Recently I wrote about what has and might happen to Saab after a Swedish Court declared the company bankrupt. Two parties have expressed interest in the company. One of them was the Chinese automotive company, Youngman and the other was the Turkish government.

There are several other things that I have added in that article. Firstly, what will happen to existing inventories (new unused cars, spare parts, etc.) and also whether existing warranties will still be in use? Now after more than a week after Saab went bankrupt, several incidents have transpired.

Firstly, Youngman (the same company that tried to save the Saab name) has purchased Saab’s most valuable intellectual property which is the Phoenix concept vehicle architecture (pictured above). The Phoenix concept was a homegrown developed platform that Saab plans to use for the next generation 9-3 model.

A Youngman spokesperson mentioned that the company already has plans to set-up a firm in Sweden to develop and hopefully built cars based on the Phoenix concept platform. Not much is known about the Phoenix concept platform except that it was developed within Saab itself and is not related to any General Motors designs or platforms.

Youngman has wanted, from the very beginning, to develop and build vehicles from the Phoenix platform and that was their utmost intention when the Chinese company first tried buying Saab from General Motors. Whether Youngman is able to acquire Saab’s other properties (badging, factories, etc.) is unknown at the moment.

Another thing that happened with regards to Saab’s bankruptcy is that Saab North America has hired an administrator to deal with creditors in the United States. It seems that even though the company’s headquarters has filed for bankruptcy, Saab North America is not following suit. Saab North America has engaged a Michigan firm (McTevia and Associates) to deal with creditors and they have no immediate plans to file for bankruptcy.

According to the company’s president, they are trying to stay away from liquidation and they are aware that there is not much hope and creditors might force them into bankruptcy. They are seriously hoping that someone will come and save the company. Saab North America has 188 dealers and around 2400 new and unused vehicles on their dealers’ lots and their fate is still unknown.

Lastly, something that concerns Saab owners which is the issue of existing vehicle warranties. Many predicted or thought that when Saab was declared bankrupt, all existing warranties will be considered void. General Motors has offered some lifeline with regards to this.

They have announced that they are actively notifying owners in North America and Canada that the company will honour any warranty to vehicles that were bought before February of 2010. That was the same period when General Motors sold the company to Spyker. It seems very much that Saab owners who bought their vehicles after that period are left out in the cold.

I wonder what will or have happen to Saab owners locally in Singapore. Are their warranties still valid or did something else has happened?

Photo credit: Auto Blog and Net Car Show

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