Vladimir Antonov Withdraws Proposal to Buy and Leaseback Saab Property

The ink has barely dried on Saab’s latest attempt to form a preliminary deal with China’s Pang Da Automobile and Youngman, and the Swedish company is faced with yet another problem as Russian investor Vladimir Antonov has withdrawn his proposal to buy and leaseback Saab property.

"The property sale is now being discussed with external investors," said Lars Carlstrom, Antonov's representative in Sweden. However, Carlstrom noted that the Russian banker was still interested in becoming a shareholder in Saab’s parent company Spyker Cars NV.

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VW Group Enters Production Deal with Russia’s GAZ

In its never-ending quest for global domination, the VW Group signed an agreement with the GAZ Group to assemble Volkswagen and Skoda models under contract at the Russian automaker’s in Nizhny Novgorod. The two companies had already concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) regarding joint automobile production in Russia in February 2011 with a planned production volume of 110,000 vehicles per year.

Under the deal, GAZ will build the Volkswagen Jetta compact sedan, Skoda Octavia and Skoda Yeti crossover models for the Russian market, with the first vehicles to start rolling off the production line by the end of 2012.

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Latvian Tuner Wraps BMW 3-Series in Crocodile Leather

There’s something about cars and animal leathers / prints that attracts certain tuners from Russia and the former Soviet states. You all remember the Russian design-house Dartz and it real whale penis leather-equipped Prombron and snake skin-covered Bentley Continental GT SS. Now another tuning firm called Vipon, this time from neighboring Lithuania Latvia, has come with a new animal leather themed proposal based on a pre-facelift E90 BMW 318i sedan. Read more »