This week’s Friday Excuse to Go Home Early and Drink is a cause for celebration because it appears that Swedish boutique sports car manufacturer Koenigsegg is going to purchase the Saab brand from GM. Why is this a time to celebrate? Because it means that weird Saabs are just a couple years from coming back.
The worst thing that happened to Saab when GM took it’s 100% stake in the company back in 2000 is that it lost all of it’s quirky identity, instead becoming a place where rebadged and mildly restyled Subarus and Chevrolets were being passed off as “real” Saabs.
Being that nearly 30% of the brand’s sales come here in the New England area, we see more of these cars that just about anyone else. The old Saabs are quirky, strange cars that have a cult following as ferverent as any. Even into the beginning of the 21st century, lots of them still populated college campuses.
With the Swedish company back in charge, it’s only a matter of time until the free thinking starts a-new and Saabs become Saabs again. We don’t think the two and three cylinder two-stroke motors are going to come back, but Koenigsegg’s super cars aren’t exactly cookie cutters so this has all the ingredients to be good.
The Chevy/Subaru period will be viewed as a brief blip in the company’s history.No one is really sure how the hell Koenigsegg plans on pulling this off seeing that they have 50 employees, but hey, it’ll be fun to watch!
Here’s a Wall Street Journal story on the sale.
For some backup, here is a Reuters story with more details.
