Date: Tue, 25 May 2004 14:37:37 GMT From: Steven Stern <sdsternNOSPAMHEREnospamAMHEREmindspring.com> Subject: Re: As read in the NY Times....
For Saab, Some See the Beginning of the End. Others See the Middle May 24, 2004 By JAMIE LINCOLN KITMAN Saab loyalists have predicted the worst ever since General Motors bought its initial 50 percent stake in the Swedish automaker, for $500 million, in 1990. But an announcement last week by Saab Cars USA - that it would relocate its home office from Norcross, Ga., to G.M.ís world headquarters in the Renaissance Center in Detroit ñ was seen as the final bit of proof that the odd little automaker, an upstart not so long ago, has indeed been integrated into the worldís largest industrial company. G.M. did not complete its financial takeover of Saab until 2000, but longtime fans of the brand ñ known for its early adoption of front-wheel drive, innovations in turbocharging and its longstanding commitment to air quality and safety ñ started grumbling loudly when the companyís first product under G.M. ownership, the Saab 900 of 1994, made its debut. Based heavily on the Opel Vectra, the 900 handled clumsily, suffered alarming quality lapses and was later reported to have done poorly in Swedish crash testing. A freshening for the 1999 model year was said to incorporate more than 1,300 improvements - reflecting, critics said, a car that needed a lot of improvement. The 9-5, also introduced for that year and still in production today, was based on Opel underpinnings, too, but was less underbaked and better received, though it, too, has yet to become a significant object of Saab aficionadosí desire. Among other turnoffs, it was the first Saab to offer a V-6 engine, a lightly re-engineered version of an Opel power plant that seemed rather less sophisticated than Saabís trademark turbo four-cylinders. Like all post-G.M. Saabs, the 9-5 retained the companyís signature center-console placement of its ignition switch. Naysayers wonder if that minor character trait has become the marqueís sole distinguishing characteristic in the eyes of Saabís new masters. While the ignition switches all remain on the consoles, the proof of Saabís lost independence has come in waves. In 2002, Debra Kelly-Ennis was named president of Saabís American operations. With just three yearsí experience in the car business (most of it at G.M.ís moribund Oldsmobile division, where she was charged with turning out the lights), she had little prior exposure to the Saab culture. Far more worrisome to the keepers of the faith, last year G.M. laid off 1,300 engineers and designers at Saabís world headquarters in Trolhattan, Sweden, effectively eliminating the companyís in-house ability to engineer a car. And just recently, Saabís head of design, a rising star named Michael Mauer, quit to work for Porsche. The inevitability of the mass firing in Sweden can be understood by reference to Saabís most recent product. A new 9-3 released last year was largely designed by Opel. It shares G.M.ís Epsilon platform with the Pontiac G6 and the Chevy Malibu, as well as the newest Opel Vectra and a Saturn model yet to come. The new 9-3 sedan is a conventional three-box design, losing Saabís distinctive and roomy hatchback configuration. Also, the carís American-German engineering has chafed some loyalists, though in fairness not nearly so much as the two newest Saabs, the 9-2X and 9-7X. The former is a lightly retouched, duller handling and slightly more expensive version of Subaruís subcompact Impreza WRX sedan and wagon, built for Saab in Japan by Subaru (of which G.M. owns 20 percent). Authenticity issues aside, the turbocharged, all-wheel-drive WRX is, at least, the sort of car that Saab might have built today if it had only received enough financing in the 1990ís. Like the rally-winning Saab 96ís of the 1960ís, the 9-2X wrings maximum advantage from being a light car with a small engine and loads of grip. The 9-7X, by contrast, is a lightly restyled Chevrolet TrailBlazer built in Ohio. In its bulk and its cumbersome ways, with its optional V-8 engineís thirst and heavy carbon-dioxide emissions, it is the very antithesis of the Saab ethos. (But, hey, check out the ignition hardware in the center console.) A former Saab executive who was at the company when General Motors first took over has suggested that Saabís failure to retain its identity is not so much the fault of G.M. as of the Wallenberg family. The former majority owners of Saab, the Wallenbergs agreed to sell G.M a half interest with the clear understanding that they and their minions would be abdicating any meaningful further role in Saabís future. ìWhen they sold it, they should have insisted on input, using their executives and remaining true to the companyís ideals,î this executive said. ìBut they rolled over and said, ëYou run it.í G.M.ís got its problems, but itís the Swedesí fault. They gave away their heritage. General Motors is just doing what they know how to do, the way they know how to do it.î The former Saab executive added that a ìpowerful industry watcherî told him at the time: ì ëYou know what a Ghia badge looks like on the side of a Ford? Thatís whatís going to happen to Saab.í Iíve carried that thought for almost the last 15 years and Iím sorry to have to say, at the end of the day, he was right.î http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/24/automobiles/24dt-autolog.html?ex=1086495653&ei=1&en=ac00f31463bb06c3
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