The Strange Story of a Dealership of a 'Defunct' Car Brand
Although the brand went bankrupt more than 10 years ago, this dealership is still dedicated to serving customers with impeccable service quality. The simple reason is that they are responsible for the cars they sell.
Although the Saab car brand was discontinued in 2011 after being abandoned by GM during the crisis, leading to bankruptcy, one dealership in Taiwan is not ready to close that sad chapter; on the contrary, it continues to maintain its operations even when there are no new cars to sell.
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Saab's dealership in Taiwan is very spacious even though the brand was discontinued more than 10 years ago. Photo: SAC |
Scandinavian Asia Company (SAC) has been representing the Saab brand since 1980, and continues to serve its customers faithfully even though the Swedish car brand was phased out more than a decade ago.
Surprisingly, it's not a small dealership. SAC owns and operates six service centers across Taiwan, and only does Saabs, with a network of 12 additional authorized workshops.
What’s even more impressive is that SAC’s new location opened just last year, meaning the dealership is not only staying open, it’s growing. The dealership still sells cars, but no longer new, only used.
"We are doing our best to keep Saab cars on the roads of Taiwan," said Salo Yang, vice president of SAC. "Providing services for Saab cars is our responsibility because all Saab cars in Taiwan are sold by SAC."
SAC continued to operate with remaining parts from GM and other suppliers such as AC Delco and Orio - companies that still supplied independent dealers.
About the Saab brand
Saab Automobile AB, commonly referred to simply as Saab, is a Swedish automobile manufacturer. Saab was originally a division of Svenska, a company founded in 1937 to produce aircraft for the Swedish Air Force.
As World War II drew to a close, the Svenska Company began looking for new markets to expand its operations. And the automobile manufacturer Saab was born.
Since its early days, Saab has been known as a manufacturer with many innovations and creativity, applying many advanced technologies in turbocharging, safety and green technology.
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Saab was once known as a brand with many innovations and creations. Photo: SAC |
On February 20, 2009, the Vänersborg court in Sweden received a restructuring request from Saab. The parent company, General Motors (GM), plans to remove the brand from its system by the end of 2009.
On June 11, 2009, Swedish car manufacturer Koenigsegg and a group of Norwegian investors signed an agreement to acquire Saab. However, on November 24, 2009, Koenigsegg withdrew its offer to buy Saab.
On December 1, 2009, the GM board decided to give Saab one month to evaluate potential buyers for itself.
On December 18, 2009, GM announced the "death" of Saab due to not finding a buyer.
In financial difficulty, in early 2010, GM signed an agreement to sell the Saab brand to Dutch luxury car manufacturer Spyker Cars NV.
On October 28, 2011, Spyker announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding to sell 100% of Saab Automobile shares to Youngman and Pang Da for an estimated price of 100 million euros. The memorandum of understanding is valid until November 15, provided that Saab remains in a state of restructuring.
By November 15, the deadline had expired but no concrete agreement had been reached. The problem was GM's veto power.
GM expressed concern that Saab was too close to its direct competitors in China, while many of the technologies Saab was using were GM's.
After months of struggling to get anywhere, on December 19, 2011, Saab filed for bankruptcy in a Swedish court.
June 2012, according to news agencyBloombergNational Electric Vehicle Sweden AB, controlled by Japan's Sun Investment and Hong Kong-based new energy power plant developer National Modern Energy Holdings Ltd, has agreed to acquire the Saab brand to transform it into an electric vehicle maker.
The new National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB was created with the sole purpose of buying Saab.