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Ford launches B-Max subcompact

GENEVA (AP) — Ford launched its new B-Max family car at the Geneva Motor Show on Tuesday, amid concerns that faltering demand in Europe may require mass market automakers to consider further plant closures.

The subcompact B-Max, to be sold only in Europe, is recognizable for its missing pillar between the front and rear doors and is aimed squarely at a demographic squeezed by government austerity measures.

It features Ford's EcoBoost fuel-saving technology, another nod to cost-conscious consumers looking to counter rising gas prices.

Ford's chief executive Alan Mulally insisted the company still considers Europe an important market, despite losing money there last year.

"Europe, even now with the slowdown, we're at nearly 14 million units," he told The Associated Press at a pre-show event late Monday. By comparison, Ford's estimate for North America is only slightly higher, with 14.5 million units.

But Mulally said that to compete, automakers need to aggressively meet consumer demand. At the moment there is a strong appetite for small, sleek and sporty vehicles in Europe, he said. "Remember when smaller cars used to be cheap and cheerful? Now the consumers want the finest quality, the finest fuel efficiency, safety and design."

Meanwhile, Ford Europe's CEO told reporters Tuesday that European policymakers should stop getting in the way of plant closures as the industry seeks to balance supply with shrinking demand.

"I believe policymakers can stop making statements that they understand capacity should be taken out — but not in my country," Odell said.

He also criticized the European free trade agreement with Korea as being lopsided — resulting in seven times more cars arriving from South Korea than heading there from Europe. He hopes the same thing won't happen with an Indian accord being negotiated.

Idle production lines in Europe are cutting profits as automakers face a contracting market. Odell said Ford plants are operating just above 90 percent thanks to earlier plant closures, and emphasized that Ford Europe has been profitable for six of the last eight years despite a difficult economic environment.

By comparison, capacity utilization in 2011 in North America on the same two-shift basis was 106 percent.

More recently, Ford Europe has dropped a Belgian plant to four days a week and reducing the temporary work force at plants in Germany and Britain.

Ford made difficult decisions on plants during the 2008 and 2009 crisis — something that didn't happen Europe-wide "for a number of national reasons," Ford CFO Lewis Booth told The Associated Press.

Ford will focus on cost containment to return to profitability until demand is restored, but he declined to speculate on possible measures. Booth said Ford Europe could lose $500 to $600 million dollars this year, after recording losses of $190 million in the last quarter of 2011.

"The European consumer is nervous about spending money because he doesn't know what the future holds," Booth said.

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GM Will Stop Making Slow-Selling Volt for 5 Weeks

General Motors Co. (GM), missing sales goals for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, plans to halt production of the sedan for five weeks beginning later this month rather than discount the high-technology cars.

GM will stop making Volts at its Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant from March 19 until April 23, Chris Lee, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail March 2. The factory had ramped up to full-speed production Feb. 6 after the New Year’s shutdown.

While sales of the Volt in February more than tripled from a year earlier to 1,023, the rate is below what’s needed to meet Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson’s goal of 45,000 deliveries in the U.S. this year. GM missed its target of 10,000 Volt sales last year, finishing 2011 with 7,671 deliveries.

“This move is to keep proper inventory levels,” Lee said in the e-mail.

GM executives have said publicity surrounding a two- month federal investigation into the safety of the Volt following a fire publicly revealed in November had hurt the car’s sales. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in January that the Volt poses no more fire risk than other cars.

“Although we loaded the Volt with state-of-the-art safety features, we did not engineer the Volt to be a political punching bag,” Akerson said during a Congressional hearing on Volt in January. “And that, sadly, is what the Volt has become.”

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Chrysler holds onto top sales spot in Canada

TORONTO, ON — Chrysler Canada claimed the top spot as the best selling automaker in the country for the second consecutive month at the top of the heap.

The company says sales increased nine per cent compared with a year ago and hit their best level for a February since 2002.

“These sales results are a testament to the 16 all-new or significantly refreshed products we introduced over the last year, which focused on improved exteriors, new interiors, and dramatically better fuel efficiency,” Chrysler Canada chief operating officer Dave Buckingham said in a statement.

The increase was helped by a more than doubling of passenger car sales at the automaker. Jeep Wrangler sales also more than doubled compared with a year ago.

Chrysler Canada, which has assembly plants in Windsor and Brampton, Ont., northwest of Toronto, as well as parts operations, said it sold 16,536 cars and trucks sold in February, up from 15,238 in the same month last year.

Meanwhile, GM said it sold 14,258 vehicles in February, up 16 per cent over February 2011, as sales of fuel-efficient crossovers increased significantly compared with a year ago.

Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain sales were up 41.5 per cent.

“For 2012, our dealers have the best and most complete product line up in recent memory, spanning all segments, from the entry level Sonic to the new Canadian-built Cadillac XTS,” said Marc Comeau, vice-president of sales, service and marketing at GM of Canada.

GM’s passenger car sales rose 5.8 per cent in February, helped by strong sales of the Buick Regal, Chevrolet Camaro and Buick LaCrosse, while Chevrolet and GMC pickup trucks sales saw Silverado, and Sierra sales gain seven per cent.

In the U.S., many automakers reported strong sales for February as Americans snapped up smaller cars to offset high gas prices.

Chrysler’s February sales rose 40 per cent from a year earlier as it sold nearly 134,000 new cars and trucks. All of its brands showed at least double-digit increases. Chrysler was helped by an easy comparison with last February, when sales were relatively low because many of its revamped models were just arriving in showrooms.

Ford sales rose 14 per cent, mostly on demand for the Focus compact car. Focus sales more than doubled to 23,350, making it the best February for the Focus in 12 years.

At GM, sales of the Chevrolet Cruze compact rose 10 per cent to top 20,000 for the month, while the new Chevy Sonic subcompact saw its best sales month ever at almost 8,000. The strength of those sales helped General Motors, which was expected to see sales drop, report a 1 per cent increase.

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Do Not Pass Go: many young adults are putting off getting their driver’s licenses, but at what cost?

There’s a funny scene in The Forty Year Old Virgin (2005) where Steve Carrell’s character explains to a woman he’s called for a date that he won’t be able to pick her up because he rides a bike. “That’s OK,” she tells him, “I love getting on the back of a motorcycle.” At which point Carrell is forced to clarify: “Yeah... I ride a bicycle.” As it turns out, getting a license is just one of the many rites of passage he’s ducked in putting off adulthood in favour of an extended adolescence.

For as long as families have been able to afford cars, learning to drive has been an initiation rite for North American kids, often a bonding experience between parent and child in which a set of sacred principles is transmitted from elder to younger. Like fathers teaching their sons to shave and mothers teaching their daughters about the “feminine hygiene” aisle at the drugstore, learning to drive is one of the milestones we use to mark the end of childhood. The first passing of the keys is not only a gesture of trust that confers a new level of responsibility but also an acknowledgement of independence that entails a new degree of freedom. And when sons and daughters actually get their first car, they finally have the means to leave the comforts of home behind and to make their own way in the world.

But in many households today, these symbolic rituals are being postponed. In the past year, a number of American news sources reported a similar trend: teenagers are waiting longer to get their licenses. Data from the US Department of Transportation reveals that nearly 45% of American 16-year-olds got driver’s licenses in 1988. Twenty years later, that figure had dropped to just over 30%, with data from certain states showing a continued decline in the past two years. The trend is less pronounced in Canada, where there are far fewer drivers of any age on the road, but the numbers here tell a similar story. In 2009 (the most recent year for which data from Transport Canada is available), there were over 50,000 more drivers aged 16 to 19 than there were in 2003, an increase of nearly 5%. At the same time, however, there were nearly 155,000 more drivers aged 20 to 24, an increase of almost 9%. Demographic changes may partly account for these numbers, but they also suggest that teenagers are no longer streaming into test centres on their first day of eligibility.

One reason for this shift is simple economics. Insurance rates for young drivers are almost always among the highest of all classes, and even with a discount for a good record or a driver’s ed certificate, adding a teenage driver to a policy usually means a significant increase in the premium, an expense many families can ill afford in this economy. Whereas in the past teenagers worked part-time or summer jobs to pay their share of the additional cost, youth unemployment in Canada is currently over 17%, more than double the national average. Couple this with the ever-rising cost of gasoline, a greater sensitivity to the environmental consequences of increased fuel emissions, and staggering tuition debt, and it’s not particularly difficult to see why some young people seem to be rethinking the need to get their licenses and that first car as early as possible.

To a certain extent, investments in infrastructure and public transport in the form of expanded routes and longer service hours have also had an impact, but the single greatest catalyst behind this decline is most likely digital. If American Graffiti has taught us anything, it’s that for past generations the car was an integral component of a teenager’s social life, a means for him or her to get out of the house, meet friends, and cruise the streets like Milner in his ’32 Deuce-coupe or else park for a little necking. But the car no longer occupies this exalted place in the culture. Teenagers now stay “connected” through social networking and endless text messages in coded shorthand. They no longer need to leave their rooms in order to have social lives, at least insofar as whatever happens on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the rest of the Web passes for a social life.

It’s difficult to say whether it’s a cause or an effect, but a related factor is the trend of arrested development, a kind of juvenilization whereby – far from putting aside childish things – young adults continue to be driven to the mall by their parents so they can spend their allowances on the latest installment of some video-game franchise. Although collision rates in Canada have fallen steadily in the past decade, parents can hardly be blamed for wanting to protect their children by keeping them out of the driver’s seat until they’re mature enough to handle the responsibility. But how are teenagers supposed to mature if parents resist entrusting them with new responsibilities in the first place? Today’s so-called “helicopter” parents, forever hovering over their kids in readiness to swoop in at the first sign of trouble, are neurotically concerned with the physical and emotional welfare of their children, but despite their best intentions their kids can hardly be expected to grow up when they have to bear no hardships, overcome no obstacles, and face no dangers on their own.

The postponement of licensing for young drivers may also be a symptom of a broader sociological change underway. A Statistics Canada study released in September 2011 found that young adults are putting off “key life transitions” like leaving school, securing full-time employment, getting married, buying their first homes, and raising families of their own until their late twenties and early thirties. Data from the 2006 census show that almost 1 in 2 Canadians aged 20 to 29 was either moving back in with parents or had never left home at all; given the current job market, it seems likely the 2011 census data will reveal a similar trend. Some numbers out of the US are even starker: according to The New York Times, as of December 2010, 74% of college graduates aged 24 years or younger had yet to find full-time employment. Small wonder that getting a driver’s license is no longer priority one, even though not having one can be a professional barrier.

Of course, as far as many drivers are concerned, the fewer teenagers on the road, the better. In 2009, there were 2,209 fatalities and 11,451 serious injuries (i.e., injuries that required admittance to hospital) arising from automotive collisions across all age groups in Canada. Although drivers aged 16 to 19 made up just 4.7% of all drivers on the road, they accounted for a disproportionately high 10.9% of all fatalities and 12.2% of all serious injuries. Compare this to the figures for drivers aged 20 to 24: as a group they made up 8.2% of all drivers, but though nearly twice as many they accounted for just 12.8% of all fatalities and 13.5% of all serious injuries.

Does this mean that 16 years old is too young to drive? Say what you will about teenagers, but it depends on the 16-year-old and what he or she has learned in those 16 years. Just because your kid puts off getting a driver’s license doesn’t mean he’s going to turn into a reclusive forty-year-old bachelor who works in retail and spends his free time playing video games. But it probably won’t help, either.

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Honda recalling 46,000 Odyssey minivans to fix falling rear doors

DETROIT, MI — Honda is recalling nearly 46,000 Odyssey minivans, including almost 2,800 in Canada, because the rear doors can fall on people unexpectedly, and have on at least two occasions.

The problem affects minivans from the 2008 and 2009 model years that have power lift gates.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says on its website that gas can leak out of the struts that support the lift gates. The doors could close unexpectedly, increasing the risk of injuries.

Honda says the problem has caused two minor injuries. The company will replace both power liftgate struts for free.

Honda will send letters to van owners next month with instructions about the recall.

Owners with questions can call Honda at 1-800-999-1009.

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Three lucky winners drive away with new Scion iQ vehicles

TORONTO, ON – Scion Canada has celebrated the arrival of its newest model – the iQ. Three lucky Canadians will be among the first to drive home in their new iQ. 

To wrap up a Scion national campaign in conjuction with Cineplex Entertainment, 3 winners were drawn from a pool of over 40,000 participants who entered via cineplex.com/scioniQ. The winners are Gregg Reddin from Ottawa, ON; Carrie Guenette from Halbrite, SK; and Brigitte Inderbitzin from Smithers, BC.

“Congratulations to the winners. They’re really going to enjoy driving the new Scion iQ, which may be the world’s smallest four-seater micro-subcompact car, but they’ll quickly discover how big it is on comfort and versatility, thanks to a number of unique engineering innovations and exceptional standard features,” said Larry Hutchinson, Senior Executive Director of Scion in Canada.

The draw concluded an awareness campaign that ran for 4 weeks in Dec 2011. To make the iQ’s many attributes particularly memorable for Canadian consumers, advertisements at selected Cineplex Entertainment theatres paired movie trivia with key facts about Scion, under the fitting tagline of “Elevate your iQ.”  Attention-grabbing facts about the iQ were emphasized, including how it has the world’s smallest turning radius (3.9 metres) and that it has the world’s first rear-window curtain airbag among its 11 standard airbags.

As the world's most fuel efficient non-hybrid on the road, the Scion iQ is loaded with ingenious engineering advancements, is only three metres long and has a starting price of just $16,760.

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Automotive Business School of Canada powered by Georgian College

Public perception may be that jobs in the automotive industry are diminishing, but students in Canada’s largest automotive program beg to differ. In fact, the Canadian Automotive Institute in Barrie recently celebrated its success with a rebrand and name change to the Automotive Business School of Canada.

 

“We would like to dispel the myth that automotive jobs are in jeopardy. In fact, our graduate placement rate has been over 90 per cent for the past 27 years,” said Jennifer Sheremeto, marketing specialist for the school, based at Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario since 1985.

 

The new brand was officially launched at the Toronto Auto Show on Feb. 17. The automotive business program receives tremendous support from the Canadian automotive industry, which provides co-op jobs, grad jobs, scholarships and vision through industry partners.Current students and alumni were involved with the rebranding process.

 

 

“The rebrand is about better representing students. This new brand illustrates our passion, dedication and drive. We are represented as professional individuals working toward taking over the industry, and that is what we intend to do,” said Nicole Simpson, a second-year Automotive Marketing student on co-op as a marketing and communications assistant in the Automotive Business School of Canada.

 

“Our school is a group of driven individuals who are going to become the next generation of the automotive industry. There is nothing that we aren’t capable of,” Simpson adds.

 

Georgian partnered with Young and Rubicam (Y & R), the same advertising agency used by a large automotive manufacturer, to create and launch the new brand. The entire process took place within a year. Y & R suggested changing the name to Automotive Business School of Canada and establishing it as a business school. This would avoid the confusion that some prospective students may have regarding it being a technical school rather than a business school.

 

“When great organizations come together, great things happen. The Automotive Business School of Canada is grateful to Y & R for its support and partnership,” said Sheremeto. “They are helping us to meet our overall goal of increasing the number of applicants and helping bring negative public perception in line with the reality that the program is in fact strong and our graduates get jobs.”

Although the automotive industry has been challenged from time to time, said Dean Marie-Noelle Bonicalzi, the program has always had a strong co-op component. The school has produced more than 2,700 graduates who experienced co-ops in the field.

 

“Since the inception, we always had to explain that we are not a technical school, but a business school for the automotive industry,” said Bonicalzi. “Now our name says what we are all about. We are very pleased with our new motto: Automotive Business School of Canada – For the driven.”

 

The school also has a creed which exemplifies the dreams and desires of its students, says Bonicalzi. It is a moving testament to their love of everything automotive, she said. One section of the creed that says a great deal about the students is, “Something special propels you…you have gasoline flowing through your veins…in your world, they’re not just cars, they’re life.”

 

Conducting business in the automotive industry has become more sophisticated, which increases demand for multi-skilled personnel.

 

“I chose the school because it offers a chance to be involved in the automotive industry, which is always offering new jobs. It is an industry that will always exist and there are countless opportunities available,” said Simpson.

 

After graduation, says Simpson, there are career opportunities in dealerships, from being a sales person to being a service advisor. Grads may also manage or own a dealership, work for a head office or run an aftermarket business. Career opportunities also include operating auto shows, remarketing vehicles or financing for potential customers.

 

“If it has anything to do with automotive business it could be your potential career.”

 

To learn more, visit the newly launched website www.automotivebusinessschool.ca.

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VW Group plans to significantly boost global production

Volkswagen Group is significantly boosting its production footprint and will have 100 production locations worldwide by 2018, the automaker's production chief, Michael Macht, told Automotive News Europe.

The group is considering opening a factory for its Audi brand in North America and launching production in southeast Asia, in addition to expanding in China, Macht said in an interview.

VW's takeover of MAN, Germany's biggest truck maker with 31 factories, will take the group's production locations to 100 instead of 70, the number previously targeted by the automaker, he said.

"In China, we are working on new production locations in Foshan, Yizheng and Ningbo," Macht said. In addition VW will develop components works in the region.

VW is looking more closely at expanding in production presence in southeast Asia – "above all in Malaysia," Macht said. In North America, the group is expanding a parts factory in Mexico and is examining the possibility for a new car plant in the region under Audi's leadership.

A core strategic aim is to build up an annual production capacity for 10 million vehicles by 2018, Macht said.

VW will not close European factories in Europe, which is home to 39 of its 62 global vehicle and components plants. "Just the opposite - our German and European production locations are and will remain the backbone of our global success. That's why we are deliberately investing in new technology and capacity there," the executive said.

He added: "The total is about 28 billion euros by 2016 in Germany alone. That makes it more than clear that Germany is at the forefront as a Volkswagen manufacturing center compared with other countries."

VW has 30,000 suppliers, including 6,000 core suppliers, and this will remain unchanged for the future, Macht said, pointing out that rival automakers that use single-sourcing for parts were harder hit than VW during the recent natural disasters in Japan and Thailand.

Currently two thirds of VW's global workforce of about 500,000 are employed in production, manufacturing over 200 models for VW Group's 10 brands.

This year, the group will launch 49 new products after introducing 42 fresh vehicles in 2011. "With our groupwide production strategy and by maintaining strict discipline in implementing our modular platforms strategy, we will master this Herculean task," Macht said.


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Super Bowl ads that generate buzz after the game

NEW YORK (AP) — Companies hope you'll be gabbing about their Super Bowl ads on Monday morning. But the ultimate score is if those conversations continue throughout the year.

The Super Bowl is an advertiser's biggest stage (more than 111 million fans are expected to tune in this year). It's also an advertiser's biggest gamble (a 30-second spot costs $3.5 million). Marketers are willing to take the risk, though: A successful ad can generate buzz well after the game for the companies, products and people who star in them.

"If you do it well, it has the opportunity to set your company straight or change the direction of your company," says Allen Adamson, a managing director at brand consulting firm Landor Associates. "You'll never get all those people in one room again until next year."

Here are three of the most talked-about ads from last year's Super Bowl and what happened to the companies that created them:

May the force be with you

Volkswagen's ad last year had everything to grab your attention: a cute, little boy, a retro theme, a funny plot.

The German automaker charmed millions of viewers with a "Star Wars" themed ad for its redesigned 2012 Passat sedan. The commercial shows a young boy in a Darth Vader costume trying unsuccessfully to use "The Force" on a doll, washer machine and even his pet dog. Finally, he thinks he's done so when his dad uses a remote to start the Passat. The boy is shocked.

Volkswagen took a gamble by releasing the spot before the game — something most advertisers didn't do last year. But the move paid off: the ad quickly became a viral hit on video-sharing website YouTube, with 49.4 million views since. And it came in No. 3 on USA Today's Ad Meter, which ranks Super Bowl commercials. (The top two ads, tied for first, was a Bud Light ad showing dogs catering a party and a Doritos spot featuring a pug that knocks down a man who taunts him with the chips.)

The ad also helped tout the new sedan. The Passat went on sale in the summer and has been a popular seller for Volkswagen in the U.S. In December, for example, volume sales of the sedan more than doubled to nearly 23,000 for the year.

And the 6-year-old boy in the ad, Max Page, became a celebrity. After the ad aired, Max, who was also part of the cast of "The Young and the Restless" soap opera, appeared on NBC's "Today" show and MSNBC.

For its part, Volkswagen is revisiting its Star Wars motif during Sunday's game, only this time with an ad for its Volkswagen Beetle. The carmaker has released a "teaser spot" for its commercial that shows dogs dressed as Star Wars characters barking "The Imperial March." It has already gotten 10 million views on YouTube.

Then, on Wednesday, the company released online a 75-second version of the 60-second Super Bowl ad that shows a dog losing weight so he can chase after a Beetle. Then it cuts away to show aliens in the Cantina from "Star Wars" discussing the ads.

Volkswagen's thinking: why depart from a proven formula?

Imported from Detroit

While many Super Bowl ads use humor, kids or animals to tug at the heartstrings, Chrysler took an altogether different approach with its cinematic "Imported from Detroit" spot to roll out its 200 sedan.

Set to a pulsating beat from Eminem's "Lose Yourself" song, the ad shows gritty footage of the hip-hop star driving the 200 through the streets of Detroit, past city landmarks, historic homes and of course, people. The ad ended with Eminem on stage in front of a humming choir with the message: "This is the Motor City, and this is what we do."

The ad, which paid homage to Detroit's automotive history, resonated with people immediately. It tied for the third most popular Super Bowl in a ranking by Michigan State University. (The Volkswagen ads, the one starring the mini-Darth Vader and another with an animated Beetle got the top spots.) Since then, the Chrysler ad has been viewed 14 million times on YouTube.

The "Imported from Detroit" slogan caught on, too. The term has become popular among Detroiters. It has been plastered on T-shirts and hats, helping Chrysler's online store sales to more than double. And about a dozen people have started Facebook groups using the tagline.

Larry Callahan's Selected of God choir, the Detroit group that co-stars in the ad, also gained popularity. The choir has since created a music video for the song, and it's been viewed nearly 390,000 times since the end of July. It's also available on iTunes. And a new full length CD is due out in March.

But it seems the ad did more for the city of Detroit than Chrysler. After the ad hit in February, the number of 200s sold jumped four-fold from the previous month to more than 3,000. But overall, only about 87,000 were sold last year. By comparison, the top-selling car in America, the Toyota Camry, sold more than 300,000.

This year, Chrysler has one 60-second Super Bowl spot. It hasn't released any details about the ad, but it's not expected to be as big of a hit.

Not so funny after all

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Receivers cool on $446 million Youngman bid for Saab, source says

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN -- China's Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile has made a 3 billion crowns ($446 million) offer for Saab, which has drawn a cool response from receivers, a source with knowledge of the situation said.

The receivers want bids for parts of Saab rather than the whole business as that would raise more for creditors, the source said.

Saab was declared bankrupt last December after months of efforts to keep it afloat by Dutch owner Swedish Automobile.

"Youngman made an offer for all of Saab on Monday. They intend to start production in Trollhattan," the source, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

"(The receivers) said they are not interested in a dialogue about the entity but rather want bids for separate parts of the business," the source said. "Such a solution would ruin any chance of future car production in Trolhattan. But they have declared in plain terms that there are other, higher bids for parts of the business which would, added up, give greater returns."

The receivers and Youngman's legal representative in Sweden declined to comment.

The sticking point of the final rescue deal before Saab's bankruptcy was the refusal of former owner General Motors Co. to allow its technology, which underpins Saab cars, to fall into the hands of Youngman as GM already has cooperation with the Chinese group SAIC Motor.

The source said that, under the fresh offer, Youngman would initially produce Saab's old 9-3 model and a Lotus model for Malaysia's Proton. The cars would be made at Saab's factory in Trollhattan. Youngman has the rights to build and sell Lotus cars in China.

That would keep the business running until Youngman completed the development of Saab's half-finished PhoeniX platform, which is expected to be the base of future models, the source said.

The new platform relies very little on GM technology, but any buyer would have to invest heavily to complete it. Youngman predicts it would take around one and a half years to do so, the source said.

Sweden's Debt Office is the single biggest creditor to Saab having taken over the car maker's loan from the European Investment Bank and is owed abut 2.2 billion crowns.

Other companies that have been named in Swedish media as considering bids for Saab assets include Indian utility vehicle maker Mahindra and Mahindra, Turkish investment firm Brightwell Holdings and Swedish engineering firm Semcon.

Any buyer wanting to use the Saab name would have to get permission from defense and security company Saab AB and truck maker Scania , as they still own the rights to the brand.

The receivers, who are due to finish the bankrupt estate's inventory by April, said in a statement they would not comment on interested parties or bids during the sale process.

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