(Saab)
Up for sale: Saab's heritage collection
More than 100 Saabs, from a 1947 Ursaab prototype to a 2010 9-5 sedan, are to be taken from 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, a Swedish law firm handling the bankruptcy process recently began soliciting bids for specific cars or for the whole collection. Included in the auction are a bright-red 95 station wagon with fins from 1959, a pearl-white 900 convertible from 1983, the 9X concept car from 2001 and the very rare 1956 Sonett sports car (shown).
— New York Times News Service
(Associated Press file photo)
Auto-sale growth slows down in China
Vehicle sales in China rose a scant 2.5 percent in 2011, the slowest growth in over a decade, as higher prices and traffic controls kept buyers out of showrooms. The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers reported Thursday that total vehicle sales rose to 18.5 million last year, up from 18 million in 2010, when sales rose 32 percent. In contrast, U.S. auto sales jumped 10 percent to 12.8 million vehicles in 2011. China overtook the U.S. in 2009 as the biggest market by number of new vehicles sold.
— The Associated Press
Total recalls in U.S. fell in 2011
Overall car and truck recalls fell to the lowest level since 2008 last year, the government recently announced. In total, automakers called back 15.5 million vehicles — down from 20.1 million in 2010. The number of recall campaigns fell to 593 from 648 in 2010. Honda had the most recalls, followed by Toyota and Ford.
— Detroit News
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By Joel H on February 2, 2012 2:51 PM
P4 West: Saab Museum Saved!
January 24, 2012 in News
Saab 9-3 SS Racing edition is Saab Car Museum driven by Peter "Poker" Wallenberg, part in saving the museum now. Photo by Jörgen Trued
P4 West reports: The city of Trollhättan, SAAB AB and The Wallenberg foundations – those are the ones who make sure that the Saab Museum will stay in Trollhättan. Together they have paid 28 million SEK for the whole collection.
A lot has happened since Saab filed for bankruptcy in december. Two bankruptcy administrators were appointed and later on a third joined in.
They quickly realized that more money was needed to keep the bankruptcy proceedings alive and quickly it was established that the Saab Cars Museum could bring in the first millions.
And now it’s a done deal, the museum will remain in Trollhättan. The running costs of the museum, will be handled by the city of Trollhättan and Västragötalandsregionen (regional government). P4 West have previous reported that the region, the city and a collection of Saab-veterans wanted to take over the running of the museum.