Why Saab’s 9-7x SUV Failed For General Motors – SlashGear

The Saab 9-7x was offered for sale from 2005 to 2009, a relatively short period of time, considering it was Saab’s first SUV. It may be easy to point the finger at Trailblazer underpinnings and fairly uninspired styling for the 9-7x’s demise, but the story is deeper than that. To understand the death of the TrailSaab Blazer9-7x, you need to see what financial shape General Motors was in during the SUV’s final years. To put it in technical terms, General Motors’ general monetary outlook in 2008 and 2009 was “not good” and “historically bad.” According to SEC filings in 2009, General Motors had managed to report a loss of a full six billion dollars over the first quarter of the year. It was like General Motors had suddenly forgotten how to make money. The truth is, no matter how good the Saab 9-7x might be, it likely wasn’t going to be around very long anyway.

As one would expect, Saab was heavily involved in the financial foibles. If your filings to the federal government have a separate line item titled “Saab Related,” you know things might be bad. Looking at the sales numbers gives a little more credence to the fact the 9-7 wasn’t here to stay. In 2008, the last year that complete sales numbers are available, Saab sold a total of 3,150 9-7xs. Comparatively, GMC sold 21,864 Envoys and Chevy sold 68,235 Trailblazers. Sales were downright shameful. The rest of Saab only sold 16,187 cars.