General Motors To Sell Saab USA Heritage Collection Cars

Posted on 19. Dec, 2008 by Ryan in 2000-2009

Photo Credit: Saab History 2007 (L-to-R) Peter Backstrom Saab Car Museum Sweden / Dick Balsey GM Heritage Collection

Photo Credit: Saab Automobile USA

Jalopnik has reported that the 1995 Saab 900 Pikes Peak Car, will be going up for auction at the Barret Jackson auction house early next year in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The 1995 Saab 900 Pikes Peak Car is the first car in the Saab USA Heritage Collection to be auctioned off, and it may not be the last.

I have checked the Barret-Jackson website and have not seen it listed, so I’ve contacted them as well as Saab Automobile USA to confirm or deny these reports. They have confirmed this now.

I have also contacted Jan-Willem Vester at Saab Automobile USA and he has confirmed these reports as well.

In finding that these reports are true, and I am absolutely livid and floored that GM can be so short-sighted in this regard.

I have asked many people from Saab Automobile USA, to the GM Heritage Collection to the Saab Car Museum as to why this car can’t be offered to the Saab Car Museum in Trollhättan, Sweden! and here’s what I have understood at this time from the GM Heritage Collection as well as Saab Automobile USA, which seem to be conflicting statements:

The Saab Car Museum is not part GM, therefore we can’t send the cars to them – GM Heritage Collection

The Saab Car Museum does not have the budget in Sweden to acquire even a few cars at this time – Saab Automobile USA

No response as of the time of this posting from Peter Backstrom at the Saab Car Museum.

It is hard hearing these responses after everything that I have done to maintain and save every bit of Saab’s history. Message to GM if you are listening: Don’t let it this car or others die in private hands, please send these cars to the Saab Car Museum

This move from GM to begin auctioning off their history, better not set a precident so that they can continue selling and auctioning off the rest of the Saab USA Heritage Collection.

This cash-strapped greed of GM is really starting to get on my nerves. GM is now telling us through their actions, that they never really cared about the future of the Saab brand, nor the history by selling it as soon as they became financially desperate. If we don’t see a fully concerted effort to tell the world the future of the Saab Automobile brand, well, then, it’ll be hard to see where things go from here.

I am hoping that Peter Backstrom at the Saab Car Museum in Sweden is planning on acquiring this car, but then again, I’m surprised that his counterpart here in the United States at the Heritage Collection, Dick Balsey who apparently has been let go, would send it to an auction before contacting Peter. Perhaps Dick was let go before GM’s beancounters made the decision to start auctioning off the Saab USA Heritage Collection?

Evidently, what’s going on here is that the higher ups in General Motors in Detroit that hold the financial strings are making these things happen and not allowing people like Jan-Willem Vester at Saab Automobile USA, nor Peter Backstrom nor my contacts at the GM Heritage Collection, save the fleet. I respect these people, but don’t respect the people forcing these decisions by GM at this time. It’s unfortunate that the people matter that care about the Saab brand within GM, have their hands effectively tied on these things, which is really, really sad.

This news has made me wonder if the heritage center materials (press releases and photos), and the videos at the GM Media archive would be at risk.

While speaking with my contact at the GM Heritage Center today about many things including the cars, I have understood the following about those two archive collections as well and here is the response: “Both collections are not going anywhere, however if something happens, they would automatically be going to the Saab Car Museum“.

This is good to hear, so in response to this statement, why can’t the cars also be “automatically” sent to the Saab Car Museum like the heritage collection and media archives as well? Why the double-standard on the cars? Is it just the potential cash that could be had from selling a few cars?

It’s looking like the beginning of the end of Saab under GM ownership, so it’s more clear now than ever that it needs a buyer soon before GM kills whatever is left of anything at this point.

I hope at the very least, that anything Saab related that leaves General Motors ownership, is sent to the Saab Car Museum, because as we know that the museum is owned by the town of Trollättan, Sweden, not GM.

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