The future of the SS
What bothers me more than the non-committal answer from Mark Reuss is the perception that both the GTO and G8 were sales failures. This is a perception that is perpetuated by many in the automotive press as evidenced by the quote attributed to Automobile Magazine.
The GTO was a very niche vehicle, that if memory serves me correctly was available with only two options, 17" or 18" wheels and auto or manual trans. The car was not available with navigation, XM, or Bluetooth. And still all 15 thousand or so that were brought here for the 3 model years were sold. There were years that the entire Saab Division didn't sell that many cars in the U.S. As I recall the plan was for 15 thousand a year and that's what was sold. How is that a failure?
The GTO has a loyal following and is maintaining very strong resale values. Even now a low mileage 2005 GTO will bring over $20 thousand. That is almost 70% of the original MSRP. It would be interesting to see how many units of any model car would be sold with such a narrow offering of options. It was a car that filled a niche for a fairly narrow segment of the market.
What bothers me more than the non-committal answer from Mark Reuss is the perception that both the GTO and G8 were sales failures. This is a perception that is perpetuated by many in the automotive press as evidenced by the quote attributed to Automobile Magazine.
The GTO was a very niche vehicle, that if memory serves me correctly was available with only two options, 17" or 18" wheels and auto or manual trans. The car was not available with navigation, XM, or Bluetooth. And still all 15 thousand or so that were brought here for the 3 model years were sold. There were years that the entire Saab Division didn't sell that many cars in the U.S. As I recall the plan was for 15 thousand a year and that's what was sold. How is that a failure?
The GTO has a loyal following and is maintaining very strong resale values. Even now a low mileage 2005 GTO will bring over $20 thousand. That is almost 70% of the original MSRP. It would be interesting to see how many units of any model car would be sold with such a narrow offering of options. It was a car that filled a niche for a fairly narrow segment of the market.
