Music for cabriolets: Floex - Veronika's Dream

Floex is a guy from Prague, the Czech Republic, an author with a couple of awesome songs. He started solo, now with band, he's composing, playing keyboards and clarinet. The tracks are swimming in the smooth and dreamy waters. And from time to time he comes with a song, which gets me instantly. Such as this one, I've found myself stuck in playing it in the Saab over and over again. The video clip is sick:) ... in the good sense ...

He also composed music to the wonderful computer logic puzzle games Samorost 2 and Machinarium.

The web talk with Victor Muller

Jalopnik held recently an interview with Victor Muller, the owner of Spyker Cars and ex-owner of Saab. It was a web talk, where the readers could ask questions.

The debate was mostly about Spyker, but also partially about Saab. An informative and also very inspiring talk.

Two things stayed in my mind:

Q: "Ever think about having another go with SAAB?"
VM: "Every day."

Q: "What has been your most important personal/business lessons from your time at SAAB and Spyker?"
VM: "Nulla tenaci invia est via (for the tenacious, no road is impassable). The next part is easy."  (the latin part is  Spykers motto)

Mahindra, DongFeng and the others

Dongfeng, Mahindra, QingDao. I would never anticipate that after buying a swedish convertible I will learn about companies, with names sounding as when you play table tennis. And they would decide about the future of my beloved brand. Yes, the world is more and more globalised, but still...

OK. Saab is again in problems. The chinese city of QindDao doesn't fulfill its contractual obligations, in clear words it doesn't pay what was agreed to pay. So NEVS has no money for production. How nice.

Saabblog.net, sourcing swedish radio P4 West writes, the production will not continue until calendar week 33, which starts at 10. August 2014. This is 7.5 weeks from now on.

NEVS seeks for new partners in the Saab case. One of them is the indian Mahindra & Mahindra, nicknamed M&M, which is producing vehicles and is active in energy sector and farm equipment. M&M is a part of the huge Mahindra Group, which is with 180.000 employees larger than for example Microsoft (130k).

The second is DongFeng, a chinese state owned car manufacturer. It's one of the largest chinese car companies and established in 1969, one of the very old ones. They had joint activities with Nissan, Honda and Renault in the recent past.

The reason of interest is the PhoeniX platform. One consideration could be also the electric Saab, which was showcased in Trollhattan already 2-3 years ago. But after the recent announcement of Tesla motors, giving it's patents to the public, this might not be the case anymore.

Deals of this size are not done within weeks, so even the week 33, when the production should continue, is imho a very optimistic scenario.

So Saab is again in coma. For how long and how the "good morning" will look like, is unknown.

Btw. on this blog I use tags. In the dramatic GM/Victor Muller/NEVS times I had one tag called "saab drama" (see below). I never thought I will have to use it again.

GM recalls Saab convertibles 2004 - 2011

GM recalls 28.789 Saab 9-3 convertibles built between 2004-2011 to the repair service. It is a proactive recall because of the "automatic tensioning system cable in the driver’s side front seat belt retractor that could break." The system will be replaced and also GM is covering the replacement of the system on the passengers side.

The original article also states that the system is not the same in sedan and convertible, so sedans are not a part of the issue.

This recall is based on owners complaints to NHTSA, but since there isn't other geographical information, this recall is most probably valid worldwide.

Given the Saab situation, a wise thing to do now is to try at least a call to some (ex-) authorised service in your country having the VIN ready.

Solstad Saab promo materials

A very interesting document landed in my mailbox. Solstad was a small company in Sweden producing special custom rebuilds of your (not only) Saab. Towing vehicles, a convertible rebuild, UTE, ambulance cars, whatever you imagine. The document is a scan of an original promo collateral, which I've never seen before.

Because the source of this rare piece is the dealership / service Saab Suchomel in the Czech Republic, which owner visited Robert Solstad a couple of time, it is good possible, it comes from him.

This is it, higher resolution after click: 

... and this last one is a scan from a history photography of Solstads at Saab Suchomel:

A piece of history. Somehow, still hoping that it continues... as every Saab fan.

Sundown

When the sun goes down, you drive direction east and try to do a photo ... a strange selfie comes

Flower power Saab

Feeding the Saab obsession

Every hobby remains a hobby when it is performed in a frequent manner. The Saab obsession belongs in this category. Every Saab spotted around feeds the virus. My feeder is this Saab 9000. It parks nearly every day below my balconee. It belongs to a friend, which is a high quality coffee importer. And before it belonged to another friend, an experimental and progressive musician, which switched to this classic Saab 900.

Well yes, not only doctors and architects, but also coffee and music experts are owning Saabs.

It's a 9000 CSE, born in 1993, it's hirsched to 270-280 horses, it has aero exhaust and 322.000 km on the clock. I considered to buy it, but it's now in good hands.

Saab Sonett convertible, the ideal hillclimb tool

Saab Sonetts convertibles without roof are extremely rare. Some are completely custom with a special history, like the german Sonett III posted here before and some seem to be like the roof was simply cutted off, like the one in the video.

The youtube description says: 1968 SAAB Sonett. roof cut off, 1500cc V4, Column shift, freewheeling 4 speed transmission (SAAB Sport&Rally Spec1 gears). [original video]. 

Nice ride actually! :) There are more rides with this Sonett and driver online, for example the 2010 takeoff (the Sonett is seen from the rear side) or the rally sounding 2010 drive.

This whole thing brought me to thinking about how to mount a camera on my head without the need of a helmet. A fool in a Saab convertible with an antenna on his head. Hopely nobody calls ambulance ...

The hillclimb was organised by the Vintage Sports Car Club of America.