Struggling GM owned Swedish carmaker Saab could be included in Fiat CEO's ambitious plans to create a new giant that would be made up of Fiat, Vauxhall/Opel and Fiat's minority stake in Chrysler. The Lancia Delta was marketed through Saab in Sweden as the Saab-Lancia 600 (in GLE and GLS versions) between 1980 and 1982, complete with Saab badges.

Struggling GM owned Swedish carmaker Saab could be included in Fiat CEO's ambitious plans to create a new giant that would be made up of Fiat, Vauxhall/Opel and Fiat's minority stake in Chrysler. "We have had contact with Fiat," Hakan Lind, a spokesman at the Swedish Ministry of Enterprise, Energy and Communications, confirmed. "The meeting was about Saab," he added.

Saab has been one of the first casualties of GM's accelerating decline and rush to reign in costs with the American giant looking to offload the niche division, which has seen collapsing sales over the last two years. On February 17, with GM unwilling to pump any more money into Saab to prop it up and with a request for 5 billion Swedish kronor (450 million euros) of state aid being turned down by the Swedish government, the carmaker was placed into a court supervised reorganisation procedure (the Swedish equivalent of the Chapter 11 process that American carmaker Chrysler has now entered). In response to GM's financial demands the Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said at the time that "the government doesn’t plan to risk taxpayers' money on Saab." Saab's managing director Jan-Åke Jonsson believes that the reorganisation process represents the optimum route to securing the carmaker's future saying that this was "the best way to create a truly independent entity that is ready for investment." The reorganisation procedure was extended on April 26 by the Swedish courts.

Saab was originally a subsidiary of the Swedish Aeroplane Company (Svensk Aeroplan Aktiebolag) which built aircraft for the Swedish air force. With WWII coming to an end the company started casting around for new industrial opportunities and started developing its first car in 1944, dubbed project 92. Five years later the Saab 92 went into production and the Saab carmaking story got underway. In 1969 Saab developed a partnership with truck maker Scania before in 1989 GM purchased a 50 percent stake, completing the staged takeover by acquiring the remaining 50 percent in 2000.

Soon after GM took up its stake in Saab economies of scale were on the agenda, with the 'new' 900 model launched in 1993 being based on the Opel Vectra platform. Four years ago GM announced that the next-generation 9-3 and 9-5 models' production would be switched from Saab's key factory at Trollhättan, Sweden to Opel's plant at Rüsselsheim, Germany, from 2009. In a further dilution the Trollhättan factory started producing European market destined GM Cadillac brand models.

Fiat Group has long time links with the Swedish car industry, and several times it has shown an interest in buying Saab's domestic rival, Volvo, coming very close to making a purchase at the beginning of this decade. Lancia's iconic Delta model, launched in September 1979 at the Frankfurt Motor Show complete with Ermenegildo Zegna designer cloth upholstery as standard, was marketed through Saab in Sweden as the Saab-Lancia 600 (in GLE and GLS versions) between 1980 and 1982, complete with Saab badges. The Saab-Lancia 600 programme led to the Swedish carmaker becoming involved with Fiat's "Type Four" project, the large executive saloon built on a common platform, which resulted in the Saab 9000, Lancia Thema, Fiat Croma and Alfa Romeo 164. Saab also marketed Lancia's small A112 alongside the 600 model.