Bailout Watch 365: Sweden Rejects Saab Turnaround Plan
I’ve got a bet with TTAC’s Ken Elias. I reckon the feds will examine GM and Chrysler’s term papers (i.e., viability reports) and slam ’em. The automakers will take a real drubbing in the press. And rightly so. And then their Congressional watchdogs will sign the next round of checks. Ken figures that come March, Uncle Sam will cry basta! GM and Chrysler will be forced into both a shotgun marriage and bankruptcy. We shall see. Meanwhile there’s news out of Sweden that at least one government statsråd knows a con game when he sees one. I speak here of Jöran Hägglund, Sweden’s State Secretary to the Minister for Enterprise and Energy. “We have asked for… a more credible business plan that outlines the development over the next few years based on a scenario where sales continue to decrease and the measures needed to combat that,” Hägglund told Swedish public radio [as reported by AFP]. In play: a 28b kronor ($3.5b) auto industry bailout package. Hägglund gave GM two weeks to get its shit together.
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I have a 2003 9-3. Fantastic car! Had a couple things that were fixed with the warranty at the start... I now have driven 86,000 trouble free miles on it. (25mpg around town and 35mpg on the highway)! Am now looking at a CPO 9-5....I know, I know...
I think CR recently rated Saab 9-5 as above average in reliability, or am I am confused? I owned a 9-5 for 2 years, not the most reliable car but certainly not even close to its unfortunate reputation.
My mom has a 2007 Saab 9-5... it has not had any issues since new. (12K miles)
I think things got mixed up here a little. In fact, DEKRA does not provide statistics about "reliability". DEKRA is one of the organisations that examinate the technical state of cars in Germany on a regular basis. In these examinations, the Saab 9-3 was best of class in the categories up to 50.000 and up to 100.000 kilometers. This means that the 9-3 has a very solid technical basis with little serious problems. It does not - however - mean that there cannot be a few - or even a lot of - nasty little things bothering the owner, like rattles and squeaks and electronic failures - which is what most people think of when it comes to reliability. DEKRA does not examine these items and therefore the DEKRA result does not say much about "everyday reliability". ADAC statistics do say more about such problems, but you have to bear in mind that many car companies have their own mobility teams out there and therefore many cars that break down never see ADAC people. Saab is a small company and if a car breaks down, they call ADAC and their cars go into ADAC statistics. Many Saabs do not give the owner any trouble - and some do exactly that - and that's what they have in common with many cars - or most. Even Toyotas. Yours saabista63