Saab story

GOTHENBURG, Sweden — When I was here last, I was pushing a high-powered, all-wheel-drive around a Saab test track, trying to make it spin out of control on dirt, bumps, pavement, simulated ice (water splashed steadily over a smooth, white, Formica-like surface), or through orange cones forcing sudden lane changes.

Could not do it, and it sure looked like heady times for Saab were on the way.

Today, Saab has filed for bankruptcy.

Little did I know.

And I know my Saabs, from the late 1960s in the winter wilds of New Hampshire through my first newspaper job in Claremont, N.H., in the early 1970s, when I would cover car accidents across the Connecticut River on Interstate 91 and, whenever a Saab had rolled over, I would always come away amazed that the roof remained upright and intact.

So I bought one — a green Saab 96 whose front-wheel-drive system, with snow tires all around, powered me through deep snows. And lots of other New Englanders also latched on to this iconic, if quirky, brand.

And the devotees are still out there. Every year at the Lars Anderson Museum in Brookline, Mass., there is a Saab Day. Vermont and New Hampshire license tags abound, tie-dye clothing comes out of closets, and the smell of patchouli oil permeates the pasture where the Saabs are lined up.

I drove Saabs for years, and was fearful when General Motors bought the company, but somehow in Sweden, I thought it might work out.

It won’t.

I’ve previously written about all the courtships taking place among U.S. and foreign car companies: Chrysler/Nissan/Fiat, Ford and Mazda, General Motors and anyone who will bring them to the prom.

This, however, is a divorce.

Saab wants to leave GM to move back home to Sweden, hoping that government will help it get through the separation.

This could be a good thing — letting the Swedes run Saab again.

While I don’t know how long the Ford/Volvo marriage will last (Volvos from China?), I do know that Ford did a much better job of handling the Volvo brand than GM did with Saab.

Ford let Volvo be Volvo, and the company broke the box of design for which it had become stodgily famous ("My Volvo wagon will seat six; it’ll run on diesel or trail mix," wrote New England’s own musical poet, Bill Morrissey).

Flowing lines, big horsepower, all-wheel-drive were added. But so too were ever more safety features for which Volvo had long been known.

Challenged once to try to tip over a Volvo XC90 SUV on a test track, I couldn’t do it. An anti-rollover system, developed by Ford and first used in this Volvo, was — as one test driver along with me noted — "like the hand of God coming down and proclaiming, ‘whump, no you won’t.’"

Saab, however, lost its groove for a period. It even used a Subaru in Saab-cladding to try to entice young buyers.

So it is with only mild regret that I watch this divorce unfold.

Bankruptcy is a means for protection from creditors. Protection means it can be spun off from GM and, hopefully, sold.

GM, as it did with the U.S. government, asked Swedish authorities for bailout bucks.

That was not going to happen.

Which left Jan Ake Jonsson, Saab’s managing director, telling the world that the company will "continue to explore all available options for funding and/or selling Saab and it was determined a formal restructuring would be the best way to create a truly independent entity that is ready for investment."

It was not that long ago that I was writing about consumers who found themselves "upside down" on their car loans — meaning that with long payment schedules, they often owed more on their cars when they came to trade them in than the cars were worth. And many years ago I was writing about those Saabs I saw upside down — but safe — in New England.

I didn’t think I’d ever have to write about the company itself being upside down — and not necessarily safe. 

More GlobalPost dispatches by Royal Ford:

Analysis: General Motors and Chrysler go begging

Decoding the Chicago Auto Show

Take a ride in the 2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage