Saab Design: a debate worth having - by Lance Cole
It’s my pleasure to bring you another post from the desk of Lance Cole. Lance is a British writer who’s penned articles for various publications at home, as well as his renowned Saab reference Saab 99 and 900 - The Complete Story. and several other motoring and aviation references.
Lance has graciously agreed to being added here as an occasional author, hence his name on the by-line. His input here is truly appreciated.
——
We all have our opinions, and, contrary to that hoary old phrase about opinions being like arseholes - everyone’s got one - the fact remains that we are all entitled to have one. An opinion that is…
But some opinions make it into reality and some opinions remain in the bonfires of the mind.
So, while you might think you know what a Saab should look like, someone else, some other opinion, will have a differing view of what a Saab should look like.
If that opinion holder happens to be a car designer working for GM then let’s face it: their opinion is going to see the light of day and yours is going to stay where the sun don’t shine - in your mind that is.
So, that old debate about what a Saab should look like, is a matter of opinion. As such, it is a minefield - which I will now enter…
The Saab 99 and Classic 900 with their Sason and Envall designed lines, are often held up by many opinions as representing the design language of Saab. It is, say the opinions, all in the hockey stick side swage, the clamshell bonnet (hood), the curved windscreen, the ‘top hat’ roof turret, the swoopy boat type rear end and the whole arrow shaped style of the things. And some opinions rave over the 99s concave rump and others love the upturned aerofoil that is the front end of the 99.
And I will not argue with that.
I love the flat fronted ‘face’ of the classic early 900s, and that swooped rear end with a lip spoiler and the sheer style and stance - that down-the-road graphic of the C900 hatchbacks. I also really get moved by the sheer Scandinavian sense of design evoked by Bjorn Envall’s rear windscreen design on the 900 four and two door cars (also found on that weird thing, the Saab 90). Saabists often ignore the four door C900 and they are getting rare in Europe.
What about those Saaby-weird floating ‘opera’ windows in the five door 99 and C900 models? Weird but elegant, and they worked in design terms.
And Envall added the curved indicator shapes and headlamp graphicals to the early 99 when he worked the rubber bumpers on to it in 1972. And that gave us a recognisable Saab ‘face’.
So these are the essential elements of Saab design iconography then - aren’t they? Well, hang on. There’s more.
Before the 99 and 900 there were other Saab cars and they had a different set of stylistic values and themes - albeit drawn by Sixten Sason. So I would suggest to you that we cannot see Saab design in isolation as beginning with the 99 and its themes, and then demand that any future Saab should mimic the 99 and C900 themes - as so many Saabists so often do.
The Saab 92 and its progeny, right through to the the 96, had flat windscreens, no clamshell, tapered rears, bulbous side ’shoulders’ (now claimed as a Volvo design theme because that is a design motif Volvo have redeployed from their own design history) and other features not seen in the subsequent Saabs that are the 99 and C900.
And Sason, who made many trips to his friends in Italy at Bertone and Pinin Farina, loved Italian style as well as American style, so his works feature these influences. And Saab did have an ‘Italian Front’ version of the later 93 model that was very Alfa…
So, whilst the later GM900 and 9-3 may ape the C900, they owe little to the 92-96 range. And although the current 9-3 may evoke Saab design shapes in its details, it hardly shouts C900 three door geneology does it?
And then we have that Saab slab- the brilliant 9000; actually it was less of a slab in its Mk1 guise and more of slab when it got beefed up by Saab in its Mk2 version. Ok, so Guigario is credited with the genisis of the Saab/Alfa/Lancia/Fiat ‘Type Four’ design that gave us the 9000, 164, Thema (say ‘Tay-ma’) and Croma ranges. Envall of course, Saabised the 9000 brilliantly, but it was and could not ever be a retro pastiche of the 99 or C900.
So where does my wander through the design woods leave us?
I think it gives us camps of people who have differing opinions on what a Saab should look like. Now, that, is a luxury not viable in the world of car design beancounters…
There are those vocal people who insist that a curved windscreen and clamshell are ‘must haves’ in the Saab design check list. There are those - possibly fewer in number - who long for a curved little bob-tailed aero bubble of a small car that reflects the 92-96 range, and then there are those who want to see a complete break with a new shape - a new Saab design iconography - perhaps represented by the recent crop of Saab concept cars such as the Aero X and 9-X BioHybrid etc.
And to prove my point, above, it should be noted that these current Saab concept cars show little actual homage to the 99 or the C900, yet they reek of Saab and Scandinavian design. So they must have moved the Saab design debate on then, have they not?
I think I can sum this important point up in the words of Trollhattan Saab’s own Eggs n Grits -when he said of Saab design themes in this site’s coverage of the 9-x BioHybrid’s design and its designer Anthony Lo:
“Mr. Lo is spot on as well. If the traditions work, so much the better. However, if the traditions dictate, you run the risk of eliminating worthy options.”
Saab, this is why grand design stems from vision rather than from reinvention.
But Saabists may be be happy, or disappointed by the forthcoming real world Saabs.
The 9-4x boasts a Saab grille/headlamp ‘face’: It also boasts a classic Saab 900 derived side hockey stick type swage and some Saaby side window shapes - thus arguably proving that these are defined as essential design ingredients for the marque for now - yet one that is less obvious in the current concept cars. The new forthcoming 9-5 looks to me as though it uses the same windscreen and door side shapes as the 9-4x, and feels more cubist than curvist as a result - and really, not that advanced.
We will have to wait and see if the new 9-5 has a high tail Kamm back, or a swoopy arse, but if you look at the new Opel Insignia shapes, they could very easily be dressed up to be Saaby shapes. That rear end is very Saab. And as for the two door coupe- WOW!
And go and check out Volkswagen’s new Passat CC - all clamshell, curve and a lovely swoopy arse and rear window. Very C900, especially from the rear.
I also reckon that the little Opel / Vauxhall Corsa three door has some lovely Saab 92-96 design shapes- especially in its rear windscreen and wing shapes - it’s a cute little blob of a thing - just like the 92-96.
——
Anyway, back to the ‘what should the next Saabs’ look like’ debate:
Where are we going, Saab?
Is it going to be re-tooled exterior panels with Opels and Caddys underneath? Is it going to be some damned Rover 75 or Jaguar S type, retro-pastiche homage to the C900? Or will you Saab, give us an elegant blend of your lineage and genealogy in a lithe and classy tool? Can the new 9-5 achieve this? Or do we have to wait longer?
And will the next 9-3 have a hatch; remember them Saab?
Or is the definition of the Saab look going to be a wonderful blend of ALL the Saab themes into a modern redefinition of Saab and Scandinavian design motifs - rather than just one of them?
You see, Saab, form can follow function, but that is easy. Much harder to grasp is the fact that it is brave conceptual thinking that creates grand design.
Tradition should not limit thinking.
And do we in fact already have that in the form of the 9-x BioHybrid or the Aero X? Maybe. But I suggest, Saab, that you are not quite there yet.
——
This debate is crucial to the future survival of Saab.
Remember how in the early 1990s Citroen went all sensible to appeal to a wider market to sell more cars - and lost its way - and had to return to making individualistic shapes, to dare to be different again. A point proven by the strong sales of the C4 and new C5 ranges.
And Renault went weird too: Where on earth is the company’s design lineage in the shape of the new Laguna?
Go back decades and just think how the NSU RO80 or the Rover SD1 would have owned the world if they had not been plagued by bad engines and poor build. Above all they had DESIGN, as did the Lancia range.
And isn’t the new Skoda Fabia a peach of what a new small Saab could have been? Many think it looks like one.
And to prove my design-rules-all, point, think of the old Suzuki Swift. The old one was a pensioner special, a cat lovers tin can on wheels that no real car lover would buy - even when GM badged it up for sales to girlies in the USA as the unloved Geo Metro or some such nonsense. It was not to hot in a crash either. Generally, it was nearly as bad as the Mazda-121-slash-Ford-Festiva (the Ford Fester - much worse than the Ford Fiasco) from 1980 something.
And now look at the current new model Suzuki Swift - one of the most accomplished pieces of small car design and engineering seen in years and one that has put Suzuki firmly on the map in Europe - where it is also built. How did the men at Suzuki do it?
By design: Brilliant design.
And yes, Saab designs the best range of wheels in the business, and nice seats too. Oh and the best range of accessories. But it is not enough. We need design, total intergrated design.
So Saab, don’t repeat the Citroen mistake in search of volume sales by turning out bland Euro-dross design. I really fear Saab is aiming to sell more cars through the misguided belief that making a blandobox of a car will shift metal.
Listen carefully Saab: it will not.
To prove that point, compare and contrast the new Toyotas Auris with (A) its predecessor the Corolla and (B) with the VW Golf. The Auris is a good car, but is a bland, boring box with no soul and it ain’t selling like Toyota thought it would.
And Saab, I don’t mind if the floorpan and base of a new Saab are off an Opel, just as I dont mind that the Skoda Fabia shares bits with a VW. Frankly, I don’t mind where you build it, either. But I do mind if the car, the shape, the spirit, the smell, the handling, the essence of the thing that is a Saab, is not a Saab.
——
So, reader, do you agree that Saab design means: subtle style, a unique motif, a unique face and feel, an essence inside and out, and a look that draws on themes from ALL the cars in Saab’s past rather than just one?
And this does not mean ‘unique’ at the expense of sales appeal (in a Citroen GS or CX kind of way) but unique in a Saab kind of way - but appealing to wider base - just like the new Citroens then. And remember Saab, a notable design-led individuality does not stop Audi or BMW selling their uniquely shaped cars beyond a core customer base, does it? So why not Saab?
I think Saab needs to define its design. It is going in the right direction, but a crossroads approaches. It’s time to decide where you are going Saab. And we out here all have an opinion which you could ask us about.
I am just off to sit on a mirror and examine mine.
-
-
More from this category
- Scorching Saab Seats can Stifle your Swimmers?!
- Wednesday Snippets
- Saab 9-7x the 2nd most leased car in the US
- Teknikens Varld on a possible Saab 9-9
More from this author
- Saab retro-perspective: Lance Cole on the Saab 90
- Lance Cole: The Saab Psychosis
- Saab Design: a debate worth having - by Lance Cole
- Saab 9-5: There’s life in the old dog yet - by Lance Cole
Subscribe to this author
Recent Comments
- Tim Winker on Talladega III
- SaabLance on Quite possibly the best 2008 Saab 9-3 road test report - ever.
- SaabLance on Quite possibly the best 2008 Saab 9-3 road test report - ever.
- Kroum on Quite possibly the best 2008 Saab 9-3 road test report - ever.
- Ying on Quite possibly the best 2008 Saab 9-3 road test report - ever.
- Ned on Quite possibly the best 2008 Saab 9-3 road test report - ever.
- SaabLance on Quite possibly the best 2008 Saab 9-3 road test report - ever.
- ELBOBO on The Great TS Pacific Northwest Meetup - Details!
- Paul Guinnessy on Quite possibly the best 2008 Saab 9-3 road test report - ever.
- Rogan on The Great TS Pacific Northwest Meetup - Details!
That Suzuki is made in Hungary, and the most popular car here…
If Saab enthusiasts like old design of cars like 900 and so on it may be interesting for Saab but to survive as the brand amounts of Saab cars of at least 200000/year are necessary. Therefore the design has to meet the general liking worldwide. This is the difficult task to fulfil.
Swade, slowing down a notch and instead of covering everything, only covering what you want is the best move you could have ever done for TS. I’m so glad it worked out for the best..
Great reading.
I can’t agree on the corsa/saab 92-96 comparision.
The Corsa has terrible proportions. It just looks wrong and the contemporary details can’t make up the bad proportions.
As far as the Fabia concerns, that ons looks good. And it has a aura of simplicity and usability in a positive sense. Practical, a bit in the manner of the old 99/900 models.
But indeed the design is important.
9X, Aero-X, 9-3X, 9-4X and most recent 9X-BioHybrid all showed the way in the right direction. From that list, personnaly I’m convinced the most of the 9X and the 9X BioHybrid.
Saab could take a look at what the financially not that strong Fiat-group did recently, i.e.:
The Alfa GT, not bad at all, looks refined even it shares a lot of components with the other Fiats/Alfa’s/Lancia’s .
The coming MiTo, very promising.
The Brera, extremely elegant and a except the overweight a brilliant successor for their long gone Montreal.
The 8C, a real halo car, clearly showing GM what could be done with the Aero-X, in a small serie.
The new Lancia Delta, something refreshing after a dark period with silly Lybras & Thesises (I envy the 190 hp they get standard out of the 1.9 twin turbo diesel at a price tag of € 30.000,- which is considerable less the the 180 hp TTiD from the same engine costing € 36.050,- in a 9-3 SportHatch Aero. That is of course a marketing story and not related to design issues but the Delta steals the shows, if not in the overdone bicolor version).
A stunning Alfa 166 successor is on its way, eventually combined with a smaller sporty Maseratie quattroporte, citing design clues from seventies supercars like the Bora and the Merak.
I guess if the product quality is high enough, the Fiat-group shows us some viable alternatives for the German Triumvirate and boring Euromix from Opel/Ford/Renault/Peugeot and the many Japanese on the market.
http://www.alfa-taxi.ch/pik/S1&2.jpg
http://www.alfa-taxi.ch/pik/S3&4.jpg
http://www.alfa-taxi.ch/pik/S5&6.jpg
http://www.alfa-taxi.ch/pik/S7.jpg
And it is the design that makes a strong difference.
GM/Saab, don’t miss the train and show some action. Get them both ready 9-1 and 9-4X, and after that the 9-3 and 9-5 successors … .
I’m putting this on two threads which is bad form, but for what it’s worth:
Hatchback with safety and 4-wheel drive (or maybe a super-combi). Take a look at this review of what the BMW X6 and Infinit FX are targetting - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/automobiles/autoreviews/22AUTO.html , “New-Age Mutant Ninja Wagons”.
And realise that what the author is suggesting is that these are essentially hatches/wagons with 4-wd. Now that Saab has the XWD, they could own a chunk of this market with the turbo 4-banger (especially with a good diesel).
The SUV owners won’t trade down to Saab 9-1s. They will consider a compromise vehicle that gets good mileage and has most of the benefits of an SUV.
If you look at the original sketches for the 99 and compare it with other progressive late-60s designs, including the Ro80, you ‘ll see that the 99 was definitely a child of its time. Just a different child.
I don’t think Saab had focus groups pre-GM, which is why they came up with some unconventional designs, but may also be why they nearly went bust.
What GM/Saab need to find now, and it looks like they may be doing that, is a ‘different’ child of the 00s. Just tell the focus group what’s staying.
Can’t wait for the next 9-5, as long as it isn’t watered-down too much from the teasers we’ve seen elsewhere on this site.
Hmm, let’s see:
“I don’t mind where you build it, either. But I do mind if the car, the shape, the spirit, the smell, the handling, the essence of the thing that is a Saab, is not a Saab.”
Exactly.
Yeah, but what do all of SAAB designs have in common? They’re awesome. Ok, actually, for me personally, I can’t dig the sonnets, no matter how hard I try and I think the EV-1 is just bizarre, but it still seems like they are great cars.
People tell me that the early SAABs had great aerodynamics, even by todays standards, and I feel like that may be an indicator of the fundamental saabness we all sense, more so than any design language. Nothing seems needless, and design for aesthetic’s sake is fine, but it never gets in the way of functionality on a SAAB. Those early SAABs may have had italian and american inspired design, but I doubt that drag coefficient was an accident.
And so this is why I despise the aero-x and the derived design language. If jet technology trickles down into the cars, that is fine… but it seems as if the aero-x is little more than a Born From Jets billboard on wheels. It is the total pitch and it is gimmicky. So everyone now knows that SAAB was born from jets… great. SAAB sold their soul to the masses, but did they sell any cars?
also, i never really saw a hockey stick. I always felt like the 99 onwards C-pillar looked like a vertical stabilizer.
Erek,
That is a really good point about the vertical stabilzer - as Saab made aircraft. I guess one might see a fuselage to fin/empenage shape of a fin or even a forward swept fin - bit like a Mooney -just for example.
Maybe we could email Bjorn Envall and see if he can remember what Sason was inspired by for the 99s flick and sweep line - known by some as the ‘hockey stick’
Sport Mode- I know what youa re saying. What I was perhaps clumsily trying to say was that location of build does not seem to damage design. I gueess the Trolls of Trollhattan should build Saabs, but The Suzuki Swft, the American or British built Hondas. Toyotas or Nissans, are no less of a total beacuse they are not built in the land of their makers.
And Mercs and BMWs are no less characterful for being built in USA of South Africa- are they…
And of course car major world makers have design centres all over thr world- in California, Germany and London -independent of their home-build base location.
See- design- minefield!
You know, I generally appreciate original car design (at least I tell myself that), and have a deep appreciation for all things mechanical (two degrees in engineering, one being of the mechanical persuasion), and there’s just something about the C900 Aero (SPG) that seems to hit that “just right” place in my mind.
I learned to drive a stick-shift in a 1985 900 Turbo (hey Swade!). The looks of those cars are simply so unique and timeless. I even think the lighter colored cars with the dark panels look even better than the black or grey ones. Just… … wow!
And this is coming from the (very) proud owner of a very nice and clean 9000 Aero. Furthermore, I think the 9-5 and OG9-3 look great (Aero and Viggen, especially). I don’t think that many Saabs look bad, but let me just gush a little bit more about the C900 Aero/SPG. Mmmmmmm! Wow.
Make it Beryl Green for me… what a car.
Cheers, and keep the shiny side up!
~Peter
My car:
http://www.trollhattansaab.net/archives/2006/06/sotw_calendar_j_1.html
Lance, when’s your 9000 book coming out????
PGAero, speaking of the devil and a 9000 owner beats my post by a minute. There’s another customer right there lance!!
Whilst the 99/900 were not the original design shape for Saabs, they did establish a level of practiaclity and distinctiveness theat didn’t exist before with Saab or any other brand.
Sure Saab weren’t the first ones to invent the hatchback and they also weren’t the first ones to make it popular. I think probably the Renault 16 was the first really popular hatchback design. But anyway somehow Saab managed to put it on the map and adopt it like no other manufacturer.
I think the clamshell bonnet always invokes a certain a mount of Saab feeling. A Saab without a clamshell always seems to me to be cheapened in some way.
The GM900 and OG9-3 were quite diluted in their styling compared to the C900 but still managed to look quite Saab, even without a clamshell! The 9-3SS is something else again, and not in a good way. To me it’s always seemed like someone took a very conventional 4 door sedan and then tried to blend a liitle bit of Saab in as an afterthought. It didn’t work when it was released, and it’s only slightly better now. It’s recent facelift has tried valiantly to make it more Saablike, but you can’t add style to something, only enhance it. I’m afraid the 9-3SS never had much style to enhance in the first place.
Hatchbacks should always be a part of all of Saab’s car ranges, because hatchbacks are ‘very Saab’. I’ve always liked the 9-5, but a hatchback version would’ve been something special. I truly hope that Saab follow the Insignia by offering the next 9-5 in a hatch. It will be selling itself short if it doesn’t. And with the Insignia coming in a coupe, maybe we can even dream of a 9-5 coupe? But I won’t hold my breath on that one.
Lance,
Oh, don’t think I was disagreeing or pickin’ on ya at all- that phrase was awesome… couldn’t say it better myself if I tried.
The Geo Metro/Suzuki Swift XFI sells like crazy on eBay here because of gas prices. Same thing for the old Honda CRX HF. Both (all three?) cars get something like 50 mpg.
Some people don’t care about design. That is, people like me with no money.
Jeff, I have been there - ie - no money- marginal motoring.
But there are small cheap cars of the same age out there that are much safer than the old Swift and the old Civic.
I know about ‘needs must’ butwhy buy a Civic when you can get something of same vintage that will not actually peel open at the A pillars in even a low speed smash.
Just think yourselves lucky that the USA never got the Rover 100/ Austin Metro.Check out its crash test perfromance at http://www.Euroncap. Oh and there is an early 1990s Honda Civic frontal offset crash test on You Tube- old cars crash test is the title I think. Frightening to watch.