SAAB News: The last US Saabs in Newark, New Jersey

Production planning at Saab was not realistic. While customers in Europe sometimes waited in vain for a new car from Trollhättan, the US market was flooded with new Saabs. The weak US car market could not accommodate the vehicles, Vetriebsprobleme worried the rest.

Saab 9-5 in Newark, photo by "Found our own Road"
Saab 9-5 in Newark, photo by "Found our own Road"

Almost 1000 new Saab are still in the US ports and will soon be put up for auction. GM subsidiary Ally Financial, known here as GMAC Bank, has the rights to the last cars from Trollhättan after the liquidation of Saab North America. There are pictures of the free warehouse in Newark with new Saab 9-5 and Saab 9-3 on “Found our own roadTo see.

No matter how it will continue in Sweden, for the Americans it will probably be the last Saabs for a very long time. The US was once Sweden's key market, at least in the really good old days.

Sadly, it is the end of a long history in the US market. Xly plans to spend 32 million dollars on 950 Saabs. Presumably there are more at the dealers and in interim storage. Had the Swedes built and sold the cars for Europe instead of the US, who knows how the Saab story would have continued? Maybe everything would have been less dramatic.

But it's pointless to think about it.

Text: tom@saabblog.net

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Mosimann
Mosimann
11 years earlier

Does anyone know when and where the vehicles will be auctioned?

Saabfan
Saabfan
11 years earlier

The vehicles could be moved to Detroit and given to the GM bosses as bonuses ...

Frank Christ
Frank Christ
11 years earlier

It would have been crucial to get 9-5 SC on the road. I would have been one of those who ordered. So we continue our old 9-5 Viking :-).
My family has already looked at the VOLVO V70, it's not a SAAB and not a real alternative. Too much plastic, too little ergonomics and not that “welcome home” feeling like with all my previous SAABs.

Andreas
Andreas
11 years earlier
fuzzy
fuzzy
11 years earlier

PS
the link “Found our Own Road” doesn't work for me, error message no. 404

fuzzy
fuzzy
11 years earlier

"If the Swedes had built and sold the cars for Europe instead of the US, who knows how the Saab story would have continued."

Hello Tom your contributions are always very
interesting but your previous quote just does not light up, that would only be 32 million revenue for the 1000 cars and they would not have saved Saab in Europe either