The Wall Street Journal reports that SAABs will be returning to U.S. showrooms in a few months. Earlier this year Spyker, which itself manufactures only a few dozen automobiles per year, purchased SAAB from General Motors for $74 million. (GM had paid $725 million to buy a partial and then complete interest in SAAB and then ran the company into the ground. What a terrific return in investment!) The 2011 version of the SAAB 9-5 Aero will be in showrooms by July, 2011. Unfortunately, the 9-5, pictured second above, is not quite as striking as the Spyker Squadron, which finished 5th in the 2009 24 hours of Lemans, pictured third, or the Mach 2.1 SAAB Viggen ("Thunderbolt"), shown first. Nor is there any word on whether Spyker will retain the elite "Black Panel" feature described here:
Hopefully Spyker will reverse the slide that coincided with SAAB's affiliation with GM.
Here's a link to the Journal story, and then another Journal "first look" at the new 9-5.
