Currently reading: 'Saab closure decided' - report
Sources say fate of Swedish car maker may already be sealed

Saab's fate as a car maker seems to have been already sealed according to sources at GM Europe in Germany.

Insiders have told Autocar that GM has secretly booked transportation to shift the remaining 9-5 production equipment and tooling from Opel’s Russelsheim factory to GM’s Buick factory in China.

The shipping will begin next Friday, 15 January, according to Autocar’s sources.

If the information is accurate, it could directly contradict GM’s statement yesterday that it is "continuing to evaluate…several proposals" for Saab from outside bidders.

Yesterday, GM also began the process "an orderly wind-down of Saab", drawing strong criticism from the head of Sweden’s IF Metal union for moving in "two directions at once".

A delegation including government officials is also travelling from Sweden to Detroit today in order to hold talks with GM bosses.

There’s no indication as to what the Buick China factory will do with the 9-5 tooling, but it could mean that the new Buick LaCrosse - which shares the same long-wheel base Epsilon 2 platform as the 9-5 - will be built by Buick China. Buick is a huge success in China for GM, selling 447,000 units in China during 2009.

Before the global credit crunch and GM bankruptcy, the company had planned to build the new Saab 9-5 in Russelsheim, alongside the new Insignia models. The addition of extra production volume generated by the 9-5 saloon and estate would have made the Russelsheim plant more profitable.

There was also an outside chance that GM could have sold the Saab brand and supplied the new owner with German-built 9-5 models on an ex-factory basis.

Yesterday, however, GM Europe boss Nick Reilly made clear that Opel/Vauxhall factories including Russelsheim will see more cuts to capacity.

"We must work fast to reduce our capacity, while maintaining productivity and quality," Reilly said to employees in a company blog.

This message would seem to confirm the story of the 9-5 tooling being shipped, as GM prepares to strip-out unwanted production equipment and re-size its Russelsheim plant.

Hilton Holloway

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WooDz 13 January 2010

GM's treatment of SAAB morally distasteful

Jackflash: you are right. GM bought SAAB and bought all their IP at the same time. My dislike of GM is clear which has happened within a year. I was very pro-GM in 2008 when I was turning my SAAB customers into Vauxhall and Chevy customers because I had nothing new to offer from SAAB. As I have written in another post, I believed in those GM products because I knew SAAB had an influence somewhere behind the scene. Today my dislike of the company is that in using SAAB or GM Powertrain (belonging to SAAB Automobile AB) GM now has much of SAAB's DNA in there other products but GM never gave SAAB the credit in press releases. Would you like it if your work was never recognised? or your partner was always given the credit even though they got you to do all the work. This is what has happened to SAAB with OPEL. SAAB develops a 1.6T, 1.4T and 2.0T engine with DI. Does SAAB have those engines? No and on the OPEL press release you will not see one word about SAAB. On a SAAB press release you will always find a reference to OPEL. When we look at Hybrid, e85, Turbocharging, AWD, engine management systems, Safety systems, Suspension systems, Crash protection, SAAB never gets a mention. They do the work but get no credit. So it is understandable that the public think that SAAB is just an OPEL re-badge. Is that fair? is that Just? Jackflash you are right SAAB is to do and be treated in any manner that GM wishes. However is it of no wonder that SAAB has struggled when GM themselves make negative comments, have not feed SAAB adequate product, used the company for R&D with associated costs putting the company in the red year on year only to throw that back in face of the managers and engineers who produced the goods and on time, so those products can be found in every GM car from a Chevy to Vauxhall? That is why I don't like GM anymore. Because SAAB engineers have got GM's products to where they are today and in the final hours all GM can give the brand is negative press and hang them out to dry.

roverfan1984 12 January 2010

Re: 'Saab closure decided' - Autocar source

JezyG wrote:
About time you had a NATIONAL COMPULSORY INVESTMENT we had one for years called the NHS!!!

Yeah and now we've got another one- paying for your war!!! =D

JezyG 12 January 2010

Re: 'Saab closure decided' - Autocar source

HyundaiSmoke wrote:

Why is a company (GM) funded with MY Tax Dollars taking such a exorbitent amount of time to get rid of an: Unwanted, Unreliable, Irrevelvant, Obsolete brand to satisfy some American old guys, gays, and cops; and to Also satisfy the Europeans who really did hardly anything to help the very same company in question (GM)?

I think you will look into yourselves and not like the answers to these qustions.

We're moving very rapidly here, and if you Europeans dont like it then tough!! I would like to see returns from MY NATIONAL COMPULSORY INVESTMENT!!!

You do make me laugh with all the Patriotic American stuff then carry on about a Korean product!! You forget thet it was Amercia that started all of this process by falling foul of toxic loans and the British Tax payer has had to bail its own banks out who wre involved with these so called toxic loans so in effect bail America out.

You have no real idea of Saab judging from your uneducated comments, taking those comments at face value put's all GM products as obsolete. As who developed the turbocharged petrol engines for GM, the Epsilon and Epsilon II platform as well as various safety systems - answer is Saab.

About time you had a NATIONAL COMPULSORY INVESTMENT we had one for years called the NHS!!!