I Dream of Saab

By Gunnar Heinrich| IMG Saab Automobile AB

SAD to know that what we’ve come to love cannot be forever.

To the Saabists out there – we few but passionate Svenska automobilists – my heart goes out to you on the eve of this terrible news.

Saab Automobile AB will now close after several botched attempts to find suitors.

Truthfully, Saab hasn’t been Saab for some years now. Since 2003, the 9-3 sedan (the bread ‘n butter of Saab’s smart portfolio) was sold as a rebadged Opel (generic as any midsize rental Euro car can get) streamlined in a mistaken quest to compete for BMW 3-Series and Audi A4 sales.

The 9-3 and the effort to drive Saab mainstream was but one of many tragic missteps by GM’s global brand of gross incompetance.

General Motors never understood Saab. Never wanted to, either.

Time and again Saab slipped the world clues as to the true capacity of their creativity despite the fiscal shackles that restrained it. The 9-1X a super techy and oh, so svelte hatchback that if priced in the $20K’s would’ve flattened BMW’s MINI. Even the new 9-5 seemed brimming with promise.

No one ever thought the Turbo X a credible alternative to an Audi S4 or a BMW M3. Nor could we reasonably contemplate purchasing a 9-3 SportCombi in place of a Volvo V70.  The customers were very different, even if the price ranges were similar.

And therein lies the crux: Saab drifted away from what Saab did best – selling smart, sleek, turbocharged hatches. MINI has proven that there’s a market for quirky, upscale hatchbacks (even in America) and can now claim the market for its own.

Automotive enthusiasts everywhere have reason to morn tonight. For Saab, a company whose premise was building cars that are more than just appliances for getting us from points A to B, has died. And with it, a piece of the automotive soul.