Featured in Blueprint issue 295 October 2010
On the 18th December 2009, Saab's demise began after the parent company General Motors (GM) failed to buy a suitable buyer. For 40 years Saab has been designed by a company called savvy, these designed cars for customers who wanted to appear stylish without being flash, and practical without being dull.
On the 18th December 2009, Saab's demise began after the parent company General Motors (GM) failed to buy a suitable buyer. For 40 years Saab has been designed by a company called savvy, these designed cars for customers who wanted to appear stylish without being flash, and practical without being dull.
When GM took over Saab in 1989 the designs became derivative and the iconic hatchback shape turned into a saloon for court customers and it became not so original because more GM parts were used in the manufacturing of the cars.
Sales crashed from a 2006 peak of 133,000 sales to 40,000 by 2009. They blamed the two basic model lines and said that they were to old. Whilst Saab were trying to fix the problem, GM was in dire financial problems, they lost £25bn in 2008, and in order to bail themselves out they but Saab up for sale in January 2009. In early 2010 Saab was bought by an earlier rejected offer by a company called Spyker, and in June 2010 almost all global dealers had a new Saab to sell.
Also GM was well advanced in updating the Saab models so also in 2010 came the 9-4X crossover, (a bit like the chunky Audi Allroad estate). Pininfarina designer Jason Castriota says:
"This is a new chapter so I want to put out a bold new vision. You can't go into a knife fight with a wooden spoon."
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| 1956 Saab 93 |
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| 1960 Saab 95 |
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| 1981 Saab 900 saloon |
These are some of the old car designs from Saab.
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