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Saving Saab: Spyker To Sell Luxury Sports Car Biz To Save Swedish Icon

Spyker, maker of hand-built exotic cars, is selling that business to a Russian billionaire, while it concentrates on reviving Swedish premium carmaker Saab.

Spyker, which bought Saab from General Motors in 2010, has signed a memo of understanding to sell the Spyker business and brand to Russian financier Vladimir Antonov, who owns CPP Global Holdings in the U.K.

The sale of Spyker is expected to raise $44 million, substantially reducing the company's debt, and positioning it better to give Saab a shot at surviving as a niche premium car brand.

Tags: Bob Lutz, GM, Saab, Saab 9-3, Saab 9-5, Spyker, Victor Muller, Vladimir Antonov

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Report: General Motors No Longer Provides Tiger Woods With Free Cars

by Jeremy Korzeniewski (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Sports, Crimes and Misdemeanors

According to a report from USA Today (via San Francisco Chronicle), Tiger Woods no longer gets free cars from General Motors. No worries, we're pretty sure Tiger can afford to pay for his own ride anyway.

The news, attributed to Buick spokesperson Dayna Hart, comes as a number of companies like Tag Heuer and Accenture have canceled advertising contracts with the star golfer. GM, though, indicates that the free car agreement was scheduled to end on December 31st and therefore isn't necessarily a result of Woods' November 27th accident outside his Florida home.

Woods hasn't been a spokesperson for GM since the golfer's contract ended in 2008, but the automaker had reportedly agreed to let Woods keep his Buick and Cadillac vehicles for an additional year. As reported on our sister site Autoblog.com, the 2009 Cadillac Escalade Woods was driving (see above) will be repaired and sold.

[Source: USA Today via San Francisco Chronicle]

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Tags: Buick, buick enclave, buick tiger woods, BuickEnclave, BuickTigerWoods, cadillac, cadillac escalade, CadillacEscalade, general motors, GeneralMotors, gm, gm tiger woods, GmTigerWoods, tiger woods, tiger woods affair, tiger woods scandal, TigerWoods, TigerWoodsAffair, TigerWoodsScandal

Russia's Richest Man to Buy Hummer from GM?

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Oleg Deripaska (right), 40, the richest man in Russia with a fortune of $28 billion and the 9th richest man in world (Luxist fave Roman Abramovich is #15), has reportedly held talks with General Motors about acquiring their beleaguered Hummer division.

As my colleague Deidre Woollard reported last month, Hummer is in financial trouble in the wake of the oil and gas price explosion, with sales of the SUV having tumbled some 40 percent through June. Ailing GM has announced plans to unload the brand, and Deripaska, whose company Russian Machines recently acquired a major stake in Canadian auto parts manufacturer Magna International, is a natural buyer.

In the wake of the reports, Russian Machines issued a statement saying it was "not strategically interested in such a deal", which sounds to us like a non-denial denial. We would hardly expect him to invite counter-offers by publicizing a planned acquisition before the deal is signed. This past New Year's Eve Deripaska paid Barbadian signer Rihanna $500,000 for a private 40 minute performance for his friends.

Tags: General Motors, GeneralMotors, GM, Hummer, Oleg Deripaska, OlegDeripaska, Rihanna, roman abramovich, RomanAbramovich, russian billionaires, RussianBillionaires, SUV

Say Goodbye to the Hummer H1

by Nicole Weston (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

The Hummer H1 is being discontinued by General Motors this year, which means that the last ones will be built in June. The car was the cornerstone of the Hummer brand, and though the company has sold 12,000 of the $140,000 (base price of $106,000) vehicles since they were introduced in 1992, spokespeople say that they plan to focus on models that will have a broader appeal. GM reps also noted that rising gas prices didn't impact their decision because their customer base for the massive SUV isn't comprised of people who typically worry about that sort of thing. They do, however, worry about more luxury options, which is where GM will be taking the brand.

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Tags: discontinue, general motors, gm, hummer, hummer h1, suv