Does declaring its bankruptcy mean the end for classic brand Saab? CEO Victor Muller applied for bankruptcy protection today. After sixty years building some of the world's safest, most original cars, the Trollhattan firm has little hope for survival after today's news.
Saab suffered from being first. Today many, if not most cars offer front wheel drive, safety crumple zones, turbo-charging, and aerodynamic design. Back when Saab started making affordable cars like that, it was alone. Now all the others have caught up. The only way Saab could have survived was to continue on its own path creating quirky cars with uniqure character. Instead, GM bean counters slapped griffith badges on other makes and pedaled them as Saabs.
For the last two years, Muller struggled to get the ailing firm back on its feet. Coming from style driven exotic car maker Spyker, he had a passion to resurrect a brand that had suffered dearly at the hand of General Motors, its 100% owner since 2000. Saab suffered a near death experience at the hand of GM bean counters in 2009, but Muller's company Spyker bought it and tried desperate measures to keep the brand alive.
Things looked promising when Chinese investors showed interest in buying Saab. Muller struggled to put together a deal, but GM stood firm against allowing their technology transferred to the Chinese. GM enjoys a huge market share in the communist country and doesn't want to share its secrets with the competition.
Saab production lines have been quiet for months, awaiting funding in order to start building cars again. Now it appears the historic Swedish car maker is on its last ride to join Pontiac, Saturn, and Oldsmobile in that great GM brand junkyard in the sky.
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