For the first time in a decade I went down to the Washington (DC) Auto Show this morning. I'm starting to wonder if I should consider replacing my old 900 with something a bit less long in the tooth, and figured that I would be able to talk to someone from Saab about the current models, and find out if Saab could convice me that it's resolved both the dismal problems with electronics (repeatedly discussed in this ng) and Saab's refusal to accept responsibility for fixing them (ditto).
Wrong.
There were a half-dozen Saabs on the floor of the new Convention Center, but that was about it:
- No brochures about any of the models that potential customers could take home
- A "bingo card" that you could mail in to get additional info was the *only* printed material available.
- No information about the location (or even existence) of the two Saab dealers in the Washington area.
- A desk, devoid of any Saab logo or other sign. The only reason to guess that it belonged to the Saab exhibit was that all other desks in the vicinity had other companies' logos splattered all over them.
- One rent-a-salesdroid who appeared to be terminally bored, who had no badges on his coat to say that he was associated with Saab other than that he was sitting behind the logo-free desk. This clown insisted that Saab has no reputation for electrical design or reliability problems. There was a second droid who swapped the desk with the first, but the one not at the desk made no attempt to engage visitors to the exhibit in any conversation.
Question: is this typical of Saab's (non-)participation in auto shows, or is it part of a deliberate attempt by GM to run down Saab sales to the point that management can "justify" dropping the marque?
I think I'll stop in at the local BMW dealer tomorrow. At the show they had a nice X3 with exellent cargo space (a critical issue for me, and the reason that I bought my 900 in the first place) -- plus, the BMW people at the show acted like they gave a damn about their potential customers.
Joe Morris