SAAB News: Youngman Snatches Up Saab's Phoenix Platform

[William Maley]

William Maley

Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com

December 23, 2011

Earlier this week, we reported on which companies were going after Saab's assets, including Youngman Automotive and possibly Turkey. Well, one of Saab's biggest assets has been sold to Youngman.

Youngman said yesterday, they had purchased Saab’s “Phoenix” vehicle architecture. Phoenix was a homegrown architecture that would begin underpinning new Saab vehicle, beginning with the new 9-3. The architecture is said not have any relation to any GM based architecture.

Rachel Pang, a Youngman Spokesperson told Automotive News China that the firm has already gone through the motions of setting up a firm in Sweden to develop new cars on Phoenix.

Source: Automotive News China via Left Lane News

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[Intrepidation]

Joy. All of Saab's hard work (I wonder how far in development it was) will get picked off by the Chinese buzzards.

[William Maley]

Joy. All of Saab's hard work (I wonder how far in development it was) will get picked off by the Chinese buzzards.

My guess it was somewhere in the prototype stage.

[Drew Dowdell]

I wonder who willbget the Saab name.

[A Horse With No Name]

Interesting...like I said....it would be nice to preserve some of the unique SAAB genius in building cars.

We are looking at the Volvo C30 to replace the wife's crap box (2005 Xb, approaching 200k). The Volvo guys, including the SCCA Volvo guys in the know, say that the Chinese are much more serious about doing things right and not cutting corners than Ford was when the owned Volvo.

We'll see what happens...

Joy. All of Saab's hard work (I wonder how far in development it was) will get picked off by the Chinese buzzards.

It does really seem like a waste in a way...

[ZL-1]

IIRC Youngman is co-invested in the JV that is developing the platform. Also Phoenix is heavily based on Epsilon I althought the GM parts content is supposedly quite low (10% if what I read at Saabsunited is correct).

[eldiablobanshee]

i have read that this is not true, has anyone confirmed this.

[Drew Dowdell]

I think it is a bit early for anyone to have bought anything, more investigation is needed.

[Robert Hall]

I wonder who is going to end up w the brand name.

[ZL-1]

I wonder who is going to end up w the brand name.

SAAB AB (the defense/aerospace company that used to be the owner of SAAB pre-GM) is still the owner of the SAAB name/brand. So it will be up to Mr. Wallenberg and family to make that decision if and when suitors move ahead in the process of buying SAAB Automobile AB.