Monthly Archives: November 2007

Epsilon II coming – Opel Insignia

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The next Saab 9-3 and 9-5 models are both going to be on variations of the Gm Epsilon II platform.

It’s interesting, therefore, that the first car to come on this platform has been named today. Everyone knew it was going to be the Vectra replacement, but the actual name wasn’t released until today, I believe.

It’s the Opel Insignia and it’ll be shown first at the London Motor Show in July 2008. I’m secretly hoping that we might get a peek at the new Saab 9-5 before then, however.

GM have just put out this video, taking a laugh at a spy photographer trying to get a shot of it. All in good humour, though somehow I don’t think they’ll be smiling if and when some real images get out.

And experience shows that they will.

The Anti-Bluetooth Monster is growing!

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GM have just announced that OnStar is coming to China.

It’s the first move outside of North America since the service started 11 years ago.

Shanghai OnStar Telematics expects to begin rolling out its services in 2009, initially for vehicles manufactured and distributed in China by Shanghai GM.

“We are pleased to bring OnStar to Asia for the first time through Shanghai OnStar Telematics,” said OnStar President Chet Huber. “China represents a huge opportunity to bring the safety, security, and societal benefits of OnStar to a whole new audience – Shanghai GM customers. This new venture builds upon our leading position in North America and the lessons from our more than 83 million customer interactions. In China, we will provide cutting-edge services specifically developed in accordance with the needs of Shanghai GM and its customers.”

OnStar is, of course, the main reason why Saab’s in North America can’t get properly integrated Bluetooth like their European counterparts. This is due to the hands-free dialling available with OnStar in concert with a compulsory phone service where you have to sign up with OnStar’s preferred phone provider.

There is a 3rd party Bluetooth solution promoted by Saab, a Motorola unit, but integration would by far be the better way to go and is the preferred method of in-car phone service for just about 100% of readers here. The good news is that integrated Bluetooth will be coming in the future – hopefully sooner rather than later (I’d expect it in the new 9-5).

OnStar does have some valuable services, but they shouldn’t be at the exclusion of a feature that everybody wants. Especially if it’s ffered widely by competitors.

I hope the technologically advancing Chinese aren’t too attached to their Bluetooth phones.

And how long before OnStar Europe hits the airwaves???

Saab Pride of Ownership competition update

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As promised, there’s been an upgrade to the Saab Pride of Ownership competition. I’m now adding a third prize to the existing prize pool. Small in size, but very, very useful and very, very Saab.

But first, a quick review. The full details are here.

What you need to do:

Take a photo of your Saab near a landmark of your area. Something scenic, something prominent, something famous or something soon-to-be famous. Whatever it is, take your shot and then send it in with 100 words or more about the car and the place.

Entries should be sent to me at swade99@dodo.com.au

So far we’ve had entries from New York, Minnesota, Japan, Mont St Michel and North Carolina. All those are great, but we need more!!

What you can win:

First Prize is an instant Saab library, comprising the following five titles:

    Mr Saab
    Saab 9-3 – An entirely new Sport Sedan
    50 Years of Saabs
    Saab Welcome Book
    The Spirit of Saab

Two of those titles are pretty hard to come by these days – The Spirit of Saab alone will cost you over $200 at Amazon – and they’re all excellent reading.

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The second prize is provided by my good mate John at Elkparts, where you should be doing all your Saaby Christmas shopping.

It consists of a Nallis Bear soft toy and a 9-3 SportCombi backpack.

My enduring thanks to Elkparts for these valuable prizes.

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The third prize, which wasn’t announced before, is an UrSaab 1GB USB drive.

These are genuine Saab accessories and will hold heaps of photos or documents. It’s black, rubbery, and in the shape of UrSaab, and when you pull off one end it reveals the USB connection.

USB drive

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I was going to postpone this competition due to the northern winter, but you all said to let it ride. So here we are.

Entries close Dacember 31st, though I’ll reserve the right to extend that if a number of images come in between Christmas and New Year. You’ve got to have time to see them before voting.

So get snapping! Winter scenes are more than OK. It’s Saab’s natural habitat.

Show us where you live and mot of all, show us your Saab!

More of that 900 SPG from Boston

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Johnny Del was at the New England Auto Show earlier this week representing Trollhattan Saab and aside from the Turbo X, the other big attraction was the restored 1985 Saab 900 SPG that they had on show there.

I’ve shown some in-progress shots of this car (here and here) and now it’s time for the finished product.

I don’t know where these guys get their genuine parts from, but they sure do one heck of a job bringing these cars back to life. Yet another immaculate Saab joins the GM Heritage collection in the US.

Click to enlarge.

Saab 900 SPG

Saab 900 SPG

There’s a few more…..

Continue reading →

2008 Saab Turbo X – everything you need to know

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UPDATE – Click here to view a comparison between the Saab Turbo X and the Saab 9-3 Aero with XWD.

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I’ve got a lot of information about the 2008 Saab Turbo X scattered in various posts on this website. I think it’s high time that all the important stuff is combined into one big article on the car.

This IS the mother of all Turbo-X entries with heaps of information from styling to specs, from XWD drive to Xclusivity, as well as a big gallery of photos at the end.

So, without any further ado, here’s the book on the Saab Turbo X….

Saab Turbo X

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Overview

The Saab Turbo X is the showpiece, limited edition model that was designed to debut Saab’s new all-wheel-drive system, dubbed XWD, or cross wheel drive. Known internally as the Black Turbo project, the Saab Turbo X was designed in concert with the refreshed 2008 Saab 9-3.

Saab Turbo X

Saab introduced its first turbocharged car, the 99 Turbo, at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 1977 and it was at Frankfurt again, some 30 years later, that the Turbo X was introduced. Whilst the 1977 99 Turbo was shown in pearlescent white, some of the most desireable Saab production turbos have been black in color, hence the coloring for this new model.

With respect for Saab’s prior black turbos, both the world debut in Frankfurt and the US debut in Boston saw the Turbo X showcased with a pristine black 900 Turbo.

The addition of XWD to the Saab 9-3 range should see an expansion of interest in the model range, as both performance and versatility in trying, cool climate conditions can be enhanced. The XWD system used in the Saab Turbo X is a brand new system from Haldex, who are also based in Sweden.

The Turbo X will come in both Sport Sedan and Sport Combi body styles, has a 2.8l V6 twin-scroll turbocharged engine putting out 280hp (206kW) and 400Nm of torque. Both manual and automatic transmissions are available with 6-speeds each. 18-inch wheels are believed to be standard with 19-inch wheels available.

Continue reading →

Working…..

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Hey everyone,

Things are slow here as I’m currently putting together a mega-Turbo X entry. I have 65 posts in the Turbo X category of this website and the object is to put all the important information from them in to one summary article. A one-stop shop for Turbo X information.

While you’re waiting, consider the antics of these bastards. Actually, I shouldn’t say that, as one of them might be my nephew.

Still. Not very good, Mr Plod!

Speed cameras do have their purpose, but hiding them that blatantly isn’t going to slow many people down. It’s just going to annoy them later on.

EnG Saab Shopping: Driving the hippy lady’s 9-3

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Well, she’s not really a true hippy, I don’t think. However, she does live in a small community just outside Austin, Texas and had a bit of a Bohemian vibe. For those of you that aren’t aware, even though Texas has the reputation for cowboys, rednecks, oilmen and big steel-and-glass architecture, Austin isn’t really any of those things. Defiantly liberal, this town isn’t at all like the rest of Texas. Saabs seem to sell well in this town, so vive la difference!

Anyway, I found the car advertised on Craigslist, which is a story in itself. At first she resisted showing me the car at all. It turns out that she was afraid that I was a crook since Craigslist has advisories all over the place about doing business only with locals to avoid the 419 scammers! Since I was calling from out-of-state, she assumed that I was up to no good! Sad really.

Hers is a 2001 9-3 SE Turbo with 92k miles (144 km) on the odo. 5-speed. A few pits on the front facia from bugs and debris, and a bit of a smell, not because of anything Saaby, but from her menagerie of pets — two large dogs, a couple of cats and a tropical bird that she used to have until she realized that it wasn’t happy. How one would know such a thing (about the bird), I haven’t a clue.

But it drove flawlessly.

Now I know how Swade feels when he gets back into the Viggen after driving the C900. Wow! Acceleration is immediate — no waiting for the turbo to spool up! The car revs up to 5000 rpm nearly instantly! I could really get used to this!

Austin 9-3 Turbo

I’ve got two or three more vehicles to look at and drive, but I like this one — it’s taken the top slot. The dark green isn’t my first choice, but it’s good.

As an added bonus, the car has been in the Texas Hill Country its entire life — NO RUST. Great stuff.

Ted puts his Saab winter shoes on

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One of the regular commenters here, Tedjs, is a prefoessorial-mechanical-type-guy with a Saab 9-3 SportCombi that he likes to show off to students and colleagues alike.

Given that the northern winter is now just starting to bite, Ted’s just changed his SportCombi into it’s winter “attire”.

This will be nothing new to you northerners, but for we southerners that can wear performance tyres all year round, it’s rather curious. The thought of having to buy and keep two sets of wheels and rubber isn’t a particularly attractive one.

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Here are the winter tires that Saab sells on its site and at the dealers. At $220.00 for each mounted and balanced, they are a heck of a deal:

The OEM tire is on the right which is a ContiProContact 235/45VR17 and is a steamroller, which is cool for handling. I don’t think it will do well in deeper snow, so the SportCombi is now wearing the GOODYEAR ULTRA GRIP GW3 215/55HR16. With an overall width 20mm less than the all season, it should do much better in deeper snow as more weight of the vehicle will be on a small contact patch on the road.

You can also see the more aggressive tread of the snow tire (or tyre?) that will help it ‘bite’ into the snow and get traction.

Saab tires

OEM on the car:

Saab tires

Snow tire and rim. Not bad looking considering it will see snow and road salt (ugh)!

Snow tires

For a smaller car it has some MONSTER front brakes! :-)

Saab brakes

I cleaned some rust off the rotors while I was mounting them:

Rust cleaning

I rebalanced them on a Hunter 9700 road force balancer so I could put some stick on weights on it as salt tends to get behind the other weights. It is a pretty sophisticated balancer, and tells you where to stick the weights, and you can hide them behind spokes.

Tire balancer

Tire weights

Off to class now. Enjoy!

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Site sponsor, Saab of Hunterdon, have an Ebay store that’s run by their spare parts division.

They’re currently selling a full set of snow tires with rims for US$800, which is even cheaper than the $220 per corner that Ted quote above as being a great deal.

Check ‘em out here.