I'm Back!
I will admit that blogging is something of an anathema to me. I am very consistent and reliable at lots of things, but this isn't one of them. It has been two years since my last post. Some of this was driven by the depression and malaise which accompanied it when Saab seemed at death's door. By the time there was good news to be had, we were all riveted elsewhere, especially to the fabulous saabsunited.com . Then we stayed glued to that site as it chronicled the repeated near death situations Saab found itself in, until at last a deal was inked earlier this year between GM and Spyker's Victor Muller. Had I continued to blog/vent through all of that, my comments would have been irrelevant. So much was already being said that I preferred to devour and digest the news and rumors that were running around the web.
Now, I am back. Charles River Saab is still here. Saab is still here. Saab Cars North America has been launched. Shiny new cars are coming off the line in Trollhattan. The long awaited new 9-5 will arrive in July. The 9-4X and 9-5 Combi will arrive next year. The 2012 9-3, while still based on an Epsilon chassis, is purported to be a big departure from the current offering. The Saab world is poised to get really exciting.
The world economy, though, seems to be teetering again after a nice long positive run. Goldman Sachs et al must be breathing a sigh of relief now that the engines of economic collapse are not on Wall Street, but rather in Pyongyang, Athens and the Gulf of Mexico. The implications for the automobile business in general and Saab in particular cannot be overstated. Markets go up, customers spend. Markets tank, customers vanish. We can't afford to have too many more customers vanish, especially as we, along with Saab Cars North America, try to get the word out that Saab isn't gone and it has all this great product ready to go!