Showing posts with label Saab. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Saab. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Help This Saab Owner Choose Between a Used Honda S2000 and a New Subaru BRZ


Why would a Saab enthusiast want to give up his rare 2002 Saab 9-3 Viggen and consider going Japanese? Well, let’s just say he wants to try something different. As someone who has owned several Saabs in his life, his wish is understandable.

Featured in the “BRZorthat” segment of the After/Drive show on the Drive online video network, the discussion between Mr. Saab and the host of the show, Mike Spinelli, gets pretty interesting when the guest explains why he would consider a used Honda S2000 as a replacement for his Saab.

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Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Three Former Saab Execs Jailed for Accounting Fraud Charges


Saab, in its current form, is taking a break from making cars, but they should at some point start building an electric vehicle, or at least that was the announced plan when the company was taken over, a while back. However, other interconnected stories have been cropping up ever since, and the name Saab has been in the news quite a lot, despite the fact that the company is for all intents and purposes, dead.

This time we bring you a story about three unnamed, former company executives who were recently put behind bars for accounting fraud. According to The Detroit News, they are “suspected of aggravated attempts to avoid tax controls” – fixing Saab’s accounts in 2010 and 2011, while the company was under the control of Spyker. In Sweden, this brings about a four-year prison sentence.

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Monday, May 13, 2013

Year of the Saab: China's BAIC Motors Launches 9-5-Based Senova D Sedan


The car you see pictured here is the Senova D sedan from China's Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co. or simply BAIC, and under its body shell, elements of which will likely remind you of several other cars, is the platform and engine technology from the previous generation Saab 9-5, the rights for which the company acquired from General Motors in 2009.

It is the production version of last year's C70G and it was formally introduced to the world at last month's Shanghai Auto Show. The reason why we're talking about it now is that BAIC announced on Monday that the Senova D went on sale in China and Hong Kong (which is a special administrative region of China).

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Monday, April 1, 2013

STCC-Ready Dacia Logan Racing Car is a Saab 9-3 in Drag


The piece we wrote earlier about the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship- or STCC-ready Dacia Logan, was such an oddball story that some may have clicked it hoping to ridicule the Romanian carmaker' attempt at making a touring car based on their most basic means of transportation.

Most of you will have noticed that the car shown in the photos was unusually long and low, nothing like the Logan on which it was supposedly based.

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

China's BAIC Picks Nicholas Cage to Promote New Senova Brand's Saab-Based Cars


Nicolas Cage, the well-known American actor who has made some questionable choices in his movie career, has been officially selected by BAIC of China as a brand ambassador for the automaker's new line of Senova-branded cars. Now 49, Cage was reportedly chosen because he is a familiar face for the target buyers for the new cars, which are males in their 40s. Read more »

Thursday, March 21, 2013

More Photos of the Jason Castriota-Designed 2013 Saab 9-3 Surface Online


The Saab 9-3 Phoenix, which we first saw via a few low quality photos a while back, is the near-production-ready example of what was to become Saab's sales booster. Sadly, it never had the chance to see the light of day, and while there still is interest for the Saab brand, nothing seems to be happening. Read more »

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Saab Test Cars Up for Sale in Online Auction in Sweden


Saab enthusiasts, this one is for you. Sweden's KVD Kvarndammen auction house is organizing an online sale of Saab cars that belonged to the now defunct automaker.

In total, 78 cars will be auctioned off, roughly half of which are impossible to register since they were used by Saab as test vehicles. Most of these test cars belong to the latest 9-5 series, but there’s also a 9-3 Aero sedan and five GM-built 9-4X crossovers.

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Saturday, March 9, 2013

Designer Imagines the 2013 Saab 9-3 That Could Have Been...


The sad story of Saab's demise has been discussed many times before, and aside from all of the historical value of the brand, there is also another aspect which is often overlooked.

While Saab may have been owned by GM and forced to use various bits and parts from Opel/Vauxhall , the new 9-5 showed real promise. If it would have been thoroughly finished when launched, it could have provided the Audi A6 and Mercedes-Benz E-Class with some competition.

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

This is the Actual 2013 Saab 9-3 Phoenix Designed by Jason Castriota


For a company that went belly up in 2011, Saab is sure receiving a lot of attention from the media lately. At first, it was Swedish magazine AutoMotorSport that brought Saab back again under the limelight of discussion with the release of three, very low quality, computer models of the new 9-3 in both liftback and convertible forms.

The griffon-loving crew at Saabsunited accepted the challenge and upped the ante with the release of four pictures, the most important of which is a near production prototype of the liftback that would have been the new 2013 Saab 9-3.

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Friday, February 1, 2013

Leaked Images Show the Jason Castriota-Designed 2013 Saab 9-3 Series that Never Was


Saab's sad story has been told so many times over the past couple of years that you would think there was nothing more to tell, but a new set of allegedly official images depicting what could have been the vehicle to save the Swedish brand, give it a fresh twist.

These low quality screenshots of a computer rendering of the next 9-3 series were obtained by Sweden's Auto Motor und Sport magazine, purportedly via a former Saab employee.

The car's styling is said to have been completed under the direction of American-born automotive designer Jason Castriota, who at the time, led Saab's design team. The renderings show the five-door hatchback in profile and from the rear as well as the convertible variant.

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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Saab’s New Owner NEVS Announces US$300 Million Chinese Investment Deal


Things have been conspicuously quiet for some time now as far as Saab is concerned; especially considering the shenanigans that the Swedish carmaker has been involved in the past two years.

Now, Saab is making headlines again as its new owner, National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS) that acquired many of its assets when it went bankrupt last year, announced that it has signed a deal with the Chinese city of Qingdao.

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Tuesday, September 4, 2012

New Saab Owner Gets Rights to Name and Phoenix Platform, But Not Griffin Logo; Any Suggestions?


What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. At least that’s what Juliet tells Romeo in the renowned play. However, even if the executives of NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), Saab Automobile’s new owners, are avid Shakespeare readers, they still wanted the Saab name along with the rest of the brand.

Last we heard, they were negotiating with Saab AB, the aerospace company and Scania AB, which own the rights to both the name and the logo of the automotive company.

On Monday, however, NEVS announced that is has completed the acquisition of Saab Automobile AB, Saab Automobile Powertrain AB and Saab Automobile Tools AB, IP rights for the Phoenix platform and the Saab 9-3, the Trollhättan manufacturing plant and test and laboratory facilities, effective August 31, for an undisclosed amount of money.

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Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Saab Automobile Parts AB Sued For €2.6 Million by BMW Over Unpaid Deliveries


In September 2010, BMW Group signed an agreement with Saab for the supply of their 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engines to be used in the next generation of 9-3.

On paper, it was a win-win situation. It gave Saab’s new owner at the time, Spyker, a way to start relying less on GM’s powertrains, and of course BMW welcomed the extra income.

Two years later, this deal is the latest in a very long series of problems for the, now bankrupt, Saab. That’s because last week BMW filed a lawsuit with the Swedish district court in Nykoping.

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Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Spyker Files $3 Billion Lawsuit Against GM Over Saab Bankruptcy Case


Dutch automaker Spyker N.V has filed a lawsuit against General Motors for over $3 billion (€2.4 billion) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Spyker is accusing GM for tampering with the Saab bankruptcy case.

This rather unprecedented news coming after Spyker says GM was "tortiously interfering with a transaction" that would have allowed Chinese investors Youngman Lotus Automobile Group to take hold of the Saab brand.

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Friday, June 22, 2012

Saab Auto's New Owner Still Negotiating the Rights to the Brand Name


As it turns out, Saab Automobile's new owner, Chinese-Japanese consortium National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), has not yet secured the rights to use the Saab brand name and logo on the new electric models it is planning to build.

The brand name and the griffin logo collectively belong to carmaker Saab Auto, aerospace and defense company Saab AB and truck manufacturer Scania AB. The three companies used to be a single entity before they broke up.

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Thursday, June 14, 2012

Saab Auto's New Owner to Launch an EV based on the 9-3 by Early 2014, will Initially Focus in China


Saab, the Swedish car brand that just refuses to die, will have a new pure-electric model based on the underpinnings of the 9-3 on the market by the end of 2013 or early 2014, according to the company's new owner, National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS).

NEVS was specifically established by a consortium formed by Japanese, Swedish and Chinese stakeholders to acquire Saab assets including Saab Property AB, which owns the company's production facility in Trollhattan and Saab Powertrain AB.

It also owns some rights to the 9-3 and the company's incomplete Phoenix platform architecture but not the 9-5 sedan/station wagon and the 9-4x crossover that remain the intellectual property of General Motors.

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Saab Automobile Parts AB and its Global Subsidiaries to Operate Independently


On Wednesday, it was announced that the administrators of Saab Automobile AB had signed an agreement with National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), a newly formed Chinese-Sweden investment group with Japanese backing, for the sale of Saab Automobile AB.

Today we learn from the Swedish National Debt Office that the State will take over the ownership of Saab Automobile Parts AB and its global subsidiaries including the UK and North American market, with the company to operate independently from Saab Automobile AB.

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Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Saab Bought by Chinese-Japanese Consortium to Build Electric Cars


Never say it's over with Saab as the Swedish automaker seems to have more lives than the proverbial cat…

Bloomberg News reported today a consortium named National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB, which is led by Japanese investment firm Sun Investment and Hong Kong-based renewable-energy power-plant builder National Modern Energy Holdings Ltd., has agreed to buy Saab and turn the company into an electric carmaker.

The National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB consortium was recently formed with the sole purpose of acquiring Saab.

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Thursday, May 10, 2012

Saab UK Puts up for Sale the Last Remaining RHD 2012 9-3 Convertibles


Last May, amidst a mountain of problems, Saab celebrated the silver jubilee of its Convertible series that debuted as the 900 Cabrio in 1986 before the Swedes renamed the entire model lineup to 9-3 in 1998.

A year later, Saab is bankrupt and the company's Trollhättan plant idled, but if you live in the UK and are still interested in buying a brand new 9-3 Convertible, we have some good news for you.

Saab Parts UK announced today that it has successfully secured the sale of the last remaining 26 right-hand drive MY12 9-3 Convertibles, which will be available to buy through the company's national network of 87 Authorised Repairers.

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Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Saab Offers Evaluated by Administrators, All Bidders Want to Restart Production


Reports of Saab’s death may or may not have been greatly exaggerated. The saga has been dragging on for over a year and whilst the Swedish carmaker filed for bankruptcy last December, it’s far from over.

According to Automotive News, the deadline set by the administrators who handle Saab’s bankruptcy expired on Monday, April 9. Hans Bergqvist, one of the administrators who evaluated the offers, reportedly told the Swedish press that all bidders want to restart production – though, like the rest of his colleagues, he wouldn’t disclose their identity.

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