Saab filed for 're-organization' with the Swedish courts and is seeking $1 billion to survive. While it was pretty much a foregone conclusion, what with GMs troubles and an inability to manage the brand, but SAAB has a rich heritage that may soon disappear. They got sucked up into GM and were never afforded the same chances as their Swedish counterpart, Volvo, was at Ford. I've always liked SAABs, after having fallen in love with a 99 EMS, and have had a chance to drive a large number of models over the years and some pretty fun trips in some, including a road trip through an ice storm in a 96. Got a chance to spend some time with Erik Carlsson at Pike's Peak a few years back and that was a real treat. (Wonder if there's any relation between Erik and the esteemed editor?) Attached is a pic of Erik Carlsson and Per Eklund discussing beer, presumably, sometime before the Pike's Peak hill climb in 2000. And a shot of Eklund playing at mowing down David Newhardt in a slightly, ahem, modified 93.
I agree with you in that Ford did a better job with Volvo, than GM did with Saab. In fact Ford cars became better b/c of Volvo. As with GM/Saab it was the other way around. Saab became worse b/c of GM. It is a shame. Saab use to make some pretty cool cars and they always had their distinct style. As of recent though they have gotten really ugly (IMHO) with some bazaar headlight treatments.
It's bizarre, since our friend Marshall here finds it suits him to make fun of you and not correct you at the same time. I'm not at all surprised Saab is going for bankruptcy. GM is ruining everything. Case in point: I was reading through a flyer we got in the mail and guess what: the all-new Traverse, which just happens to be a friggin' SUV. How many SUVs does each of the GM manufacturers have now? Is it like 5 a piece or something like that?
I was reading yesterday that Saab might go solo, or find another buyer. Apparantly there are a few companies interested in buying them. I wonder if BMW is one of them? I have read that BMW has been interested in Volvo at times. GM sure does have a lot of SUVs and each chassis is offered in each of their brands. I can't keep them straight anymore, it is just so silly. It is essentially just different trim levels, only each trim level has its own brand name!
I always thought Volvo would fit BMW's plans. It's a premium car, it is FWD predominantly, and it's brand image, particularly safety, is attractive. Also, the addition of Volvo would put BMW closer to the magic '2 million' in sales which they used to say was the minimum required for independence. I suspect Volvo is in play (though Ford has integrated a lot of their platforms around Volvo specs), but the latest I heard for potential purchasers is Hyundai (believe it or not). I don't see how SAAB would get BMW to where they want to be, unfortunately, though it's a neat brand.
Well - remove the 'suspect', Volvo definitely has a For Sale sign on it, and add the Chinese as potential buyers of Volvo. Wonder if Ford would accept US Treasury bonds in payment? ; -)
My read on things is that after ditching Rover, BMW resolved to and has successfully managed to break away from the extremely limiting 3 series / 5 series / 7 series constraint. With Xdrives, Zrides and freedom to put anything else in the BMW menagerie, they can now expand all they want in any direction they want (vans, trucks, concrete mixers) without making acquisitions. Somehow they have also managed to increase production & distribution capacity without using acquisitions to do so.
What an appalling thought. I hope they use other brands to bring out these products because a BMW minivan would be the last straw for me.
I didn't figure there was any need to do anything more than to indirectly point out the word usage, as I'm reasonably sure Grant is more than intelligent & capable enough to go figure out how to spell a word on his own. However.... LetMeDictionary.comThatForYou and LetMeWikipediaThatForYou.
A.) BMW doesn't care what you (and I) think. You are an "old car" enthusiast and irrelevant to the "new car" demographic. B.) If BMW makes a car you love, you will buy it even despite it being sold beside an xSoccerDrive1.8i ///M.
A) That's too bad for them. There goes all the new cars I could possibly have bought from them. That's well over $100k lost in possible new car purchases from me, lost because the second they start producing minivans, that's when all their other models will suffer from the "appeal to EVERYONE" engineering they will be putting out. B) Nope. The second they infest the line with crap such as minivans and pickup trucks, I will just have to resort to buying 3 old school Bimmers (nothing new from them) and drive those for the rest of my life. I consider it a backstabbing that they could do something like that. They're getting desperate.
Concrete Mixers! BMW did an ad once ( I wish I had it!) that depicted a MB Tractor Trailer car carrier full of BMWs. The captions said, "Mercedes-Benz can deliver driving pleasure". (Or something like that anyway) Thanks for your confidence MGarrison! I should have known better, I knew it was off. Boy you can't get away with anything here! At least our grade school grammer teachers would be happy that we are calling each other out on such disregard of the English language!
Thanks. I shot it a long time ago on good old Kodachrome. Oops. You're right. Good spelling should take precedence.
Don't forget, Porsche made tractors too! And one of my all time favorites, Road & Track's April issue road test, from about 40 some odd years ago, of a Mercedes-Benz 11 litre GT (Garbage Truck).
