Breaking news! Saab is NOT dead (yet) and the new 9-5 gets the green light.

British_Rover said:
Well if you like lots of extra dark thick black leather in your Saab then yes.
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or the new Saab Swastika, crafted from te finest Krupp aluminium und shteel
 
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGFXGwHsD_A[/YOUTUBE]

Not dead yet indeed.
 
Yes Max Mosley (son to Oswald Mosley, leader of the british nazi party) and Bernie Ecclestone are two very different people, with the common denominator being F1 and fortune.

Unlike Max, Bernie earned his money.
Ecclestone was born in St Peter South Elmham, a small hamlet three miles south of Bungay, Suffolk. Shortly thereafter his family moved to Bexleyheath, Kent, now a part of Greater London, and Ecclestone left school at the age of 16 to work at the local gasworks, and to pursue his hobby of motorcycles. Immediately after the end of World War II, Ecclestone went into business trading in spare parts for motorcycles, and formed the Compton & Ecclestone motorcycle dealership with Fred Compton.
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A liquidator has been called in, ending the boards responsibility over the company. GM really isnt serious at all about selling and safe to say, pissed off even more people.

*crosses American auto manufacturers off the shopping list*
 
This looks like a bargaining tactic.
 
tone76 said:
That may be, but it doesn't alter the fact that GM are a bunch of fucking dicks.
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Well yeah. They did steal billions of money from US tax payers.
 
How to sell a car company, by Ford:

Ford: We want to sell Volvo.
Geely: We want to buy Volvo.
Ford: Give us money for Volvo.
Geely: Okay.

Sale complete!

How to not sell a car company, by GM:

GM: We want to sell Saab
Koenigsegg: We want to buy Saab.
GM: Alright, let's negotiate
Koenigsegg: Alright.
Negotiations commence
GM: Well, we don't want to sell you Saab for some reason. Anyone else want it?
Koenigsegg: WTF?
Spyker: We'll take it.
GM: Well, now we don't want to sell Saab.
Spyker: WTF?
GM: Oh wait, yes we do.
Spyker: We still want to buy it.
GM: Nah, we're just going to shut it down.
Spyker: Wait, what?
GM: Well, we were going to shut it down, now we're not.
Bernie Ecclestone: I want Saab now.
GM: Too bad, we're shutting it down.
All: What the fuck?
Penske and Magna: This seems familiar somehow.

End...?
 
AiR said:
A liquidator has been called in, ending the boards responsibility over the company. GM really isnt serious at all about selling and safe to say, pissed off even more people.

*crosses American auto manufacturers off the shopping list*
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That is what they want to do, but apparently they need the approval from the Swedish authorities to do so. I do wonder if they will be granted it.

GM *still* has at least 5 bidders for SAAB, and at least one of them, the GENII capital and Ecclestone bid, has publicly declared that they have enough cash that they don't even need the European Investment Bank loan at all.

Seriously, WTF GM? :blink: :blink: :blink:
 
Programme said:
That is what they want to do, but apparently they need the approval from the Swedish authorities to do so. I do wonder if they will be granted it.

GM *still* has at least 5 bidders for SAAB, and at least one of them, the GENII capital and Ecclestone bid, has publicly declared that they have enough cash that they don't even need the European Investment Bank loan at all.

Seriously, WTF GM? :blink: :blink: :blink:
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Dude, it's Government Motors. They don't have to make sense. Or money.

Edit: By the way, this is exactly what Whitacre did at SBC/ATT with the fiber-to-the-premises project and the 'let's compete with Verizon's FTTP by bundling satellite TV and DSL' project... and pretty much every other project.
 
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This all comes across rather stupidly. Why would you pull apart and destroy a company that's just had all this money put into it, instead of making a nice tidy profit? Let's face it, Saab is going to be a niche brand at best. And if they're that concerned about technology, they could make money off the licenses!

Then again, this is GM we're talking about. How Holden managed to survive, seemingly unscathed, is beyond me.
 
Dsemaj said:
This all comes across rather stupidly. Why would you pull apart and destroy a company that's just had all this money put into it, instead of making a nice tidy profit? Let's face it, Saab is going to be a niche brand at best. And if they're that concerned about technology, they could make money off the licenses!

Then again, this is GM we're talking about. How Holden managed to survive, seemingly unscathed, is beyond me.
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Australia is farther away. :p

That and Holden, to my knowledge, only makes the Commodore (and Commodore based cars). The others are badge jobs.
 
argatoga said:
Australia is farther away. :p

That and Holden, to my knowledge, only makes the Commodore (and Commodore based cars). The others are badge jobs.
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Also locally tunes all the cars that come over here, and they're also working on a locaised, unique version of the Cruze.
 
Dsemaj said:
Also locally tunes all the cars that come over here
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Yes, this consists of prising Daewoo badges off with forks and sticking Holden ones on.

I've bought three GM cars over the years. Never again.

http://img44.imageshack.**/img44/8606/3fugmbysabstickergreyp2.jpg
 
Programme said:
That is what they want to do, but apparently they need the approval from the Swedish authorities to do so. I do wonder if they will be granted it.
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Yes they will be granted it, basically since the liquidators GM have chosen are foreign a lower court needs to sign off on it but it's only a signature on a paper and a stamp, nothing complex.

Dsemaj said:
Then again, this is GM we're talking about. How Holden managed to survive, seemingly unscathed, is beyond me.
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I honestly believe it's because of the distance to Australia. H?kan Danielsson, the head of the Engineers Union at Saab commented this new development like this (my own translation)

I have seen the bids and I know they are very strong. I believe GM management does not understand or know what GM Europe is and how it works. The management in Detroit must be miss-informed, that is the only possible explanation for their reluctance to sell Saab. Ed Whitacre told investors investors "show us the money" and now that the money is on the table, GM refuses to sell! It's completely unfathomable!
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Dsemaj said:
Then again, this is GM we're talking about. How Holden managed to survive, seemingly unscathed, is beyond me.
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Holden workers have enough self preservation instinct not to stand outside the with the snakes and spiders, so Holden is kept alive as a backup workforce in case of massive strikes.
 
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Dsemaj said:
This all comes across rather stupidly. Why would you pull apart and destroy a company that's just had all this money put into it, instead of making a nice tidy profit? Let's face it, Saab is going to be a niche brand at best. And if they're that concerned about technology, they could make money off the licenses!

Then again, this is GM we're talking about. How Holden managed to survive, seemingly unscathed, is beyond me.
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Hasn't Holden's lower end gone from selling Opels to Daewoos? That counts as scathed in my book.
 
Yep, and Commodore sales are well down. Ford is owning GM Holden. I mean, who can blame us. Would you rather have a Fiesta or a Daewoo Kalos based Barina? A Focus or Daewoo Lacetti-based Viva? A Mondeo or a whatever-the-heck the Epica is based on thingy (mind you this mid-segment doesn't generally do all that well). The newer Falcon is far superior to the aging Commodore platform in many ways despite the introduction of direct injection technology and increasing fuel efficiency. The Cruze might be the only mildly decent car in their lineup.

Remember, this is all coming from someone who takes no sides in the Ford vs Holden war. But, if I wanted a locally made large RWD sedan or wagon - guess which one I'd pick.
 
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