I stopped dead in my tracks when I passed through Saab’s display at the New York auto show. It wasn’t the enormous ice sculpture or the new 9-5 wagon. What caught my eye was the tail lights of the Phoenix show car - its dot-matrix-like display looked very similar to the last Pontiac Trans Am. And then I started thinking: Back in the mid-1970s, my grandmother had a Pontiac Phoenix sedan.

Which begs the question: Will Saab go the way of the once-mighty GM brand that helped make Burt Reynolds a star with the “Smokey and Bandit” movies? Industry trade publications have hinted at the company could be in a possibly precarious financial position. Or will Saab’s parent company, Spyker Cars, help the Swedish brand rise to new heights? Time will tell.