Monthly Archives: May 2007

200K up for Danni

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There’s been a lot of new visitors here since we last covered any news from Danni, so it’s worth a little recap.

I know there’s some hard core Saab owners out there with multiple Saabs and two-strokers and all that stuff, but Danni’s dedication to Saab is pretty remarkable.

Danni lives in Namibia. That means it’s 2,000km trip to get your car serviced and whilst the landscape can be beautiful along the way, it’s also pretty harsh:

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So Aussies, think about driving from Melbourne to Brisbane for a service. You ‘Mericans can try New York to MPLS and how about the entire length of the E20 from Shannon in Ireland to St Petersburg – and then some?

Danni’s 9-5 Aero has just ticked over 200,000 kms, and whilst it’s not yet in the pantheon of high mileage Saabs, he’s pretty satisfied with it:


Just a small update: I have now covered 200,000km with my cosmic blue 9-5 Aero MY01. For the naysayers and those journalists preaching the usual bollocks about the reliability of the 9-5 Aero – Here’s to happy motoring!

This is not blind faith or some brand loyalty – the product works, and for that matter, considering the environment and the service backup, it’s a true testament to the build quality of the product – put together to last.

I still reckon Namibia should become a new proving ground for hot and rough weather testing.

Naturally, there’s photos of the event…..

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That Viggen Feeling!

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What a great photo!

This is my partner in T-Shirt activities and VERY happy Viggen owner, Ivan, taking some friends for a test drive. Ivan’s only recently acquired the Viggen and obviously, the thrill hasn’t worn off just yet. I’ve had mine for around 20 months and it hasn’t worn off ;-)

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Photo Credit: Mascher.

The photo was taken at a recent event held by a Saab Club in Hungary. There’s a couple of great galleries here (Ivan) and here (Mascher). It looks like they had a fantastic turnout to what was a weekend-long family event (actually, there’s a photo of a pregnant woman in there I’m surprised there wasn’t a new baby Saab driver born during the event – phew!).

I’ve pulled a couple of the pics taken by Ivan’s girlfriend for display below, including a great looking dual-exhaust 900 Convertible. Never seen that before!

Click to enlarge.

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More 9-3 mumblings

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On top of the far and wide [possible] sightings of the 9-3 reported earlier, we’ve now also received two separate notifications of some info that I’d guess has been released to delaers today – one via email and the other in comments.

For those of you who don’t read through all the comments (why not?) I’ve reproduced it below.

Most of it is known, but it’s good to get some confirmation, especially of the diesel output, which I think is going to prove very popular.


9-3 the program for -08 (sweden)

9-3 Engine 2,0t and 2,0T won´t be available. The replacement will be 2.0 biopower 175hp, 300Nm.

9-3 Aero will have 255hp, 400Nm

Diesel 1,9TTid 180hp, 400Nm.

New materials for seats, new rims, and new colours. Xenonlights will follow the road

XWD from 08/09 and it will be optional for all models…

more news is supposed to come

More 9-3 sightings

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No photos, but….

This one was sitting in my inbox this evening from a Trollhattan local. Short but informative:


Hey

Just met two 9-3 SC’s with a very nice looking glowing white strip above the headlights…..

Dexy’s midnight runners or Saab’s daytime runners? Come on, Eileen!!

Sorry.

More intriguing was this, just in my inbox right now:


I don’t know if I was seeing things but…today I noticed the yellow converts. on your site with the clear tail lights. Now I’m sure I’m not going crazy but last week, walking towards the office on St Georges Terrace here in Perth – the main CBD street – I could swear I saw a red model of the same.

I didn’t notice much else, plates etc as it was early dreary morning so maybe I was just seeing things…could I be right, that rear is pretty distinctive even for 8am! Yup I had thought of taking a pic but it was hidden in traffic by the time I could even think.

That’s from Simon in Perth, Western Australia. Now normally I’d just assume that Simon’s been smoking a little too much of the stuff all those bikies over there are peddling. But last week I also had a report from Richo in Sydney where he thought that maybe he saw one on the Harbour Bridge.

Could there be a couple of these babies in Australia already? Doing product testing for local conditions or something?

Or are we just slotting tail lamps and front grilles in places where they don’t exist?

The mind boggles!

Saab Singapore crank it up

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Saab Singapore recently had the Aero-X stop in and pay a visit, and it seems they’re now ratcheting up a new round of marketing advertisements to follow up on the stir created by the concept car.

They engaged the Grey Group to design the ads. I like their attitude:


“Great facts make great ads,” says Subba Raju, CEO of Grey Group. “Saab has countless innovations, each of them translating into an ad almost by itself. The net takeout of the advertising is that Saabs are remarkable cars, built by smart people and driven by those who appreciate the fact.”

I assume there’ll be more to follow, but this is the first ad shown at the article.

Click to enlarge:

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Car Design Terminology

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Via Autoblog comes this interesting article on car design from the New York Times.

I’m going to brush up on my car design terminology prior to the Saab Festival. Hopefully Alex Daniel or Anthony Lo will be there and we can chew the fat about the Aero-X’s Six Line, it’s DLO and of course, it’s revolutionary Greenhouse.

Click the image to enlarge the diagram, and the terms are explained below.

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Terminology explained (from left to right):

Plenium: The area at the base of the windshield where the wipers are parked.

Header: The structural roof beam above the windshield.

Strake: A crease in the sheet metal intended as a ‘speed line’ styling feature.

Tumblehome: The angle formed by the inward slope of the greenhouse sides as they rise from the beltline.

Fascia: The body-skin panel at the front of the car.

Overhang: The distance the car’s body extends beyond the wheels.

A-Line: The line running over the car from headlight to tail light, tracing the car’s silhouette. Similar to, but not to be confused with……

DRG or “down-the-road graphic”: The visual signature of a quickly glimpsed vehicle that makes it recongnisable – think C900.

Cowl: The base of the windshield.

Axle-to-dash: The critical relationship between the front wheels and the windshield.

Gill: A vent on the side of the fender that can be used as a hot-air outlet, but usually is decorative.

Rake: The tilt of a windshield; an extreme angle is said to be ‘fast’

Character Line: A line creased into the side of the car to give it visual interest.

A-Pillar: The roof support pillar closest to the front of the car.

Beltline: The line that divides the greenhouse from the lower body.

B-Pillar: The second roof support pillar from the front of the car.

Rocker: The body section below the base of the door openings.

Greenhouse: The glassed-in upper section of the car’s body.

Turn Under: The shape of the rocker panel as it curves inward at the lower edge.

C-Pillar: The rearmost roof support pillar.

Six Line: A line extending from the C-Pillar down and around the rear wheel well.

DLO: The Day Light Opening – the total area of the window glass.

Backlight: The rear window glass.

Deck: The horizontal surface at the rear of the car, which usually serves as the trunk lid.

More Convertible Butts!

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This has got to be one of those dream scenarios for a car-watcher, hasn’t it?

Peter S lives in Austria and just happened to be going for a nice drive through the twisties when THREE new 9-3 Convertibles came towards him!


…..I saw the front and suddenly I was so excited. I turned the car and followed them for a few kilometers. They had Swedish number plates and all three were Aeros in a yellow like the Viggen was. I think the last of the three had light grey leather seats. The fronts weren’t covered by anything and the rear lights seem to stay as they are.

I took a few pics with my phone’s camera and a movie but you can´t see anything in the movie. Unfortunately I only have pics from behind. The front looked awesome when they passed me. I don’t know why they had Swedish number plates in Austria but I’m sure they came from Graz.

Too bad that the window is a little dirty. Hope you can use the pics. It’s strange that things like that happen. I first couldn’t believe it.

Can we use the pics? I think we can!!

Congratulations Peter on the sighting and thanks for turning around, enjoying the sights and passing them on.

Looks great in yellow. I miss that color.

Click on any of these to enlarge.

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TTAC’s GM Brand Bash hits Caddy

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The Truth About Cars is doing a series on GM’s various brands. Given that Robert Farago, the site’s Swami, has penned over 130 editions of a series called GM Deathwatch, you can probably guess that this one’s not being written from a complimentary perspective.

Today they’ve written up Cadillac and amongst the backhanders present in the sentences, there’s some interesting history there for those of you who, like me, aren’t that familiar. Americans are sometimes accused of being ignorant about things outside their own borders, but I don’t mind admitting that I don’t know much about one of their most iconic automotive brands. I hear the word Cadillac and aside from thinking “get out of Europe” I also think Elvis and pink cars with huge fins.

If TTAC’s article is historically accurate then there’s some interesting stuff in the brand’s history. And maybe there’s a key as to why I get so cheesed off about them encroaching upon Saab’s ground in Europe.

According to what I’ve just read, Caddy is supposed to be well above Saab in the pecking order, and it certainly doesn’t seem that way right now for the bulk of their range.

So Caddy: get the heck out of Europe or at least get back to where you once belonged.