Saab Motor Co.
The wake of General Motors‘ June 2009 bankruptcy left several brands stranded: the military-turned-civilian Hummer was sold to a Chinese machinery company, the affordable line of Saturn cars is set to be totally phased out and off lots by this October, and iconic American brand Pontiac will vanish by the end of 2010. Not all of GM’s brands are doomed to the scrape heap, though. On January 26th, Dutch supercar maker Spyker announced that it had purchased the often unnoticeable Saab for $74 million dollars after months of negotiation. Its plan for Saab: make it competitive with the well established sedans of companies like BMW and Audi, with the hope that this will make the brand profitable 2012. Spyker’s plan is an optimistic one, given Saab’s underwhelming financial performance during its tenure as a GM brand.
The purchase offers Spyker a way to enter the lucrative luxury sedan market. Currently, Spyker produces less than 50 cars a year, each with a price tag well over $200,000. In stark contrast, they expect to sell between 100,000 and 125,000 Saabs annually. At the very least, with the increase in workers Spyker will need in order to maintain production capacity for Saab, the company can hope to increase production of its supercars to around 100 a year.