Saab History Covers 2009 Saab Owners Convention

Posted on 18. Aug, 2009 by Ryan in 2000-2009

Film Credit: Saab History

This past weekend, I attended the 2009 Saab Owners Convention in Copper Mountain, Colorado. Thanks to both Cherry Hill Saab in New Jersey and Tynan’s Saab in Fort Collins, Colorado, I was able to attend and film the entire event throughout the weekend.

The event, which officially started on Thursday spanned four days, of which I arrived Friday, had its fair share of variable weather, but overall, it really seemed to have been pulled off by the folks at the Rocky Mountain Saab Club as well as all of the actively engaged and supportive convention goers. This convention in Colorado represented a 10-year anniversary by the same group where it took place in Keystone, Colorado back in 1999.

Upon arrival, I met up with a former Saab-Scania of America employee by the name of Arsey Miller, who together, initially connected with former Saab-Scania of America sales director & Saab Automobile Cars Division director, and interim President following Bob Sinclair’s retirement, Sten Helling. Helling, has been living in Colorado for a number of years managed to drive out to Copper Mountainn and meet up with us. Together, we interviewed Mr. Helling upon his arrival, then invited him to attend the evening’s activities that included an introduction by Jay Leno and a tribute to Bob Sinclair, then we said our goodbyes shortly after. This interview, to be provided in the near future, is quite incredible and was very kind of Mr. Helling to offer it to us here on Saab History.

The following morning began with a nice breakfast, where I met up with Brad Baldwin who provided us that wonderful writeup of the History of Saab Police Cars in Vail, Colorado. Together with Arsey Miller, Bill Miles and I, we all rehearsed our seminar we presented later that morning to an audience spanning the dealership, products, promotions and events that took place in Colorado since Saab began in this state in 1960. By the time we completed the presentation, we’ve all been working on for a good couple of weeks, the sun finally came out in full force after a good 12 hours of rain. At that point, everyone began cleaning their Saabs, including the the team that managed the Saab USA Heritage Collection that was on hand. I took that opportunity as you have seen in the video to begin filming the convention, interviewing attendees there to see the Saabs or test drive the new ones while also meeting lots of new people to the conventions and to Saab itself.

Later that afternoon, I headed over to see the spare parts offerings by the vendors and then got a chance to be a passenger in the much acclaimed reverse steering car, and I should tell you that was quite the experience. The particular people I managed to be driven by seemed to be naturals by retraining their intuition to turn the opposite way we conventionally do when navigating turns, I was impressed to say the least! As this activity came to an end, I prepared to photograph and film the group photo, the visual that has historically represented the attendance at a Saab convention. In addition, due to a supporting colleague at one of the best vantage points, I was able to be part of the photograph, in a noticeably bright 2009 lynx yellow Saab 9-3 Convertible thanks to Mike Shaw Saab in Denver, which I reviewed.

The Saturday night banquet certainly kept the audience interested by an engaging and historical account of SAAB Motors, Inc’s facilities at 100 Waterfront Street in New Haven, by none other than the legendary John Moss. The final speech that night prior to the awards ceremony, was by a Mike Colleran, Sales Director for the GM Premium brand and has been working with Saab for nearly five years who spoke about the future of Saab operations in the United States with a promise to see you at next year’s convention in Ohio. As the evening came to an end, I sat back and wondered if a future Saab Owners Convention would ever be able to match the overall stellar experience that this one had certainly been for me.

I had one of the best times I have ever had, even with all of my Saab History coverage commitments and volunteering, I saw this as the pinnacle of all Saab Owners Conventions on the eve of a newly independent era for Saab Automobile and their new owner, Koenigsegg.

Saab History Covers 2009 Saab Owners Convention

No Responses to “Saab History Covers 2009 Saab Owners Convention”

Leave a Reply

Photos on flickr