The modern (not the classic!) automotive market is in a complete down going turmoil. A very long ongoing overproduction of autos has hit the ceiling and there are no buyers to be found. The stock parking lots are overfilled. The one-year-ago biggest company on earth, General Motors, is completely broke and does only exist due to stacks of money pumped in by the Obama administration. And this is for the mercy of all the workers on the shop floors, not the cars. And the situation is the same, or worse, all over the world. Something has gone very seriously wrong some where along the line.
Swedish automaker SAAB, at the present a member of GM, is on the verge of being sold to a consortium of Swedish and Norwegian business entrepreneurs. SAAB has shown heavy red figures for the last twenty years and probably only God knows how to alter this trend. My suspicion is thou that advise from Him would definitely call off the deal. Another suspicion of mine is that Swedish taxpayers will end up with a fat bill if it is agreed on prolonging the life of SAAB. The situation on the factory shop floors are the same here as it is in the US, thousands of families will go down on their knees if SAAB goes into bankruptcy but maybe it would be better to hand out tax money directly to the families instead of handing them over to corporate Sweden/Norway…?
Volvo, owned by Ford Motor Company, is also doing badly and Ford is working hard to get rid of it. Rumors say that Chinese automakers are knocking on the door. The future will tell what is true. Hopefully a new owner will not act towards me in the same way as FoMoCo did. There were some rough days back in the autumn of year 2000 (read more on www.classicvolvo.com/ford ).
Very much can be said about the automotive industry, very many mistakes have been made and there are lots of people to blame for stupid ways of acting but the way the Swedish government chooses its own cars probably takes the price. Top government members in Sweden do not drive SAAB or Volvo, they drive BMW!
In France a minister like this would have his/her car torched, maybe even with the minister inside. In Sweden we hardly notice. Shame on us all!
I HAVE JUST PUT A SAAB IN PART EX FOR A MERCEDES BENZ THE SAAB WAS QUITE EXPENSIVE TO RUN , IT WAS A 20LTR TURBO 5 SPEED AUTOMATIC AND WAS GIVING ME 20.3 MILES PER GALLON URBAN DRIVING , IT HAD TO GO! PERFORMANCE OUT OF THIS WORLD! ,BUT I HAD TO CHOOSE PERFORMANCE OVER MPG AND MPG WON!