For the first time in a decade I went down to the Washington (DC) Auto
Show this morning.  I'm starting to wonder if I should consider replacing
my old 900 with something a bit less long in the tooth, and figured that
I would be able to talk to someone from Saab about the current models,
and find out if Saab could convice me that it's resolved both the
dismal problems with electronics (repeatedly discussed in this ng) and
Saab's refusal to accept responsibility for fixing them (ditto).

Wrong.

There were a half-dozen Saabs on the floor of the new Convention Center,
but that was about it:

* No brochures about any of the models that potential customers
 could take home
* A "bingo card" that you could mail in to get additional info was
 the *only* printed material available.
* No information about the location (or even existence) of the two
 Saab dealers in the Washington area.
* A desk, devoid of any Saab logo or other sign.  The only reason to
 guess that it belonged to the Saab exhibit was that all other
 desks in the vicinity had other companies' logos splattered all
 over them.
* One rent-a-salesdroid who appeared to be terminally bored, who had
 no badges on his coat to say that he was associated with Saab other
 than that he was sitting behind the logo-free desk.  This clown
 insisted that Saab has no reputation for electrical design or
 reliability problems.  There was a second droid who swapped the
 desk with the first, but the one not at the desk made no attempt
 to engage visitors to the exhibit in any conversation.

Question: is this typical of Saab's (non-)participation in auto shows,
or is it part of a deliberate attempt by GM to run down Saab sales
to the point that management can "justify" dropping the marque?

I think I'll stop in at the local BMW dealer tomorrow.  At the show
they had a nice X3 with exellent cargo space (a critical issue for me,
and the reason that I bought my 900 in the first place) -- plus, the
BMW people at the show acted like they gave a damn about their
potential customers.

Joe Morris