Autosavant: What Saab Needs Now - a Modern-Day 96 (and a Miracle)

[Gm786]

Originally Posted by jc7222

I own a 9-5 with a 144k with NO major problems. None! Zippo!
How can Saab do anything when GM is hell bent on selling Cadillac to the world?
I still believe that Saab could do more for GM than even Cadillac.

Cadillac is GM's most important Luxury division. They have market capital and actually make good profit off of each vehicle the division sells, where as Saab does not. By the way, what year is your 9-5?

[RedVee8]

I like the 9-3, but it is just overpriced.
I thought the 9-5 was a very handsome car, very desirable until they put that new front on it!

[jbernie]

Originally Posted by Gm786

Cadillac is GM's most important Luxury division. They have market capital and actually make good profit off of each vehicle the division sells, where as Saab does not. By the way, what year is your 9-5?

Here is the problem with Cadillac, regardless of how good the product is and some of the products are very good, it will always be viewed as American unfortunately for GM that association does nothing to help them sell vehicles in many places outside of the USA.

Saab on the other hand is viewed as European and less offensive brand association wise even if it is ultimately owned by an American company.

[AeroPower]

Originally Posted by MonaroSS

I'd like to see them get back to their styling roots; as with this 900 Turbo version I chopped off the latest Opel.

I would imagine that would be pretty inexpensive to make as it's base don the Insignia AND it would bring back previous SAAB loyalists!

[t-rex]

Saabs don't need to be high-end luxury cars. They were never expensive cars. Sure they cost more than the mainstream stuff, but they weren't out of reach of most buyers.

Saab doesn't need to be GM's Audi. It doesn't need to be anything except a purveyor of strange, solid, intelligent, form-follows-function cars. Like Mercedes-Benzes and Volvos of yore, their higher sticker prices should be the result of superior engineering, not luxury features or badge prestige.

The 96 and the 99 were THE definitive Saabs. The 9000 was hugely flawed because it used a platform that was developed primarily by Fiat. And based on the 9000's service record, I'd suspect Fiat developed the cars electrical components...

It's feasible to make Saab profitable selling only 130,000 cars a year. The solution: build Saabs, not Opels styled by Ikea. "Norming" them to attract mainstream buyers is what's destroying the marque. Saabs should only be seen tooling around the streets of University districts or gentrified urban neighborhoods, not strip malls or suburban freeways.

Keep Saab weird.

[ctsmo]

Originally Posted by DetroitIron

Saabs suck. They've always sucked. The only Saab that didn't look like a four-wheeled turd was the Sonnett. Mechanically, it sucked, too. Why GM bought this red-headed stepchild was and will continue to be a mystery to me.

hahaha, idiot.

[ctsmo]

Originally Posted by t-rex

Saabs don't need to be high-end luxury cars. They were never expensive cars. Sure they cost more than the mainstream stuff, but they weren't out of reach of most buyers.

Saab doesn't need to be GM's Audi. It doesn't need to be anything except a purveyor of strange, solid, intelligent, form-follows-function cars. Like Mercedes-Benzes and Volvos of yore, their higher sticker prices should be the result of superior engineering, not luxury features or badge prestige.

The 96 and the 99 were THE definitive Saabs. The 9000 was hugely flawed because it used a platform that was developed primarily by Fiat. And based on the 9000's service record, I'd suspect Fiat developed the cars electrical components...

It's feasible to make Saab profitable selling only 130,000 cars a year. The solution: build Saabs, not Opels styled by Ikea. "Norming" them to attract mainstream buyers is what's destroying the marque. Saabs should only be seen tooling around the streets of University districts or gentrified urban neighborhoods, not strip malls or suburban freeways.

Keep Saab weird.

great write up, couldnt agree more.

[Gm786]

Originally Posted by jbernie

Here is the problem with Cadillac, regardless of how good the product is and some of the products are very good, it will always be viewed as American unfortunately for GM that association does nothing to help them sell vehicles in many places outside of the USA.

Saab on the other hand is viewed as European and less offensive brand association wise even if it is ultimately owned by an American company.

Your statement is moot. Why? Because even someone as biased a Jeremy Clarkson admitted that the new Cadillac CTS-V feels and looks like Euro car. And I tend to agree. GM needs to make even more cars like the CTS,Malibu, and the upcoming Lacrosse/Regal.