Saab History Visits Saab/Saturn Dealer in Canada

Posted on 25. Feb, 2008 by Ryan in 2000-2009, Canada, Dealerships

Photo Credits: Saab History

As a follow-up to the Saab Automobile dealership network in the United States, I am providing us some information about the Saab Dealership network in Canada.

Today, there are approximately 31 Saab dealerships spanning the Canadian/United States border from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. In Canada, most Saab dealerships are combined with Saturn Dealerships and this integration is commonplace.

At the 2008 North American International Auto Show, I got the chance to briefly visit one of these Saab/Saturn Dealerships in Windsor, Ontario during my first day in the region this past January.

Upon arriving at this dealership, I was immediately greeted by a number of their representatives. When asked what they could do for me, I immediately indicated who I was, what website I was representing and that my purpose in visiting was to see what what the Saab/Saturn branded dealership experiences in Canada, were all about for perspective and existing customers.

I found that this experience at this particular dealership, had a stronger focus on the Saturn brand. After asking about why this focus was what it was, the sales represenatives indicated that the pricing for the Saab models over the past few years have been significantly higher than they would have liked and sales have reflected this. As a Saab enthusiast, I could understand their position however, I was very interested and excited about the focus on the customer being first priority in this dealership. I recall that this “customer first” focus is and always has been a staple of what makes the Saturn brand as successful as they are today.

In terms of design and layout, I did see a significant difference between this Saab / Saturn dealership and the Saab of Queensway, Toronto dealership that I previously wrote about, both inside and out.

Although I did not have a lot of time to spend at this dealership, I did enjoy my experience and thanked the staff for their time. I hope to hear more from other individuals who have had experiences in Canada at these Saab / Saturn dealerships.

One of the questions that stuck with me after I left this dealership, was the following:

Saab Automobile’s new premium concept car debuts in Geneva on March 3rd. This concept car has been indicated by Saab Automobile to be sharing the same platform as the Saturn Astra models already in production today.

This is the million dollar question: Once this concept car hits production and ends up in the showrooms, specifically the Saab/Saturn showrooms in Canada, how will Saab / Saturn dealerships advertise and market this model? Hypothetically having two of the same models on the floor, just how challenging will the task be for these dealerships to differentiate these vehicles in their marketing and advertising, given that they will be sold side-by-side all the while being based off of the same platform? I think this will be a difficult task for their marketing teams for both Saab & Saturn within the realm of this dealership arrangement in Canada.

A few days later into my time in Detroit, I also had a nice opportunity to meet with and have a one-on-one chat with Jill Lajdziak, the President & CEO of Saturn North America over a dinner Saturn sponsored for us social media. One of the big take aways from this dialog surrounded not Saab’s premium concept car, nor other aspects of Saab that I mentioned to her, but my experience at this dealership. My last question to her consisted of Saturn’s “customer first” focus as I indicated earlier, more specifically why Saturn continues to succeed in customer satisfaction at the dealership level and why many other brands fail.

Saab History Visits Saab/Saturn Dealer in Canada

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Photos on flickr