Official: Saab Files for Bankruptcy

Well, I can't say it was unexpected.  Saab, GM's Swedish division (which GM acquired a majority share of back in 1990) filed for the equivalent of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in Swedish courts on February 20th.

The idea behind this is to spin Saab off into a separate entity, where they can be allowed a lot more freedom in what they do and how they do it.  This will hopefully lead to public investors and greater stability for the troubled Swedish company, which has seen rather rough times the last few years.

I say this is hardly surprising because of GM's absolutely gross mismanagement of the Swedish brand since they acquired them, back when it was still fashionable for the domestic automakers to acquire foreign luxury brands much like celebrities like to adopt foreign children.  In the ensuing 19 years, GM has blessed Saab with a grand total of 6 new vehicles.  In 19 years!  And when you look closely, it's not even that many.  Two of them, the 9-7x SUV (affectionately known as the Tröllblazer) and the 9-2x (the Saabaru) weren't even designed to be Saabs - they were just cheap rebadge jobs, a GMC Envoy and a Subaru Impreza.  So that leaves us with the new-style 900 (which was an Opel Vectra underneath, only floppier), the first-generation 9³ (which was still an Opel Vectra underneath, but less floppy), the second-generation 9³ (an Epsilon-chassis... Opel Vectra!  only without a hatchback...) and the 9-5 (which was... wait for it... a stretched Opel Vectra!).

General Motors has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory with Saab; they were the darling of the high-so set in the US during the 80's, which as BMW knows, is a great market to be in.  But the gradual removal of quality, then character, then any USP for Saab at all has sent the brand in a gradual downward spiral.  "Are you serious?" products like the 9-7x, which was simply a Chevy SUV with a Saab grille and the key between the seats, haven't helped the case at all.

The problem with Saab's spin-off idea is that it requires approximately a $1B USD credit line from GM.  If GM had $1B USD of credit to throw around, they'd probably not be in the mess they are now.  Considering the Swedish government was unwilling to talk with GM about providing funding for Saab, (can you blame them?) I'm quite curious as to where the money's going to come from.

Saab's got a few things going for them - for one, the remnants of a fanatically loyal customer base, which can be seen in full effect over at Saabs United (formerly Trollhattan Saab.net).  Also, they have 3 nearly fully-developed new products set to debut within the next two years - the 9-3x combat wagon, the 9-4x crossover SUV (which shares most of it's parts with the new Cadillac SRX), and a new Saab 9-5 - long overdue, considering the current model has been in production since 1997, based on the GM 2900 chassis which debuted 21 years ago.

The hope is that these fresh products - something Saab has been starved of essentially since the new 9-3 debuted in 2003 - will revitalize interest and sales in the brand, which will draw investors.  It remains to be seen whether this will be a case of too little, too late - but as a bonafide Saab fan, I wish them the best of luck.