esrosedotblog

SAAB STORY

I think I wrote about this before but now the story is a lot worse.

Saab Runs Out of Cash to Pay Wages.

The bottom of the barrel.

We had SAABs in Boston. First there was Audi, then SAAB.

I spell it that way because that is the original initialed official name. Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget.

The "old SAAB auto was great. It had a putt putt sound that was unmistakable when you heard it.

It was the result of an error in design. They made aircraft engines and a necessary feature for flight was included in the auto motor. Before they caught it, people turned on to it and it became a trademark. They looked a little funny. Like Citroen, they could look as if they were traveling sideways. They weren't.

There is the model we had. Same color! Beryl. What a name.

I quit Audi when they started going forward in Park. Or something. It turned out to be a phony issue, more or less, but the way that they dealt with the problem pissed me off. Germanic. The guy in Norwell, Rietzl, was all Teutonic attitude. That hard edged no give or take stuff. He isn't there any more but the dealership is.

So we left the Kraut and found SAAB. I can call him a "kraut" because that is my ethnicity, 100%. It is like it is OK for me to say "faggot" but not you. Unless you are one.

We had a small SAAB dealer near Coolidge Corner in Boston. It was an old fashioned place. Two brothers. One sold the other fixed. It was all a bit greasy but fun.

We had three vehicles. Shear pleasure. All convertibles made for the cold country.

Then disaster. GM bought the company and closed down all the small dealers. Just like that.

Our dealer became a big multi model place out the turnpike.

This was just about the time we were planning to move to the desert so we sold out. There was no closeby SAAB dealer in Palm Springs. We got a Jeep. i know. It doesn't make sense but that is what we did. Deserts, off road, like that.

When we got here we realized one car would not be enough in Southern California, in the wilds. So we got a Chrysler Sebring. It had been a good rental for us and sort of looked like our SAAB and we didn't need the winterizing. We also got an old 1964 Chrysler Le Baron Town and Country Mark Cross Edition Convertible (plastic woody). If two cars wasn't enough we should have a third.

A year ago when we moved, we consolidated. One car.

And we were sort of led to Volvo.

It is a great car. We love it. It is very much like the SAABs. Totally ergonometric and full of prethought features we don't even know about until they are there.

The Volvo guy is a small dealer like the old SAAB place in Coolidge Corner. They say that the Volvo is so good because they hired a lot of SAAB designers on the bounce.

Great. Too bad about SAAB. Sad story. Modern capitalism. GM went under and sold them off to a Chinese company who then spun them off to someone else. Spurned. Too bad. Life goes on.

Labels: automobiles