News about Saab

At the moment there still is not much to tell about Saab. In India there are sources reporting that Mahindra has bought Saab. Other sources claim that National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB is the new owner. As long as there is no official statement of the administrators we still know nothing. What we do know is that VM drove a Saab 93 in the Mille Miglia of 2012. Don`t know about the Mille Miglia? In 2011 Saab made this nice video about the Mille Miglia: . Three Saabs where driving in the 2011 Mille Miglia, in 2012 the 93 of VM drove the only one Saab. Fortunately cars of other brands where allowed to drive the Mille Miglia too...

Youngman out of the game

According to a Swedish source Youngman is out of the game of Saab Ab. Negotiations with the administrators have been stopped said a source involved in the process to di.se. Instead, another Chinese group called electric vehicle consortium took the tip and the advanced stage of negotiations. "The reason that Youngman`s out of the negotiations is that the administrators feel uncertain about the payments that are controlled by the Chinese bureaucracy and that they can take a long time" says Di`s source (Thanks to Chris Ivory for translating).

No news about Saab yet unfortunately

Because there`s still no news about Saab, it is rather silent on this blog unfortunately. Sad, but true. Saabsunited is busy to save one of the last Saabs for the Museum, maybe you did not notice? If not, here is the link. I for myself have used my 9-3 convertible last month where she was made for on a trip to Italy (from the Netherlands). Wow what am I happy with that car. Silent, quick and comfortable as well. So sad they`re not in production anymore.

We`ve done the trip with 2 convertibles, a red one and my black one. Driven normally the fuel consumption of the red one was just about 15% higher compared to my Saab.

More pictures of my trip are on this page.

Deadline for final bids expired

Finally the deadline for Saab bids has expired today at 17:00! According to TTELA the administrators are aiming to get a bid for more than 3,6 billion SEK. That amount of money seems to be the value for Saab. If they `ve got a bid that high is still the question.

The known parties interested in Saab are Youngman, Mahindra & Mahindra and a Chinese-Japanese consortium. The bankruptcy administrator Hans Bergqvist has confirmed to TTELA that new bids where placed even today. Hans refused to tell the names of the companies involved in the bidding process.

The name of the new owner of Saab is still unknown. It`s expected that the administrators reveil this name at the next press conference (next week).

"News" about Saab

Yesterday there was a press conference of the administrators of Saab Automobile. According to them Saab has very big debts, its in the figures of 12-13 billion SEK (1,8 to 2,0 billion USD).

The 10th of April `ll be the deadline for parties to place their final bid. The next press conference is scheduled one week later on the 17th of April.

Last week we`ve had a Saab meet at our local airport. Click here for more pictures.

BMW and Magna are not in the race for Saab unfortunately.

TTELA has previously written about reports that the famous German premium brand BMW, and Canada's major supplier and contract manufacturer Magna International would be interested in Saab's bankruptcy estate. Unfortunately both companies are denying these rumours.

- We have not changed position on the matter, said Markus Sagemann, press officer at BMW's headquarters in Munich.

But he adds that there may be an interest in specific things in Saab's bankruptcy estate.

- We had an engine contract with Saab, which unfortunately could not be completed. But any interest in the brand Saab or a major part of the estate has not been relevant.

According to Magna`s press officer Tracy Fuerst the company does not comment on speculation. But the company's CEO, Don Walker, has made clear that they do not want to acquire brands. They do not want to compete with their customers (GM is one of Magna`s customers).

Read original article in Swedish.

We had to post earlier that also Tata and Brightwell are not in the race for Saab (anymore).

Article about Saab 9-5 in FD

Unfortunately it`s rather silent on this blog at the moment. It`s not I do not want to write anymore, but there simply is no news to bring.

In the dutch newspaper FD this morning there was an article about Saab. The article is about an entrepreneur and his Saab 9-5 estate. See also this article about a Saab 9-3.

Click on the image to read the article. Below just a picture I`ve made yesterday of my 95.