I don’t normally publish this sort of thing but this one’s a little strange and fascinating.

In via email from Michael, a problem with the entertainment system in a 2006 9-5, which he refers to as the ‘Premium 200′:

If I play an MP3 CD-R and turn off the ignition without removing the key the radio system forgets where it was on the CD-R. It also forgets about all changes to the treble, bass etc that had been made since the radio was turned on.

If I also remove the ignition key everything is fine and the radio remembers that I was playing music in folder 27 on the CD-R.

Anyone else got this problem?

Saab, are you aware of this problem?

Any solutions or suggestions welcome in comments.

Thanks to Kyle for sending me a link that should give us all a little hope.

The link is to what is (to me at least) a fairly uninteresting article at GreenCarCongress. It’s about a new type on injector that’ll be formulated for more oomph as well as for use with either Biopower or gasoline.

That’s not the interesting bit though. It’s this….

Furthermore, researchers are still looking into ways to further optimize a flex-fuel engine for an ethanol blend. Saab introduced a concept Variable Compression Ratio engine in 2000 that, while definitely not a current high priority, is still being investigated, according to a company spokesperson.

For all the background information on this engine, click here.

1985 Gripen, you may commence rejoicing……now.

SaabVideos.com now has a video recording of the round table discussion with Jay Spenchian on site. It’s a fairly frank Q&A session that was held on the Sunday morning of the Saab Owners Convention.

Click here to view it.

Topics covered include:

- Diesels in the US
- Using people’s experiences in advertising
- Born From Jets and women
- marketing safety vs other virtues
- US influence over design
- Organisational issues
- Design process logistics
- Retro styling
- AWD and Hybrid development
- US growth markets
- the 9-2 market segment

I’ll let you discover the frustrating end for yourselves, but let me just say that it confirms the one thing my 18 year old stepson didn’t like about being in America.

The discussion goes for about 40 minutes and if you’ve got the time it’s well worth viewing. It’s a timely reminder that Saab’s operating in a very demanding market over there and that there are some pretty decent moves being made and some good plans for the future.

Thanks to Ryan for recording it and making it available.

Just a word to let you know that Jay Spenchian’s keynote speech at the 2006 Saab Owner’s Convention is available to watch on video at SaabVideos.com

Click here to go watch it.

A text version of the bare bones of the speech is available here. I’ve gotta say, it’s great to hear the actual delivery, which is a lot more personable than reading the speech alone. There’s a lot of fleshing out of the facts as Jay delivers the information in an entertaining fashion.

One particularly interesting tidbit was the showing of a 9-4 SUV sketch (pretty small in the video though) as well as the discussion of the new Saab Aero-X based design language with the image below as a backdrop.

Good stuff.

The video’s pretty dark, but it’s worth killing a lunchbreak for.

Parveen’s certainly shaking things up at Saab Oz, one of the benefits of having a Saab guy in charge as opposed to some of the GM-career-builders they’ve had in the past.

I made first mention of a diesel possibility for Australia early in July. I’m pleased to report that it’s now confirmed with press releases coming out yesterday (hey, an advance copy to your faithful Saabblogger wouldn’t have hurt, would it?).

Diesel Saab confirmed for Australia

Saab is expanding its product offering in Australia with the addition of the highly anticipated diesel range of 9-3 TiD vehicles.

The common rail 1.9 litre turbo diesel engine joins the Saab Australia line-up in January.

Saab will initially offer diesel variants of 9-3 Sport Sedan and SportCombi, but is also considering the introduction of a diesel version of its market leading 9-3 Convertible.

The cars will come with stadard six speed autos or manuals and will be available from January 2007. Pricing is yet to be determined.

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Not only are we getting the diesel, but Saab Oz are also bringing in a couple of Biopower test vehicles to stir up the ethanol debate here in Australia.

Big plans for Saab BioPower in Australia

Saab BioPower, the best selling environmentally friendly vehicle in Sweden, is on its way to Australia to promote the benefits of ethanol, a renewable alternative fuel…..

…..Saab Australia will be running a demonstration fleet of BioPower 9-5 vehicles in Australia to help media, industry and government understand the benefits of ethanol and to stimulate serious debate about alternative fuels in Australia.

Director Saab Australia and New Zealand, Parveen Batish, says with a focus on fuel prices and the need for renewable energy, the time is right to start planning a BioPower roll-out in this market.

“Ethanol fuel makes sense in a country like Australia. It is a renewable, sustainable fuel – unlike fossil fuel,” Mr Batish said.

“You don’t have to sacrifice performance, boot space or the environment to switch to an alternative to petrol.”

The reference to boot space is a good one. Australia’s answer to the rising price of fuel has been the promotion of LPG gas. The Australian Government recently announced a $1,000 rebate on the price of installing LPG on a new car, and a $1,500 rebate on converting an existing car. The installation of LPG requires a rather large tank, which is installed in the boot of the car.

I should stress at this point that these are test cars only. There’s no E85 available in Australia. We’ve been having a hard enough time getting any ethanol blend accepted here. Hopefully the arrival of these test vehicles will do a little something to stir the debate through.

Any chance Saab Oz could do the media runs for the Biopower cars here in Tassie?? Enquiries must be made!

The full Biopower in Oz press release appears after the jump.
[Read the rest of this entry →]

Thanks to Johnny Del for this photo.

Please enter your captions in comments.

There’s only one rule: The caption must begin with “Raise your hand if…..”

Click to enlarge. You might even see yourself.

I received an email from Robbie the other day. He’s a Saab guy. Here’s his Combi….

A nice looking ride, as all Combis are. Many of us can currently get a Combi that looks like Robbies, except only the Europeans can get their SID to say this:

Yep, Robbie’s got the diesel.

And whilst it’s going to be a considerable amount of time before you Americans can share in his mpg happiness (well, except for you Fred), I’m pleased to report that we Aussies will be getting the diesel early in 2007. I haven’t chased up the story yet, but apparently it’s been confirmed in one of the industry papers today.

But back to Ireland for a second.

Robbie’s not just a Saab guy, he’s a Saab dealer. He’s cleared his stock of 06 models in anticipation of the interior-remodelled 9-3 and some Biopower 9-5s.

I’m not sure what the E85 situation is in Ireland, but Robbie’s assured me it matters little given the favourable tratment the Biopower engine’s getting there:

…..So next Monday the only cars i’ll have are 2 9-5 1.9TiD`s and why you may ask have I not got any 9-5 2.0t`s? Well, the great news for Irish buyers is that [the Biopower 9-5 is] being granted half VRT (vehicle reg tax, all cars in Ireland are subject to a 25% tax plus cars over 1901cc have a 30% VRT tax on top of the 25%).

So the new Linear Sport BioPower will be €6500 CHEAPER than the normal petrol 9-5, which means the 9-5 BioPower will be almost the same price as a 1.8i 122bhp 9-3 Vector. I know which one i’d like.

Absofreakinglutely!

So. Irish buyers, consider yourselves forewarned. There’s some smart buying out there to be had.

I couldn’t help but notice a diesel-based group of articles on my news feeds this morning.

Ever since I first started this site I was cheering for a Saab diesel entrant in the US market once conditions became favourable, which they have to a degree with the rollout of low-sulfur diesel fuel in the US. The main barrier to entry now is the new US emission legislation, which is incredibly tough to conform with.

This site was also pretty critical of GM and Saab USA for not having a vehicle ready to meet these standards in a timely manner.

These most recent news reports, however, are showing just how tough it’s been to get a complying engine to market:

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Volkswagen won’t have MY2007 diesels as they can’t get a complying powertrain ready in time. Their solution – ramp up and overproduce MY2006 vehicles in order to have diesel stock to sell in 2007.

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Mercedes Benz were the talk of the town when they declared that their new Bluetec diesels would be compliant in all 50 US states.

Autoblog are reporting that the Bluetec Benzes have failed testing in 5 US states, however, and will now be available in 45 out of the 50. The states to miss out are California (whodathunkit), Vermont, New York, Maine and Massachussetts.

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The commonly-held best solution for getting diesels on the road faster is a process called urea injection. The fluid is injected into the exhaust system and it neutralizes a significant portion of the NOx contained in the exhaust gases. It’s not only effective, but it’s also cheaper than the competing NOx traps currently used.

The Problems, again from Autoblog:

1. It’s another fluid for owners to monitor and the EPA is concerned about the ability of people to maintain it properly, even though a tank of the stuff should last around a year.

2. It freezes at 11 degrees F.

3. Making sure the fluid is widely available and easy to use.

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So is all this worth it?

Leftlane News reports the following:

The potential diesel market in the states is huge and to the winner will go the spoils. Let’s hope that Saab can get a foot in the door sooner rather than later.