Blunder Buses: Saab 9-5

It was the car that almost never came, and went far too soon. It was a car burdened with a sudden and near-unattainable goal – to rescue the company that made it. A company already in enough existential trouble that an all-new product would be far from enough to save it. But a new Saab 9-5 honeypot was a hell of a lot better than having no honeypot at all. Its promise was a major reason why a succession of hopefuls reckoned they could save a company that hadn’t made a dime in a decade. Their quests, of course, were in vain.

One could blame the sub-prime mortgage market for Saab’s woes. You could even blame former US president Barack Obama. Or General Motors product god Bob Lutz, and GM’s bureaucratic, indecisive, slow-motion product planning. Or the car buying customer, for not buying enough Saabs to keep the company afloat.

Except, of course, that the customer is always right. If the product isn’t good enough to win sales, then a company only has itself to blame. Or in Saab’s case, the company’s owner, too. Which was, of course, the aforementioned GM.