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Re: The blame game Posted by rpm2 [Email] (#259) [Profile/Gallery] (more from rpm2) on Wed, 6 Oct 2010 20:25:13 In Reply to: The blame game, Keith [Profile/Gallery] , Wed, 6 Oct 2010 11:22:28 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Here is my 2 cents.
First off there was a significant management change in April 2005. Yes JAJ was put in charge. However, I wonder to what.
I found this GM press release from 2005.
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/03/09/007716.html
Here are some parts that seem telling to me:
- "GM announced last week that the Opel plant in Russelsheim, Germany had won the battle to be the production base for the new Vectra and Saab 9-3 cars ahead of Saab's Trollhattan plant in Sweden"
- "Carl-Peter Forster, President of General Motors Europe, will assume the role of Chairman of the Saab Automobile AB board, and Jan-Ake Jonsson will assume the role of Managing Director for the brand."
- Fritz referring to the exiting CEO "has supported the improvement in the production facility there in Trollhattan, ultimately leading to the decision to build the all-new Cadillac BLS along side Saabs in the facility beginning early next year."
- Before 2005 "Most recently, Jonsson was Executive Director of Sales and Marketing for the Nordic region for General Motors Europe, including Saab."
Bottom line, what new Saab was designed after 2005. Saab 9-7 and 9-2. More GM cloning. Granted we know there were some updates to both Saab 9-3 and 9-5. I own one and it is not like my 2001.
Also Jonsson, prior to 2005, was in charge of the GM brand for Nordic region. Where was his focus even then- GM growth in that region or Saab sales.
Why did GM incorporate them into their Europe management structure. Save costs? I think it was a simple business decision by GM. In the scheme of things maybe they were making Saab like any other GM brand. They did that with other brands like Saturn or Pontiac.
It seems to me they were just consolidating the Saab structure and the Europe organizations, and that was the last brand they worked on.
Of course, I want to look forward. I like what JAJ has done so far in the past 7 months. Look at Victor Muller. Like him or not he is certainly focused on Saab.
According to Victor Muller Saab will be profitable in 2012. So I guess if they're losing money still then I guess maybe you're right.
Sorry for a long post.
->Posting last edited on Fri, 24 Jul 2015 18:30:02.
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