Swedish Report: Koegnigsegg Wants to Sell Fewer Saabs for More Money

[GMOwner]

Originally Posted by Bravada

This is why Lexus failed so massively and Nissan is basically winding down Infiniti all around the globe.

Agreed. Consumers have a memory, but, it is relatively short if you give them a reason to be.

The only way to change the perception of the Saab name is to actually make cars that match the value.

Unfortunately, not too many companies in the past have been able to make this transition. Lexus and Infiniti are a couple brands that did.

[mgescuro]

Originally Posted by GMOwner

Agreed. Consumers have a memory, but, it is relatively short if you give them a reason to be.

The only way to change the perception of the Saab name is to actually make cars that match the value.

Unfortunately, not too many companies in the past have been able to make this transition. Lexus and Infiniti are a couple brands that did.

Yeah... and it took Infiniti about 20 years before they got the formula right.

[Canyonaro]

For Saab's sake, I hope this plan works. They did have some nice cars in the prototype phase, so I can see them going premium, I just wonder if they can pull it off.

[Bravada]

Lexus and Infiniti are a couple brands that did.

BMW started out as a small car company and was seen as much inferior to Mercedes back in the 1970s, at least in Germany. Audi only became regarded as a peer at the end of 1990s, it is a brand borne out of a maker of two-stroke "steam engined" cars (DKW stands for "Dampfkraftwagen", or "steam engine car").

Volvo was an utilitarian car for a Scandinavian forrester with a family until the 1980s, with styling painfully awkward or even backward (as in - bad-looking and outdated). Lincoln was a moribund porveyor of cutaways for hearse manufacturers back in 1997. Skoda was the butt of ugly jokes less than two decades ago and now supplies premium chauffer-driven sedans.

[oldsfiesta1958]

Originally Posted by Bravada

BMW started out as a small car company and was seen as much inferior to Mercedes back in the 1970s, at least in Germany. Audi only became regarded as a peer at the end of 1990s, it is a brand borne out of a maker of two-stroke "steam engined" cars (DKW stands for "Dampfkraftwagen", or "steam engine car").

Volvo was an utilitarian car for a Scandinavian forrester with a family until the 1980s, with styling painfully awkward or even backward (as in - bad-looking and outdated). Lincoln was a moribund porveyor of cutaways for hearse manufacturers back in 1997. Skoda was the butt of ugly jokes less than two decades ago and now supplies premium chauffer-driven sedans.

I don't have the sales numbers, but I had always thought that Cadillac did much better than Lincoln in the hearse market. It seems that Lincoln was more of the vehicle of choice for limos.

[Bravada]

I don't have the sales numbers, but I had always thought that Cadillac did much better than Lincoln in the hearse market.

You're absolutely right, the 1997+ Town Car makes a goofy hearse, I just wanted it to sound dramatic

[geozinger_again]

Originally Posted by Bravada

BMW started out as a small car company and was seen as much inferior to Mercedes back in the 1970s, at least in Germany. Audi only became regarded as a peer at the end of 1990s, it is a brand borne out of a maker of two-stroke "steam engined" cars (DKW stands for "Dampfkraftwagen", or "steam engine car").

Volvo was an utilitarian car for a Scandinavian forrester with a family until the 1980s, with styling painfully awkward or even backward (as in - bad-looking and outdated). Lincoln was a moribund porveyor of cutaways for hearse manufacturers back in 1997. Skoda was the butt of ugly jokes less than two decades ago and now supplies premium chauffer-driven sedans.

DKW means what? I was always told it was 'Das Kleine Wunder' oder 'Der Knaben Wunscht'

I remember when Audi's were considered less than respectable. Of course, our relatives in Germany had loads of them... But, it shows how a good motorsports program does wonders for an iffy brand...

My sister and her husband both owned Volvos and Saabs in the '70's when only 'granolas' (i.e. hippies) would buy those cars. Which was really weird, at the time they were both schoolteachers... They traded in a Corvair Monza for the Volvo... My motorhead nephew rolls his eyes at the mention of the Volvo or the Saab.

I'm still trying to see where Infiniti has gotten it right, (much less anything else from Nissan), and Lincoln IS a moribund purveyor of chassis for obscenely stretched 'limousines' worldwide. FoMoCo needs some bold moves for Henry Leland's love child.

If Saab can sell less Saabs for more money, good for them. I hope that maybe they can get back to the truly weird and strange cars they produced before they were GM-ized. I used to like the old 900 Turbos and even the 9000's, they were unusual neat cars. At least here in the States, we could use a little diversity in our automotive diet. An independent Saab might be able to pull it off. Maybe they will go rally racing (like Audi) again.

That would be cool.

[Joe in T.O.]

Originally Posted by 91fairladyZ

Good luck with that. And I really mean it. Saab should have been able to keep up with Audi's rise to top tier luxury, but failed to do so.

Especially since Saab never had so much bad press as Audi did.

[CorsaTurboC]

The company that made a great car for the '70s "granolas" certainly can't expect that crowd to buy if they have price parity with the "grey poupon" crowd Caddy, MB, and Audi. I hope they still make a reasonably priced model too.