It’s all in the details……
Here’s one of the Hirsch photos that I published a few days ago.
This is the Saab 9-5 cockpit with Hirsch’s carbon leather interior. Click to enlarge.
Did you see it?
Enlarge it again and go have another look. You’re looking for a Hirsch deer’s head embedded in the leather.
Very cool, and just the sort of detail work I like. It’s there if you look for it without shouting at you. Beautiful.
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And by the way, I couldn’t see this on the Hirsch website a few days ago, so I think that we might have another little exclusive here 
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Off topic, sorry
A 93SC TTID V’s Suburu legacy Diesel.
Saab wins, with the usual caveats.
http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/carreviews/grouptests/219675/saab_93_sportwagon.html
Maybe I’m not a “premium” kind of guy, but I don’t understand why you would want a leather dash. Cleaning and conditioning would be a PITA, trying not to get it on the glass/plastic pieces like the radio, vents, speedo/tach area. Or the reverse, not getting your other solvents on the leather.
It looks nice, but practically, I don’t get it. I’d rather see a lacquered real exotic wood or real metal ,not just alumunim colored plastic, in my ‘premium’ ride.
To continue off tipic: how the *** does he manage to have problems with this: “the anti-whiplash headrests are mounted too far forward, pressing constantly against the back of your head.” Does he have a deformed head? Or do I (as I don’t have his problem with the headrest)?
Is it me or is that steering wheel HUGE!!?
I hate to say it, but I have to disagree that it looks fabulous. I couldn’t justify paying even $100 for it. It looks out of place with the rest of the car.
I prefer a clean look, and the ridges of the carbon fiber are strange next the the regular parts of the radio panel.
A smooth leather upgrade is wonderful, and as someone mentioned earlier, should be on the 9-3 from the start.
Am I the only one?
The Hirsch upgrades do look nice, not great. But, I do hate how the GPS screen fits in with the rest of the car. It looks as if it’s not supposed to be there and was included as an afterthought. Can’t wait for the new 9-5s next year!
The new 9-5 is soon with us Vector. The huge gps screen doo look missplaced and the leather makes it stick out like crazy. The older 9-5 dash looks much better, even though it´s still practical. Get wrid of the standard GM parts and let Saab design their own stuff!
The Hirsch non carbon fibre leather looks much better. If you want carbon, then use carbon. Leather is leather.. Carbon is carbon. Although I must say.. It´s a bold move.
And don´t care to much about the BMW and Audi sellouts that some journos are. Care about those that writes something good about it. And we still beat Subaru! That´s something to be pleased about.
Cheers/Tompa
Why does the passenger side of the dash have the new ‘08 silver outlined air vent knobs and the driver’s side has the old (’98 - ‘07) black vent knobs?
Wel, maybe we all disagree in individual tastes but to me Hirsch lifts any Saab to the levels where there is no more gaps and arguments with the A, B and Merc quality etc etc. It makes me cringe when Saab has not engaged Hirsch in any manner to adpot their products world wide.
What’s with this “A and B” bullcrap, just swallow your pride and call them Audi and BMW, it’s not their fault they have better management staff and bigger budgets than Saab does. Oh wait, it is.
The Hirsch parts are nice, but they don’t make up for poor dash designs like the refreshed 9-5’s and the vast expanses of plain plastic on the 07+ 9-3’s dash, not to mention the painfully drab color choices. Like others have said, I think a nicely done high-end wood package like the old 9-5’s and 9000’s (and even the current Volvo S40 wood package) would help a lot to add some real flavor to current Saab interiors.
Even then, they still won’t fix the tachy looking instrument clusters, cheap-feeling switchgear, parts-bin accessories and bowtie radios. Those things all might as well be sales poison.
and @ Joe Meek, that’s just GM’s legendary dedication to interior quality and attention to detail at work
I’ll spot you some of the switchgear and the bowtie radio, Alex, but what’s wrong with the instument cluster? It’s fine, clear, uses easy to read and not time- or age-specific fonts, and is illuminated in green. What is wrong with it?
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And a spot of housekeeping, if I may… it’s fine to disagree with what someone else has written, but referring to their writing as ‘bullcrap’ can be considered personal and inflammatory.
In a macro sense, this is the internet, where it’s really easy to say what you want and express your opinions. In a micro sense, this is a Saab community that I host. I care about how people treat each other. I’ve had dinner with Joe Lobo and driven his car. I consider him to be a good friend and having shared that time, we’re familiar enough to be colloqial and personal without fear of offence.
Without that personal familiarity, seemingly innocent remarks can turn into flame wars if left unchecked.
You’re afforded the opportunity to write your thoughts here, despite the fact that a number of people disagree with them (or the persistantly negative tone at least). Just treat the people you disagree with in a respectful manner, please.
Thanks Swade, I appreciate your gentleman’s good manners here. I am a big boy and can take a few knocks here and there. But, let me answer the bullcrap anyway as I refer to the A+B in the most derogatory manner because I hate them so much. I’ll give credit where this is due and accept that some of their models (not all of them) do appeal to me to the point of considering them if Saab went totally down hill. So, it’s out of complete disrespect to refer to the A+B that I have due to the continuous overrating at Saab’s expense. So there you go Alex, I hate them (with a few exceptions).
I just take issue with the Audi, BMW, Mercedes, and Infiniti bashing that goes on around here. The simple fact is that they have been far more successful at marketing themselves over the past 20 years than Saab has. More importantly, during that period they have shown themselves to be able to build cars that are consistently superior to Saab’s offerings on every level.
This gets me miffed because Saab was once on par with BMW (don’t believe me? compare a c900 to an E30 325i, a 9000 Turbo to an E28 535i, etc) and miles above your average Audi product. But while Audi and BMW made dramatic changes to their product lines during the 1990’s that greatly increased quality and consumer perceptions, Saab languished at the hands of GM.
So I’m not negative because of what Saabs are today, they’re good enough cars and I think that a good marketing campaign along with slashing a few grand off their MSRP’s would be enough to move cars until the next-gen cars come out.
What makes me upset about Saab’s situation is what they could be if GM didn’t hold them back. Think things like the SVC engine, the 2004 replacement 9-5 that GM axed, the death of the hatch, etc. Different sells, and GM seems hell-bent on eliminating everything different from Saab’s lineup if the current cars are anything to go by. For a brand that has a heritage so steeped in their unusual cars like Saab, that’s a fate worse than death as far as I’m concerned.
So when I see people bashing car companies that have successfully boosted their sales volumes while not losing any part of what made their brands successful in the first place, it gets me miffed.
As an aside I had a bit of an eye-opener today concerning Saab’s current situation when the latest Car and Driver landed in my mailbox. In the first few pages, there’s a 2-page ad for the C63 AMG saying “300 horsepower is fast, 400 will take your breath away, which is why we gave our car 451″. The price difference between a C63 AMG and a Turbo X in the US is the same as the difference between a Turbo X and a poverty-spec 2.0T. Furthermore, try to name a Mercedes from the 80’s that was as fast as a Saab turbo other than the 500E or the Evo II. Speed sells, and while turbo Saabs once communicated that visceral sense of speed, the Germans now have a monopoly on it.
That tangent wasn’t even the main point of my C&D story though, the real object of my interest was the 135i. The 135i was the cover story, and it looks to be every bit as excellent of a car as it was hyped up to be. It comes with the direct-injection, twin-turbo straight six from the 335i, rwd, 6-piston Brembo brakes, and it rips from 0-60 while pulling .89g on the skidpad. All of this comes with a base price of $35,600 USD, and even then Car and Driver criticized it for being too expensive. Imagine what they’d think about a Turbo X, which has neither the brakes, the acceleration, the steering, the shifter, the interior, the badge appeal, the power, nor the acceleration, yet comes with a base MSRP of $43k. It just isn’t competitive.
Want to know the icing on the cake? Right opposite the specs breakdown on the 135i is a full-page Saab ad, touting the “new” 9-3 family as being “more jet-inspired than ever”. What exactly makes them Jet-inspired? The sleek grille, the “aerodynamic ride” that the clamshell hood somehow gives you, the rain-sensing wipers, the 255 horsepower engine, and the cornering headlights. But wait, there’s more! You also get a standard moonroof and ONSTAR! Try to name one thing on that list that hasn’t been offered on a German or Japanese car years before the 2008 9-3. OK, I’ll give you Onstar and XM, but nothing more. It was frankly pathetic to see such a lame ad opposite the BMW specs list, and I love Saabs. Imagine what the impartial reader and potential first-time Saab buyer thinks when they see that.
If that isn’t enough to get you feeling negative about Saab’s situation, I don’t know what is
But I will add one thing, the silver 9-3 Aero in the ad looked stunning. Slash $2-3k from the MSRP and bring back a vintage-style ad campaign and I could see it really stealing sales from the butt-ugly bangle BMW’s. Remember the best part about the 135i is that you don’t have to look at the ugly thing when you’re behind the wheel.
So Alex, you seem to be clearly one of us and welcome to our frustration club then. The points you highlight in particular “because Saab was once on par with BMW ” and “miles above your average Audi product” are some the truths that burn us all day in and day out. But even better “makes me upset about Saab’s situation is what they could be if GM didn’t hold them back” is why we are all so passionate and loyal followers with the hope that Saab one day will not only be equal but much better than A+B+M to that matter. You won’t get any arguments from me on these facts but these Germans are not perfect either and their cars are not as good as they say. The Germans have certainly excelled in the art of branding and marketing to the right segment. Saab needs to regain and conquer new frontiers.
The 135i will no doubt sell like hotcakes and a reasonable % of the people that buy one will know why they bought it. Part of that ‘badge appeal’ you write of, though, is people just buying with a big “me too” in mind.
The 135 has a great engine. I drove the 335 last year and its very smooth and very powerful. But I still wouldn’t buy one.
It’s just my opinion, but the Saab is a more appealing total package to me. About 5% of those 135i buyers will drive their cars to within 80% of its limits and some of them will die.
This is actually the problem I have with all your intimations that Saab ought to join the horsepower wars. It’s just not a Saab thing to do. They didn’t do turbocharging so they could outpower BMW. They did turbocharging because it was the smart thing to do. It allowed for a good power boost as well as better economy. The power levels were kept within the car’s limitations.
Saab have definitely made mistakes, but they’ve always been niche and they’ve never had the money behind them to invest the way BMW and Audi (VAG) were able to invest. Back when they were on par with those brands the bar to do so was set a lot lower. To get back on par is going to take a major investment.
This is the point on which we agree, I think. Saab’s approach to the automobile has a LOT of promise for the future and GM should invest in them to bring that to fruition. I’m with you on that and I’ve got three years of archives to support it.
Should they be cheaper? Possibly. Would GM be able to justify keeping them around if they were much cheaper? Possibly.
But if that were the only thing stopping Saab from making sales in the US and thereby establishing a market presence they can build on, I think they’d have done it. There’s got to be more to it.
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Whilst I can respect the way Audi have grown and the way BMW have set very high standards in engineering and marketing, I’m with Joe Lobo.
I’ve driven both and felt ice cold on both of them. No engagement whatsoever, especially in the Audis.
It might come back to what I was saying before - the way Saabs are I can explore more of the car’s usable range. It suits my driving style and capabilities and forgives me when I’m wrong. It seats me in the best seats around and has the best UI I’ve come across.
As much as I can admire BMW and Audi’s fit and finish and materials, they just leave me cold. Maybe the journos love them becaus ethey drive a different car every week and like to come back to something familiar and good. For me, to live with and engage every day, I’ll happily take my Saabs.
You’re being too nice to the 135i drivers Swade, that car is going to kill alot of people.
I also think that the 135i means to BMW what the 9-1 would mean to Saab. There are plenty of BMW fans who love their fast, tossable old little BMW’s of the 80’s and 90’s, then get pissed off when they see the bloated, overly expensive, overweight, painful-to-look-at cars that BMW seems to be making for the Lexus crowd. These people will flock to the somewhat reasonable, fast as hell and reasonably lightweight 128i and 135i, myself included. Right now, I can’t think of a faster, better handling car that can be had for $36k, and the 135i should sell like hotcakes to the just out of college crowd.
I don’t think that Saab should get into the horsepower wars, that’s something they were never in in the first place. I think they need to get into the acceleration wars, which they have been ever since the first 2-stroke cars started beating V8 cars in rallys and 99 turbos started embarassing 320i’s and 2002’s at stoplights. In many people’s minds, mine included, Saab turbos stand for raw acceleration far beyond what the HP numbers would lead you to expect.
A ~320-340 hp Turbo X with a direct-injection 2.8 V6 turbo engine would still be nowhere close to a 400+ hp RS4, M3, or C63, but with xwd and Saab’s torque curves it would have no problem running with those cars. Likewise a 280-300hp 9-1 or a 350-380 9-5 would be nice to see. Saab should by no means try to win the horsepower wars, but there’s no reason why they shouldn’t live up to their legacy of making cars that can handily out-accelerate the Germans.
It just irks me that Saab is so close and yet so far from being what it could and should be. A 2008 9-3 SS with an 08 CTS-level interior, 300-320 hp from the v6 and ~240hp from a direct injection ecotec, and more tasteful taillights could have been a real contender, but it’s the little things that hold it back.