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317 – Saab regains its voice

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16 October 2009

And a new sense of direction

I WENT along to a special presentation on the new Saab 9-5 last night. You know. Where key people – top of the Christmas tree people – are wheeled out. They give you the party line. And we listen politely.

Well, there was a bit of that certainly.

But actually what came through was a sense of bubbly excitement. Here, suddenly, were all these Saab execs – now free from the dead hand of the GM straightjacket – suddenly able to enthuse about ‘their’ product. Made in Sweden. Like old Saabs. With traditional Saab values. Not made in an Opel factory as a top end Vectra, the ace in GM’s pick-a-card attitude to company cars: cheap and cheerful (that’ll be a Chevrolet for you then); sales rep (off you go in your Vauxhall); suited and booted exec (for you sir, a Saab).

Knut Simonsson – Saab’s global director of brand and sales operations – spoke about how the company had learned from being a small cog in a big organisation and how it had become empowered under its new owners Koenigsegg.

“There’s a sense of entrepreneurship at Saab now,” Knut beamed. We have a flat organisation with fast decision making.” The way Knut spoke it sounded like Saab had become a small business. Well, actually, I guess they have. But none the worse for that.

He explained about future Saab products, the lowering of CO2 emissions and the ‘electrification’ of the turbo. At this point I did have an image of a Saab being driven by a battery-charged turbo whizzing crazily along. However, that’s unfair of me.

But that’s the point. That’s what made this press conference different. When Saabs were Saabs the big bosses and engineering boffins – approachable and likeable all – spoke with passion. They were evangelical about their product. Animated. And that sense of passion has returned.

So welcome back Saab: the big small business.

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Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton

Ralph Morton is an award-winning journalist and the founder of Business Car Manager (now renamed Business Motoring). Ralph writes extensively about the car and van leasing industry as well as wider fleet and company car issues. A former editor of What Car?, Ralph is a vastly experienced writer and editor and has been writing about the automotive sector for over 35 years.

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