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Saab drifted off into receivership today, with not much hope for a long-term recovery.

100,000 cars a year falls a bit short of the critical mass you need to make a profit if you’re in the mass premium market, even if your key market segment does comprise “eccentric individualists”.

(As the “Economist” so delicately puts it.)

We must be REALLY eccentric.

We have 2 – a 9.3 hatchback and a 9.3 turbocharged convertible.

When I got home from the dealer, I said “This. Is. ThenicestcarI’veeverdriven” and I haven’t changed my mind in 10 years and after 200,000km.

OK, so most dealers are naff – “Well, if the air conditioning’s making a noise now that we’ve fixed it, then the fact that it didn’t make a noise before is proff that it was broken…”, (and  of course “Saab” is the acronym for “Shit, Another Astronomical Bill”) but now I’ve got Roland “I had a look at the spark plugs and cleaned them up, so you don’t need any new ones” Rother as my mechanic, it’s been plain sailing.

I have absolutely NO idea what to buy when they stop making them.

It must be me.

Hired a Saturn in the States once and figured that if I HAD to buy an American car, this would be it.

They’ve stopped making them, too.

Eccentric individualists….