As we reported earlier, Saab’s bankruptcy was closed last week after eleven years. But just because Saab went bankrupt in 2011 didn’t mean the last Saab had rolled out of the factory gates. After the bankruptcy of Saab Automobile AB in 2011, Chinese businessman Kai Johan Jiang took control of the “ruins” by founding the company NEVS, which bought the bankrupt estate in Trollhattan.
From that last package of Saab 9-3 cars, which were assembled already under the new ownership of the NEVS company, deliveries began in early 2014 to customers who ordered the NEVS 9-3. Despite the fact that the cars were no longer manufactured by Saab Automobile, the cars had Saab logos on the hood thanks to a trademark agreement with defense group Saab AB. NEVS restarted production of the Saab 9-3 Aero Sedan MY14 on 2 December 2013 at Saab’s former Trollhättan assembly plant.
Only a few months after the first cars were delivered, Nevs was unfortunately put into reconstruction and defense Saab withdrew the rights to use the brand. It only had time to roll out just 420 units of Nevs 9-3. The Griffin is replaced with a badge displaying the Saab logotype, as well as new seats.
These cars have already become highly sought after by collectors, so in the last couple of years several 2014 NEVS 9-3s have been sold on the secondary market at quite high prices. Just yesterday, another one of these last Saab cars was sold on a Swedish auction website KVD.
When the car was new, it was sold for SEK 279,000 (which was about $43,000 at the exchange rate at the time), so it held up relatively well as the auction ended at SEK 151,000, which is $14,500 at today’s exchange rate. One would say, not a little, but not a lot, because the car does not yet belong to the category of classic cars and it is almost 9 years old. Of course, the value of the Swedish krona against the US dollar also fell (since 2014, the value of the Swedish krona has fallen against both the euro and the US dollar).
If you also take into account that the number of Saabs is decreasing at a furious rate, this is supposed to be an investment that will stand the test of time. According to the “Hagerty” website – we should expect a lot more from Saab – Big(ger) prices, fresh interest, shrinking supply — that’s new the Saab cocktail.
