The closing of Curran Cadillac drew a lot of attention last year.
This week, Saab of Westport left town without so much as a toot of the horn.
The website still touts itself as “Connecticut’s #1 Saab Retail Sales Leader for 2008” — big whoop — but after nearly 3 decades on Post Road West opposite King’s Highway Elementary, the Westport dealer has “merged” with its sister showroom, Saab of Greenwich.
Speaking to the Danbury News-Times, Pat Ryan — president of Saab of Westport — offered up the usual buzzwords: increased operating efficiencies, economies of scale, yada yada yada.
Once upon a time, Saabs were Westport icons — stylish, well-built, Sweden’s automotive version of Ikea.
Lately though, they’ve become just another brand. GM bought the company, and after months of shopping around finally unloaded it to a Dutch firm no one’s ever heard of.
The 2-acre Westport property is up for lease. It’s prime real estate, with plenty of parking. For years its neighbor was Steele’s Texaco, 1 of the last gas stations that actually did repair work too.
Today, that triangular corner at the intersection of King’s Highway North is a generic office building.
What will replace Saab of Westport?
Don’t even go there.
a bank of course… Just had to go there :).
That triangle corner is… are ya ready?
JPMorganChase… a BANK !
A Swedish massage parlor?
That”s right. There was no toot of the horn from Mr. Ryan, not even to his customers. Nothing. Not even an email.
What about a Westport movie theatre either at the former locations of Saab or Curran?
What a shame. SAAB used to be so Westport..and the GM team ruined the fan base by being clueless. Hopefully the new owners will bring the brand back from the dead. How SAAB of Westport has closed is almost incomprehensible.