Wild-Ass Rumors Of The Day: Ecclestone Bidding For Saab, Volt Pricing Under $40k?

We’ve got a two-for-one deal on today’s wild-ass rumors, as neither seems likely to amount to much. First off, GM’s Jon Lauckner caught a headline at the WSJ by conjecturing that the Volt’s price “could be notably lower” than the anticipated $40,000. “We have until this summer to figure that out,” Lauckner said. Meanwhile, The Atlantic‘s Daniel Inviglio ran a few numbers, and came up with some rough estimates about possible amortization compared to a Toyota Prius at different price points ($40k, $30k, $25k). Even at $30k, according to Inviglio’s analysis, you’d have to drive 3,350 miles per month to see an economic benefit over the Prius. Yikes!

In other wild-ass news, GM’s board meeting today was delayed as a rumored four different bids for what’s left of the Swedish brand came in. One, from Genii Capital of Luxembourg, is supposedly backed by the Formula 1 millions of one Bernie Ecclestone. Saabsunited thinks Genii is working with a Swedish consortium “Sason” which was originally going to bid with Merbanco. That firm is also reportedly still in the running for Saab’s remnants, as is Spyker. Given that Ed Whitacre said just yesterday that “It’s real easy. Just show up with the money and you can have it, and nobody’s showing up with the money,” none of this sounds promising. Especially since the only hint of a dollar amount this week was a last-minute bid from a firm called AWMS, which reportedly offered $400m cash. Since then, SaabsUnited (which ran the original AWMS bid story) reported that “sources in various places indicate… that this bid is not one that will be looked at favourably.” Not. Good. But at least all the bids are now in and we will finally have some closure on this Saab mess shortly.