Saab's Last Gasp: A Garage Sale?

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Bloomberg seems to be down to two informants. More and more Bloomberg stories are attributed to their “two people familiar with the plan.” Again, the familiar duo is the source for Bloomberg’s latest report from death row in Trollhättan, where Saab is quickly running through its last reprieves. Bloomberg’s usually unreliable sources say that GM “may sell parts of its Saab unit to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. and shutter the brand.”

Assets would be tooling, production machinery and the like. There is a GM board meeting today, and we may know more in the evening. If they would ask me (but they won’t) I would tell them that BAIC needs used production machinery like the proverbial hole in the head.


Stefan Bratzel, director of the Center of Automotive at the University of Applied Sciences in Bergisch Gladbach, is right when he says that BAIC is “looking for a foothold in Europe and needs the distribution network, the technology and the brand.”

They need a brand that doesn’t scream “I’m Chinese,” and they need cars that already have passed European and US homologation. If they could get their hands on the new 9-5, BAIC wouldn’t say “bu hao” (no) to that. Hand-me-down machinery? The answer will be “bu yao” (don’t want.)

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Stingray Stingray on Dec 01, 2009
    They need a brand that doesn’t scream “I’m Chinese,” and they need cars that already have passed European and US homologation. If they could get their hands on the new 9-5, BAIC wouldn’t say “bu hao” (no) to that. Hand-me-down machinery? The answer will be “bu yao” (don’t want.) It makes sense even if the possible purchaser is not Chinese. Car manufacturing is not having a bunch of factories. I usually don't like the Chinese buying everything, but Saab might have a chance if purchased by them. Would open the door to that market wide open. The idea floated here of selling the current gen 9-5 over there makes a lot of sense.
  • Jkross22 Jkross22 on Dec 01, 2009

    Sweden - The last bastion of common fiscal sense in government. Who'da thunk it?

  • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Dec 01, 2009

    Sweden – The last bastion of common fiscal sense in government. Who’da thunk it? It's what happens when you out and out admit to being a socialized nation: you don't do things via half-assed compromises that are designed primarily to offend everyone the least instead of just getting the job done. It also helps that Sweden's social safety net isn't nearly as tattered. When you treat poverty and unemployment as problems to be solved rather than failures of moral backbone, you tend to be able to cope with the real world a little better. One of the reasons why healthcare is (and if Obama's reform passes, still will be) a trainwreck in the US, and why the American bail-out was so haphazard, and why regulation is so ineffectual, is largely to do with the same attitude.

  • VerbalKint VerbalKint on Dec 01, 2009

    On the bright side GM can redecorate their corporate Zen rooms with the extra dough...

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