Buyer Koenigsegg writes new chapter in Saab story

PHOTO SUPPLIED

Saab is best known for worthy cars like the 9-3X.

John LeBlanc

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Now that bankrupt General Motors has finally found a buyer for its beleaguered Saab brand, in the form of Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg, what's the immediate impact on Saab's lineup?

For now, at least, it looks like business as usual.

GM Europe has said it will provide additional financial support to fund Saab's operations and product program investments. This includes plans to launch the new 9-5 luxury sedan later this year and 9-4X crossover sometime in 2010. Both are clearly based on GM global platforms and are in the final stages of development.

But analysts are less than optimistic about the deal. For starters, 36-year-old Christian von Koenigsegg, founder and CEO of the firm, has no experience owning or running a company so large.

Koenigsegg, which produces powerful road cars that cost around $1 million (U.S.), made 18 cars last year with a staff of just 45. Saab made more than 93,000 with 3,400 employees.

"There are no economies of scale between Saab and Koenigsegg," Mikael Wickelgren, an automotive expert at Skovde University, in southwestern Sweden near Saab's headquarters, told Automotive News.

"This will be a business where one would assume that the owners want to chisel out a personality for Saab. The logic would be in the special and unique. Otherwise I cannot understand this deal."

Optimistic car enthusiasts, though, are hoping that Saab's new caretaker may have just the right expertise to put its critically acclaimed 2006 Aero-X concept into production.

But we'll have to wait to see about that one. For the record, for the first five months of 2009, Saab sold only 446 vehicles in Canada, down about 10 per cent from last year.

Pontiac trails off

General Motors decided earlier this year that 2009 would be the last year for its Pontiac brand.

But it now looks like the "We Build Excitement" brand – or at least two of its models – will enable the brand to blow out the candles on its 84th birthday cake.

According to the official GM Canada 2010 product guide, there will still be a couple of 2010 Pontiacs on sale next year: the subcompact Wave and in the U.S. at least, the G6, available for fleet customers (i.e., rental car agencies) only.

Though the Toyota Matrix twin, the Vibe, appears in the product guide, GM announced this week it will halt its production in August.

Insight falls short

With gas peaking around $1.30 a litre in Canada and $5 a gallon in the U.S., hybrids were few and far between on new-car lots this time last year. With relatively lower gas prices this summer, it's a different story.

Take Honda's 2010 Insight, for example. In the U.S., the carmaker may miss its sales goal for the new hybrid by one-third. And in a Bloomberg report, the automaker is blaming relatively cheap gasoline.

"Given some dramatic change in things, I don't think we'll get to 90,000. At 50,000 to 60,000, we will be just fine," said John Mendel, executive vice-president of American Honda Motor.

According to the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, Honda sold 113 Insights in Canada in May, its first full month on sale after being launched in mid-April.

Honda had forecast annual worldwide sales of 200,000 units for the Insight. Half those sales were in North America.

To hybrid or not to hybrid?

As part of General Motors' bankruptcy reorganization, the automaker's hybrid product strategy is becoming both clearer and muddier, all at the same time.

As earlier reported, the two-mode plug-in Saturn Vue crossover hybrid set to go on sale this year has been cancelled.

In addition, AutoblogGreen is reporting that for the 2010 model year, the Chevrolet Malibu and Saturn Aura and Vue mild-hybrids will also not continue, beyond fleet orders.

However, GM's been working on the Vue's two-mode plug-in hybrid technology since 2006. And the automaker has said it still plans to put the plug-in powertrain into a production vehicle of some kind.

Speculation has centred round the Vue's platform mates – the Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain or Cadillac SRX.

But GM-Volt.com thinks the plug-in technology – and the premium pricing it will demand – will end up in a new Vue-based Buick crossover, due some time in 2011. A clay model of the future Buick was recently revealed in an American TV news report.

Bye-bye SFE

Short-term memory loss about last summer's high fuel prices isn't affecting just hybrid sales.

According to Ford, fuel economy last year moved from 10th place to third place among half-ton pickup buyers' top purchasing considerations.

Hence, Ford introduced the SFE package for its 2009 4x2 XL and XLT F-150 equipped with the 4.6-litre, V8 next year.

But apparently "superior fuel economy" doesn't have the marketing appeal it did just 12 short months ago. So, Ford is dropping the SFE label.

What isn't being dumped is the F-150 SFE's fuel-economy ratings of 14.3 L/100 km (19.7 m.p.g.) in the city, 9.6 L (29.4 m.p.g.) on the highway.

The SFE F-150's main rivals are the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra XFE twins, rated at a near identical 14.5 L/100 km (19.4 m.p.g.) city, 9.9 L (28.5 m.p.g.) hwy.

At this point, GM is sticking with its "Extreme Fuel Economy" badging.

More videos from Wheels.ca and our partners