Hatch Lovin’: What the so-called experts say
During the month of hatch lovin’, it’s easy to say that we love the hatch. Even though the hatchback was a part of the Saab experience for just under 30 of Saab’s 60 years, we’ve come to identify the hatch as a part of the Saab “DNA” — something as Saab as the key between the seats or turbocharging, which has been around a shorter period of time.
But, what do the so-called experts say?
I’ve spent at least a half-hour slaving over a hot keyboard in the internet mines to bring you some of the better comments from our industry pundits about the Saab hatch. Enjoy.
From Car and Driver’s review of the 2001 Saab 9-3:
The tailgate yawns wide to make it easier to load and unload the hatchbacks. Whether packing for a cross-country trip or simply hauling a week’s worth of groceries, it’s easy to appreciate the cavernous cargo hold. Fold down the split rear seat and a nearly 50 cubic feet of storage space is revealed. There’s also a rear-seat pass-through for carrying skis and other long objects.
From The Auto Channel’s review of the 1996 Saab 900SE:
Saabs are roomy, too, We had comfort up front to match that in back. And the trunk is enormous by small car standards. Our biggest load was golf clubs, but there was room for four sets if we had a foursome, along with a couple of pull carts and show bags. Then, if we needed more room, we could have folded down the back of the rear seat (assuming we weren’t carrying passengers back there) and we’d have more room.
From from a retrospective of the 9000 Aero at Hemmings Motor News:
…the new 9000 debuted as a five-door hatchback with split/folding rear seats, offering station wagon capacity under a steeply sloping rear window; while the 9000 was physically shorter than its 900 stablemate, it was more roomy inside with 123-cu.ft. of interior space (23.5-cu.ft. in the trunk, 56.5-cu.ft. with rear seats folded), qualifying as an EPA-rated “large” car, a distinction shared only with the contemporary Rolls-Royce in America.
He continues…
This full-boost engine garnered rave reviews; period advertising boasted, “The 5-speed Saab 9000 Aero will streak from 50 to 75 mph faster than a Ferrari Testarossa or a Porsche Carrera 4.” Writing for Automobile magazine, David E. Davis summed up its performance with the following: “I look at the dry specifications I’ve written here and see that nowhere do they make your eyes pop the way the car does when you shift down to third and stand on it to pass somebody who thought he was driving pretty briskly. The 9000 Aero is an enthusiast’s car, period. It has more capability than you need, but it’s just what you’ve always wanted.”
In summation:
…you’ll be rewarded by a luxurious, spacious car that hauls, as well as hauls.
And, finally, upon the introduction of the current generation of the 9-3, from CBS Marketwatch:
For Saab diehards, it will come back to the hatchback. No other maker could pull off a 5-door or 3-door hatch like it could. On the 900s of the late ’80s, the trunk is flat with the rear bumper — a wagon-like feature.
Still, form rules over function in the entry-level luxury market. A purchase there is about aspiration.
“Not enough of the U.S. consumers considered the hatchback body style to be a luxury car,” said Saab spokesman Kevin Smith. Smith is an able defender of the new model’s split with its past and points out that not enough people wanted the older model to justify its production.
Painful as it might be to those that have filled a 900 or 9-3 with firewood, that makes sense. A future wagon version will let Saab lure traditionalists who are clamoring for the hatch.
As Smith said, the outgoing 2002 hatch models sold surprisingly well over the summer as devotees snatched them up. Those are the customers, the purists, who should be lining up for the crossover wagon version of the 9-3 when it debuts in a couple years.
I think that last entry sums up where we are right now — making do with the sport combi. Still, the hatch is a great design that allows form to follow function.
Long live the hatch!
More from this category
- Saab Classic 900 vs. the Bear
- Bring Back The Hatch - Hobart style
- Do all roads lead back to the turbocharged hatch?
- Hatch Lovin’: More great vintage advertising from Saab
More from this author
- EnG Weekend Snippets
- A new leader in the “Worst Accessory for your Saab” category
- Saab Classic 900 vs. the Bear
- Case in Point: One example of why the General is losing to Toyota
Subscribe to this author
Recent Comments
- Ryan M on Automotive Rites of Passage
- aeronaut on Automotive Rites of Passage
- zippy on EnG Weekend Snippets
- Andy Rupert on Automotive Rites of Passage
- eggsngrits on In defence of the Pontiac Aztek, and other Snippety things
- eggsngrits on Automotive Rites of Passage
- SaabLance on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Jeff on Friday Snippets (well, it’ll be Saturday when you read them)
- No.9 on Friday Snippets (well, it’ll be Saturday when you read them)
- James on Automotive Rites of Passage
This is what I don’t understand and I think is a big reason Saab is in trouble. People want Saab to compete with Audi and BMW, yet they want a vehicle you can use to haul lumber. You haul lumber in a Subaru Forester, not a BMW.
Plus BMW has never made a vehicle with a duck bill front and a hockey stick rear.
I haven’t read this post yet, but wanted to point-out something before I forget:
I went to the L.A. Auto Show with a few members of the SoCal Saab Club yesterday and we dropped-by the BMW booth where I discovered that the 1-series they had on display is quite different from the 1-series I had seen in Mexico.
The 1-series in Mexico, and I believe everywhere else in the world where it has been sold, is a small wagon (some would say “hatchback”, but I think the angle of the rear gate would technically make it a “small wagon”). At one of the places I work at occasionally in Mexico the General Manager of the plant drives a BMW 125.
The one on display at the auto show (they’re going to start selling them in the U.S.) was quite different. Besides it being a hideous-looking sedan, it had leather seats (the one I saw in Mexico had cloth), and is a 135i. That means it’s got the same inline six-cylinder twin-turbo engine found in the 335i!
It was freakin’ ugly, but apparently everyone will buy it if you put a BMW logo on it. Oh, BTW, the base price on it? USD35K. Wrong!
I sure hope they can sell the 9¹ for less than that.
We also checked-out ovloV’s booth and they had several C30 examples out on the floor. While I like the overall size of the C30, and I give them points for doing something different, that too is a butt-ugly car. It’s also a “small wagon”, not a hatch.
I remember here that Saab is looking at the success or failure of the C30 in deciding whether to introduce their own hatchback back into the market. I think this is a bad example of a hatchback. That would be like looking at the Subaru WRX wagon to see how well it sells. It’s not a hatchback, it’s a small wagon!
Strangely, one of the beautiful Jags at the show (Jaguar has some really beautiful, but overpriced cars out now) had a hatchback! It is basically a really expensive three-door. Though I can’t see rolling away from IKEA in that thing.
The Aero-X was a hatchback.
I also noticed at the auto show that cars seem to be doing the same thing the airlines are doing: the front seat backs are a hard plastic and they put a webbing pocket on the back of the front seats. The hard plastic is indented where the passenger in the back seat would have his/her knees to give a tiny bit more room.
I noticed this on both the Infiniti G35 sedan and the BMW 335i sedan. Saab still has the leather seat backs, IIRC.
That was a pretty harsh criticism of the current-gen 9³ from CBS Marketwatch, “…form rules over function…”. That is completely counter to what makes Saab a Saab. If that’s the case, there are dozens of other marques you can buy and makes Saab irrelevant.
Where is Kevin Smith now (not the director, the former Saab spokesman who defended the move away from the hatchback…)?
If I want functionality from my Saab why do I have to settle for a wagon and look like a guy who gave up on his dreams? Might as well get a friggin’ mini-van!
“Saab still has the leather seat backs, IIRC.”
Saab 9-3 has leatherette (read: some sort of plastic). Saab used to have all leather seats at least on 9000 Aero. 900´s from 90´s had leatherette back.
IMO great thing about Saab hatch was (og900) very low load height. I still find it very usefull at the times.
Best choise would be to have them all Sedan, Hatch and Combi. 3dr ng 9-3 hatch in the spirit of SC would be great. Though I´d choose SC over that anyways. I need some free space height inside for our dog. It was difficult sometimes with hatch, if the sun was shining. The trunk gets hot easily.
MarkoA: thanks for the clarification, but I wasn’t making commentary on the quality of the material, just the fact that on competitors’ cars they’re going to a hard, molded seat back for the front seats whereas Saab’s are soft with a seat-back pocket made from the same material.
Last year when I flew to Costa Rica on vacation I took a TACA Airlines flight in a new Airbus (A320, I believe) and the seats were made by Recaro, IIRC. They were a different construction than most with hard plastic backs. This allows the seats to be slimmer and therefore they can fit more into the plane.
I flew on a new airline, Virgin America, last week and they also had a new Airbus with hard plastic-backed seats (the plastic was the same type of white plastic found on the first-gen Apple iMac and iPod). This seems to be the trend in airlines and I just noticed at the auto show yesterday apparently also in premium automobiles. This way the seats can be made slimmer to give people in the rear a tad bit more leg room.
I don’t know if Saab can make seats like this and still incorporate the SAHR system or if they can still make the comfortable seats Saab has become known for.
To see the Virgin America seats I’m talking about watch the little slideshow at this page and you’ll see a shot or two. I’m not talking about the First Class seats, I’m talking about the Coach Class ones.
This is the WTF quote of the day:
“Painful as it might be to those that have filled a 900 or 9-3 with firewood, that makes sense. A future wagon version will let Saab lure traditionalists who are clamoring for the hatch.”
There’s a BIG difference between a “hatch” and a station wagon, IMO.
1985 Gripen,
You have exceeded your posting allowance for this article. Please return tomorrow when you will be allowed to post again.
Thank you,
The Management
J: I agree, but apparently auto manufacturers and enthusiasts alike can’t tell the difference.
I think part of the problem is that we (myself included) are improperly describing what we want to see the return of. According to the definition of “hatchback” at wikipedia, the current Saab combis qualify as “hatchbacks”.
What we want to see is a return of the combi-coupé as innovated by Saab’s Björn Envall, a descendant of the Saab 98 prototype.
Bring back the combi-coupé!
Andy: I’m bored.
Unfortunately, at this point, so are the rest of us. EnG
“If I want functionality from my Saab why do I have to settle for a wagon and look like a guy who gave up on his dreams? Might as well get a friggin’ mini-van! ;-)” — _1985 gripen_
__
a+.
1985 Gripen,
My 1985 BMW 325e (e30 3-series, from 1984-1991) had plastic seat backs that had the indent and gave more leg room to the rear passengers. I don’t know about the e21 3-series (->1983). I don’t think this is a new trend.
~P
9-5 Aeros have all leather seats too…well, the sport seats found in 2002+ models at least. Viggens do not.
Yes, combi-coupé. Not hatchback or station wagon.
The combi-coupé makes the car looks like a sporty fastback, a hatchback makes it look like a subcompact.
“Bring back the combi-coupé!”
I LIKE!
I’ll wear that T-shirt!
Staffan - I’ve been calling it a wagonback…that’s what Saab called it on this old ad that was on here.
Real hatchbacks, not combi-coupes or wagonbacks, look stupid, for the most part. The 9-3SC looks less stupid, but I’d still prefer a wagonback. Hatchbacks look like someone chopped off the back of a car (like what they did with the AMC Gremlin, only worse).