Monthly Archives: July 2008

Saab 900 Aero prototype restoration continues

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Last year I brought Peter W’s work to your attention, work that involves the restoration of a very special Saab 900. Saab made a small number of what I guess you could call Aero prototypes in pearl white paint back in 1984.

When Peter found one for sale in late 2006, he snapped it up and immediately got to work on bringing it back to life. It was lucky he started straight away as there was a lot to do:

900 Aero

The recent spring and summer in Sweden have seen Peter hard at work, and the following update photos will show you just how far he’s come.

This thread at SaabCentral will give you a lot of progressive photos, but the shots below show the project as it currently stands. I believe Peter wants to get it ready for the Saab Festival in 2009 (though I may be recalling that incorrectly).

He’s doing an extraordinary job with this and I can’t wait to bring more shots as the project as it progresses. It’s looking fantastic so far, and this really is a car that should be preserved.

Click any of the photos to enlarge.

 

GM to cut leasing?

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The structural bloodletting at GM seems to be continuing with the Cerberus-controlled leasing arm that is GMAC said to be cutting lease offerings. Chrysler cut its leasing program last week and stories are starting to circulate that GM will be next:

Chrysler told its Canadian dealers of the change three weeks ago, according to an industry source familiar with the situation. GM dealers in Canada were to be told about the change affecting its GMAC financing unit on Friday. GM’s U.S. dealers are also expected to be affected. A GMAC spokesman would not confirm the change, saying there is no public announcement at this time.

The Truth About Cars is saying that GM dealers are to be told via a conference call today (may have already happened as I write this). We’ll have to wait and see if and when that happens, but it seems the global credit crunch is starting to bite in ways that you probably didn’t think of when it first came to light.

Leases depend on an estimated residual value at the expiration of the lease, and those residuals have been tumbling. The consequent loss of value means that inevitably, the manufacturers have to take an accounting charge on their bottom line, reducing their profitability even more. As their access to credit can depend a lot on the state of their books, it’s going to make money even harder to get during what are already hard times.

It’s estimated that over 40% of vehicle sales in Canada involve leases. The figure is estimated at around 20% in the US. With leasing out of the picture, prospective customers will have to look towards obtaining a loan to purchase the vehicle and dealers will have to look towards doing more attractive deals to make this happen.

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Saab Warranty is reduced

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Yesterday we had the leader story, today comes the confirmation: Saab have definitely cut their 5-year/100,000 powertrain warranty and folded it in with the 4 year bumper-to-bumper warranty. This is from Automotive News:

DETROIT (Reuters) – To reduce costs, General Motors has cut its warranty terms on Saabs sold in the United States, but will continue to provide free scheduled maintenance to compete with other premium brands, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

GM told dealers on Friday it would cut its Saab warranty effective immediately to four years or 50,000 miles from the extended warranty of five years or 100,000 miles offered on other vehicles, spokeswoman Joanne Krell said.

The carmaker provides free scheduled maintenance for three years, or 36,000 miles on Saab vehicles in addition to the warranty, setting it apart from other GM vehicles, Krell said.

The combination of a four-year warranty and the scheduled maintenance “makes sense to the import premium buyer, which is where Saab fits in the automotive landscape,” Krell said.

Krell said the decision applied only to the Saab brand and did not apply to GM’s Cadillac or Hummer brands. She did not have a dollar figure on the cost savings.

Some thoughts:

I’ve swapped a couple of emails with a few people about this.

One overriding thought was that this probably looks a lot worse than what it is in reality. The fifth year on the powertrain was pretty important, but the high mileage component wasn’t. Anyone who is likely to rack up 100,000 miles in five years is likely to be doing a lot of highway driving, which is pretty kind on the powertrain and less likely to do damage.

But any time you have to offer the customer less (and ask them for more money), you’re going to take a hit. And I think they’re about to take a hit in comments.

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Why the Saab 900 rocks – part 2 – ergonomics

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Why the Saab 900 rocks (part 1) covered the interior. You can read that entry here.

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If the early Saab 900 interiors were about the funk, it has to be said that the driver’s cockpit fascia, the dashboard, was all about the function.

I can remember my own first experience with the Saab 900. The thing that leapt out at me straight away was the dial in the HVAC controls with all the arrows on it. What the heck is that for?! was my immediate thought. Five minutes later it made perfect sense, and has ever since.

The Saab 900 dashboard is like that. At first it seems a little unfamiliar and more than a little strange. Spend some time there, especially with the car in motion, and you come to realise that it was developed by some very clever people.

So what are we talking about here? Let’s take a look.

Click.

The big thing about the Saab 900 dash is the ergonomic quality.

The dash was specifically designed to have all the operations that needed to be close by at the driver’s fingertips. Operating stalks for indicators, wipers, washers were all placed within reach of the driver’s fingers without the driver have to lift their hands off the steering wheel. The steering wheel itself was a masterpiece of comfort and control, too.

A short reach away on the door side of the steering wheel are the controls that only the driver should have access to. For example, the passenger shouldn’t be able to inadverdantly turn off the lights. Hence, they’re on the opposite side of the stering wheel. Same with the dimmer switch and the driver’s side mirror (also there because it’s the mirror for that side of the car).

A short reach away on the passenger side of the steering wheel are the controls for the audio system, the climate control system and other functions.

The dials for the climate system were all organised and set up to work so that the driver could operate them by touch without having to look at them. The fan was a small dial with discrete clicks between settings. The temperature dial worked in a smooth 180 degree arc (up for hot, down for cold – makes sense).

The confusing-until-you-got-used-to-it dial was the vent outlet dial, with a myriad of arrows pointing in all sorts of directions. Spend a few minutes to study it though, and it all makes perfect sense. The switch positions move logically from top to bottom. From the top, you can set it to the windscreen, then to the windscreen and feet vents, feet vents only, feet vents with cold air from the facial vents, the driver’s facial vents or all dash level (facial vents).

Note that those positions correspond with where the temperature setting would most likely be. When the temperature is set to hot (the dial points up) the most likely vent settings to be used are in the upper part of the selection range. It makes sense.

Many have noted the fact that the dials were also made so that they could be operated easily by a gloved hand in winter. It’s also notable that the Saab 900s heater is like a furnace!

Saab enthusiasts will also be familiar and very comfortable with Saab’s interior lighting. Green was chosen for its neutrality and the fact that it gave the closest effect to daylight conditions. The soft green lighting allows warning lights to stand out properly. It allows for the easiest reading of the matt black gauges with white lettering and orange needles – a setup that can be easily read with just a glance from the driver. Those gauges were deep set so as to avoid any glare on the 900′s superb, curved windscreen.

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The Saab 900 didn’t start the key-in-between-the-seats thing. That was the Saab 99. The 900 carried on the tradition, though, and I’m glad they did as it’s another case of something that’s seemingly unusual making perfect sense.

The “between the seats” area is actually pretty important. Saab maintained the practice of having the handbrake there so that it could be operated by the passenger if necessary. Having the key there meant that the driver could fasten the seatbelt, insert the key, start the car and release the handbrake all in one easy set of operations.

My 1985 Saab 900 also has electric window switches in this area (not shown in the photo, above) and these are perfectly positioned so that the driver can just reach down and operate the front windows without having to look for them. They’re located right where your fingers fall if you position your arm in this area.

Saab have always made brilliant seats, and those in the 900 were a big part of this heritage. Saab made them to be very comfortable, and adjustable to the extent that over 90% of all drivers should be able to find an optimum driving position (not bad considering there were no steering wheel adjustments at that time). Seat heating kept the driver comfortable and alert.

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The Saab 900′s interior layout was a masterclass in modern ergonmics and drew high praise from the motoring public of the time. Trends in materials and design have taken a lot away from this interior but several of the main elements still remain: the green lighting, the key position (bring back those central window switches!), the toggled air vents. Many other aspects of the 900s interior such as logical switch positioning have been taken up by others and are now the rule rather than the exception.

It’s still a truly extraordinary place to drive a car from. Supremely comfortable and very, very functional. I can only imagine what it must have been like, how revolutionary it must have been, 20 years or so ago.

As Eggs is given to saying: Vive la 900!

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This is entry was ably assisted by resources and images from Wulf’s excellent Saab Media website.

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Monday Snippets

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GM’s management were tight lipped about which Saab would be produced in North America the other day, but it seems the Swedes aren’t so reserved:

US car giant General Motors is to start production of a new Saab car model in Mexico next year. This is part of an attempt to turn around GM’s disastrous sales figures…..

….Paul Åkerlund, IF Mettalls union spokesperson for Saab Automobiles in Trollhättan, western Sweden, told TT news agency that it shouldn’t affect jobs in Sweden. According to the union, building a new model on the other side of the Atlantic has long been part of the plan…..

….Eric Geers, head of information at Saab Automobile confirmed to TT that it’s the Saab 9-4X crossover that was shown at Detroit earlier in the year that is to be produced in Mexico during 2009.

So, all that discussion can be set aside. It’s the 9-4x as expected.

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If you’re in the US and you’re in the market for a new Saab, AND you know someone who works for GM, then you could get a substantial discount up until the end of this month (not much time, I know).

From Automotive News:

General Motors is allowing U.S. employees a one-time opportunity to offer an employee discount to anyone they choose, through July…..

….An employee discount offers a substantial savings. For example, a Buick Lucerne with a sticker price of $34,200 would carry an employee price of $29,758.03 after cash incentives, says GM spokesman Pete Ternes.

In a memo to employees today, GM’s sales chief, Mark LaNeve, urged employees to offer a friend or neighbor the discount…..

….Employees register for their discount on www.gmfamilyfirst.com. They print a certificate for their friend to give to the dealer for the discount.

So if you know someone who works for GM and you’ve been considering a purchase, this week might be the time to pull the trigger.

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I don’t normally cover cars for sale but this is no normal car, in fact, it’s pretty rare so I’ll gladly make a rare exception. Golfhunter tells me there’s a Saab 92 for sale……on Ebay!

It’s a 92B and possibly one of the last ones, too, as I see the date 1955 mentioned there. The last 92s were made in 1956.

The price is set at 14,000 Euros and the car is in Austria (thx, Wulf!).

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Mo has hooked me up with a story stating that Saab are going to reduce their warranty in the 2009 model year. The author provides no source and I haven’t been able to track one down as yet but the site seems to be quite genuine.

With the 2007 model year vehicles, GM introduced the 5-year / 100,000-mile powertrain warranty and brought Saab closer to copying the warranty coverage of all the GM makes.

It looks like that is changing for the 2009 model year.

For 2009, Saab is going back to future by rolling back to some of the same warranty coverage that was offered prior to 2007.

A separate powertrain warranty will not be offered but powertrain components will be included as part of the 4-year/50,000-mile bumper to bumper warranty. Roadside assistance and courtesy transportation will also be covered for the same period.

I’ll keep an eye on this one and see what else come out on it. Take it as being just a possibility at this point, until we hear something from Saab.

UPDATE: It looks like it’s for real. This comes from a press release covering the relationship with SaabUSA and the “Burn Notice” television program:

For the 2009 model year, Saab offers XM Satellite Radio and OnStar standard in its entire vehicle portfolio. In addition to 4 years/50,000 miles bumper-to-bumper warranty, including roadside assistance and courtesy transportation, every new Saab comes with 3 years/36,000 miles no-charge scheduled maintenance.

As the first source indicated, there’s no separate mention of a 5-year powertrain warranty there, which was always mentioned in the past. So in summary, it looks like customers might lose one year of powertrain warranty (from 5 to 4) and I guess we’ll have to wait and see if there’s a new mileage limit on powertrain components in those 4 years.

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It was a huge weekend for sport here in Australia, and given that I’m a bit of a sports nut, I have to give it some space here:

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Cadel Evans came 2nd in the Tour de France….again. He was trailing the leader by 94 seconds coming into the final time trial (and he’d beaten the leader by 150 seconds this time last year) but the pesky Spaniard pulled out the ride of his life to hold on and win. But we’re still proud of our Cadel.

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The Aussies beat the Kiwis for the Bledisloe Cup, our annual Rugby match. I’m not a huge rugby fan but I get up for the big games, and this one was huge. The Aussies have been down for a few years and hadn’t won the Bledisloe for a while, so it was good to get a resounding win against the old foe.

One of the main features of the Bledisloe for non-rugby fans like me is the Haka, performed by the New Zealanders prior to the game. Here’s one from a few years ago:

And it gets even more interesting when you’ve got a simultaneous haka response, this one coming from Tonga:

The year, Australia responded to the Haka with the organisers playing our unofficial national anthem, Waltzing Matilda, over the public address system. The crowd joined in and it was all quite loud and probably fun for those who were there. It wasn’t quite as intimidating as a haka, though.

Then again, a rousing song about a sheep thief is probably just the thing to make a New Zealander tremble :-)

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The undoubted sporting highlight of the weekend for me was my fantastic Carlton Football Club unleashing a brilliant 13 goals to 5 second-half to beat the highly favoured Western Bulldogs in the Australian Football League.

After 5 years in the desert, the Blues are back in town, baby!

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The All New Saab 9-4 Insignia

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This week’s feature post was written by WooDz, a Saab nut of British extraction living in Europe.

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A shocking headline, isn’t it? And what sacrilege to ever directly combine a Saab with such a mediocre brand as Vauxhall.

Set aside our general view of how GM has hung Saab out to dry for the past 18 years, used all their latest turbo technology in all manners of vehicles except Saab cars themselves and concentrate on what is probably one of the most important vehicle launches in GM’s history. That’s high billing, I know, and with such a description many of you may think of classics like the Corvette. The difference, however, between a classic GM vehicles launch and the Insignia is that as we’re on the brink of a global recession. OPEL are not only launching an all new vehicle but one that is intended to open doors to the premium sector at such a financially unstable time. Naturally amongst present company an obvious statement to make is that ‘Premium’ is Saab’s territory.

The way in which Mark Adams talks about the Insignia you really get the impression that he and his design team are really proud if this car, if fact he uses such a word in a recent interview. Phrases like premium feel, quality materials and beautifully sculpted are all mentioned by designers and reporters commenting on the car at the British International Motor Show.

GM haven’t held back on giving this car a memorable entrance, either, dropping the car from around 50 feet onto a stage from a box suspended in the air (truly outstanding).

Watching the Insignia in animation and seeing it’s surroundings reflected at different angles, with sheet metal mixed with precision clean cuts between shadow and light, makes you want to try this car for real. Can a Vauxhall really be as good as it looks? Will that interior be just as soft to touch as pictures and designers suggest?

Then we have the engines to contend with: 220hp Turbo with AWD, or Euro V compliant direct injected diesels. Driver comforts are offered in abundance with iPod-ready entertainment systems, 4 zone electronic climate control, sport and comfort driving modes at a touch of a button through continuous electronic damping control. Moving onto safety and the Insignia comes with front and rear air-bags and an intelligent adaptive lighting system, where Mercedes is the only other company to offer the same system as an option. Given that 1 year separates the Insignia and the 2008 Saab 9-3, it’s fair to say that almost a decade separates the technology.

Carl-Peter Forster has outlined Saab’s future with sporty, compact vehicles featuring distinct design and driver appeal and in order of hierarchy they should be placed with Cadillac above Vauxhall/Opel. We have received a glimmer of hope that the 9-1 may be on its way and will be built on GM’s next sub-compact architecture. The next 9-3 will move onto their upcoming compact platform and many assume that this will mean a physically smaller car. With the new 9-5 approaching 5 metres in length, there will be a big difference between the two and no doubt 2 big handfuls of cash to go with it.

The current 9-3′s list price is too much money, a fact borne witness by the proliference of incentives on the car in various markets. They may now offer XWD, but for some that won’t be enough for a vehicle stuffed with GM parts that lacks the perception of quality held in other premium brands. The new 9-5 might be too big and too expensive for some to buy either new or used. Are Saab owners expected to wait a few more years, or just accept that GM’s future for Saab is an expensive niche brand where we will be forced to pay a high premium for the extra quality?

Saab never started out as a premium brand but this seems to be their destiny. Something I don’t want to happen because I may never be able to afford another Saab. This leaves me with a dilemma and I’m sure other Saab owners too. When it’s time to change my car do I jump ship? Should I buy an Audi because in my eyes they are Saab’s main competitor, or do I shift to the other quirky brand and buy a Citroèn C5?

I don’t like the prospect of either and the main reason is because I have been driving Saabs for nigh-on 8 years and although they do have a that special badge, the bottom line is; they’ve all been GM vehicles, even my beloved Viggen. I’ve heard enough and experienced some of the problems first hand that GM vehicles can hand you. What I don’t know is what little horrors could another make of car throw my way? A very daunting thought especially when you hear some of the stories told about the after-sales support.

So at the risk of having a hoard of Saab enthusiasts breaking into my house beating me half to death and then using me as a Saab-hating effigy in some weird burning ritual, I believe the new Insignia would make a very good Saab substitute in our stop-gap years. Because despite how twisted and sick the thought might be, the Insignia has been designed and engineered by the same team who brought us the Aero-X and the 9-X Bio-Hybrid. Naturally the aesthetics will be different but ultimately it is the size we could expect if Saab built a vehicle to bridge the gap between the 9-3 and the 9-5.

So there you have it, the all new Insigna: a Saab 9-4 sedan and hatch in disguise. Now all we need them to do is go to the same effort and produce the same seemingly outstanding results for an actual Saab.

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GM to build Saab in North America? Not the 9-4x?

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Several news agencies are reporting a double-pronged story: that GM has buyers lined up for HUMMER, and that Saab are here to stay and a future Saab may be built in North America.

That’s where it gets fuzzy.

Reuters reports it as follows:

Wagoner said GM was committed to its Saab brand and planned to make an upcoming Saab model in North America, in an attempt to improve the brand’s profitability.

“Saab has been a critical part of our European portfolio and has the potential to be quite a good moneymaker for us, Wagoner said.

Whereas AFP are saying this:

General Motors will begin building Saab vehicles in the United States rather than put its Swedish subsidiary up for sale, GM chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner said Friday…..

….we’ve got a number of new (Saab) products coming up beginning in the third quarter next year and it will have a new product portfolio for the first time in a long time.”

Wagoner said one of the new Saab models would be built in the US starting next year.

“Part of the idea would be to balance out their cost footprint. That should help out Saab quite a bit,” Wagoner said.

So it’s Saab building a car in North America vs Saab building a car in the United States. Unfortunately, neither news service provide the exact quote where Wagoner mentions it, so we’re left to figure it out for ourselves.

My first thought was that he was referring to the Saab 9-4x, which we’re quite sure is earmarked for a GM plant in Mexico. It’s close enough to what we commonly refer to as North America to give him a pass (you know, ‘mericans and geography) and it maintains a feeling of quality that a Made in Mexico tag might not convey.

But what if it were something else?

The new Saab 9-5 is going to be built on the Epsilon II architecture. The only plant that I’ve heard will be building on this architecture at this point is the Russelsheim plant, but GM do build vehicles on Epsilon in the United States, the new Malibu being the main player, being built in Kansas City and Lake Orion, Michigan.

The next generation of Saab 9-3 is going to be built on a new generation Delta architecture. There are four plans in Europe that could do it, but it’s widely believed that Saab’s own plant in Trollhattan will be the location. The currrent Chevy HHR is built on the current Delta platform in Mexico. I’m not sure if the 9-4x and Caddy derivative being built in Mexico is a replacement for Delta vehicles, or as additional production, but if it’s additional and they upgrade to the new version of Delta…….given that the 9-3 will most likely be Saab’s volume model well into the future, it’d make sense to get the production costs and currency fluctuations to a minimum.

There’s the possibility of a Saab 9-1 in the future. It hasn’t received a green light yet, but GM Europe’s head honcho stated just a few days ago that a 9-1 being built on GM’s Gamma architecture is “imaginable”. The best reference I’ve got for this is Wikipedia, which states that any future Gamma vehicles are earmarked for production in places other than the US.

I’m willing to bet it’s the 9-4x and that Rick Wagoner was just being a bit cute.

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Other than that, it’s good hear that Saabs may not be selling beside Hummers in the near future. Good times!

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The Saab 9-3 button dash – do we miss it?

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My thanks to Rogan for preparing a page for the 2003+ Saab 9-3 range in the car pages here at Trollhattan Saab. Reading through that page prompted the following entry.

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Regular visitors to this site will probably know that I love interiors. To me, the styling and layout of the interior is more important than the exterior appearance of a car. It’s where you spend all your time, where you engage with the car as you drive. The seats, the dash, the controls and switchgear – all of it have to combine to provide the right experience, the right level of control.

When I went to the 2003 Saab 9-3 premiere here in Tasmania a number of years ago, one of the first things I fell in love with was the dashboard. It was very much how I pictured a modern Saab dashboard should be: no nonsense, very functional, simple looking and very modern.

And that was before I saw it at night!

At night, any Saab 9-3 or 9-5 dashboard is a masterpiece to look at. You want to talk about jet heritage? All it feels like you’re missing is the wings.

Here it is:

And in a darker light, the real night-time view:

This view is a big part of it for me. My 9-3 Viggen had more of a 9-5 style dash layout but it still lit up like this at night and driving with this display on was a beautiful experience. Every function you wanted to perform had a button there for the purpose, meaning one-touch instead of a range of adjustments as on a dial. If you wanted to change the heating vent from windscreen to floor, you press the floor button rather than progressing through a number of settings via a dial.

Ergonomists will probably be able to tell you which one is better, but I always found the buttons easy to use once you got used to them.

It was to my personal chagrin, then, that Saab ditched the button dash in MY2007 in favour of a more generic dial setup, whose hardware could be shared between various models in the GM family. The heating controls turned to a simple 3-dial system and the radio was a common stock GM bowtie unit (albeit one that gave comparatively better sound than the original button dash unit in the 2003-2006 Saab 9-3).

The new (current) dash:

Notably, the new dashboard also lost the dashtop Saab Information Display (SID), which was a firm favourite amongst 9-3 owners. The SID moved to a small display in with the gauge cluster.

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If I’m going to be honest here (and I should) then the newer dash layout is less cluttered and the dials are probably a little friendlier to most people.

But geez I miss that button dash. The ambience of the green lighting was fantastic and that old dash made the Night Panel button a major source of amusement and wonder. It really was a classic setup that was quite sophisticated and one that definitely elicited an emotional reaction – for this Saab blogger at least.

So what say you? I think I’ve made my own bias fairly clear, but I know mine may not be the consensus opinion.

Comments are open.

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