New Saab 9-5 to show in Paris?
Wulf has picked up an article from Automotive News that has an interesting little snippet in there. Here’s the article:
General Motors is giving Saab new product, but dealers have to be patient. That was the message Saab executives gave dealers at the make meeting.
Dealers said Steve Shannon, Saab’s general manager, told them the company will show what it called a 9-1 concept — a very small car — at the Geneva auto show in March.
“If you look at Saab’s history, they don’t have enough money to build concepts for concepts’ sake,” said one dealer who asked not to be identified. “So when they do do a concept, they tend to be built.”
Dealers said Shannon also told them a new 9-5 sedan will be revealed this year.
Shannon told dealers Saab plans to build a production version of the 9-4X biofuel crossover shown at the Detroit auto show by early 2010. The production version would likely not be a biofuel variant, the dealer said.
“We have to work hard to make sure we get all of that,” said dealer Lynn Thompson, of Thompson Sales Co. (Buick-Pontiac-GMC-Cadillac-Saab) in Springfield, Mo. “Steve Shannon knows it’ll be a hard 18 months, and we’ve got a ways to go.”
Saab executives told dealers that sales will likely be flat this year compared with last year and that Saab intends to start promoting its safety record more.
It’s been known for some time that the Saab 9-4x and Saab 9-5 are planned for release at very close intervals, most likely the latter third of 2009 as MY2010 vehicles.
It’s a given that they’d show the 9-5 at some stage prior to release, but who knew when? This is the first thing I’ve come across that gives an end date.
If the next Saab 9-5 is to be shown this year, then there’s only one show after Geneva that’ll provide a big enough stage - Paris.
The Paris and Frankfurt Motor Shows are held in alternate years. Last year was Frankfurt’s turn and Saab unveiled the Turbo X there. This year’s Paris show is on from the 4th to the 19th Of October.
Should I clear my schedule????
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i’m sorry! Did i just read 2010 for the 9-4x? Saab need this product now!!!
A 9-5 sedan - not a concept! Cool!
Wouldnt it be cool if they showed the 9-5 off in its home market? Imagine Stockholm, Sweden having the honor of Saab to show off its most crucial car in, like, forever right there at home.
Im sure Saab would be able to make the debut something REALLY special too. not just tucked away in a corner behind Opel.
Hopefully its paris however, because I REALLY cant wait for this car.
How about NYC? Probably not, but I will be there anyway.
I agree that the 9-4X cannot come soon enough. 2010 is just extremely far away.
The 9-4X needs to be on the road by spring of 2009, the 9-5 shortly thereafter, and the 9-1 needs to be on the road by spring of 2010. A demanding release schedule? yes, but Saab needs it.
Despite all my rantings about Saabs lack of range and over-production of concepts……… 18 months from concept to sales is pretty quick. If this is the schedule and its going to be kept then that is a good sign. The fact that the car is looooooooooong overdue is another topic. Rushing cars to market can end up in big headaches…..
What about Sydney???
9-4x in Detroit.
9-1 in Geneva.
9-5 in Paris.
Year of Saab?
Well it would make sense to show the final 9-4 in Detroit next year, as that will be the largest market (or why not in LA a few weeks before).
However my bet would be that the opel lbased 9-5 (is it vectra? or what ever its called) will debute in frankfurt being the home of opel and a minimal market for saab.
The new 9-5 would get enought attention in sweden anyway.
When is london? I know its not a big show (or birmingham) but its the 2nd largest saab market…. WOuld be nice to be one of the few premiers…
Of course. And THERE’S the bait and switch.
First at the Detroit show Saab was claiming the 9-4X would hit production in “eighteen months” and a month later it’s now “before early 2010″. I’m hoping he means “early for the 2010 model-year” (mid-calendar-year 2009).
THEN, the cool innovative ECOLOGICALLY FRIENDLIER small BioPower engine in it: not gonna’ happen. I’m guessing it’ll get the port-injected Holden V6 from the 9-3 Aero.
Saab, you apparently KNOW what people want, taunt us with it, then produce CRAP. I sure hope this isn’t the case, but it sure appears to have been their M.O. for the past decade or so. “See this great concept? Excited? Too bad. Can’t have it. You can buy a watered-down version in two years…”
There’s no Frankfurt Show until around September 2009, hence my leaning toward Paris. Pairs and Frankfurt alternate. Frankfurt last year, Paris this year, Frankfurt again in 09.
London’s in July, I think, but I don’t think it’s regarded as a “Grand Slam” show.
Isn’t Zurich a major show? Am I mistaken? Zurich’s auto show is in November.
Though I live in L.A. I think that the North American International Auto Show (Detroit) is the only one in the U.S. prestigious enough to have a Saab debut.
“Shannon told dealers Saab plans to build a production version of the 9-4X biofuel crossover shown at the Detroit auto show by early 2010. The production version would likely not be a biofuel variant, the dealer said.”
I sense danger, danger Will Robinson!
Seriously, if all of Chevy’s lineup can be E85-ready then why the hell can’t Saab get a biofuel-compatible lineup as well? I sincerely hope that someone just misheard him and what they meant was that there wouldn’t be a 300hp biopower ecotec in the 9-4x. If anything, ALL of Saab’s upcoming models should be E85-capable.
I ment frankfurt for the production verions (next year).
Paris could very well be the place for the consept. After all, 1 news every 3 months. Geneva gets the 9-1. Takes you to June/July (london) and a cross over 9-3 and then a consept of the 9-5 in sept in paris.
Think just that it would be good to show the final car on a show outside germany. Yes its a great big market, but there are not that many saabs sold there. Might get more bang for the buck somewhere else geing the “main attraction”.
I agree with gripen and Alex
Why cant we get the 2.0L 4banger Biopower that was on show w/ the 9-4x? I mean, is it REALLY too much to ask for? it would certainly help in sales. Sometimes I want to know, does Saab WANT to succeed?
“So when they do do a concept, they tend to be built.”
Huh? The only Saab concept that has ever come to production is the Sport-hatch, isn’t it?
And it was ready for production even before there was a concept.
I think that announcement is just smoke and mirrors. The 9-1 will be on the next generation Astra’s floorpan so it will be smallish, but not exactly ‘very small’. Hell we ain’t taling Nissan Micras here!
I’m still shocked at the 2010 statement for the 9-4X. And if that is also the case for the 9-5, then I fear for Saab. Can they survive until then?
Frankfurt ‘09 will be too late for MY 2010. So it has to be earlier (Paris’08, Detroit ‘09, Geneva ‘09).
As soon as anything (concept or production) of the new 9-5 is shown, it will kill the old one immediately. That’s a goon reason not to release anything too early.
I mean good reason, not ‘goon’ !
Gripen - a little anger, that’s what I like to see. It reminds me of how I get with “joemama-tooth”
The 9-1 being ‘a very small car’ must mean from the U.S. point of view: sub-six cupholders category.
Swade: Like a globetrotter like you needs an excuse. Go to France, take your wife, go to the car show and you may not even care if the 9-5 is there or at the following show.
Golfhunter will lend a hand. Robin’s just a Chunnel ride away… do it. For humanity. Do it for the children.
Riku:
Small car in the US means that YOU can’t fit BECAUSE you’ve used those huge cups in the six cup holders to down gallon upon gallon of sugar-laden soft drinks.
I’d happily go to France in the name of Swade. I already have the shirts, lol.
good line, riku
joemama: who are you, Emperor Palpatine? “Good. Goooooood. Let your anger flow…”
I guess a few things about this are irritating: the fact that Saab is taking so long to get things into production (I know, as PT points-out above that they’re seemingly acting pretty quickly once the ball starts rolling, but why did it take so long to start? We first heard about a 9-6X replacement (which in turn was to be a 9-7X replacement) back in 2005 when the 9-6X was canceled and now it’s supposed to debut “by early 2010″? That’s FIVE YEARS!) and that we keep being paid lip-service from Saab. They wow us at auto shows with one thing in the concept and then bait-and-switch us with something else.
The ONLY feature I liked about the 9-4X concept was that it was going to “rightsize” the engine and have a BioPower 4-cylinder engine in it. Now we’re hearing that engine likely won’t be in it. So now I basically have NOTHING I like about the 9-4X. Not that I ever considered buying one anyway.
Saab is starting to look like they deserve the “greenwashing” accusations they’ve been hearing. “Rightsizing” my @ss…
BTW for all you Euro haters out there: I only demand TWO fully-functional cupholders in my next Saab. Is that too hard of a task for Saab to engineer?
Riku has a point there! Check this out:
http://jalopnik.com/357090/big-gulp-capacity-more-important-than-fuel-economy-says-forbes
There´s Saab mentioned in the comments. Finnish newspaper had a pic of 9-3 cupholder attached to the Forbes article…
1985Gripen:”The ONLY feature I liked about the 9-4X concept was that it was going to “rightsize” the engine and have a BioPower 4-cylinder engine in it. Now we’re hearing that engine likely won’t be in it. So now I basically have NOTHING I like about the 9-4X. Not that I ever considered buying one anyway.”
I´m with you. I could´ve write that. What Saab need is (what Audi/VW already has) two liter direct injection, direct ignition, twinscrollturbo - highoutput engine. It should, at least, have the same output as 2.3T from 9-5 Aero has.
Peugeot, Mini, Opel, Fiat and who knows what cars today already have 1.6liter engines with +180hp/250Nm. Ehhrrm..
MarkoA: Swade already covered the cupholder thing a few days ago here.
Add to those VW/Audi features the DSG (dual-clutch) transmission, which saves quite a bit percentage-wise in fuel.
Saab goes around touting “responsible performance” and “rightsizing” and then only makes non-BioPower engines available in Saab’s largest market. That smells of “greenwashing” to me.
It seems to me that anything with Saab takes agggesss, its like they’re working is slow motion. They start a project and then by the time it comes out the world’s moved on a bit, and then the product line up is out of date. If the 9-5 replacement was meant to be 3 years ago or something surely the way they’re making them at the moment it’ll be a bit out of date anyway…
I don’t know about that, I’ve probably just said that on the balance of the current 9-5 vs say the 5-series but Saab need to take two step forward with the new 9-5, take it above the 5-series and make it a properly good car.
It really should come out in 2009 really shouldn’t it???? Unless its a real and I mean a real stunner, new engines better performance etc…. But how long can the frankly, in the car world… ancient 9-5 get on for 2 years??? can only mean more losses for Saab seeing as it doesn’t cut the mustard now
Dan9-1: as for the next-gen 9-5 unless the schedule slipped I think it’s supposed to debut on dealer showroom floors in the northern hemisphere autumn 2009 as a MY2010. The concept of it will hit one of the major auto shows this year, with the best guess so far being Paris.
That would mean that the MY2009 9-5 (presumably to hit dealer lots this coming northern hemisphere autumn) will be the last of the current-gen 9-5s and there are hints that there will be a special send-off edition. Hopefully they take some of Swade’s suggestions!
For the send-off 9-5 I want to see the H-engine and T7 go out in style. Give it an 18t, a Quaife LSD, the old Remus exhaust and 300 horsepower and call it the 9-5 Viggen.
I think it would be fitting for the last of the “real” Saabs to go out in a blaze of torque-steering glory as the most powerful and expensive 4-cylinder sedan on the market.