Today is Saab’s last battle for life, as General Motors reconsiders their decision with the Swedish government influencing them and Spyker making a new offer.
Category Archives: Car Companies
Swedish government to try and save Saab
It looks like Spyker isn’t the only party who wants Saab alive. Motor Trend reports that the Swedish government is going to hold emergency meetings with officials from GM to try and save Saab.
Saab may not be dead yet
After General Motors has announced that it was set to kill the Saab brand, it seems that the last bidder who was left in the game, Spyker Cars, has made the American giant a new offer to try to secure Saab’s future. Spyker CEO Victor R. Muller said today that a new offer has been submitted to GM with the 11 points that prevented Spyker for taking Saab last time being reconsidered. They are very confident that they have removed any obstacle that stood in the way of the transaction the last time therefore hoping no problems will arouse this time.
Ford Mustang to get 412hp 5.0-liter V8
As it is often the case these days, a lot of details about upcoming cars are released via the internet (Facebook, MySpace or any other site is a possible location for insiders to post their information). So, thanks to one of these insiders, we can now reveal that the 2011 Mustang GT will get a massive 5.0-liter V8. This massive engine will get massive power as well – 412 horsepower in fact. Compared to other new muscle cars that’s actually pretty good. Even tough European engineers can squeeze much more power from such an engine, the upcoming Mustang V8 has a decent amount of bhp for a muscle car. The new engine produces 390 pound-feet of torque at 6.5000 RPM. Fuel economy shouldn’t be bad either, amazingly, you should get about 25 MPG. That is ok for such a big monster. You can link the engine to either an automatic or a 6-speed manual gearbox.
GM closes Saab
Yes, unfortunately, the deal between Saab and the last remaining bidder left in the running, Spyker Cars, could not be made. As a result, General Motors, the owners of Saab, have decided to axe the Swedish manufacturer.
BMW responds to Volvo with an electric 1 Series
BMW escalates the fight in the eco-friendly cars segment as it’s 1 Series has been converted to take on Volvo’s new electric C30.
Official Audi A1 picture leaked
Well, here it is: the new Audi A1. The photograph underneath has been leaked ahead of the car’s official unveiling at the Geneva Motor Show. The guy in the shot is no one else than Justin Timberlake as Audi have signed him to be an ambassador for the company. Audi themselves have launched a teaser film this week in which a graffiti artist draws a “concept” of the car.
Source: Autocar and WorldCarFans @ YouTube
Renault set to stay in F1, sells stake
After a period of rumours that Renault could quit Formula 1, the French manufacturer has announced that it is set to remain committed to their F1 racing programme.
More news on Saab’s future *UPDATE*
With Saab struggling to stay alive, they are now resorting to selling some things to other companies. They have sold the tooling and rights for the pre-2006 Saab 9-3 and the previous generation Saab 9-5 (Pictured above) to Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Corporation (BAIC), one of the companies in the running for buying Saab.
Spyker Leading in Saab Bidding
Spyker is now apparently GM’s preferred bidder for Saab. General Motors says that their preferred buyers fits the following: they are well versed in small scale car production and they should be interested in keeping production in Saab’s homeland, Sweden. Spyker fits those requirements nicely. They also say their preferred buyer has been mentioned by press before, and Spyker has been.
There is a bit of trouble though. If General Motors can’t sell Saab by 2010, they will shut it down. If negotiations are well under way but a deal hasn’t been sealed by January, General Motors may be willing to keep Saab running a little longer while they complete a deal. Maybe. Now, if Spyker were aware of this deadline, maybe everything would be fine, but it is being said that Spyker is, or was up until now, unaware of it. Hopefully everything will go down just fine and Saab will live on.