Here is a sad article from Atlanta Journal-Constitution that came across my kitchen table this morning 
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ajccars, Friday, January 27th, 2012, page E1
Saab’s heritage on auction block
Swedish automaker’s first car among notable vehicles for sale.
Bankruptcy forces company to liquidate.
By Jim Motavalli
New York Times
More than 100 Saabs, from the streamlined 1947 prototype known as Ursaab to 2010 9-5 sedan, are to be taken from their home at the company’s museum in Trollhattan, Sweden, and sold to the highest bidder.
As part of an effort to liquidate the assets of the Swedish automaker, whose parent company declared bankruptcy in December, Delphi, s Swedish law firm handling aspects of the bankruptcy process, was soliciting bids for specific cars or the whole collection last week.
The auction comes during a tumultuous time for the brand. Several board members of Swedish Automobile, the automaker’s parent, announced last week that they were stepping down over disagreements about the company’s finances.
Included in the auction are examples of Saab’s everyday models, like a bright red 95 station wagon with fins from 1959 and a pearl-white 900 convertible from 1983, a big success for the company at the time.
There are also concept cars like the streamlined 9X from 2001 and two examples of the very rare 1956 Sonett sport cars, which like the Chevrolet Corvette, a model with which Saab would share a fraught corporate parenthood under General Motors, had a fiberglass body.
Notable by its absence on the list is the PhoeniX, a concept designed by Jason Castriota for the 2011 Geneva auto show. The PhoeniX was said to presage the future design language of the automaker. The AeroX concept of 2006, however, which was named the best design of the 2006 Geneva show, its lot No. VM567.
“The sale is unprecedented because not only does it include many Saab rarities, but handmade prototypes and even the very first Saab made,” Steven Rossi, a former Public relations director for the Saab in the United States, said in an email.
Tim Colbeck, the most recent president and chief operation officer for Saab Cars North America, is hoping the collection will not be broken up. “The sad reality of the situation is, the company is in bankruptcy proceedings and the receivers will do what they can do maximize the value,” he said in a telephone interview. “Quite a few of the cars are significant. The best outcome is that a collection or museum would buy the whole thing. We can only hope that the cars will end up with people who can take car of them for posterity.”
One such institution, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, will not be looking to augment its collection.
“Petersen is not going to be bidding,” Buddy Pepp, executive director of Petersen, said in a telephone interview. “As much as we would love to have the collection or some of the individual cars, it’s just not feasible at the time.”
Pepp added that Saabs are generally “not on the top of many car collectors’ lists.” Even so, when asked which car from Trollhattan he’d most want to acquire, he didn’t hesitate.
“Numero uno,” he said, referencing the so-call Ursaab, known internally as Project 92. “That’s going to be a very collectible car, and we would love to have it. But it will go for a lot of money.
Colbeck’s own Saab dreams, and indeed regrets, are modest. He fondly remembers his 1985 900 SPG.
“They didn’t make very many of them,” he said. “I wish I’d kept that car.”
(From my own research: 1956 Saab Sonett I, chassis #5)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, ajccars, Friday, January 27th, 2012, page E1
Saab’s heritage on auction block
Swedish automaker’s first car among notable vehicles for sale.
Bankruptcy forces company to liquidate.
By Jim Motavalli
New York Times
More than 100 Saabs, from the streamlined 1947 prototype known as Ursaab to 2010 9-5 sedan, are to be taken from their home at the company’s museum in Trollhattan, Sweden, and sold to the highest bidder.
As part of an effort to liquidate the assets of the Swedish automaker, whose parent company declared bankruptcy in December, Delphi, s Swedish law firm handling aspects of the bankruptcy process, was soliciting bids for specific cars or the whole collection last week.
The auction comes during a tumultuous time for the brand. Several board members of Swedish Automobile, the automaker’s parent, announced last week that they were stepping down over disagreements about the company’s finances.
Included in the auction are examples of Saab’s everyday models, like a bright red 95 station wagon with fins from 1959 and a pearl-white 900 convertible from 1983, a big success for the company at the time.
There are also concept cars like the streamlined 9X from 2001 and two examples of the very rare 1956 Sonett sport cars, which like the Chevrolet Corvette, a model with which Saab would share a fraught corporate parenthood under General Motors, had a fiberglass body.
Notable by its absence on the list is the PhoeniX, a concept designed by Jason Castriota for the 2011 Geneva auto show. The PhoeniX was said to presage the future design language of the automaker. The AeroX concept of 2006, however, which was named the best design of the 2006 Geneva show, its lot No. VM567.
“The sale is unprecedented because not only does it include many Saab rarities, but handmade prototypes and even the very first Saab made,” Steven Rossi, a former Public relations director for the Saab in the United States, said in an email.
Tim Colbeck, the most recent president and chief operation officer for Saab Cars North America, is hoping the collection will not be broken up. “The sad reality of the situation is, the company is in bankruptcy proceedings and the receivers will do what they can do maximize the value,” he said in a telephone interview. “Quite a few of the cars are significant. The best outcome is that a collection or museum would buy the whole thing. We can only hope that the cars will end up with people who can take car of them for posterity.”
One such institution, the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, will not be looking to augment its collection.
“Petersen is not going to be bidding,” Buddy Pepp, executive director of Petersen, said in a telephone interview. “As much as we would love to have the collection or some of the individual cars, it’s just not feasible at the time.”
Pepp added that Saabs are generally “not on the top of many car collectors’ lists.” Even so, when asked which car from Trollhattan he’d most want to acquire, he didn’t hesitate.
“Numero uno,” he said, referencing the so-call Ursaab, known internally as Project 92. “That’s going to be a very collectible car, and we would love to have it. But it will go for a lot of money.
Colbeck’s own Saab dreams, and indeed regrets, are modest. He fondly remembers his 1985 900 SPG.
“They didn’t make very many of them,” he said. “I wish I’d kept that car.”
(From my own research: 1956 Saab Sonett I, chassis #5)
