John D attended the New York International Auto Show on behalf of Trollhattan Saab and saw the Saab 9-X BioPower Concept in person. This is part 2 of his diary from that trip.

Part 1 is here. Click on any of the photos to enlarge.

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On Wednesday morning I got up bright and early to get a head start on the day and headed down to the Javits center. I knew that I had to get myself situated because I was scheduled to interview Steve Shannon at 9:00am and then Jan-Ake Jonsson at 9:45.

I arrived by 8:15, which gave me a chance to look at a few cars before I had to do my interview. I saw the Nissan guys rehearsing the release of the new Maxima. I don’t know but it has hints of the Old Infiniti Q45 in the nose.

Then I went to look at the new car that is coming to where I work. The new Infiniti FX 50 with its punched out 5.0 litre V-8 pushing out 390hp. This horsepower war is just never going to end anytime soon. Whether it’s in a car, a truck or an SUV, but I digress because I will be the first person who says “Give me more Power”, even if what I have is sufficient.

I went in search of the SAAB booth and found it tucked in neatly behind the Cadillac area and sandwiched in next to the Hummers and the new Smart car for America. This is a curious little car that I always thought was a cool concept. But I’m surprised that the release in America is with a 3-cylinder NA motor instead of the turbocharged version in the rest of the world. Ok, back to the cars that I was here for…..

As you walk into the SAAB booth you are greeted by all white cars except for the Turbo-X, which is waiting silently in a black suit. With the 9-4x and the 9xBioHybrid tucked in behind gleaming brightwork.

The 9-4x has been talked about a fair bit since its introduction in Detroit two months ago, but it still draws a crowd. I must say that pictures really don’t do it justice. In the flesh the concept’s lines and shapes really do work together quite well. The overall execution for a crossover vehicle seems just right. It fits in with most current SAAB owner’s idea of an SUV. Not an overly bloated vehicle, but one with the proper proportions so that it looks capable and yet is also compact.

Knowing that my wife will be in the market about the time the 9-4x is due to make into showrooms, I have a feeling that her quarter-million mile 9-5 will have a good replacement.

My take on the 9x BioHybrid is a little different, It’s actually more on an emotional level as opposed to just a logical progression like the 9-4x would be. It has a lot of cues from the original 9X concept car that SAAB built about 7 years ago.

I purposely didn’t take a lot of detail close-ups because the car is a little rough. Even Bryan Nesbitt had admitted that they really just wanted to put this car together and show it off to the public, and they didn’t have a whole lot of time to do it. He said that they had wanted to bring this car to life for quite some time, and now they would have a chance to get reactions to it.

The only gripe I have for the car is minor. I think that the backseat solution, as it’s set out in the concept, won’t work all that well. It’s just too tight in the backseat to really call this a 2+2. The solution would be if the engineers could some howfigure out a way to make the cargo area flexible with the backseat position. If they could move the backseat rearward about four inches than I think the usability of the car will be OK.

The 9x would make a great small premium car if they could bring it to market around where the 9-2x was. If this car were available in a fwd base model in the low $20’s with a XWD Aero version costing under or around $28k then SAAB could have a car that could really get a foothold into the younger demographic just graduating school and transitioning into the workforce.

After I had time to talk to both Steve Shannon and Jan-Ake Jonsson on the state of SAAB both here in America and back in Sweden I was able to get an idea of where SAAB is heading in the future of its development.

Take it to heart that the future look of SAAB is what you are seeing before you in these concept vehicles. Like the designers are saying the design language you are gong to see on the new cars is that of the AERO-X. The marque is trying to establish a more recognizable face that lets people know it’s a SAAB from a distance.

Between using signature lighting to recognize a car at night, to the broad features on the face of the car in the day, the next 9-5, which I know we are all dying to see, will follow along in the same design cues as the concepts here.

As for power plants in the SAAB of tomorrow expect to see the B series engine phased out, replaced by the 2.8 V6 turbo and the smaller displacement 2.0t and T. But also expect to see SAAB broaden the engine range along with their rightsizing philosophy to include smaller displacement engines.

We may soon see smaller displacement engines that can run on Biopower (E85) or gasoline. 1.6 or 1.8 litre turbo engines may soon make an appearance in the lineup. SAAB is committed to the Biopower concept at home, and a lot of European countries are following suit. If GM can get online with producing E85 from the waste cellulose process that they have invested in then you may just see a whole lot more cars running on recycling of waste.

The next logical step is for SAAB to start getting cars tooled up for BioHybrid systems to take advantage of the ability to have great performance, greater range and fuel economy.

I asked Jan-Ake as to whether or not SAAB would try to have a specific HALO car, like the Turbo-X or the Aero-X. His answer to this was that SAAB’s HALO car is anyone that carries an Aero badge. So we have them on the road right now. If that’s the case did I mention that I want a SAAB 9x XWD Aero with a 260hp 2.0 Ecotec.

Once again I say to SAAB you must start building the concepts that you create. Most of those concept vehicles would sell if you could only convince mother GM to allow you to take the risks and build them.

My overall feel from this short trip was one that said SAAB is slowly gaining momentum to try and bring itself back to the forefront, with technologies that will be an integral part of our world in the not to distant future.

Many thanks go out to the people of SAAB and GM who arranged my trip to New York for the show. To be able to participate and interact with the designers from GM and basically having a great old time talking about the things I love best, cars.