jct

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/16/o...nt-to-buy-saab

After days of speculation and rumor, General Motors made it official this morning, Saab will soon be back in Swedish hands. In many respects, this is the most fitting result for quirky brand. Koenigsegg is an oddball itself, building insanely fast supercars in a Scandinavian country where you can't legally drive over about 60 mph.

The deal will be partly financed through a $600 million loan from the European Investment Bank that is co-signed by the Swedish government. Just as GM will continue to provide Penske-owned Saturn with cars for a time, it will supply platforms and powertrains to Saab. The length of time that Saab will continue to use GM hardware hasn't been disclosed, but it will likely be for at least the next 5-6 years – if not longer. The new 9-5 which will be built in Trollhättan, Sweden is launching later this year followed by the 9-4X crossover. Both of these will probably complete their lifecycle on current platforms. The same is likely true for the 9-1 which may launch in 2010 or 2011. The big question mark will be the next generation 9-3, which had been expected to move to GM's Delta II platform.

George

Sounds more like the Swedish government bought Saab and is letting Koenigsegg manage it for them. I doubt that Koenigsegg is worth anywhere near $600M!

draxcaliber

also, volvo owns part of koenigsegg, so now volvo owns saab! whoo!!! who cares other than kanundrum?

Sciond

I would be another Saab once the GM parts are gone.... I loved my old Saab's

CarbonXe

iTrader: (1)

I still don't see how this is beneficial for anyone.

kanundrum

lool

George

Well, what if you worked for Saab, and the alternative for GM was just to liquidate the holding?

From the Swedish government's point of view they keep an industry operating and therefore the votes of the employees. Folks are obviously concerned:

CarbonXe

iTrader: (1)

I meant in the aspect of the actual cars, not the employees.

kanundrum

Well the Combination of the 2 will either result in better Saabs, or more affordable K-Siggs

One would THINKKKKK

That or they would just be like here is a saab, we made it marginally better but not really back to the quirky roots just yet.

kanundrum

Its like if ferrari bought VW or something, a super car make buying a normal car brand to spruce it up.

Again ONE WOULD THINK that would happen lol

CarbonXe

iTrader: (1)

Well VW owns Lambo and Porsche and we haven't seen any kind of affordable Lambo or any kind of VW supercar.

Companies usually buy out other ones to use their technology. Ford bought Volvo pretty much for the safety features, and the Focus ended up becoming one of the safest cars on the road. I just don't see how either company can benefit from this (other than Saab completely imploding if it didn't get a buyer).

kanundrum

Only Time will Tell. Maybe production of the AeroX or Saab going back to there own roots or something of the nature.

CarbonXe

iTrader: (1)

Maybe they bought each other to figure out a way to make an even weirder door.

kanundrum

hahaha

draxcaliber

actually, porsche isn't owned by VW, VW owns audi and lamborghini AND bentley, and has a partnership with porsche, although porsche has been trying to buy audi, i believe it was because they wanted access to some of audi's engines for their cars, but VW refused, so porsche is trying to buy them so that they just take them.

as for more affordable lambo's, what do you call the audi R8? granted it is still very expensive, but it is essentially a cheaper lambo.

anybody remember the vw phaeton? it was the flagship VW car with over 400 bhp. it sold for 80 grand, which is great when you consider it is the same car as the bentley continental GT and flying spur.

now, for koenigsegg benefits, look at ferrari, very low volume exclusive car brand with limited sales, but they are owned by fiat, who makes lots of money selling high volume economical cars, which helps make the r&d on ferrari's possible.

the reason why volvo owns shares in koenigsegg is because they arranged a trade so that they could borrow their wind tunnel. so koenigsegg probably wants access to more of saabs testing grounds and research devices, and the sale of their cars could go to developing better supercars.

George

You must have found some new definition of "anyone" that I'm not aware of!