As you probably have already heard by now, SAAB was rescued on the 11th-hour on Tuesday when General Motors agreed to sell the struggling Swedish brand to Dutch sports car maker Spyker Cars N.V.

The deal is still subject to a European Commission approval of a €400 million loan from the European Investment Bank, but GM expects that the sale will be completed in mid-February.

Shortly after the two companies agreed on the terms of the sale, GM's European unit released a video with interviews with Jan Ake Jonsson, CEO of Saab Automobile and Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars.

The two men [...]

In the latest turn of events, Spyker has extended their offer to purchase Saab.

As we reported earlier, Spyker stated their 11-point proposal was only valid until 5:00 p.m. EST on Monday, December 21st. The deadline apparently proved unrealistic and Spyker's CEO, Victor Muller, said the offer is now "open-ended" and "it has been extended until further notice."

The new bid appears to address several key issues that GM had with Spyker's previous offer. According to several sources, the new proposal includes a revised bid ownership structure and eliminates Spyker's need to be approved for a European Investment Bank loan before the [...]

Reports out of Sweden this morning suggest Saab may have as many as three independent groups interested in purchasing the brand.

After Koenigsegg’s negotiations to acquire Saab ended last week, Chinese automaker Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation, which was set to become a minority investor in Koenigsegg, is said to have been the first candidate to contact GM about purchasing the Swedish manufacturer.

Credible reports also indicate that two American investment groups, billionaire investor Ira Rennert’s Renco and Wyoming-based Merbanco, are also actively pursuing the brand.

Merbanco president Christopher Johnston told Bloomberg yesterday that Merbanco would be willing to acquire a majority stake in [...]

After the gallery of new Saab 9-5 pics, here is the first video presented by Simon Padian on the design of the new Saab 9-5 sedan. It’s more of a promo video than anything, on the advanced “Scandinavian simplicity” of Saab, and only shows a three-quarter view of the 9-5. It will be officially presented, however, at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show this month, so hopefully we see some other material emerge in the near future.

At its release, the Saab 9-5 will be available with a 2.0 litre turbo engine with 220 hp, a 2.8 litre V6 turbo with 300 [...]

It won't be long before we see official shots of the all-new Saab 9-5 Sedan that is scheduled to make its global debut at this autumn's Frankfurt Motor Show. But until then, we'll have to be content with whatever spy material we get our hands on. In addition to the uncloaked photos of the new 9-5's rear-end and the first shots of the car's interior, our man also took this video of a bunch of 9-5 prototype models parked next to each other. Enjoy the video after the jump and if you're hungry for more info and photos on the [...]

This latest video of the Saab Performance Team is just as depressing as it is cool (additional helpings here and here). The cool part is obvious: when's the last time you saw a guy put a yellow convertible on two wheels across a frozen lake and drive it with one hand on the wheel? Depressing because it reminds you of how cool Saab is, which leads to remembering that Saab is bankrupt. Still, it's well worth the watch, and you even get footage of the coming 9-3X, and proof that the company should be saved, if only for the Performance [...]

The Saab 9X Air BioHybrid said hello to the world on a pedestal full of disco lights at the Paris Motor Show. It did not, however, move. So for now, if you want to see what the 9X Air will be able to do when it finally does get rolling, we have this little video courtesy of GM. The 9X BioHybrid and its Air BioHybrid sibling are supposed to provide clues to a forthcoming Saab 9-1 small car, and the video is quite cool. But frankly, we also find it a bit saddening, since we can't quite believe that we'll [...]

The next-generation Saab 9-5 sports sedan has been an on-off project for quite a while now and even though the vehicle is supposed to be in showrooms by 2009, we have yet to see any decent prototype models on the road. Instead, for the past few years Saab's engineers have been fiddling around with Opel Vectra and now, Opel Insignia test mules. These latest scoop pictures were shot by a reader of Sweden's Auto Motor & Sport magazine who stumbled upon a camouflaged Opel Insignia in a ferry boat from Denmark. A closer look inside revealed that the test mule [...]

Saab has just released a brief overview and hi-res images of the 9-X Air Concept which is set to debut in Paris early next month. As earlier reported, the 9-X Air Concept foreshadows the Saab 9-3 convertible successor in 2011.

The 9-X Air concept breaks the mould of conventional convertible design with a unique patent-pending ‘Canopy Top’. The design incorporates prominent rear pillars which curve upwards to mount the flat folding fabric top, wraparound glasshouse and includes a separate recessed rear window/windscreen.

The 1.4-liter turbo Saab BioPower engine uses E85 biofuel and hybrid technology. The engine delivers 200 hp (147 kW) with [...]

GM is looking to make future Saab models more compact than it had originally planned. The next-generation Saab 9-3 was planned to use GM’s global upper-medium Ypsilon-2 platform, but executives at GM of Europe have decided to move it to the more compact lower-medium Delta architecture.
With that, the upcoming Saab 9-1 will move from the originally planned Delta architecture to GM’s small Gamma architecture. The Saab 9-1, based on the Saab 9-X Concept, is planned to make its debut in 2012.



“We don’t want Saabs to grow in size but rather keep them [...]

The serious business has begun for the development of the new Saab 9-4X after it was caught entering the Nurburgring circuit in Germany by the good folks at Bridgetogantry.com presumably to do a bit of high speed testing on the new SUV.

The base for the new model will be General Motors' mid-size SUV Theta platform which is currently used for the Saturn Vue and Opel Antara, but it will be heavily revised to a more premium level and will be shared with the Cadillac BRX/SRX.

Sources have claimed this particular prototype has a 284 horsepower V6 engine under the hood mated [...]

Although we know next to nothing about it and a second-hand sketch from a few days ago is the only idea we have as to its appearance aside from the vague outline in the picture above, the Saab 9-1x is coming to Geneva. Presumably a competitor to the likes of Volvo’s C30 hatchback and the BMW 1-series (as it exists in Europe), the 9-1x will likely remain a mystery until next month’s debut.

Of course, embargoes do break, and when they do, it’s often with gratuitous press shots and complete information. But the newest [...]

Again an embargo break, this time the Saab 9-4X BioPower Concept falls victim to the ever-more cut-throat automotive industry. The Dutch AutoTelegraaf have either found these (low res) images on the net or have themselves broken the embargo.
The 9-4X BioPower concept looks production ready, and the newspaper claims that the Saab 9-4X BioPower will go into production this year at GM's plant in Mexico and should go on sale in the USA not much later, Europe will follow in the following months.
The 9-4X will have four-wheel-drive (hence the X) and the concept is powered [...]