Is the key here to signalling to the enthusiast that they’re understood through consistency of a product over time?
Consider the Chevy brand. Their trucks/large SUVs have stayed the same, and have a cult following because of it.
Same with the VAG lineup (or any other manufacturer). Porsches, Audi, and VW each have a group of enthusiasts (obviously representing different slices of society) because there has been consistency in each brand through the decades.
This extends to the non-car world as well. Apple is doing a good job of losing that enthusiast crowd by churning out crappy products and coasting on brand loyalty alone (though the tide may be turning).
My wife and I owned several Saabs over the years. We primarily stopped buying them because they became GM vehicles under the bonnet. Also, the only local dealership had a sexist salesman who was incredibly rude to my wife.
But when they were good they were good! I walked away unscathed from a Saab that was totalled in a high-speed crash with an HGV. Its replacement clocked 208,000 miles.
My family had numberous 99s, 900s, and 9000s over the years. Saab lost it's quirkyness. Saab ditched the high profile tires (which were great in the snow), the front biased weight distribution (which were great in the snow), the ignition on the floor (much harder to steal then an ignition on the steering column), and generally started looking more like BMWs.
They went from practical and safe cars to chasing BMW for the luxury sedan market. They tried with lower ground clearance, lower profile tires, wider tires, ignition on the steering column, power windows, power locks, better materials in the cockpit etc. The result was a dramatic increase in cost and complexity, but never got particularly close to BMW for driving refinement, handling, and of course they never matched BMWs RWD. There wasn't much competition from BMW for a practical car. I moved apartments several times in a Saab, with the hatch back back, giant trunk, and seats that folded down I could easily get desks, beds, tables, and even couches between apartments.
So the result is SAAB lost their old customers and never managed to steal luxury customers from other brands.
Amusingly I see see SAABs occasionally in snow rallies... RIP.
I loved my SAAB 900, my first vehicle... but as the article pointed out, GM killed the soul of SAAB and should be viewed as a warning when buying a company. Culture matters!
Nobody wanted cars like the Saab 900 by the mid 1990s. Volvo did away with the boxy design and started catering to a different demographic. Mercedes stopped producing Panzerwagens like the W140 and vault-like vehicles such as the W124. Handling and design were prioritised over long-term durability and build quality.
It is still a cultural matter, but a one that pertains to the tastes of car buyers in general.
> a mechanical refresh was necessary even if the styling was to remain largely unchanged
No, a mechanical refresh only would not be sufficient. At the time, the styling of a Saab 900 or a Volvo 850 would look hideously outdated next to more modern German contemporaries like the first Mercedes CLK or an E39 5-series.
They needed to rethink and redesign the layout of the car for the new era, rather than come up with mechanically-revised 1970s throwbacks.
I'm sure that post '95 Saabs and Volvos also became more streamlined due to the demands of aerodynamic optimization.
As for styling...de gustibus non est disputandum. I happen to like the squared-off Bruno Sacco era Mercedes look; it has the additional advantage of being a car that you can see out of. Many of the newer "modern, contemporary" European cars, to say nothing of the American ones, are claustrophobic rolling pillboxes in comparison.
I had a GM era SAAB (9-3) and I loved it. I was looking for something fun, relatively inexpensive and different. It satisfied all of those.
I can see how GM's changes were a turn off for traditional SAAB buyers but I can also understand that GM was trying to make it profitable and that means some things had to change. It's too bad they couldn't make it work.
Side note: many of the SAAB engineers ended up at Volvo and I love how Volvo now puts the ignition between the seats. Now they need "night panel" mode. :)
Sadly, GM was never very good at integrating acquired companies, and finding economies of scale between Saab, GM Europe, and GM North America was a bridge too far.
Not only that-Sweden is an expensive place to build anything. Volvo has been making cars for years in places like Benelux, Nova Scotia and now South Carolina, whereas Saabs only came from Trollhattan and maybe Uusikaupunkki in Finland for 900/9-3 convertibles.
Consider the Chevy brand. Their trucks/large SUVs have stayed the same, and have a cult following because of it.
Same with the VAG lineup (or any other manufacturer). Porsches, Audi, and VW each have a group of enthusiasts (obviously representing different slices of society) because there has been consistency in each brand through the decades.
This extends to the non-car world as well. Apple is doing a good job of losing that enthusiast crowd by churning out crappy products and coasting on brand loyalty alone (though the tide may be turning).