I know carmakers are suffering and I know Saab are taking a beating in various places around the world.


But this is just…….just……….stabworthy.


In 2007, Saab Australia sold 1862 vehicles and things were looking up. That year, we had anniversary models and with a 2008 vehicle waiting in the wings, things were looking up.


In 2008, that new model hasn’t been well received, despite it’s improvements and the new TTiD engine being available, and Saab are only going to break the 1,000 sales mark in the 10th month of the year. There’s a good chance they’ll struggle to break 1,300 sales this year.


Saab Australia sold just 40 vehicles in September 2008. That’s a massive 79% fall from the same month last year. Saab are down 37% for the year in total, with 967 vehicles having found a home so far this year.


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For those who are interested, here’s a chart of the Australian sales for September. The data is sorted in descending order by sales for that month.


Ay Carumba.


http://www.trollhattansaab.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/aussiesales-sept08.jpg


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From Marketing Week (http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=62789&d=258&h=262&f=3) comes news that GM, like other car companies all over the world, are slashing their ad spend:


<blockquote>General Motors (GM), which owns brands that include Chevrolet, Opel, Saab and Vauxhall, is to cut 20% of its managerial overheads. Alain Visser, chief marketing officer for General Motors Europe, is one of the group managers facing a pay cut.


According to one of GM’s roster agencies, Visser has instructed agencies to “cut marketing spend to a minimum and focus on highlighting the strengths of individual cars in the most minimalist methods possible.”

</blockquote>
File that under “reasons why now is a bad time to be blending Saab, Cadillac and Hummer”.


I need to fill in some gaps in my own data, but I’ve got an idea about looking at Saab sales here in Australia in the last few years (i.e. pre- and post-Hummer). Saab Australia was turfed out and GM Premium brands was formed in its place to accommodate the arrival of Hummer and Cadillac (and possibly Corvette in the future).


Whilst the number of brands doubled in 2008, I’m pretty sure the human and financial resources would have stayed pretty much the same.


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