I have to admit that I am a petrolhead.
Driving a car is like making love to a beautiful woman - as Swiss Tony would say.
My weakness is Swedish automobilia. I have had four Saabs and a Volvo. Saabs are a bit like Alfas. You have to love them enough to spend a great deal of money keeping them on the road because when they go wrong they tend to make Gordon Brown's borrowing requirement look parsimonius and the acme of fiscal propriety.
So it is with sadness that I find that Saab is in danger of becoming another victim of the global financial crisis. They have already terminated 750 of their employees at their Trollhattan plant. Saab is owned by General Motors, the US giant, and of late, Saabs have been sidlined by the company. The future of Saab is uncertain.
Absolut, another prestige brand, is owned by the Frogs - Pernod Ricard, but appears to be doing well.
What worries me is how a brand like Saab, that makes a particularly Swedish car, has been subsumed into the global homogeny, leaving the punters with little choice and leaving Sweden with a loss of its great national identity. It may get worse, Abba may become a franchise. Sex may be licensed to other countries. Ikea may dumb down.
2 comments:
"I have had four Saabs and a Volvo"
Oh dear, WW. Oh dear, dear, dear.
You have my sincere sympathy.
Fact is, dear ex, I am a Scandiphile.
I like everything about the Norselands - the literature, the scenery, the people, the cars, the music, etc.
I am a huge Sibelius fan and I have read the Icelandic Sagas, seen most of the Ibsen plays and am currently re-reading the Knut Hamsun books.
And I like ABBA.
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