Comments on: Autovisie: Saab goes compact

By: Bernard

Bernard — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:13:04 +0000

Judging from recent history, it will take about 10 years of low fuel prices (or of fuel prices rising slower than inflation) for the US public to stop worrying about fuel economy. That’s roughly the timespan between gas rationing in 1979 and the introduction of the Ford Taurus SHO in 1989. I picked the SHO because it is the first performance family car of that era.

That gives Saab one or two generations of 9-3′s before they need to worry about making room for some porker of a V6 again.

By: MarkS

MarkS — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:11:53 +0000

It’s true…the market is fickle, but it’s also true that auto manufacturers CREATE the demand for products. It’s time for automakers to “rightsize” many of their products and to create demand for more intelligent designs regardless of where fuel prices go over the next few years. We didn’t learn our lesson in the ’70′s but it’s time we learn it now! Shame on us all if we don’t.

By: swade

swade — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:26:19 +0000

My goodness, ctm. You’re right! I’d forgotten all about it.

Those sneaky little dutchies!

By: ctm

ctm — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:07:11 +0000

You all remember were you first saw this little car?

http://www.trollhattansaab.net/archives/2008/03/saab-9-x-convertible-cgi-fun.html

By: albert

albert — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:00:34 +0000

To me the most striking part of this article was that C.P. Forster did say that a new 9-3 will only have fourcylinder engines.
Although that does not mean there will be less power available than today in the TurboX, it could mean that in some markets there could bean image problem.

Over here the V6 is practically non existent.
With fourcilinders up to 300 hp 99% of the potential customers should be satisfied though.

By: Tompa

Tompa — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 08:51:36 +0000

As the always far-sighted and intelligent Kroum stated: “We could well see oil drop to the levels from a few years ago, in which case the customers who now all demand fuel-efficient vehicles will at once abandon their environmental concerns and go back to the “no replacement for displacement” mantra“. This is all to true. I´m 100% for what you wrote Kroum.

Tompa

By: marek

marek — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:54:46 +0000

Well, the question is can Saab build a fuel efficient engines.
Mainly they haven’t been able done that, which is very sad.

By: Swade

Swade — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:41:19 +0000

Important thing to remember here is that this story has only come from one source at this point. That’s why I put a whole bunch of question marks on the original story here on the blog. This is Autovisie’s point of view, but I tend to think we need something more, esp about the 9-X convertible at the Paris Show. I’m sure it’ll come soon.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 06:17:21 +0000

Audi have replaced the A4 convertible with the A3.
BMW have launched a 1-series convertible “alongside” the 3 (for how long?)
An Astra-based Saab convertible would seem to be in line with those.

Will there be a Merc CLC-based convertible replacing the CLK?

Maybe the market isn’t there?

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:38:33 +0000

^^^^^^ That’s a whole lot of truthiness right there

More importantly, I think that Saab needs to keep an old-fashioned big car in their lineup. I’m not expecting the new 9-5 to be HUGE huge, I’d imagine that it will be about the size of the current A6. That makes perfect sense, now that it’s looking like the next 9-3 will be ever so slightly smaller than the current one, and the cars should work nicely together in the showrooms.

Or to put it this way, right now the 9-5 is more or less the same exact size as the 9-3SS, I see this at home when I park my 9-5 next to my dad’s 9-3. The cars are so close in size that it’s a wonder how Saab manages to sell any 9-5′s at all these days given the disadvantage that it has in price and interior quality. So if you make the next 9-5 a bit bigger than the current one while making the next 9-3 a it smaller than the old one Saab will end up with a couple of cars that I think will complement each other quite nicely.