Quote Of The Day: The Worst Possible Reason For Buying A Car Company Edition
It’s true, we [the Netherlands and Sweden] are small northern countries. We don’t have big German conglomerates to help us out. I just felt like we have to stand together because we’re the same people, we have the same DNA.
Spyker CEO Victor Muller explains his firm’s racially-charged interest in Saab to the LA Times‘ Dan Neil, while somehow managing to avoid any reference to Chris Bangle. Does this mean Muller is OK leaving Saab production in Sweden as a term for the European Investment Bank Loan?
Absolutely. As a matter of principle. The only truly authentic thing about a brand is provenance. The [Porsche] Boxster is built in Finland, OK, no problem. But could they be built in Mumbai? Sure, they’d be 20% cheaper but nobody would buy it.
Sigh. Given Muller’s soft spot for ethnicity-based branding and the sale of 9-5 tooling to China’s BAIC, we’re going to guess that the Saab-Spyker deal isn’t going to work out so well. [Hat Tip: Thor Johnsen]
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"It’s true, we [the Netherlands and Sweden] are small northern countries." That's only partially true. Both are in Nothern Europe, but 1. The NL is a very small land area with a good size population of 15-17 million. 2. Sweden has a much, much larger area, far larger than the UK, Germany or Italy (or even France, maybe) but a smaller population at approx. 10 million.
Nutsaboutcars, generally agree, with the exception of France, which is the largest (areawise) country in Europe, if you exclude ex-Soviet Republics :)
A little racist imo. I don't mind people having a soft spot for a country, even their own country, but I wanna see why not another country. The Boxster argument is seemingly pretty narrow minded ie. blind and egotistical. . Its like saying I want faith in God to stay in Rome cause that is where it started (is it?). I'm not religious (no offense), so the hell with buying American for Americas sake alone. Like Spyker, everyperson is ego centric ie. thinks they are better or worse than another, to some degree (me included). Ego centric means they focus on external conditions to justify their hierarchy. Hence the real reason why Racism exists and buying American/sweedish, and most of the worlds problems.
The best SAAB ever made was made in Japan. The second best SAAB ever made was made in Ohio.