Tweet
Interesting article...got a kick out of his driving impressions in fifth bullet below:lol:
December 15, 2009, 1:22 pm
Spyker, Saab’s New Supercar Suitor?
By NICK KURCZEWSKI
On Sunday, General Motors announced that Beijing Automotive Industry Holding had purchased the tooling and engineering rights to the Saab 9-3 and 9-5. Among the questions raised by the deal is whether G.M. plans to simply parcel off the most valuable pieces of the Saab brand. If so, several reports suggest Spyker Cars, a boutique Dutch company specializing in supercars, is the frontrunner for what remains.
Spyker, Saab’s New Supercar Suitor? - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com
Armando Arorizo/Bloomberg
Victor Muller, chief executive of Spyker, at the 2009 Los Angeles auto show.
It is the second time Saab has been linked to a small supercar company. In June, G.M. signed off on a deal to sell Saab to Koenigsegg, a little-known Swedish company with around 45 employees. But the agreement fell apart last month, and Saab was given a reprieve until year’s end to find another suitor or risk liquidation.
Enter Spyker. It may seem audacious for an automaker to try to acquire another one many times its size. Saab sold 93,300 units in 2008, while Spyker sells about 40-50 cars annually. But the Dutch company has strong financial backing, and as proved by its 2007 foray into Formula One, it is unafraid of bold moves.
Here’s a closer look at the small company with big dreams:
• Spyker Cars came to the world’s attention in 2000, when its founder and chief executive, Victor Muller, revived the long-forgotten Dutch nameplate. The original company began making cars in 1898 and went bust in the 1920s despite having built the first production car equipped with a six-cylinder engine, permanent four-wheel drive and four-wheel brakes.
• Today’s Spyker’s cars are powered by Audi-sourced V-8 or W-12 engines. But the cars are best known for their over-the-top design, including chrome air intakes, visible rivets on the body panels, jewel-like interior finishing and an exposed gear-shift linkage.
• With six models to choose from, Spyker actually has a wider vehicle lineup than Saab. Spyker’s range includes the C8 Aileron, the C8 Spyder SWB (short wheelbase), the C8 Laviolette LWB and SWB, the C12 Zagato and the D8 Peking-to-Paris S.U.V. Saab’s lineup includes the 9-3 and 9-5 sedans, along with SportCombi station wagon versions of the same.
• A base Saab 9-3 sports sedan starts at $30,360. A bargain-basement Spyker C8 Spyder SWB will set you back slightly more. Budget around $225,000 (minus options) to put a Spyker in your garage, according to a salesperson with Manhattan Motorcars.
• The flamboyant Spyker C8 is a head turner, but driving one can lead to more than a crick in the neck of an onlooker. During my time behind the wheel, the exposed gate of the six-speed manual gearbox proved as awkward to use as it was stunning to look at. Shifts were balky, and the position of the polished metal gear-lever proved uncomfortable after only a few minutes driving on the roads surrounding Spyker’s (former) factory in Zeewolde, roughly 30 miles east of Amsterdam.
• In a move that doesn’t bode well for tackling Saab’s troubles, Spyker is cutting its own costs by transferring production from its base in the Netherlands to Coventry, England. “In these challenging times, a small manufacturer like Spyker has to find ways to reduce costs as well as improve its efficiency,” said Mr. Muller. The company reports that out of 135 Netherlands-based employees, 45 positions will be “directly affected” by the move to Britain.
• Spyker frequently touts that it is publicly listed on the N.Y.S.E. Euronext Amsterdam. But one of the company’s main backers, the Russian bank Convers Group, has an image certain to get shareholders squirming. Convers Group “is controlled by Alexander Antonov, a Russian tycoon who was shot seven times and reportedly lost a finger in a failed assassination attempt in Moscow in March,” The New York Times reported. Vladimir Antonov, his son, is an executive at Convers and chairman of Spyker.
December 15, 2009, 1:22 pm
Spyker, Saab’s New Supercar Suitor?
By NICK KURCZEWSKI
On Sunday, General Motors announced that Beijing Automotive Industry Holding had purchased the tooling and engineering rights to the Saab 9-3 and 9-5. Among the questions raised by the deal is whether G.M. plans to simply parcel off the most valuable pieces of the Saab brand. If so, several reports suggest Spyker Cars, a boutique Dutch company specializing in supercars, is the frontrunner for what remains.
Spyker, Saab’s New Supercar Suitor? - Wheels Blog - NYTimes.com
Armando Arorizo/Bloomberg
Victor Muller, chief executive of Spyker, at the 2009 Los Angeles auto show.
It is the second time Saab has been linked to a small supercar company. In June, G.M. signed off on a deal to sell Saab to Koenigsegg, a little-known Swedish company with around 45 employees. But the agreement fell apart last month, and Saab was given a reprieve until year’s end to find another suitor or risk liquidation.
Enter Spyker. It may seem audacious for an automaker to try to acquire another one many times its size. Saab sold 93,300 units in 2008, while Spyker sells about 40-50 cars annually. But the Dutch company has strong financial backing, and as proved by its 2007 foray into Formula One, it is unafraid of bold moves.
Here’s a closer look at the small company with big dreams:
• Spyker Cars came to the world’s attention in 2000, when its founder and chief executive, Victor Muller, revived the long-forgotten Dutch nameplate. The original company began making cars in 1898 and went bust in the 1920s despite having built the first production car equipped with a six-cylinder engine, permanent four-wheel drive and four-wheel brakes.
• Today’s Spyker’s cars are powered by Audi-sourced V-8 or W-12 engines. But the cars are best known for their over-the-top design, including chrome air intakes, visible rivets on the body panels, jewel-like interior finishing and an exposed gear-shift linkage.
• With six models to choose from, Spyker actually has a wider vehicle lineup than Saab. Spyker’s range includes the C8 Aileron, the C8 Spyder SWB (short wheelbase), the C8 Laviolette LWB and SWB, the C12 Zagato and the D8 Peking-to-Paris S.U.V. Saab’s lineup includes the 9-3 and 9-5 sedans, along with SportCombi station wagon versions of the same.
• A base Saab 9-3 sports sedan starts at $30,360. A bargain-basement Spyker C8 Spyder SWB will set you back slightly more. Budget around $225,000 (minus options) to put a Spyker in your garage, according to a salesperson with Manhattan Motorcars.
• The flamboyant Spyker C8 is a head turner, but driving one can lead to more than a crick in the neck of an onlooker. During my time behind the wheel, the exposed gate of the six-speed manual gearbox proved as awkward to use as it was stunning to look at. Shifts were balky, and the position of the polished metal gear-lever proved uncomfortable after only a few minutes driving on the roads surrounding Spyker’s (former) factory in Zeewolde, roughly 30 miles east of Amsterdam.
• In a move that doesn’t bode well for tackling Saab’s troubles, Spyker is cutting its own costs by transferring production from its base in the Netherlands to Coventry, England. “In these challenging times, a small manufacturer like Spyker has to find ways to reduce costs as well as improve its efficiency,” said Mr. Muller. The company reports that out of 135 Netherlands-based employees, 45 positions will be “directly affected” by the move to Britain.
• Spyker frequently touts that it is publicly listed on the N.Y.S.E. Euronext Amsterdam. But one of the company’s main backers, the Russian bank Convers Group, has an image certain to get shareholders squirming. Convers Group “is controlled by Alexander Antonov, a Russian tycoon who was shot seven times and reportedly lost a finger in a failed assassination attempt in Moscow in March,” The New York Times reported. Vladimir Antonov, his son, is an executive at Convers and chairman of Spyker.
Comment