Much like how Fiat revived the lovable 500, Saab under new owner Spyker will be making a new small car based on a famous 1950s model. The classic in question is the teardrop shaped Saab 92 model that was in production between 1949 and 1956.
Saab is currently in discussions with a variety of automakers about technology and platform sharing on the new model, which will be a spiritual successor to the 92. “That will be on my plate for the next 100 days,” Saab CEO Victor Muller told Bloomberg.
Currently, Saab’s range consists of the 9-3 and the new 9-5, which goes on sale now in Europe. The ex-GM owned brand plans to sell 50,000 to 55,000 cars this year, with the new 9-5 contributing 17,000 units to the total. Next year, they have an optimistic target of 100,000 vehicles which will be based on 40,000 9-5s and 10,000 units of the new 9-4X crossover.
Muller, who is also boss of Spyker, revealed that the exclusive supercar maker will be moving the listing of the company from Amsterdam to Stockholm. The reason is that 99.% of their business is Swedish (meaning Saab), thus it would be impractical to list the company in the Netherlands any longer.
Read more on the revived Saab in our previous post here.
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God speed! If they can come back from the near dead, can teach how some company that’s been on life line for 20+ years how to do things right. But whether they are willing to put down pride to learn.. that’s another story.. Malaysia Boleh!
It’s quite interesting to see, what will happen to Saab Automobile AB:
-The swedish gouvernment refused to help SAAB Automobile AB
-Their local market is small (approx. 240.000 car registrations in 2009)
-They are in talks with big companies to supply platforms
If they succeed, they would be an great example for a famous brand in Malaysia… ;)
they had so many odds stacked against them… hope they do well. i do like the idea of a revived 92. nowadays, many car makers are going retro with the exception of citroen which is going anti-retro with their ds3. anyway, it will be interesting to see how saab’s plans pan out.
SAAB has good cars but somehow got lost in the sea of competitors.
Going retro? question is, how many people actually remember the 92? (unlike. the Mini, Beetle, Fiat 500, and other modern re-intrepretation of the Camaro, Mustang, Ford GT40 etc)
My most fond memory of SAAB is the 900 Turbo…. perhaps they should start there.
Yea, probably is more well known to classic car fans in Europe. The new Saab owner is definitely trying to tap into the ever growing small car (prenium?) market.
A coupe Saab should be an interesting idea though, with distinctive design that harks back to the days of 1980s Saab Turbo. Saab should explore that too!
Take a look at this wonderful original republished test review of the SAAB 92 from 1949 http://www.autocar.co.uk/CarReviews/RoadTestsHistory/Saab-92-0.8/231224/ may the new small SAAB be just half as note worthy!