The Auto Writer

Saab is back. Well, maybe not. GM is giving bidders until close of business TODAY to get their offers in for the Swedish make, or else.

Or else, what? That’s hard to say because every GM pronouncement is followed up by something that contradicts what they said earlier. Most telling is GM’s statement earlier in the week where they announced that production would resume at its Trollhatten factory in Sweden. Then came reports that GM’s extension pushed its final, final decision to January 1 and then to January 7. Some are saying that the extension is indefinite.

Keep that up and we’ll be talking about 2011 model year Saabs within the next few months.

Saab made news earlier this month when GM sold old 9-3 and 9-5 technology to the Chinese. Soon, faux Saabs will be trolling the streets of Nanjing and Beijing, looking and sounding awfully like Saabs, but badged with the Beijing Automotive nameplate. China is good at copying foreign models, at least on the outside, now they’ll have the real McCoy underneath even though neither model represents current Saab logic.

So, who wants Saab? That would be Spyker, a Dutch automobile manufacturer, a name known both to automotive historians and exotic car enthusiasts alike. Spyker was launched in1880 as a coach builder, manufacturing its first cars beginning in 1900. For the next quarter of a century, Spyker expanded, went bankrupt, built aircraft engines during World War I, before going bankrupt again and closing up shop in 1929.

Today’s Spyker is similar in name only, an exotic car manufacturer which launched in 1999. Those models include the hand built Zagato and an F1 racer. Nothing about the original and current Spyker can be compared.

According to The Detroit News (Saab hangs on by its fingernails), Spyker made 43 cars last year. That’s it. Saab, which struggles to make 100,000 units in a good year, isn’t exactly a leading brand, but they’re a much more complex operation than Spyker. Like Koenigsegg, Spyker will be challenged to manage Saab, but as of this writing they’re still interested in the brand.

Perhaps the singular appeal for any potential Saab suitor is that much of the heavy product design lifting has already been done for them. The all new 9-3 is set to roll, the 9-4X crossover is up next, and an all new 9-5 series has hit the market.

These three models won’t carry Saab alone, but they could give a new owner what is needed to keep Saab humming for another five years or so.  By then, further global consolidation could sharpen the picture.