When a carmaker goes down, it’s not just the investors, factory workers or suppliers that take the heat: dealers are also in deep trouble. Case at hand: Saab’s bankruptcy. Its owner, Swedish Automobile, was forced to liquidate the company after a long struggle to keep it afloat failed.

Saab Cars North America, on the other hand, was left out in the cold during this whole process. Even if the restructuring was successful, there was no provision (at least none that we know of) for the brand’s North American operations.

Now, its 188 U.S. dealers are stuck with approximately 2,400 cars in their inventory, as revealed by Saab North America president, Tim Colbeck. Naturally, they need to sell them – but Saab has already announced that it won’t cover U.S. warranties, and former owner General Motors will honor warranties only for cars that were delivered before the 2010 sale of Saab to Spyker.

Aftermarket warranties can be an option for some dealers, according to lawyer Mike Charapp, who stresses though that “they will have to be very clear with a disclaimer that there’s no manufacturer warranty”.

Things become more complicated in certain states, like Maryland, which Charapp says do not absolve dealers of warranty claims even if they sell the cars “as is”.

Sales manager for Perrinne Saab in New Jersey, Tom Donohue, told Autonews that his dealership “will eat the cost” by offering a three-year, 36,000-mile GM Protection Plan warranty on the cars that are in its inventory – something that amounts to US$2,000-2,500 for each of the 30 cars that are still in its forecourt.

Donohue stated, “Customers will have peace of mind that they will be covered”. Moreover, he added that potential buyers have increased: “You have more action now that the brand is in distress because people are coming in looking for a very good deal.”

Other dealers have swallowed the bitter pill of Saab’s bankruptcy and moved on. Detroit-based George Glassman, owner of the second-best-selling Saab dealership in the country, is one of them: “I made a conscious decision to get my inventory as low as possible, as quickly as possible”.

As a result, he sold all but eight of around 100 cars he had, each with a loss of US$3,000-5,000 – losing “hundreds of thousands of dollars”.

Glassman, on the other hand, also sells Hyundai, Kia and Subaru cars, so he could sustain his business despite the losses. He acknowledges, “Unless you’ve got the strength of several other brands to fall back on, it’s a devastating scenario”.

Story References: Autonews