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SAAB IN PERIL

GENERAL MOTORS

Saab workers stage demonstration

Saab employees filled a main thoroughfare in the company’s home base of Trollhättan in central Sweden on Thursday night to show their faith in the future of the beleaguered automaker.

Published: 27 February 2009 07:54 CET
Saab workers stage demonstration

“Many believe in Saab and this demonstration proves it,” said IF Metall union boss Stefan Löfven to the TT news agency.

The torchlight parade and speeches by Swedish Saab workers were part of a coordinated effort by their counterparts in other countries to demonstrate for their jobs.

“GM is a catastrophe,” said Opel union head Klaus Franz in Rüsselheim, Germany, another Saab production site, referring to Saab’s US-based owner, General Motors.

The streets of Trollhättan were illuminated by mass of about 600 torch bearers who paraded from Kungsgatan to Drottningtorget where roughly 3,000 people had gathered.

“There’s a huge amount of bitterness and frustration over the government’s policy. People feel like Saab hasn’t been give a chance and I share their anger,” said Social Democratic party leader Mona Sahlin to TT.

The demonstration came just hours after GM announced a staggering loss for 2008 of $30.9 billion.

CARS

Germany orders recall of 43,000 Opel diesel vehicles

Germany's KBA transport authority said Friday it had ordered carmaker Opel to recall tens of thousands of diesel vehicles worldwide that were configured to fool regulatory emissions tests.

Published: 19 October 2018 18:03 CEST
Germany orders recall of 43,000 Opel diesel vehicles
A traffic light turns red in front of the company logo of the car manufacturer Opel in Hessen. Photo: DPA

The authority “ordered an obligatory recall on October 17th” for Opel Insignia, Cascada and Zafira diesels meeting the latest Euro 6 emissions standard manufactured between 2013 and 2016, saying they were fitted with an
“illegal 'defeat device'”.

Such software is designed to make vehicles appear less polluting during regulators' tests than in real on-road driving.

Opel has already begun voluntary refits to the 96,000 affected vehicles across Europe, a company spokesman told AFP, with some 43,000 yet to be updated.

SEE ALSO: German prosecutors raid Opel over diesel allegations

That means an officially-approved refit procedure exists that can quickly be applied to the recalled vehicles.

However, Opel has rejected the KBA's finding that its vehicles performed illegally, and said Monday it would contest any compulsory recall order.

Opel this week became the latest German household name to suffer a police search at its headquarters in the wake of the “dieselgate” scandal, in which Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to installing defeat devices in 11 million vehicles worldwide.

Other prominent carmakers like Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler and BMW have already digested recalls of their own, while official probes into the emissions cheating are under way.

Meanwhile, German luxury automaker Daimler on Friday again cut its profit outlook for 2018, warning that costs related to polluting diesel engines would drag down earnings.

The Mercedes-Benz maker, which this year had to recall more than 770,000 diesel cars across Europe, said it now expected earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to come in “significantly below” last year's figure.

The diesel saga erupted in 2015 when German rival Volkswagen admitted to installing “defeat devices” in 11 million diesels worldwide designed to dupe emissions tests and make the cars seem less polluting than they were.

Suspicions have since spread to other automakers as well.

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