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Seriously. With yet another deal to acquire the ailing General Motors brand collapsing, it looks, at long last, that the Saab is finally dead. GM said it plans to start unwinding Saab, an underperforming unit that has never posted a profit since the Detroit auto giant bought it ten years ago.
Deal Journal usually focuses on big corporations extracting sweet deals. But we couldn't help but wonder: Just how good a price could one get for a new Saab, given the brand's doomed future?
The price advantages are clear. Dealers are offering huge incentives to unload their inventory. North Shore Saab in Roslyn, NY, is offering average incentives of $9,000 to $13,000 per car. Today, a buyer can walk away with a 2009 convertible, previously worth $50,000, for $38,000.
Buyers are typically spooked by a dying brand. A recent survey of car buyers by J.D. Power and Associates found that 18% of the buyers surveyed said the uncertainty of the Saturn or Pontiac brands was a major reason for avoiding them. (In previous surveys, style, pricing and engine realibility were the only reasons given for not buying a certain car) Of course, that could mean better prices for buyers willing to brave the unknown.
“Given where the market is right now, those are really big incentives,'' says Dennis Desrosiers, founder of Desrosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. in Ontario. Saab's advertised incentives are more than three times as large as the average incentive on a U.S. car, which totaled $ 2,712 in November, according Edmunds.com
These may not be the closeout prices at Saab. It could take a while for the dust to settle – and prices to fall further. “You may want to wait a few more months,'' says Desrosiers.
Already, GM has the highest incentives in the industry, averaging $4,270 in November, according to Edmunds.com, up from $3,350 a year ago. Analysts say GM's wind down of Saturn and Pontiac are driving up the average and it is expected to grow with Saab's likely demise.
No wonder the mood at Saab dealerships in New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire was so gloomy this afternoon. Deal Journal caught up with Morrison at the dealership, where he was reading Swedish and other European blogs looking for word that a new deal could save the brand.
“If Saab isn't going to be around, we aren't going to be around,'' said Stuart Morrison, sales manager at North Shore Saab on Long Island. “The cars are better sitting in someone else's garage than ours.”
“No one is very happy,'' says Morrison.”Besides losing our jobs, it means the end of a great car.”
Indeed, Morrison cautions, that buyers seeking a fire sale aren't going to find one in Roslyn. Not yet at least.
“Some buyers are coming in thinking they are going to get something worth $1,000 for a dollar, '' he says. “But devout Saab buyers know what the real value is.''
Of course, the major downside of buying a Saab is the uncertainty of its resale value and the ability to service it.
That means buyers may want to look to buy and hold a Saab for many years and should negotiate with the dealer for a long warranty. GM will likely stick with its promise to honor the Saab warranties. Failing to do so would spark a PR nightmare just at the auto giant was getting back on its feet.
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more of a Obamanation!
Government Motors.. oi vey!
It has always been a good time to buy a Saab. They are unbelievably good cruisers with a great combination of safety, efficiency, practicality and standard features for a great price. WItht he rebates, they have consistently been good deals and the effective resale value, (not based on MSRP) is actually not so bad. I have owned 4 of them and they are severely under-appreciated by the press and the public, including BMW lemmings. There are hundreds of thousands of Saab fans throughout the world. I started a Saab Enthusiast group on LinkedIn and now have 450 members. On one hand I thank GM for saving Saab a long time ago but I am disappointed in them for not making the right product moves or investment in them. I’ll keep driving my 2 Saabs until they die, which probably won’t be for a long time.
UH2L http://www.thingsivenoticed.com
As someone who as owned both, I can say with a little bit more of an educated opinion that KP has NO clue what s/he is talking about… The 9-3 handles much better than a 3-series (save the M3; but then we are approaching $50K as well). The 4 cylinder turbo can definitely hold its own against the 6. On western interstates, a 9-3 convertible will cruise comfortably and quietly all day long at 90-100 mph, at just a touch over 3,000 rpm, and one can still have a conversation (with the top up) without being overwhelmed by road or wind noise. While I think anything wearing a roundel is a nice car, people would have been pleasantly surprised had they ever actually driven a SAAB. Too bad GM didn’t try to push forward some excellent European engineering or market the car as more than a niche product catering just to quirky people. GM has now tried to sell Saturn and had the deal collapse at the 11th hour… same for SAAB… and same for Opel. Something stinks over at GM and we are not hearing the whole story.
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