Saab Sale Means New Models to Ship By April

General Motors agreed to sell Saab to Spyker, a small exotic car production company, and to allow production facilities to be used to start producing the Saab 9-5. The flagship sedan was completely redesigned by GM and will go on sale in April.

Another model that will now appear in showrooms is the 9-4X crossover, based on the same platform as the Cadillac SRX, and which will be available later this year. Both companies were quiet on specific time frames, citing the transition period.

Pontiac, Saturn and Oldsmobile are no longer offered by General Motors, leaving consumers the choices of GM's core brands of Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac and GMC. But Saab had begun in Sweden, and although many of it's most recent models borrowed heavily from General Motors, fans had pleaded for the company to continue production.

Pricing details have not been announced for the new models, but buyers should not expect major price hikes compared to 2008 Saab models: Spyker received $550 million in loans from European banks as part of the deal.