Original Parts Help Line Creator Eric Weiss joins me this week on the Podcast. Eric started at Saab as a “Senior” Consumer Relations person where I followed in his footsteps as he transitioned shortly to my future role running the Parts Help Line. He then became a field Service Representative calling on 15 dealers in Connecticut and Rhode Island. A short time later he moved up to the Eastern Region Service Manager position. Eric regales us with some great stories ranging from the nightmare of the early 900 Sony radios, his interactions with CEO Bob Sinclair, visiting a dealer that also sold boats in the same showroom and transitioning to the “other side of the fence” working for Secor Automotive in New London, CT for the past 32 years where he can still be found today. Welcome Eric.

Joining me this week is long time Saab employee Dan David. Dan joined Saab in 1973 and finished his career in 2005. While at Saab he held several positions in Service, Warranty, Parts, Product Development, Customer Retention, Marketing and many combinations of them throughout his career in the USA and Sweden. He has many interesting tales of working with Saab USA founder Ralph Millet and many subsequent Saab Presidents including Bob Sinclair, Sten Helling, Jim Crumlish and Dan Chasins just to name a few. He credits his terrific teams with hard work and friendship that made his time at Saab an enjoyable experience. Dan talks about the early days at Saab where having just one word processor was a luxury, communicating with Sweden by Telex and operated assisted phone calls. He experienced first hand the meteoric rise of the company in the 1980’s to the GM takeover emphasizing the term “outsourcing” of numerous departments in the 1990’s. Please enjoy.

My guest this week is another dear friend and longtime Saab employee-Dale David. Dale worked numerous jobs at Saab including Warranty Claims Processor and Supervisor, West Coast Service and Parts Representative, Sales Trainer and Facilities Brand Image and Design Manager. Dale talks about her love of Saab Cars, her time “behind the windshield” as a Field Rep, her true feelings about Saab Way training, letters from several celebrity Saab fans, missing a dear mutual friend and life after Saab working for Nissan and Hyundai. Welcome Dale David to the Podcast.