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Why Ford and GM wants to sell Volvo and Saab brands?

By Amarendra Bhushan for CEOWORLD Magazine Updated:January 12, 2009

In my entire life I’ve never known a person who bought or drove a Saab. Scratch that, there was a dude in 1986 who had a 900 convertible. Saab has nothing of value for anyone, including GM. They need to close it already and be done with it. Saab’s time has come and gone.

I’m stunned Saab still exists in the US. Who is buying them?

I have a friend who is a Saab enthusiast. I asked him the burning question of “Why Saab?”
“Because you don’t see a lot of them around. They’re unique,” was his response.

GM has polluted the Saab gene pool so much that anybody attempting to purchase it would either have to come up with new products from scratch, or purchase platform components from GM. Which sounds like a lose-lose situation to me. Sweden sold out, this is the result. With Volvo in a similar situation, courtesy of Ford, there isn’t much Swedish ingenuity left.

It is pathetic, that GM Bob Lutz can even say that the brand is not working. “Well Hello” haven’t spent any major upgrade money in the past 10 years, try to sell old products with just small pennies. What do they expect? Ok they might have spent a bit of money in the past few years to bring in new models but its too little too late.

Sweden’s government has ruled out buying stakes in Volvo or Saab, but has offered credit guarantees of up to $3.1 billion to its struggling auto industry. Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally, speaking on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show, said Ford had been in talks with several potential bidders for its luxury Volvo brand. Whereas GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, meanwhile, told reporters that GM was also still seeking a buyer for Saab.

- Volvo is the last remaining brand from Ford’s former premium auto group.
- Last year, Ford sold its luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands to India’s Tata.
- Ford sold about two-thirds of its stake in Japanese automaker Mazda Motor Corp for around $538 million in November.
- GM has already secured a $13.4 billion bailout loan from the government.
- Plans for the sale of the Saab unit are “moving along,” and GM has found interested parties, Wagoner said
- According to a report from Automotive News, “GM has found no interested buyers for Saab.”
- Saab sold just 21,368 cars in the US during 2008, down from an all-time best of 48,181 set three years before
- GM purchased half the Saab in 1989. GM later acquired the whole in 1999.

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Tagged with: Ford, G.M, saab, Volvo

geek

What a bunch of nonsense from Amarendra Bhushan. I happen to know at least 2 CEO's and a number of MD's who have owned Saab's and still do, references provided upon request! I happen to own a Saab and I am a rather discriminating buyer (my wife drives a Mercedes by the way). The engineering has been solid, the safety noted but no big deal, the ride, comfort, features, build quality and not run of the mill all factors.

Both Ford and GM wanted the cache and the desire to gain access to the IP and desire to grow the brands and cash in on the move toward the upscale market that BMW, Mercedes and others were experiencing.

The devolution of the brands came from the lack of experience on how to market these brands and the need to struggle with product on this side of the Atlantic.

Saab and Volvo will pull through the current slump and industry transition. They are not competing for the low or middle end and those of us who do not mind paying a higher price will continue to look at Volvo and Saab. If you don't know anyone who has owned these distinctive car's I suspect your exposure is quite pedestrian.