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Date: 31 Jul 2000 15:22:27 -0400
From: Jack B <jacknopsamsynecdoche.net>
Subject: Re: The end of Saab as we know it?


> The American lines are very distinct: > GMC is heavy/commercial trucks. > Chevrolet is personal trucks, the value line, and motor sports. > Saturn is their Japanese fighters. > Oldsmobile is the middle line luxury. > Pontiac is luxury-sports. > Cadillac is the high end line, but it has a rep as being old (see below). > Saab is their European line. May G-d preserve us from this... Saab isn't supposed to be GM's "European line", any more than Jaguar is Ford's "European line." This business of V-8 Saabs, Pontiac Aztek Saabs, and RWD Saabs is, I hope, either entirely rumor or something that will be quashed entirely before reaching the market. You would think GM has learned something from the painful process of making Vauxhall Cavaliers into Saabs, namely that "Saabishness" is more than the key in the floor. Unfortunately, GM has managed to completely ruin all of its American brands, destroy Saturn's credibility with the slow-selling, Delaware-built LS, and terrify Saab devotees with the idea of a Blazer-based Saab... Don't suppose there's any chance GM would sell Saab to Ford, is there? > Ford has announce a Volvo SUV that is under development as we "speak". >> > 5. Don't assosciate a V-8 Saab with the Caddy behemoths, that is very > bad, >> > almost unnatural. The only people in the US that buy those tanks are > senior >> > citizens, the mafia, the police, or limo companies. (Group politicians > in >> > with the mafia) A well off American will more likely buy a SUV or > highend >> > Japanese\European luxury sedan. Exactly the market GM wants. One more > thing >> > about the big, American cars- Ford has discontinued it large, full size > cars >> > and GM has only two or three of that size model left. >> >> > 7. Why must Saab expand? To survive, it must. Period. >> >> Mmm, original American thinking, eah. Why do you all seem to think Big is > so >> good and smaller companies will not be able to survive? Okey, Saab would > be dead >> without GM, I agree and I am thankfull. But, Saab can be really profitable > at >> 300.000 to 400.000 cars a year. Using GM platforms and materials off > course. The >> bigger companies (Ford, DaimlerChrysler and GM) are not better than > smaller >> ones, they are even having very serious problems lately. > It is not American thinking, the smaller car manufacturers are colapsing. > Fiat, BMW, Rover, Opel, Jaguar, Kia, Mazda, Volvo, Saab, Chrysler, Subaru, > Rolls Royce, and others have all been aquired because they could not keep up > with the cost of changing technologies in the world. It is not that we > American's think big is better, look at AT&T, Microsoft, Standard Oil, > United Shoe, and other companies the US government broke into small groups. > It is basic economics going back to Adam Smith, "Economies of Scale," the > bigger companies can do things cheaper because they have the clout to demand > better prices. Dalmier-Chrysler, Mitsubishi, and Daewoo are non-American > examples of this (No mater what Dailmer says, Chrysler is no longer an > American company). The smalls one just can't compete any more, no matter how > good the product. >> One of the nice things of Saab is it's distinctiveness... Every farmer who > wins >> the lottery buys a Merc or a BMW. > I can't agree more, it is the same in the US. Saab and Volvo have always > been New England favorites here, especially in Maine, Vermont, and New > Hampshire. New England is the most European part of the US. > Jeremy

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