Executives at Saab and General Motors could never see eye to eye after the 1989 bailout deal saved the Swedish car manufacturer. Utterly meticulous about safety, Saab made a habit of winding up its parent company and in 2010, after 21 years of belligerent ownership, GM pulled the plug on a car firm that did things just a little bit differently. But, did Saab bring it all on themselves?
Was Saabs' death self-inflicted?
Submerged with war-time manufacture during the 1940s, when the Second World War came to a close and fighter planes were no longer needed, Saab engineers decided the survival route was to build a car. This first car was the Saab 92 – producing 25bhp.
Streamlined and spacious it might have been, but there were teething problems – the covered wheel arches would jam the wheels, and therefore the steering, when mud or snow gathered and the engine would only lubricate itself with oil if the accelerator was pressed – downhill braking becoming an utterly terrifying experience.
They were also rather slow, not just in terms of acceleration but also in manufacturing times – apparently 27 minutes per car compared to only 30 seconds from competitors.
However, while the first attempt to mass-produce a vehicle was a bit shaky, Saab hit the ball out the park with its following models.
They became the first to turbocharge a mainstream, affordable car – resulting in Thatcher’s decade being turbo mad - while also being one of the first to hem the image that the engineers genuinely cared about your safety. The 99 turbo rocked the world, while they, alongside Volvo, pushed innovations within the motoring industry for safety in a crash. This total dedication to safety would led to issues however, such as developing the Saab 9000.
Designed in tandem with the Lancia Thema, Alfa Romeo 164 and Fiat Chroma to save costs, the idea was that behind the two badges and body shells the cars would be the same – and this appeared to work, right up until they were crash tested. Lancia claimed their mangled wreck and test results were ‘perfect’, while Saabs engineers disagreed saying the results were ‘not good – at all.’ Therefore, the joint venture completely fell apart.
The Saab ended up with larger wheels and thicker bodywork, alongside a completely different rear axle to the Thema, Chroma and 164. Yet, ensuring principles of safety was expensive, and Saab lost considerable amounts of money on every car produced. The results speak for themselves however; there are certainly more Saab examples left compared to the Italian counterparts.
Regardless of rockets, explosions and fighter planes to push Saab 9000 adverts into the limelight, Saab continued to dig a deep financial pit until, almost bankrupt, General Motors bailed them out in 1989.
To ensure that Saab didn’t repeat their economic woes, chief executives travelled to Sweden in order to demonstrate cost-saving exercises – while explaining the rules on new car designs. Showing Saab bosses and engineers the range of vehicles from GM’s European division – Opel/Vauxhall – it appeared to boil down to this: take the current offering from GM, change the body, change the badge and then leave everything else as it is.
Saab decided to ignore them, resulting in the then-new 900 only sharing a third of the parts GM had set out. Disgruntled at the barefaced disregard for company rules, when the time came to replace the 900, General Motors dispatched executives to Sweden again, repeating the formula of body and badge from the new offering; a Vauxhall Vectra. Nothing else was to be changed.
Ignoring GM so blatantly with the 9-3, not only were a small fraction of Vectra parts used, the entire wheelbase was altered. GM bosses had kittens and several panic attacks before sending out accountants to discover the reason why Saab was hemorrhaging even more development finances.
After jumping into the cabin of the 9-3 they couldn’t help but clock the Satnav; it wasn’t a GM provided system in any shape or form. Saab admitted to designing, at considerable cost, their own system as GMs’ simply wasn’t good enough. General Motors had finally reached their breaking point and pulled the plug on Saab just as the 9-5 was taking shape.
With complete closure of the company ever looming, the Dutch owner of Spyker stepped in, shoving cars into showrooms early to help finance Saabs survival. Under developed, unfinished and lacking those famous Saab finishing touches, the 9-5 was a commercial failure.
Saab was forced to file for bankruptcy in early 2012, marking the end of new cars from one of the world’s leading favourite carmakers. Petrolheads and the public don’t come together very often, but on the passing of Saab everyone felt a loss.
However, all is not lost as they are still alive. With assets bought by the Chinese after bankruptcy the factory now produces electric cars – proudly wearing the Saab badge.
At the end of the day, Saab were martyrs of their cause, resulting in their own destruction. Thanks to their concern for our safety as motorists, they faded away but not before showing General Motors and others how it’s done. They may be back one day, but for now we are lucky enough to have a range of models destined to live for years to come.