Just a quick note to let all you US Saabers know that Wulf over at Saabmedia has been busy on the scanner. Unless you’ve got a real yearning for the tactile sensation of paper between fingers, a quick click below should satisfy your initial curiosity.
Click through to have a look at the 2008 Saab 9-3 brochure.
I posted that pic purely because the Edmunds article mentioned a small Saab coming in the future. This much we all know.
This picture actually related to a different article, however. The article was in a French publication called Cardisiac that claims Saab engineers in Trollhattan would like to start working on a new Saab Sonett. I’m sure they would, but I don’t see it happening.
My web translation of the original article:
Saab has ‘vegetated’ for a long time now, placed on the back burner by its owner. However, there is no lack of motivation in Trollhättan. On the contrary, the engineers of the engineering and design department plan on many projects. Thus, they would like to start on the Sonett again…
It gives a run-down on the history of the Sonett, then proceeds thus:
It is the same conqueror state of mind that animated the team of Rolf Mellde with the Sonett I that engineers in Trollhättan would like to make reappear. And what could be more marvellous if it is with the creation of a new sports car?
But for that they will have to convince GM, that for Saab, the creation of a half-compartment is important. At Saab, one wants to really believe in it. ….. The Swedish engineers besides are well decided to take again this platform to create their small racing car. Their model, which with the difference of the Solstice, Sky and GT, will not be a roadster, but a half-compartment two places.
So, they’re forecasting a hardtop Saab two-seater based on the Kappa platform.
It’s not the first time it’s been mentioned but given Saab’s proirities I’d have a very hard time seeing this as anything more that a page-filler for this publication. Saab needs that 9-4x SUV and the 9-5 range-topper first. After that there will be a smaller car, but I’d find it very hard to believe it’d be a two-seater rather than a four-seat hatch.
And that’s all before we get into the facts about Kappa and it’s lack of suitability for XWD. Given that Saab would be highly unlikely to introduce a RWD small car, XWD would be the way it’d have to go and Tiago Di Vale summed that up pretty well in comments to the previous post covering this picture.
Shortly, I’ll put together a model forecast that’ll cover all the intel I’ve received in the last few months. There’s some conflicting information there, but hopefully we’ll be able to draw a picture that’ll give us a fair idea of things going forward.
Some of you might remember this car:
I posted on it around three months or so ago during the month of Saab Mod-loving. It’s a NG900 Convertible owned by a guy in Canada named Dmitry and the post was notable for the link to his remarkably detailed log of the rebuild. Dmitry’s actually got a whole bunch of instructional pages on his site and it’s well worth a look.
But that’s not the point of this post. Those of you who were at SOC last weekend will know where I’m going here.
Dmitry packed up his ‘vert and took it down to Detroit for the SOC. I’ll let him tell the story, and it starts right at the sharp end:
During one of the last sessions of the track day I managed to hit a wall while exiting a corner. The reason was quite silly – I got distracted looking at the flagger waving the checkered flag. For a moment I was not watching where the car was going, and then it was too late. Noone but myself to blame, and an extra reminder to never lose your concentration on the track. Later, it turned out that this particular spot is rather famous for its collisions, as every instructor seemed to have his own story of crashing there (often, more than one).
The car clipped the wall with the rear left quarter and bounced back. I did the standard two feet down emergency stomp (clutch and brakes) and rolled onto the grass, backwards, until it came to a complete stop. This was not my first off-track experience, yet a first serious collision.
The impact did not feel like much. Or maybe I just was ready for it. Either way, I was not impressed – just a bump, bounce and turn ;]. I got out of the car and waved that I was alright. The medical crew checked me out, did not find anything wrong. I did not feel any odd effects the following days either (although my chiropractor will certainly be happy to see me 
.
I’d estimate the speed to be about 100 km/h at the moment of the impact (I would normally get up to 120 at that location of the track), so the damage was quite extensive – the whole rear end of the car was twisted and pushed to the right, including the frame underneath. The rear axle was bent, and so was the left tie rod in the front. The car was equipped with a safety cage, but oddly enough, the damage did not reach the area protected by the cage.
The consensus was that it would likely cost more to repair the car than it’s worth (a benefit of having a few Saab mechanics and bodyshop owners nearby), but I was not upset about it much. It was a dedicated car meant to be driven hard, and I anticipating that some of that could happen sooner or later. For that reason, I chose an inexpensive car as a base for the project in the first place, so I wouldn’t regret it if something like that ever happens. All the valuable parts were salvageable, and the labor was all my own.
What happened in the next couple of days was the best community experience of my life. The attention, the help and support from the fellow Saab owners were simply astonishing. It started right at the track, everyone was offering help, advice, tools, a bottle of water, a ride back to the convention, and every other thing imaginable. One of the event organizers lent his trailer to carry the car back to the convention site (about 20 miles away). The car actually ran just fine, but as both of the left side wheels were twisted, it could not drive far. It made it on and off the trailer easily, though.
Until the last minute of the convention, I was often surrounded by our Canadian club members, Saablink regulars and other SOC participants. Everyone has been very nice and helpful.
Friday was spent exploring the alternatives of getting the car back home. The number one option was to rent a trailer and transport the car back to Toronto. After a long and tiring string of telephone calls I arranged for a trailer and a truck to tow it with, and could finally relax and enjoy the SOC activities.
Then, to my surprise and disappointment, the rental company called me on Saturday to inform that then do not have the trailer available anywhere in the state, and have no guarantee of getting it by Monday.
In a moment of insight (mixed with desperation), I thought: why don’t we just fix the bloody thing? A quick search on car-part.com revealed three junk yards in the Detroit area which had the rear axle for my car. Not all of them were open on Saturday afternoon, and we were lucky to hit the last one just an hour before it was closed. After a bit of bargaining, were were heading back to the hotel with a prized possession – a straight and true rear axle from a 2001 9-3 hatchback. All for a fraction of the cost of the rental trailer.
I came prepared and carried nearly enough tools in my trunk to take apart the whole car. Several more people joined in, and we had a new axle installed, suspension re-connected, hubs bolted on and brakes bled. All in just a couple of hours, right on the hotel parking lot, with a crowd of people surrounding us, cheering and taking photographs. Another gentleman lent his invaluable help in fixing a bent tie-rod to correct the front alignment. The way he did it, I could spot an Eastern-European ingenuity from a mile away. Turned out he was Czech.
The job was complete before the final Saturday reception started, and I imagine we offered one of the best attractions of the entire convention – for those who don’t mind having their hands dirty.
All that’s left to do was to enjoy the rest of the evening and drive the car home on Sunday morning. It felt nice and stable on the highway, and the ride was quiet and uneventful. The Canadian folks caravaned to the border together just in case, and SaabScott offered to follow me all the way to Toronto.
The car is now back in the garage. I probably won’t be fixing it, the parts will be reused in the next project, and the rest will retire. The
shopping for the replacement is on.
Reading the forums for the past few days, I seem to be going down in history as the crazy Russian who crashed his car at the convention, fixed it and drove it back home.
As Nikolai Gogol wrote, “what Russian doesn’t like fast driving?”. I know I do
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Needless to say, I can certainly empathise with Dmitry’s situation.
The bad news is that Dmitry’s previous hard work has now been almost terminally damaged. The good news is that he’s a pretty smart guy and this gives him a chance to use those smarts on another project!
I wish I had the same talent.
Kudos to all the folks at SOC that pitched in on the repair.
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Pics used on the site borrowed from The Saab Link, where Dmitry hangs out a fair bit. That link is to the Official SOC Photo Thread.
Aaron Stokes and his hard-working crew at Eurofix do good work. Always willing to go the extra mile for a Saab owner. I should know; they’re my independent Saab repair shop.
Aaron and his brother Joe (his chief mechanic) started the business as The Saab Shop in a barn on their father’s property here in the Franklin, Tennessee area (a suburb of Nashville) several years ago. Over time, they’ve accumulated quite a number of Saab stories, and they’ve expanded into a cavernous warehouse that accomodates their service bays, indoor storage for project cars and indoor parking for customer vehicles. Recently, they dropped the Saab Shop name (boo!) in favor of the more generic Eurofix to reflect the increasing number of BMW, Mercedes, VW and (ahem) Volvo customers that come to them for service.
Their website recently highlighted a 1999 Viggen (look familiar Swade?) with unusual provenance, and I thought that I would share the story here.
It seems that the Saab enthusiast that owns this specific 1999 Viggen took the car to a local shop of great repute for some modifications and a few minor bits of repair. During the course of the work, a technician that was ‘test driving’ the Viggen over revved the engine repeatedly, causing a great deal of damage to the car — the rod and piston in one of the cylinders separated and the uncontrolled piston motion severely damaged the cylinder and head. It’s always hard to tell with these things, but the crankshaft was bent as well — did this come before or after the rod came lose?
The owner negotiated with the offending shop, but things didn’t work out, so our fellow Saab enthusiast and Viggen owner filed suit against them for the considerable damages. It took at least two years, but the Viggen owner prevailed. I’m no legal expert, but I can imagine that it would be difficult to prove in court that the Viggen wasn’t on the verge of failure when the technician took his little joy ride. Our friend immediately had the Saab towed over to Eurofix for some real expertise and true Saab spirit.
As you can imagine, any car that sits derelict outside a machanic’s garage for two plus years decays pretty rapidly. Most of the seals were brittle, the brakes had seized and the interior was moldy. And, of course, the engine troubles hadn’t fixed themselves, either.
The guys decided that the only course of action was to start with an entirely new engine block, which the customer was all too happy about — someone else was paying! After many, many new parts (a partial list is after the break), the car is beatiful and running better than ever!
Swade, this could be your car in a short period of time! Take heart!
Edmunds Auto Observer has been participating in the Saab 9-3 launch events and they’ve put together a post full of encouraging Saab news:
Saab Automobile USA executives also claim owner General Motors is beginning to understand how to manage the niche brand….
….because of the increasing “globalization” of virtually everything .. consumers will increasingly gravitate toward brands that evoke strong images of heritage or national origin as a way to satisfy their desire for more “context” for their purchases…
I couldn’t agree more. It’s Knut Simonsson (executive director, Saab Global Sales and Marketing) saying this, by the way, so I’m still left hoping that his appreciation for Saab’s potential is making its way “upstairs” within GM as well.
Saab expects this kind of strong identifier will become increasingly important in a consumer future that is moving towards dispassionate products and anonymous brands, Simonsson says.
Music to my ears. Isn’t that why we’re all into Saabs? A great driving experience provided by a unique brand?
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Model news:
- Previously, when talking about coming models, all the talk has been about the first priority being the 9-4x. This is the first time I’ve seen a new 9-5 being mentioned as the first and main priority.
- The debate and guesswork goes on about what platform the 9-4x will be on. This article is punting on an expanded version of the Epsilon platform. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this mentioned, either. It’s all totally pointless, but I’ve now heard Epsilon, Lambda, Theta and Sigma all mentioned in relation to this vehicle. In the end, I don’t really care. I’d just like it to be good.
- Steve Shannon mentioned that the new 9-5 and 9-4x will most likely arrive in the US around the same time – 2009/2010. Both have previously been slated as 2009 models from intel gathered here recently.
- Following these two, Saab will further expand with a smaller entry level vehicle, but once again they’re being very tight lipped about it.
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This isn’t from the Edmunds site, but I found it interesting nonetheless. It’s from a French site. I’ll try and translate the article shortly. I just felt prompted to show it given the mention of a small Saab.
Re-posted: I’m posting this one again as I was interested in gaining people’s thoughts on these. One shouldn’t post an article on a Sunday if gaining an appreciation for people’s thoughts is a priority.
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Not photoshopped!
Click to enlarge.
OK guys, get your credit cards out, Elkparts has some goodies for you ’08 9-3 fanatics.
Head on over there and check it out or click the link below for thumbs….
Given that I’ve been away for a few days with very few opportunities to post to the site, I’m going to take the liberty of extending the month of classic Saab 900 loving by a week into September. That’s the first month of Spring here in Oz (good riddance to winter!), and as Spring the the season for loving, kicking it off with some C900 love seems appropriate anyway.
These beauties were sent to me by Markus L. I have little in the way of backstory, but there’s 5,000 words in these pictures and if you’ve got access to a Classic 900 convertible S in black and a Hirsch 9-3 convertible in black then you needn’t say much anyway. The cars say it all for you.
Click on any of them to enlarge.
