Comments on: 2008 9-3 Turbo X Sales Officially Open in the UK

By: 1985 Gripen

1985 Gripen — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 04:19:25 +0000

Thank goodness this never happened. I guess Discovery didn't like what they saw from the pilot episode and never ordered follow-on episodes last year.

By: eggsngrits

eggsngrits — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 20:31:15 +0000

Just so that everyone is on the same page here, I was only converting (loosely) the currency for effect. The Turbo X is only for sale in the UK. The pricing for the US market, as stated above, doesn’t follow the pricing in other markets.

By: MJL

MJL — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:41:00 +0000

Whoever made the point commenting on the Autoblog post on this story that the price hike is about 12% over the FWD 2.8 V6T and then re-calculated that to mean the car would be about $39,500 makes a lot more sense than even guessing that it would cost anything close to $60K in the US. The 9-5 runs about $55,000 there or something. Insane! We pay $34,000!

By: Ubermich

Ubermich — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:00:58 +0000

I’m glad they have the high price tag. This is a model that will (hopefully, anyway) go into the hands of more people who intend to keep it – not into those of people who will be looking for the next best thing in 18 months.
My $0.02

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:38:26 +0000

Clarkson is on record as saying he would love to review cars but sadly no one watches it. They found the stunts and features got big viewing figures so thats what they do.

The mirco car last Sunday was the funniest thing I have seen in ages – I want one for Christmas.

Grip – careful what you wish for, if Clarkson likes it you will be ok but if not…

By: jwlanky

jwlanky — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 08:52:18 +0000

I really want a Turbo X wagon, but at £33500 im struggling to justify it to myself knowing how much Saabs depreciate over here (even if it is a limited model) and i doubt dealer will be offering the usually discounts

By: Joe Lobo

Joe Lobo — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 06:47:01 +0000

Well, lucky you in the US. In our extremely competitive market with all the heavy discounting going across the board, I doubt that any of the new models will be sold for the advertised list price whatever that is. List pricing these days is meaningless, what it counts is how much you push and how much the dealer is prepared to go to close a sale. There are lots of good deals going around even Mercs, Beemers, the lot !!! Be creative and firm and you’ll see how much the final price will go down to.

By: Rogan

Rogan — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 05:16:04 +0000

It will never be anywhere near that price in USD, all luxury cars are sugnificantly more expensive in the UK. Typically the price in pounds is only a bit more than the price in USD.

By: Talonderiel

Talonderiel — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:42:32 +0000

I completely agree with the Turbo-X and Top Gear!!

I don’t take my advice on cars from Jeremy, he’s a pure color man… and an amazing one at that. I listen more into what Hamster and Captain Slow have to say about cars. Hamster and I seem to have about the same taste. James is really good with his reviews of cars, but has a thing for Rolls. Still one of the best car shows in the business.

By: 1985 Gripen

1985 Gripen — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 04:17:39 +0000

Sorry, Talonderiel. Sounds like you’re S.O.L. Like you already alluded to you can watch bits of episodes on YouTube or whole episodes through torrents if you have the patience to download them.

Sometimes I’m put-off by how obviously staged a lot of the supposedly spontaneous stuff on Top Gear is, and I’m told that the list of writers on that show is LONG, but for the most part I take it for what it’s worth: entertainment. If you take your car shopping advice from Jeremy Clarkson you’re making a poor decision. This is the guy who bought a Ford GT (then returned it) and a convertible Lamborghini Gallardo. Seems he makes up for his lack of taste in cars with pure unadulterated nastiness.

I really, really want to see how the Turbo-X would place on the Top Gear track in the hands of The Stig. If Saab wants to put their money where their mouth is and support the claim of the Turbo-X out-maneuvering a Porsche 911 they should insist on delivering one to the Top Gear airstrip. Heck, add insult to injury to competing automakers by providing the SportCombi to the producers! Can you imagine if a family sport wagon beat pure-bread sports cars on that track? That would raise Saab’s worldwide profile quite a bit, getting a good time on the Top Gear track.

FYI, there is a Saab on The Stig’s lap times chart and it’s not in last place! In fact, it beat-out an Aston-Martin!

I don’t know which model of the Porsche 911 the Saab engineers pitted against the Turbo-X in the slalom testing, but I don’t remember Peter Johansson mentioning that it was the turbo model. The Stig did lap the 911 Turbo and it ranks 53rd, right below the Audi S4.

What a coup it would be for Saab if the Turbo-X posted better times than the M3 and S4!