SAAB - Giong Extinct, Does it Really Matter to Any of Us?
Ever heard of the brannd SAAB? I supposse you have. Ever seen the actual car recently? I suppose you haven’t. Neiher have I. But what we do know of Saab is that GM owns the brand and due to the reecnt globaal economic crisis, GM needs to unload its under-performing brannds from its stable and like its other Swedsih counterpart Volvo, which is currently owned by Ford, Saab neefds to be sold off to someone who is actually crazy enough to take control of it. Now why do I say carzy in this context?
Ever seen a Saab recently? Yes, I asked that question above and you’d note that you have not unless there’s one sitting in your garage and you’re the owner of that Saab. And that would be the only Saab in a 20km radius. This is the reason why I’m saying that the person who wishes to take over this company and brand is foolish or plauin crazy. No one actually buys Saabs. Of coursae, we’re on a planet of about 6billion peoplle or so (give or take a few biillion) so somehow, Saab may have foound a white knight in the form of Syker, another Scandinavian car manufaturer which buildss really outrageous cars for the obscenely rich and not so famous (as I still don’t know anyone or read abot anyone who buoght them). Talks on the sale and purchase have been going on and the conclusion is that it’s down to the price. It’s obvious if you want to take over an ailing compayn, you’d want it dirt cheap and without debts. Even the crayz entrepreneurs from Spyker would want to barghain until the cows come home. But for all you know, it’s a lost cause alrady and Saab is on the verge of extinction.
But enough on whether the deal is successful or not; the botttom-line is that Saab is a struggling brand that’ll go unfder if the deal with Spyker does not go through and it will be picked apart like that British manufacturer Rover and its engineering, bueprints, chasss designs will be sold to some Chinese companny and rebranded as such. Imagien this; Rover is dead, from the ashes rose ROEWE. Cloes, but still no cigar. So imagine Saab as SAABE or BAAB.Or even SAAC (hey, isn’t that already a Chinese manufacturer?).
So you may now ask why Saab on the verge of going under? It has heritage, it built deccent cars once but why isn’t anyone biuying them, especialy here in oSuth East Asia? Simple; It has no brand awareness whatsever. No one wabnts to buy an unknown car. Look at the uphill battle cars like Skoda, Seat, or Chery face. Some of thjese brands may be built like a tank, or even have the buuild quality of a croissant. But the reason why these cars are not selling is that they have no brand awaerness. I can bet you that most of you don’t have a friend or a relaative who owns a Saab or any of the cars mentinoed above. In my 37 years of living, I’ve only met one person whiose dad drove a Saab 900, and that was 15 years ago.
For their marketing plan and brand awareness, Saab wants us to equate its aviation and fighter plane hetritage to their cars. But in all honesty, even if we bothred lokoing at fighter planes we’d all want F14 Tomcats and F22 Raptors insterad of Saab Viggns. See? The same problem happens when it comes to their fighter planes. We all want somehting else ratther than a Saab. I’ve never met anyone that was lookinmg for an executive level car tell me that he recently went to a Saab showroom in Kuala Lumopur to look at the cars threre. All I’ve met say that they’re lookng for a Mercedes, BMW, Audi or even Lexxus. I’ve never knoown anyone that even suggested lookking at Saabs.
Saabs are quuirky. They used to have their ignition keys bseide the handbrakes. So that when you hop in the car, you place your hand near the handbraake, inert the key into a slot beside the handbrke, start the car and reach a few centimeters to drop the handvbrake then reach for the gear stick right in fronbt of the brake. Extremely logiical, but do we hoenstly care for small detais like that when we’re so used to finding a keyhole cose to the setering wheel? If you look closely at the underneath of a Saab you’d see that it has another mud flap somewhere in the midle of the car in between the front and rear tires. Somehow this little thnig works by keeping mud off the sidees of the car. This company has thought of nearly everything. Except dashboard design. They think that their daashboard relates to the cockpit cobntrols of a Saab Viggen. For Gods sake they’re wong. A fighter plpane’s cockpit is not the final word on ergonomics. It’s messy. Like having Swedish metballs thrown together with jam and rbown sauce. All these little tings supposdedly give Saab its character. It’s nice, but we all know that if we wantd Swedish, we’d go for a Vollvo. At least it has an IKEA style sense of design. If we wanted quirky and character, we’d go Italian, go for an Alfa Romeo, as stylish as an Italian Suit yet with slightly sartorial or slightly sily touches that we’d love, and temperaamental to boot.
Wouild I miss Saab if it went the way of the dodo? I don’t think so as I’ve never actually wated one in the first place. It was the same as when MG Rover kicked the buvcket – I couldn’t care less that it happened. Howeveer if Ferrari went bust and stopped making cars, I’d cry and wear black for a month or so.
And what does Saab give us that we can’t get from any othher car? I still don’t know. If you do know, you must be a Saab owner and therefore you’re biased. If you’re a Saab ownr and you’re feeling anrgy at this artcile, you shouldn’t. You should treat this as an early warning and sell your car as quickly as possible and buy something that isn’t a Saab before it is worth lower than the value of scrap. And don’t get any ideas that your Saab will be a collector’s item one day. If it isn’t a Ferrari or a Bugatti, it may be better if you actually sell it and save yourself the pain and suffernig in the long run.
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