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It just galls me that Saturn, which has never been really successful, is allowed to live while a great name like Oldsmobile is allowed to die. GM attributed Olds' death to lack of consumer interest, but 15 years of management neglect is the real reason, as pointed out by the many posts to that effect on this board.
What makes me extremely nervous about the future of SAAB is that GM seems to have no overall strategy as to what to do with its many car lines, both in the US and overseas. Compare GM to Ford, which certainly seems to have a well thought-out plan with its premier luxury group of cars (Jaguar, Volvo, etc.)
Cadillac is living on its past glory, and I think the average age of the Cadillac buyer in the US must be about 60. Cadillac cars have improved so that they aren't bad today, but they're not really great cars, either. A generation of wealthy people in the US have ignored Cadillac in favor of imports like Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus, and those values have been passed on to those people's next generation. I think the only thing that has saved Cadillac is that it would be a tremendous negative hit to GM's reputation to have to drop its premier US car line.
In Europe, GM can't seem to get people to believe that Opel can make a true luxery car. Supposedly, GM bought SAAB to fill that gap, but we all know that SAAB has never been considered by the general public to be a true competitor for Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Jaguar, et all. What happens to SAAB when GM finally realizes that?
I personally don't think SAAB can survive unless they can increase market share, but who will SAAB take market share from? Most European near-luxery and luxery makes have a loyal customer base in Europe that will be hard to win. Similarly, in the US, even if people were to think that SAAB is a true competitor with Volvo, Audi, BMW, etc., SAAB is at an extreme disadvantage with the general public (as opposed to us SAAB fanatics) because of its small number of dealers. The average Joe may like a SAAB as much as an Audi or a Volvo, but he's not willing to drive 100 miles to the nearest SAAB dealer when the Audi or Volvo dealer is only a couple of miles or so from his house or office.
Personally, I don't think that GM really knows what to do with SAAB. In today's competitive market, this is a bad situation to be in. Look at the advertising (what there is of it) - do SAAB ads give the impression that GM has a concrete image of who to appeal to to sell SAABs? I don't think so. Ford seems to have a much more concrete idea of how to place Volvo, Jaguar, etc. in the marketplace. Look at SAAB's supposed SUV effort - it will come to market just after the public's interest in SUVs has peaked. Does GM really think that a SAAB SUV will win customers from the likes of the Blazer, Explorer, etc? It will have to be some outstanding car to do so.
What happened to Oldsmobile could easily happen to SAAB if GM doesn't get its act together; years of drifting mismanagement, followed by an erosion of interest by the public, followed by death of the marque, or just transferring the SAAB badge to an Opel. With GM in its present management state, I'm not optimistic that we will have "true" SAABs to buy in 10 years. We may all be looking for "new, old stock" parts to keep our present SAABs running!
My two cents worth. Let the rants begin!
Steve L
SAAB owner since 1964
, Sat, 23 Dec 2000 11:44:11
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