A commenter recently posted this possibility in response to the recent withdrawal of Koenigsegg from the purchase of SAAB.
I think that the most realistic solution for Saab is that BAIC buys the tooling for some models and that Volvo Car Corp. buys the Saab brand. It will be hard to operate Saab now since Saab has lost so many customers to other brands since fall 2008. Economies of scale — which previously has been the most significant problem for Saab — is now worse than ever. It will be expensive to continue Saab operations for the next years to come in the same way as in the past.
The only realistic way to save Saab´s dealership network in Europe and the US is to cut fixed costs dramatically while retaining the same quality of the products. And the only way that could be done is to build near badge-engineered Saabs on the same assembly line as Volvos. In fact, I think that would be a better solution for Saab than building cars based on Opel underpinnings. Volvo is a more prestigious brand and has a better quality reputation than Opel. Even if you change less on a Volvo model it would probably sell in larger numbers than a Saab-Opel equivalent.
Comment about Saab, Swedish officials in rescue plea for carmaker
Could it work? I’m not so sure.
The idea of keeping the company in Sweden is good. Nobody wants to see the dedicated employees of Trollhattan lose their jobs. And the idea of using an upscale platform is also good. But I’m not convinced that the two could work together in the long run. Wouldn’t it be like The Ohio State University buying out the University of Michigan football team? It wouldn’t take long before the two brands would lose all that sets them apart. Nobody really wants that.
Believe me, I’d love for Leikin Motor Companies to purchase a SAAB franchise! But realistically the two brands probably wouldn’t work well together.
