those plans and took the engine that Erik was working on and reconfigured it for their V-Rod. Now that makes sense. I've wondered why in the world the would put a twin into that frame since I first saw it... Buell made it work, but man what a bike it would be if they could have done what they wanted, I guess they did their best given the confines they had to work in. I'm pretty sure Buell will return, I think Buell racing will help keep him going until the company can be built back up or picked up by a more progressive company that isn't still living in 1940.}} | ||
| Johnboy777 |
They traded an inherent heat issue (the air-cooled engine is essentially mounted inside of a metal box) for a slightly lower cg. I think the desire to use their brand new fuel-in-frame design, outweighed a more practical approach for the air-cooled engines. But it works well in the 1125, though, and that was the type of engine for which it was designed. Just my 2cents. . | ||
| 88b |
Saab were good cars,back in the 70's they used Ford engines. The problem for lots of small companies when they get swallowed up by the likes of GM or Ford is they get cherry picked of good ideas then forced to follow the corperate line. I think the main reason the Magna buy of GM Europe fell through was the German government were basically financing it which meant that the two UK plants would close and that broke the EU laws the Germans forced through. Kinda shot themselves in the jackboot. | ||
| Hooper |
Back in the 90s and early 2000s, if you went to Vermont or New Hampshire, about every other car was a Saab. Great in snow. | ||
| Hotdog271 |
This is a real Saab story! | ||
| Buellerxt |
This sob story over ugly arsed Saab is laughable! It has always been an over priced, reliability deficient, unattractive car with a tiny market share. What's going on here, we make cruds into hero's when they die and now we make marginal cars into sought after super cars? lol Hey, a few liked them, cool, most had no interest in them. GM is just in the unfortunate situation of having to dispose of the body. (Message edited by buellerxt on December 23, 2009) | ||
| Florida_lime |
Substitute HD for GM, and Buell for Saab, and your take sounds like the same line used by people who have never owned a Buell.  '72 Saab 99 when I lived in Maine, so I understand.  | ||
| Paralegalpete |
and your take sounds like the same line used by people who have never owned a Buell. +1 My Saab was fast, a little quirky, handled great, and very utilitarian, and of course ugly and misunderstood by most people. Sound Familier?  | ||
| Johnboy777 |
Saab 93 Gripen  |
