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Koenigsegg buys Saab
iank - 16/6/09 at 09:38 PM

So they make enough from 18 cars a year to be able to fund the purchase of a company that makes the best part of 100,000 per year. Bonkers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8102432.stm

MikeR - 16/6/09 at 09:41 PM

no, but someone is silly enough to lend someone who makes 18 cars and has 25 employees enough to buy a company making 100,000 cars a year.

its all going to end in tears.

macspeedy - 16/6/09 at 09:42 PM

if !

ReMan - 16/6/09 at 09:43 PM

The value of my old Saab just went up

iank - 16/6/09 at 09:45 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeR
no, but someone is silly enough to lend someone who makes 18 cars and has 25 employees enough to buy a company making 100,000 cars a year.

its all going to end in tears.


That was kind of my point, though if you want to own a car company you could do worse than pick up a 2nd tier company with a long history and a loyal(ish) customer base for a song. Need some big brass ones and a lot of luck to make it a winner.

Steve G - 16/6/09 at 09:48 PM

I'm waiting for more details to come out before making judgement. Its very likely to be the people behind Koenigsegg - the ones with the financial clout and contacts in high places who have put this together, rather than just a small low volume specialist company. I'd bet they have lots of other business interests beside Koenigsegg - especially with so much UN funding backed by the Swedish government - surely that doesnt come unless they have some serious backing behind the team.

Thinking about it - 16/6/09 at 09:49 PM

The GM tag de-valued the Saab brand.
But I still like mine.

tomprescott - 16/6/09 at 10:08 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Thinking about it
The GM tag de-valued the Saab brand.
But I still like mine.


I agree, Saabs used to conjure up images of high precision technical superiority form their aviation engine days (kind of like RR) - now makes me think of better dressed vectras. I still think they are good cars though, perhaps a little conservative with styling though. Good luck to em I say, if it saves a factory load of jobs for a while then thats good news in my book.

blakep82 - 16/6/09 at 10:16 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeR
no, but someone is silly enough to lend someone who makes 18 cars and has 25 employees enough to buy a company making 100,000 cars a year.

its all going to end in tears.


i think his and hers matching Koenigseggs may have convinced the bank manager

keithice - 16/6/09 at 10:20 PM

still love my saab 9000....18 years old and still going strong.....

Triggerhappy - 16/6/09 at 10:21 PM

One of our sales guys put Koenigsegg labels on his 9-3 this afternoon(for real, for the gag).....it just got an extra 700hp under the hood he claimed...he is soooo happy

Problably got some honkīs on his way home also.

Itīs interessting that founding mainly is Norweigan billionaries undercover from Swedish "very low volume" super car company getīs involved in this...altough very enprenatourish people....and very rich...but still.
No experience of volume production, no partner in future platform development.

One idea would be to fit whole stock of cars with carbon spoiler and an sticker "Koenigsegg edition"and charge an extra EUR30000/car...


Anyway...as said before..an daunting task end many people at SAAB works and subsuppliers are really depending on near future action....

austin man - 16/6/09 at 10:59 PM

cant wait to see the new Koenigsaab

speedyxjs - 17/6/09 at 06:03 AM

quote:
Originally posted by austin man
cant wait to see the new Koenigsaab


Its going to be uber fast but also uber safe

carpmart - 17/6/09 at 06:44 AM

Anyone remember Saab's advertising from the 80's?

It had cars and planes and a strap line of 'we also make planes'!

I can't wait to see the new Koeningsegg fighter jet.

Unfortunately a Swedish car manufacturer will never be successful as employment laws give the workforce too much time off. I think no one works in July in Sweden!

Guinness - 17/6/09 at 08:49 AM

quote:
Originally posted by keithice
still love my saab 9000....18 years old and still going strong.....


That'll be where they went wrong. People replace Vectra's / Monduno's every 3 years!

Mike

iank - 17/6/09 at 08:57 AM

quote:
Originally posted by carpmart
Unfortunately a Swedish car manufacturer will never be successful as employment laws give the workforce too much time off. I think no one works in July in Sweden!


I suspect that's for the same reason as Finland, they only get a 5-6 week summer so everyone goes on holiday at the same time. Since everyone is going to be away all the companies pretty much shut down to skeleton staff and either tick over or do the annual maintenance on their lines.
Since they only take a couple of days off during the rest of the year so it all works out the same in the end just looks that way from the outside.

Marcus - 17/6/09 at 11:54 AM

I suspect Koenigsegg picked Saab up for peanuts, a bit like the BMW / Rover deal. GM were after offloading Saab a while ago when the parent company got into trouble. There will be some government tax incentives too to keep Saab going. Good luck to them I say, and FFS start making distinctive cars again!!