Sadly from 2030 on all combustion cars including classics will be banned from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025 on by reducing petrol stations to only one state operated central gas station per city. From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027 on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke crime....
Good news for North America. We will import all you cool classic and soon to be classic cars for pennies on the dollar! 😂 I should start a Porsche importing business 👍
@@Schlipperschlopper Buddy , that is BS , there is nothing set in stone , everything can still change , I know that 100% Polish gov wont inforce that ridiculus law as Polish economy is growing and gasoline vechicles are still needed , and if wester Europe wont produce it , we will buy it from Asia ...
@@adammarcinkowski-ko3el It’s sad how right wing people are so sensitive to conspiracy theories and drama. A bunch of Drama queens! But anyway, I would certainly vote in favor of protecting the environment and improving air quality and reducing smell and noise.
@@lumberjackdreamer6267 Ok buddy electric cars are stupid , whole concept wont work because of recharging cars that take sevar hour , and batteries that are costly for envoierment to build and utilize , only eco option are hydrogen cars , and that should be target ... I am bisexual , so I am far from right wing...
My father was an engineer and test driver at SAAB during the 60s, and he drove SAABs his entire life. He died just shortly before SAAB went bust. Even here on the roads in Sweden SAABs is becoming a rare sight. The fall of the Swedish car industry is such a shame. Since Volvo is owned by the Chinese I no longer see it as a Swedish car brand,
Was Volvo more Swedish when it was owned by Ford? If anything, Geely's hands off approach gave Volvo the ability to do their own thing again (instead of being forced to use Ford's platform). Volvo has seen it's biggest success since Geely took over. It's just as Swedish as before, just less American and more Chinese.
It's so heart-melting to see such cool and quirky cars left forever in such a state. Hopefully someone can save them, they definitely don't deserve to rot away
They wouldn't be rotting away if Saab and it dealerships hadn't fail financially. Which makes me think maybe these cars do deserve to be rotting away. Saab didn't go bust because their cars were selling so well.
@@RichardMcLaren Remind us what's "heart melting" about some old, undesirable, vandalized Saabs, Peugeots, and Renaults passing time away in a former dealership of a failed automaker? And why are we humanizing them by saying things like "they definitely don't deserve to rot away". Speaking of bizarre things to say.
How sad! What a waste of perfectly good cars rotting senselessly. I also can’t stand vandalism no respect for anyones property. Hopefully someone will see value in this facility and bring it back to life. It always makes to sad to see places abandoned and forgotten.
@@lucasRem-ku6eb These are becoming valuable collector cars at this point especially since these are older Saabs, not to mention that old Renault. It coild be coverted into saab museum and offer service by some saab funclub. Aside of that they could be enjoyed and driven instead of wasting away.
@@lucasRem-ku6ebu know saabs are getting rarer and rarer ur acting like a anti car lover cuz if u are u are here making more people sad that most car people don't care and take their interest to toyota or nissan and leave behind the turbo charged saabs which has a amazing sounding engine
Forget the paperwork, keep them for extra parts, and swap in the new parts, into the high mileage used version of the exact same cars, basically rebuild the same high mileage version back to its new condition. Paperwork not needed.
I had a Turbo 5-speed and LOVED it till a 200k mile head gasket + turbo failure. All European cars reach a point where they are prohibitively expensive to keep up, but the passing power of 911 Turbo in a car that held two adults two kids and two dogs in comfort and safety, with the LOWEST insurance rate of any car I've ever owned... Wish I could get that back!!!
I wonder what you guys do with cars, Saabs are known here for easily doing 500.000 km+, they joke here that is their break in time. Do you refuse to give your cars proper maintenance or what?
If you have done 200,000 miles and then the headgasket has gone you have done very well, at 53 including cars I've bought my wife I've had at least 30 , 3 off them being Saab's I've had around 4 that have had headgasket problems and they were all under 100,000 when it happened actually my wife's 07 207 1.6 Peugeot went last year on about 63,000 , the car was bought brand new by my father when he retired. In the UK cars are normally scrapped by 150,000 at the most.
@@jeremywentworth1833 ok, I see what you mean, but would you consider a 1.6 Peugeot 207 really a car? ;-) The primary problem is, that many people do not watch water temperatures and other health signs. My father had a BMW 518i he drove for more than 400k miles, but three engines, as he always ignored water temps. There are also "cars" which mostly hide this information from their drivers - these people should drive today EVs, or ride public transport.
@@spxram4793 my car is a 58 plate Saab 93 sportwagon vector, my wife's is the 207., Regardless of what mileage a car does generally here in the UK cars a broken for parts by 150,000 at the most.
Euro cars get too expensive to maintain? No not necessarily. I have a 2006 volvo that keeps going strong at 200,000 miles. If something does break, there are so many of them that parts are very easy to find. Speaking from someone who lives in europe here.
As an English man who's owned 3 Saab's a 900 Turbo convertible followed by a ,93 convertible and still have a 93 sportwagon I never like to see Saab's just left abandoned , if it wasn't for them been locked in reverse to remove ignition key they may well have been stolen. The old Renault 4 van deserves to be saved as well not seen 1 in years also Saab 9000 not seen 1 of them in years, however I did see a LHD Lancia Thema yesterday which along with the Fiat croma and Alfa 164 are all the same car .
I live in Finland, and i had to check out my saab 9-5's service history. It turned out that my exact car was from that dealership. And it had been there it's first days after coming from sweden factory. It's very harsh to see that dealership went down under, but hopefully someday those cars and their history will be saved by someone.
@@ForgottenBuildings in 1999, when it arrived from sweden and had it's first service by 0km/brand new state. I have to check some time if i can find other details, but it was at one point also diplomat car in France 1999-2002
Until a year ago, none of these cars had been vandalized, and most of them actually belonged to a Saab enthusiast (albeit not a very wealthy one) who regularly serviced them in his garage. Except that an urbex video was posted on youtube with 1 million views and lots of visible evidence of the dealership, and today lots of people are having fun destroying these cars. And the owner doesn't have the money to secure the premises...
Bro liked this video while not realizing this is comment is actually criticizing the whole “urbex” community with this comment 😅. Eventhough it looks abandoned, it is still probably someone’s property and stuff. Don’t f*ck with it!
J'en profite pour passer un message : si il y a des amateurs de 4L par ici qui reconnaissent l'endroit, débrouillez-vous comme vous voulez, mais allez sauver cette fourgonnette. Elle n'a pas l'air d'être trop endommagée, et pour la carte grise, comme elle a encore ses plaques, avec une bonne relation à la pref ou à la police, vous pouvez retrouver le titulaire (ou ses héritiers) pour obtenir le changement à votre nom.
As far as i understand, the cars in the dealer are not theirs to give away. They belong to Saab itself, and Saab going bankrupt means all their property also no longer belongs to them. The claiment can seize these properties in place of the debt, but what would, let's say, a steel factory do with hundreds of office chairs, so they don't bother with that, instead of getting compansated with money through lawsuits and insurances. Just like with a plaintiff, if you owe money, they want money. They don't want what you bought/did with that money.
@mrb2349 also technically the dealer doesn't necessarily "own" the inventory they have even if they aren't bankrupt. Dealers pay what is called a "floor plan" on their vehicles, which is pretty much a line of credit to purchase vehicles and then resell them. Once the vehicle is sold the dealer pays back the lender & they keep the profit. This is why a lot of dealers offer rebates & discounts (or even send vehicles to auction) after a certain amount of time a vehicle is on the lot because they rather break even or lose money than pay the lender interest.
This was a weird time for Saab. I remember being at a major auto show and talking with the Saab rep about their inventory situation. Our local dealer that was just built had zero cars. They were friendly, but had no explanation. I'm sure they saw the writing on the wall and were only at the auto show because they already signed a contract. Saab made really nice, niche cars.
@@ForgottenBuildingsI’m in Australia and if I remember correctly, GM were marketing and taking orders on the latest/last SAAB vehicles… even though they hadn’t started production. It was a dumpster fire! It was to be the last SAAB model ever, but it was also powered by a GM engine, however it was new design, but it hadn’t even started production… SAAB was dead as soon as GM got its hands on it, but enthusiasts were divided between owning a final piece of history and the woeful GM engineering.
I believe this was 2009, during all the turmoil of the global financial crisis. It may have just been an issue at our dealer. I think it closed before they had one new car in inventory.
Such a shame to see these cars left like that. If I had the space, I would buy them all and fix them up. They deserve to be saved before they go too far and get scrapped. Saab are such fantastic cars, well built, great drive, high quality. I would LOVE to be able to buy just one of these low mileage beauties.
In the USA, people who drove Saab cars were seen as eccentric. The Saab always stood out on the American road back in the day. The local Saab dealership near us was run by a French woman. That in itself was a little different than your average Chevy dealership.
It hurts to see those saabs in such a bad state. I'm dutch and in Netherland you still find Saabs often on the road and i am happy for that. Awesome Video too!
If it fell into bankruptcy, I'd think the creditors would be quick to liquidate the assets. I'm wondering if the remaining brother fell ill or died leaving the ownership in limbo.
It's very strange since even if you own the property and it is unoccupied, France still makes you pay land tax and property tax, so even in the very unlikely scenario of the creditors being paid off without liquidating the assets, it must still accrue costs. Seeing as it is furnished, it may also be subject to even more taxes (because it's France). Someone must be paying these still, or the council would repossess the land.
General Motors bought Saab with 125,000 car sales world wide and only 32,000 in the USA. And announced closing a 105 year old American car company with 295,000 sales in USA. It was Oldsmobile. By 2004, Saab had three new models but sales were down 20 %.
Great but sad video. I've owned two Saabs in the past and loved the cars. I cannot believe people vandalized these lovely cars for no reason. Thanks for the vid.
I had a Saab 93 and it was an absolute tank. I never had any major problems with it. And when I got rear ended by a Corsa I had a scuff on my rear bumper. But the Corsa’s bumper was all the way up to the windscreen, totally written off
Makes me sad to see this, I've been helping my son keep his 2007 Saab 9-3 road worthy and kicking for the past 8 years. It's definitely a quirky car, and has had some weird issues here and there, but over all has been a fun to drive, durable, and sporty car. We didn't really see many of them on the road when Saab was in business, but they're rare in these parts nowadays.
A crying shame too. Great, timeless design & engineering IMHO. I just purchased a beautiful 2008 Saab 9 3 convertible. Beautiful condition inside and out. It has 120k miles on it, silver exterior, black top, black interior with a 2.0. Nothing special but to my eye, it’s always been one of the most beautiful convertible on the road. Even when I was driving my 2004 BMW 330 Ci convertible, I use to feel a little jealous when I’d pass by a Saab 9-3. Especially from the back. Saab put a lot of thought into the rear of that car. Just beautiful. 🤩
Btw, whenever in Albania, I suggest you check out the country's former (now abandoned) Toyota dealership. It's about 20 km away from Tirana and closer to Durrës actually but there are still Yarises and RAV4s that have never left the showroom and whose mileage is literally 0 (you might also find a Lexus or two)
Interesting to note that all the cars shown date from around about 1995-2000, so that dealership looks like it went bust maybe as much as a decade before Saab went down the pan. Either that or they just left the last few old cars that no one wanted. A real shame. I had a 1998 9-5 for a decade and it was a tremendous car.
It’s crazy they went out of business. My father had a few back in the day. Not sure on the models but they all had 2.4l turbo engines backed by a 5 speed manual. They where fast and handled like they were on rails for what they where.
Port Newark here in New Jersey had a lot full of new Saabs sitting there for quite some time after the company dissolved. So sad as it seemed that their products were actually improving in quality.
@@MidnightAspec at one point, Koenigsegg almost wound up buying Saab, but the deal didn't go through. Volvo, wouldn't have been bad place for Saab to end up really.
Of the Saab dealers in my area, one had also had Mazda since the '70s and continued another decade before being bought out and the other is still in business as a used-car operation which still has some old Saab signage up.
Out in boardman Ohio there’s a dealership that used to be a SAAB dealership that kept the big SAAB sign up after they became a higher end custom shop/dealership to let people know yes we fix SAABS.
I'm sure if the vandals who stole parts had half a brain they would be able to figure out the status of the building and its contents, if it's in receivership and who legally took ownership, contact them and make a low offer on the vehicles. The debt agency probably considers the land valuable but not the cars.
Well said .. however the vandalism that you see is just the symptom of the bigger issue with Sweden or anywhere in Europe where this dealership is located .. The real and the main cause of degradation and degeneracy of not just this dealership but Western European as a whole is the suicidal pack of mass and uncontrolled immigration of the 3rd world constituency .. Just look at what’s happening in France and that should confirm my point to you .. not to say that we are immune to this grave threat in America, we have the same problem, it’s just that by providing a huge welfare benefits, we are keeping the 3rd world immigrants and other minorities population away from daily violence.. for now .. From: Las Vegas Nevada USA
5:30 holyyyy imagine that feeling things closing in on you like that, they were good at least OK for a while, and then close family member gets sick, then the car company you represent goes under… What an absolute feeling of abandonment. I just hope the folks who worked there, especially the owners, were strong enough to move on to better things. There always are better things, it’s easy to romanticize in fifth size that this is the end, but obviously it’s not.
This dealership is semi well-known in France, as a very, very sad relic of the past. Many car enthusiasts mourn the death of Saab, even here in the land of baguette.
Used to have an original SAAB 900s taledega that I bought for £1900, must've had it for 10 years - was nice to drive especially on motorways, fuel economy was awful for local journeys but was really good on long distances. Great in the snow, used to go past people stuck in their 4x4s! Unfortunately, it become uneconimcal to fix and hard to find the parts which was a shame. Huge boot space, that I really miss! Nothing really ever went wrong with it and it was a really solid vehicle.
The dealerships don't own those cars, banks do and from the looks, the banks just wrote them off. Cars that sit around like that, especially over a decade usually end up in a scrap yard, especially Saab's, there is no parts for them in the supply chain to support them.
After watching this, thinking about that very sad place, its history and possible reasons for that heartbreaking state of decay, shattered dreams and memories fading away, suddenly Roy Batty's last words in Blade Runner came to my mind : "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die." I think i kind of understand the situation. I wouldn't let go either. Ouch ! 😔
Saab took barebones GM vehicles and then assembled them properly but with their own twist. Sadly, doing it right seems to have eaten the profit margin up.
With bankruptcy there is usually someone brought in by the creditors to liquidate the assets. This could get complicated with the vehicles in the workshop, as they may belong to customers but I would have thought the showroom cars could have been sold.
A huge part of the problem is that almost everyone wants the latest and ‘so-called’ greatest new cars that they overlook great gems like Saab cars. Though they ended production in 2011, they are still quite capable and can keep up with many of today’s vehicles, and look great doing it! As a Saab owner, it truly hurts to see these beauties slowly being destroyed and falling into decline to the point of eventually being scrapped! There’s many Saab enthusiasts around the globe and most of these cars(including much of the dealer promo items) would have a second chance and a loving home!
Yeah, except getting the parts for those cars is becoming more and more of a hassle. Especially true for the OG900 and 9000. But i was replacing the drive belt on my friends 9-3 the other day. The tensioner had broken (plastic wheel) and we had to go to a junkyard to find the correct tensioner, and then replace the bearing on the junkyard one with the one from the broken part, since none of them where available anywhere. Hardly optimal. And i live in Sweden btw! You can swap the belt assembly for a more modern one out of a 9-5 (i think it was), but again, that's work you don't want to do on a daily driver. That is why people aren't buying them in droves. Speedparts seems to be the place to go for SAAB parts over here atm, but they don't have everything either.
I remember when i was travelling to Taiwan and I spot a Saab dealership near a Maserati-Themed 7 eleven. The placed looked so quiet the building vacant with the weird Saab that was parking outside the dealership. It still felt weird that the building was still standing
It might be worth sending this to a local official, like a mayor or town manager. They might not even know the story or the value inside, more so the owners of the property, be it a bank or the state, might not know either. If the value that is inside was shown to the controllers of the property, some action might be taken to move the assets inside around and clean the place up. Better to have it be a functional space than sitting, rotting, especially in what looks to be a valuable place for real estate in a business district.
I had to see what happened here, as I know of a couple of repair shops that specialized in Saabs here in Virginia that are up to their necks in Saabs on which owners have refused to pay for the repairs.
I love videos like this, thank you! I don't understand why people just abandon things. There are plenty of people out there who would pay a lot for those cars and parts. Makes no sense to me.
I remember hearing of a Kaiser dealership that remained shuttered for over 30 years before the remaining vehicles were auctioned. By that time part of the roof had collapsed on them.
Very very sad that these beautiful cars never got to know what it’s like to be part of a family. Left there to be mindlessly vandalised and left to rot. They deserve to be brought back to life.
Ive owned many saabs. Best was the 9000 carlsson. Saabs was built for the driver. The dash was like sitting in a cockpit. So sad to see them go to nothing.
I think when SAAB finally folded, there was not a large parts inventory? I think the last few months would have been very chaotic. It's sad to see a car brand close down, especially in the modern era.
during the early 90's, the company I worked for used to get many Saabs to deliver to journalist for automotive magazines and to VP; s to test drive. Much than better than the Peugeot and If any remembers Sterling, which was very short lived.
Hopefully those were the dealership's own cars and not customer ones. Sadly, I would guess they ran out of money and mechanics took their tools home with them. And the other staff would have simply walked. Saab themselves were given platforms by GM but kept modifying them, making them expensive to produce apparently. GM left them too hands-off whereas someone should have been there controlling costs to get the Saab business working again.
@@cuchidesoto2686 You sure can if you import them to Sweden. Sweden still has a factory in China producing parts for SAAB which are then brought over to a storage facility, which was previously known as ORIO AB, now it's known as Hedin Parts and Logistics.
It appears that Saab's in Europe were just abandoned. In the USA, many were converted to other brands. Others that were shut down were either converted into service centers for existing Saabs or just converted to other uses. One near me is an Urgent Care facility now. Another is still servicing Saabs to this very day (and other brands as well). A third was leveled and made into a Pizza Hut.
@@doyallsellcrablegs that is right. I forgot about that dealer. We had a fourth further away that was a duel Cadillac and Saab dealer. It kept servicing the Saabs and selling Cadillacs.
Don’t think it’s just a bankruptcy that happened here. Doubt they would just leave documents and cars just like that. The cars would’ve been picked up by owners or auctioned off to get last coins. But they were left as if owners couldn’t handle bad situation or didn’t have time. Interesting
I dont know how youtube knew this video would speak to me, but my first actual car was a 2007 saab 9-5 aero. RIP to that handsome devil, and hello new channel I subscribe to. Much love from Canada.
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Sadly from 2030 on all combustion cars including classics will be banned
from public streets in entire EU and Scandinavia :-( In Germany the
Green Peoples Party gave order to shorten fuel supply from 2025
on by reducing petrol stations to only one state operated central gas
station per city. From 2027 on in the EU certain car spare parts will be
banned too....as exhaust systems, turbo chargers and even some engine
and gearbox oils...California and New York will do the same from 2027
on.... So no investments should be done in oil burning cars any
longer....They even created a new kind of crime here, called emissions and smoke crime....
Good news for North America. We will import all you cool classic and soon to be classic cars for pennies on the dollar! 😂 I should start a Porsche importing business 👍
@@Schlipperschlopper Buddy , that is BS , there is nothing set in stone , everything can still change , I know that 100% Polish gov wont inforce that ridiculus law as Polish economy is growing and gasoline vechicles are still needed , and if wester Europe wont produce it , we will buy it from Asia ...
@@adammarcinkowski-ko3el
It’s sad how right wing people are so sensitive to conspiracy theories and drama. A bunch of Drama queens!
But anyway, I would certainly vote in favor of protecting the environment and improving air quality and reducing smell and noise.
@@lumberjackdreamer6267 Ok buddy electric cars are stupid , whole concept wont work because of recharging cars that take sevar hour , and batteries that are costly for envoierment to build and utilize , only eco option are hydrogen cars , and that should be target ... I am bisexual , so I am far from right wing...
So sad to see the vandalism. I hope someone gives these low mileage cars another life.
SAAD 😅
they were crushed
Poeple show this place too many times.
Vandalism is what young european and americans do when they are bored.
Young peoples need to do things, or they become a safety hazard.
There were no 900 turbos in there unsurprisingly - they would be worth some decent money!
My father was an engineer and test driver at SAAB during the 60s, and he drove SAABs his entire life. He died just shortly before SAAB went bust. Even here on the roads in Sweden SAABs is becoming a rare sight. The fall of the Swedish car industry is such a shame. Since Volvo is owned by the Chinese I no longer see it as a Swedish car brand,
Yep, its so sad to see how Volvo fell off so hard. Luckily theres still Scania and Volvo Trucks (which isn't owned by Geely in any way).
Geely owns 8.2 % of Volvo Group (Volvo Trucks)
here in the Netherlands you do still see a surprisingly amount of Saabs driving. As people that own them tend to take care of said cars.
Was Volvo more Swedish when it was owned by Ford? If anything, Geely's hands off approach gave Volvo the ability to do their own thing again (instead of being forced to use Ford's platform). Volvo has seen it's biggest success since Geely took over. It's just as Swedish as before, just less American and more Chinese.
Swedish still own and make Koenigseggs right?
It's so heart-melting to see such cool and quirky cars left forever in such a state. Hopefully someone can save them, they definitely don't deserve to rot away
They wouldn't be rotting away if Saab and it dealerships hadn't fail financially. Which makes me think maybe these cars do deserve to be rotting away. Saab didn't go bust because their cars were selling so well.
@@ButterfatFarms What a bizarre thing to say!
@@RichardMcLaren Remind us what's "heart melting" about some old, undesirable, vandalized Saabs, Peugeots, and Renaults passing time away in a former dealership of a failed automaker? And why are we humanizing them by saying things like "they definitely don't deserve to rot away". Speaking of bizarre things to say.
@@ButterfatFarms We still drive them one of most reliable and fun cars ever, also best winter fwd
This is a real tragedy. I hope that some Saab enthusiasts have taken good care of them.
How sad! What a waste of perfectly good cars rotting senselessly. I also can’t stand vandalism no respect for anyones property. Hopefully someone will see value in this facility and bring it back to life. It always makes to sad to see places abandoned and forgotten.
Melancholic, lady feelings !
It just stopped, they became too old.
Why you need old Cars, Saab museums ?
@@lucasRem-ku6eb Those are perfectly drivable cars.
@@lucasRem-ku6eb These are becoming valuable collector cars at this point especially since these are older Saabs, not to mention that old Renault. It coild be coverted into saab museum and offer service by some saab funclub.
Aside of that they could be enjoyed and driven instead of wasting away.
@@lucasRem-ku6ebu know saabs are getting rarer and rarer ur acting like a anti car lover cuz if u are u are here making more people sad that most car people don't care and take their interest to toyota or nissan and leave behind the turbo charged saabs which has a amazing sounding engine
Ask Thomas LeClaire he know the book about vandalism.
Someone should save those saabs
Totally agree! lots of low mileage cars are wasting away there
Without papers, why would anyone want to save them ?
@@BrainHurricanes There are ways to get papers done.
@@lordmmx1303 it might be a bit harder than normal, because you can't get a manufacturer's type conformation declararion anymore though. 🤔
Forget the paperwork, keep them for extra parts, and swap in the new parts, into the high mileage used version of the exact same cars, basically rebuild the same high mileage version back to its new condition.
Paperwork not needed.
I had a Turbo 5-speed and LOVED it till a 200k mile head gasket + turbo failure. All European cars reach a point where they are prohibitively expensive to keep up, but the passing power of 911 Turbo in a car that held two adults two kids and two dogs in comfort and safety, with the LOWEST insurance rate of any car I've ever owned... Wish I could get that back!!!
I wonder what you guys do with cars, Saabs are known here for easily doing 500.000 km+, they joke here that is their break in time.
Do you refuse to give your cars proper maintenance or what?
If you have done 200,000 miles and then the headgasket has gone you have done very well, at 53 including cars I've bought my wife I've had at least 30 , 3 off them being Saab's I've had around 4 that have had headgasket problems and they were all under 100,000 when it happened actually my wife's 07 207 1.6 Peugeot went last year on about 63,000 , the car was bought brand new by my father when he retired. In the UK cars are normally scrapped by 150,000 at the most.
@@jeremywentworth1833 ok, I see what you mean, but would you consider a 1.6 Peugeot 207 really a car? ;-)
The primary problem is, that many people do not watch water temperatures and other health signs. My father had a BMW 518i he drove for more than 400k miles, but three engines, as he always ignored water temps. There are also "cars" which mostly hide this information from their drivers - these people should drive today EVs, or ride public transport.
@@spxram4793 my car is a 58 plate Saab 93 sportwagon vector, my wife's is the 207., Regardless of what mileage a car does generally here in the UK cars a broken for parts by 150,000 at the most.
Euro cars get too expensive to maintain? No not necessarily. I have a 2006 volvo that keeps going strong at 200,000 miles. If something does break, there are so many of them that parts are very easy to find. Speaking from someone who lives in europe here.
As an English man who's owned 3 Saab's a 900 Turbo convertible followed by a ,93 convertible and still have a 93 sportwagon I never like to see Saab's just left abandoned , if it wasn't for them been locked in reverse to remove ignition key they may well have been stolen. The old Renault 4 van deserves to be saved as well not seen 1 in years also Saab 9000 not seen 1 of them in years, however I did see a LHD Lancia Thema yesterday which along with the Fiat croma and Alfa 164 are all the same car .
I live in Finland, and i had to check out my saab 9-5's service history. It turned out that my exact car was from that dealership. And it had been there it's first days after coming from sweden factory. It's very harsh to see that dealership went down under, but hopefully someday those cars and their history will be saved by someone.
That's really interesting to hear an actual car which got sold there! Was it in their final years of operation, or quite before that?
@@ForgottenBuildings in 1999, when it arrived from sweden and had it's first service by 0km/brand new state. I have to check some time if i can find other details, but it was at one point also diplomat car in France 1999-2002
Until a year ago, none of these cars had been vandalized, and most of them actually belonged to a Saab enthusiast (albeit not a very wealthy one) who regularly serviced them in his garage.
Except that an urbex video was posted on youtube with 1 million views and lots of visible evidence of the dealership, and today lots of people are having fun destroying these cars. And the owner doesn't have the money to secure the premises...
that is truly sad.
I hope someone is able to secure the building. Auto enthusiast Jay Leno could possibly buy some of those SAABs and restore them.
Thanks for the video.
Bro liked this video while not realizing this is comment is actually criticizing the whole “urbex” community with this comment 😅. Eventhough it looks abandoned, it is still probably someone’s property and stuff. Don’t f*ck with it!
J'en profite pour passer un message : si il y a des amateurs de 4L par ici qui reconnaissent l'endroit, débrouillez-vous comme vous voulez, mais allez sauver cette fourgonnette. Elle n'a pas l'air d'être trop endommagée, et pour la carte grise, comme elle a encore ses plaques, avec une bonne relation à la pref ou à la police, vous pouvez retrouver le titulaire (ou ses héritiers) pour obtenir le changement à votre nom.
@@AngelinaJolie734 Je trouve d'ailleurs bizarre qu'elle se retrouve abandonnée alors qu'elle appartient encore à quelqu'un ?
What a shame to see the cars suffer the same fate as the dealership...
Surprised the cars are not burnt .
French custom is to burn cars especially recently .
@@ryanray6215DAMN WTH WHAT IS WRONG WITH FRANCE
It is very sad that the cars have been abandoned without any importance. At least they could have given them to their workers.
The dealer can’t give away what they didn’t own….
@@yamahajapan5351 True, but whatever gave the cars to the dealer didn't seem too interested in getting their cars back. :)
@@TrevorBrass yeah, that was a company called Saab…..
As far as i understand, the cars in the dealer are not theirs to give away. They belong to Saab itself, and Saab going bankrupt means all their property also no longer belongs to them. The claiment can seize these properties in place of the debt, but what would, let's say, a steel factory do with hundreds of office chairs, so they don't bother with that, instead of getting compansated with money through lawsuits and insurances.
Just like with a plaintiff, if you owe money, they want money. They don't want what you bought/did with that money.
@mrb2349 also technically the dealer doesn't necessarily "own" the inventory they have even if they aren't bankrupt. Dealers pay what is called a "floor plan" on their vehicles, which is pretty much a line of credit to purchase vehicles and then resell them. Once the vehicle is sold the dealer pays back the lender & they keep the profit. This is why a lot of dealers offer rebates & discounts (or even send vehicles to auction) after a certain amount of time a vehicle is on the lot because they rather break even or lose money than pay the lender interest.
This was a weird time for Saab. I remember being at a major auto show and talking with the Saab rep about their inventory situation. Our local dealer that was just built had zero cars. They were friendly, but had no explanation. I'm sure they saw the writing on the wall and were only at the auto show because they already signed a contract. Saab made really nice, niche cars.
That's indeed quite weird, the production in Trollhättan was already halted at that time of your visit?
@@ForgottenBuildingsI’m in Australia and if I remember correctly, GM were marketing and taking orders on the latest/last SAAB vehicles… even though they hadn’t started production.
It was a dumpster fire! It was to be the last SAAB model ever, but it was also powered by a GM engine, however it was new design, but it hadn’t even started production…
SAAB was dead as soon as GM got its hands on it, but enthusiasts were divided between owning a final piece of history and the woeful GM engineering.
I believe this was 2009, during all the turmoil of the global financial crisis. It may have just been an issue at our dealer. I think it closed before they had one new car in inventory.
I never will understand which sense it makes to destroy these beautiful cars by vandalism
Such a shame to see these cars left like that. If I had the space, I would buy them all and fix them up. They deserve to be saved before they go too far and get scrapped. Saab are such fantastic cars, well built, great drive, high quality. I would LOVE to be able to buy just one of these low mileage beauties.
Totally agree! Would be great if some hit the road again in the future.
In the USA, people who drove Saab cars were seen as eccentric. The Saab always stood out on the American road back in the day. The local Saab dealership near us was run by a French woman. That in itself was a little different than your average Chevy dealership.
Jerry Seinfeld was a big fan, and did an episode where he tried to buy a black Saab. But he was thwarted by Elaine's boyfriend.
Still see tons of Saab’s on the roads here in Scotland. Superb machines, what a shame to see them left like this
Social media destroyed this place.
It hurts to see those saabs in such a bad state. I'm dutch and in Netherland you still find Saabs often on the road and i am happy for that. Awesome Video too!
Proud to be a Saab owner and keep this legendary brand on the roads.
If it fell into bankruptcy, I'd think the creditors would be quick to liquidate the assets. I'm wondering if the remaining brother fell ill or died leaving the ownership in limbo.
It's very strange since even if you own the property and it is unoccupied, France still makes you pay land tax and property tax, so even in the very unlikely scenario of the creditors being paid off without liquidating the assets, it must still accrue costs. Seeing as it is furnished, it may also be subject to even more taxes (because it's France). Someone must be paying these still, or the council would repossess the land.
@@HB45175 It's possible the council did repossess, but have no idea what to do with it.
@@russellhltn1396 The only way to know would be to ask the city's mayor about what is going on with this dealership.
General Motors bought Saab with 125,000 car sales world wide and only 32,000 in the USA. And announced closing a 105 year old American car company with 295,000 sales in USA. It was Oldsmobile. By 2004, Saab had three new models but sales were down 20 %.
Great but sad video. I've owned two Saabs in the past and loved the cars. I cannot believe people vandalized these lovely cars for no reason. Thanks for the vid.
I had a Saab 93 and it was an absolute tank. I never had any major problems with it. And when I got rear ended by a Corsa I had a scuff on my rear bumper. But the Corsa’s bumper was all the way up to the windscreen, totally written off
Makes me sad to see this, I've been helping my son keep his 2007 Saab 9-3 road worthy and kicking for the past 8 years. It's definitely a quirky car, and has had some weird issues here and there, but over all has been a fun to drive, durable, and sporty car. We didn't really see many of them on the road when Saab was in business, but they're rare in these parts nowadays.
How’s the parts supply
A crying shame too. Great, timeless design & engineering IMHO. I just purchased a beautiful 2008 Saab 9 3 convertible. Beautiful condition inside and out. It has 120k miles on it, silver exterior, black top, black interior with a 2.0. Nothing special but to my eye, it’s always been one of the most beautiful convertible on the road. Even when I was driving my 2004 BMW 330 Ci convertible, I use to feel a little jealous when I’d pass by a Saab 9-3. Especially from the back. Saab put a lot of thought into the rear of that car. Just beautiful. 🤩
Btw, whenever in Albania, I suggest you check out the country's former (now abandoned) Toyota dealership. It's about 20 km away from Tirana and closer to Durrës actually but there are still Yarises and RAV4s that have never left the showroom and whose mileage is literally 0 (you might also find a Lexus or two)
Interesting to note that all the cars shown date from around about 1995-2000, so that dealership looks like it went bust maybe as much as a decade before Saab went down the pan. Either that or they just left the last few old cars that no one wanted. A real shame. I had a 1998 9-5 for a decade and it was a tremendous car.
Most likely that at the end of its operations only used Saabs were being sold.. available.
@@keithdawson4804probably Because in 2011 were no new cars from The Factory
@@paufernandezboj5517
That's true, but for certain some other dealers had unused cars available.
But history of this dealers is rather sad.
It’s crazy they went out of business. My father had a few back in the day. Not sure on the models but they all had 2.4l turbo engines backed by a 5 speed manual. They where fast and handled like they were on rails for what they where.
Port Newark here in New Jersey had a lot full of new Saabs sitting there for quite some time after the company dissolved. So sad as it seemed that their products were actually improving in quality.
Wonder what became of those cars.
Saabs were high quality cars until GM bought them and tried to cut costs.
They were auctioned off thankfully
It’s a shame that GM put the Saab brand through the shredder. Trying to envision if an automaker like Honda had acquired them instead.
@@MidnightAspec at one point, Koenigsegg almost wound up buying Saab, but the deal didn't go through. Volvo, wouldn't have been bad place for Saab to end up really.
Of the Saab dealers in my area, one had also had Mazda since the '70s and continued another decade before being bought out and the other is still in business as a used-car operation which still has some old Saab signage up.
Very sad to see. As an owner of 3 Saab's I have never had a car that I enjoyed driving so much.
I was never a Saab fan, but ironically the last 9-5 they made looked amazing.
I used to be a member of the SAAB Club of North America and owned several 99 models. This is so sad to see. 😞
I’m sad because I drove a 1988 9000 & 2004 model and loved the 2004 9-5 had dual rear fog lights. 😢😢😢
Out in boardman Ohio there’s a dealership that used to be a SAAB dealership that kept the big SAAB sign up after they became a higher end custom shop/dealership to let people know yes we fix SAABS.
Massively underrated channel. Liked and subscribed, love the video!
Thanks for the support mate!
I'm sure if the vandals who stole parts had half a brain they would be able to figure out the status of the building and its contents, if it's in receivership and who legally took ownership, contact them and make a low offer on the vehicles. The debt agency probably considers the land valuable but not the cars.
Well said .. however the vandalism that you see is just the symptom of the bigger issue with Sweden or anywhere in Europe where this dealership is located .. The real and the main cause of degradation and degeneracy of not just this dealership but Western European as a whole is the suicidal pack of mass and uncontrolled immigration of the 3rd world constituency .. Just look at what’s happening in France and that should confirm my point to you .. not to say that we are immune to this grave threat in America, we have the same problem, it’s just that by providing a huge welfare benefits, we are keeping the 3rd world immigrants and other minorities population away from daily violence.. for now ..
From: Las Vegas Nevada USA
5:30 holyyyy imagine that feeling things closing in on you like that, they were good at least OK for a while, and then close family member gets sick, then the car company you represent goes under… What an absolute feeling of abandonment. I just hope the folks who worked there, especially the owners, were strong enough to move on to better things. There always are better things, it’s easy to romanticize in fifth size that this is the end, but obviously it’s not.
This dealership is semi well-known in France, as a very, very sad relic of the past. Many car enthusiasts mourn the death of Saab, even here in the land of baguette.
The dealership is not well known the brand is.
focus on getting the algerians under control first
i loved the video, would like a more in-deapth part 2. Would've been cool to see where saab would be today if they had stayed around
Its a shame that people vandalize places
This dealership lost their franchisee license long before Saab went out of business. They resorted to flipping used vehicles.
This was a great video! The plant section was neat addition to the video
Thanks man!
Used to have an original SAAB 900s taledega that I bought for £1900, must've had it for 10 years - was nice to drive especially on motorways, fuel economy was awful for local journeys but was really good on long distances. Great in the snow, used to go past people stuck in their 4x4s! Unfortunately, it become uneconimcal to fix and hard to find the parts which was a shame. Huge boot space, that I really miss! Nothing really ever went wrong with it and it was a really solid vehicle.
Bro you deserve more views and subscribers your content quality is really good🔥.
Thanks man!
The dealerships don't own those cars, banks do and from the looks, the banks just wrote them off. Cars that sit around like that, especially over a decade usually end up in a scrap yard, especially Saab's, there is no parts for them in the supply chain to support them.
After watching this, thinking about that very sad place, its history and possible reasons for that heartbreaking state of decay, shattered dreams and memories fading away, suddenly Roy Batty's last words in Blade Runner came to my mind : "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
I think i kind of understand the situation. I wouldn't let go either. Ouch ! 😔
Saab took barebones GM vehicles and then assembled them properly but with their own twist. Sadly, doing it right seems to have eaten the profit margin up.
Beautiful video. Unique style. Keep it up!☺
How sad, I'm am sobbing for those saabs
I guess you could say, you're Saabing for them.
What a great location and video, really enjoyed my first watch of your work.
Such a shame. My 900SE convertible was the best car I ever owned. Bulletproof reliability.
2:05 The Last of us feeling right there
With bankruptcy there is usually someone brought in by the creditors to liquidate the assets. This could get complicated with the vehicles in the workshop, as they may belong to customers but I would have thought the showroom cars could have been sold.
Yeah but It seems that The Cars in The workshop are abandonded too Because owning a car that is hard to maintain IS not good for a worker's pocket
I don't think an owner would just abandon their own car.
Fantastic video - really thank-you! Also, I am a Saab owner (06 9-5 Aero Sport Wagon) so this is of particular interest to me.
PLUS... I need parts from that 9-5 @5:00!!!
A huge part of the problem is that almost everyone wants the latest and ‘so-called’ greatest new cars that they overlook great gems like Saab cars. Though they ended production in 2011, they are still quite capable and can keep up with many of today’s vehicles, and look great doing it! As a Saab owner, it truly hurts to see these beauties slowly being destroyed and falling into decline to the point of eventually being scrapped! There’s many Saab enthusiasts around the globe and most of these cars(including much of the dealer promo items) would have a second chance and a loving home!
Yeah, except getting the parts for those cars is becoming more and more of a hassle. Especially true for the OG900 and 9000. But i was replacing the drive belt on my friends 9-3 the other day. The tensioner had broken (plastic wheel) and we had to go to a junkyard to find the correct tensioner, and then replace the bearing on the junkyard one with the one from the broken part, since none of them where available anywhere. Hardly optimal. And i live in Sweden btw!
You can swap the belt assembly for a more modern one out of a 9-5 (i think it was), but again, that's work you don't want to do on a daily driver. That is why people aren't buying them in droves.
Speedparts seems to be the place to go for SAAB parts over here atm, but they don't have everything either.
I remember when i was travelling to Taiwan and I spot a Saab dealership near a Maserati-Themed 7 eleven.
The placed looked so quiet the building vacant with the weird Saab that was parking outside the dealership.
It still felt weird that the building was still standing
It might be worth sending this to a local official, like a mayor or town manager. They might not even know the story or the value inside, more so the owners of the property, be it a bank or the state, might not know either. If the value that is inside was shown to the controllers of the property, some action might be taken to move the assets inside around and clean the place up. Better to have it be a functional space than sitting, rotting, especially in what looks to be a valuable place for real estate in a business district.
so many cool saabs here i hope they get to see life again
I dont understand why they just didnt steal the whole car instead of vandalizing it and stealing parts ?
Manual transmission
They're locked in reverse.
Randomly stumbled upon this video and channel. Subscribed 😉
Welcome and thanks for the support!
Zo jammer dat de gevonden Saabs deels waren gestript of vernield. 🥺
Leuk opgezette video! Dank voor het delen 🙏🏼
Bedankt! Was zeker jammer en zonde idd voor zo'n unieke locatie
I had to see what happened here, as I know of a couple of repair shops that specialized in Saabs here in Virginia that are up to their necks in Saabs on which owners have refused to pay for the repairs.
As a SAAB enthusiast this hurts. 💔
As a former owner of a 1999 9-3 Viggen this saddens me greatly :-(
A treasure chest for Saab enthusiasts
cool video here guys well done
Thanks man!
I hate vandalism
Totally agree!
I had four SAABs, a 99 and three 9.3s. My last in 2002 was a 9.3 HPT.
All were a pleasure to drive and, the last one had so much power.
Thought those cars were surprising in good shapes for being abandoned for years...then realized it's not in the US.
I worked at concept Saab Birmingham UK years ago and remember cars and specialist tools just left behind
They could have sold those last few cars to friends and family members really cheap just to have gotten them out of there.
One in northern ire. Coleraine. Show room looks locked in time.
I love videos like this, thank you! I don't understand why people just abandon things. There are plenty of people out there who would pay a lot for those cars and parts. Makes no sense to me.
I had a 9-3 2.0, awesome vehicle, i would love to get my hands on a 9-3 viggen some day....Great story gents!!!
i really hope the cars be saved, those saabs are awesome
I remember hearing of a Kaiser dealership that remained shuttered for over 30 years before the remaining vehicles were auctioned. By that time part of the roof had collapsed on them.
Very very sad that these beautiful cars never got to know what it’s like to be part of a family. Left there to be mindlessly vandalised and left to rot. They deserve to be brought back to life.
Totally agree! Hopefully action will be taken from the owner in the near future
Ive owned many saabs. Best was the 9000 carlsson. Saabs was built for the driver. The dash was like sitting in a cockpit. So sad to see them go to nothing.
The crucial and critical point to revive these Saab is the parts and components availability.
I think when SAAB finally folded, there was not a large parts inventory? I think the last few months would have been very chaotic. It's sad to see a car brand close down, especially in the modern era.
Great video to watch
Thanks man!
Former Saab owner here, loved mine but it was like owning a boat every time it needed a repair seemed like it was always a grand to fix
the body shape of the cars in the front showroom are so good, i would turn one of those into a sweet street car, sucks they are just there to rot :(
So sad , its in my country and another youtuber filmed this place 1-2 yes ago and the cars got wheels and in good shape..
Yup, I’ve seen the video. Pretty sad to see
So maybe the vandalism was done after the first vídeo release?
during the early 90's, the company I worked for used to get many Saabs to deliver to journalist for automotive magazines and to VP; s to test drive. Much than better than the Peugeot and If any remembers Sterling, which was very short lived.
Oh man....totally sad to see that - owned myself a 900 "Softturbo" in 1996 or so....
When Saab folded, dealers were selling their inventory at 50% off list.
No
Someone save that saab 9000 😢😢 i love it
Sorry to see the vandalism ! Imagine if all these cars were perfect !
All the cars two years ago were perfect…😢 If you search “Abandoned Saab cars Dealership” you can see…
Ngl this is sad due to me wanting a saab it’s sad that there is multiple just sitting in a abandoned dealership
If I was a millionaire I'd buy those cars just to save them. Brand new cars with low mileage are so rare and belong in museums
sure
At 3:59, I had a black 9-3 convertible just like that one with a tan leather interior. Wish I still had it.
Hopefully those were the dealership's own cars and not customer ones. Sadly, I would guess they ran out of money and mechanics took their tools home with them. And the other staff would have simply walked. Saab themselves were given platforms by GM but kept modifying them, making them expensive to produce apparently. GM left them too hands-off whereas someone should have been there controlling costs to get the Saab business working again.
Huge Saab fan here, currently have a 2004 Areo wagon and swap it out for my 2008 9-3 convertible and for backroads my Moto Guzzi V85TT
They should definitely save those cars and rebuild them
@@cuchidesoto2686 You sure can if you import them to Sweden. Sweden still has a factory in China producing parts for SAAB which are then brought over to a storage facility, which was previously known as ORIO AB, now it's known as Hedin Parts and Logistics.
They can always use aftermarket wheels. The steel wheels that use hub caps would work fine.
It appears that Saab's in Europe were just abandoned. In the USA, many were converted to other brands. Others that were shut down were either converted into service centers for existing Saabs or just converted to other uses. One near me is an Urgent Care facility now. Another is still servicing Saabs to this very day (and other brands as well). A third was leveled and made into a Pizza Hut.
My local dealer morphed into a Volvo/Cadillac dealer oddly enough
@@doyallsellcrablegs that is right. I forgot about that dealer. We had a fourth further away that was a duel Cadillac and Saab dealer. It kept servicing the Saabs and selling Cadillacs.
Don’t think it’s just a bankruptcy that happened here. Doubt they would just leave documents and cars just like that. The cars would’ve been picked up by owners or auctioned off to get last coins. But they were left as if owners couldn’t handle bad situation or didn’t have time. Interesting
I dont know how youtube knew this video would speak to me, but my first actual car was a 2007 saab 9-5 aero. RIP to that handsome devil, and hello new channel I subscribe to.
Much love from Canada.
Thanks for the support! 9-5 Aero must've been nice.