Holiday Mode
You might the site was already in maintenance mode by the dearth of posts last weekend. That was actually Olympics-induced.
But the site is now officially in holiday mode. We’ve got the housesitter in, the dog attended to, and this afternoon I’m off to Canada with the family.
I am bringing my laptop, though, so posting will continue at a vacation-like pace.
I’ll be using the time to also assess what the future of TS will be. Here we go again, I hear you say, and fair enough, too.
There’s a few factors in play, though. One is the lack of stuff to write about now. We’ll see what i consider to be a bit of a lame duck concept car later this year. From what we know, the 9-X and this convertible variation of it is not going to be built. If there’s going to be a 9-1, it’ll be quite a bit smaller and the 9-X’s platform will accommodate the 9-3 (which won’t be like the 9-X for reasons of volume selling, I’m sure). So this is mostly a design study, and Saab have had more than enough of those.
There’s also a mild makeover of the SportCombi in the form of the 9-3x. I love the idea, but it’s not going to fill three posts a day for too long.
The other factor is that i’m pretty sure this site has lost the support of Saab in a lot of respects. They never supported me financnially, only with travel to shows on a couple of occasions, so it’s not that sort of support I’m talking about. It’s communications support. My last two or three attempts to communicate with them have gone unanswered. I know it’s summer in the north, but you think someone could shoot off a quick email.
All of you who think I’ve got heaps of contacts with management, think again. My open line to finding out what was going on or getting a question answered seems to have dried up when Christer Nilsson retired back in June. He was an old-school guy. This is a new-school world. The personal touch doesn’t apply.
So I’m going to have a break, enjoy the tail end of the northern summer and reassess. Things will keep ticking over slowly so please do keep checking in.
The Saabs-in-Canada score will be maintained.
I think we’re still organising a get together with a few Pacific Nor-Westers, too. The date is unknown at the moment. If you’d like to come along, please email me at swade99@gmail.com
Cheers,
SW
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Welcome to Canada, mate! We hope you enjoy your stay.
Swade, have a great break with the family and enjoy your time on holiday. Robin
enjoy the holidays swade
Relax mate.
Oh and who deemed that three posts a day was the need or the target- especially after the haitus interuptum and the primacy (correctly) of your own personal and work life - and when we all told you that one or two a week would be ok…
Rest up mate and let it fly on auto pilot for a bit. Then type in the co-ordinates for an instrument controlled to earth - easy.
Lance
Swade,have a nice holiday
Swade - I am sure the holiday will do you well considering the pace, the history and the future of TS. You need to let go and take in all what you can find of the fauna and flora including the occassional 9-5 or 9-3 you may find whilst holidaying. Have fun, believe me, and the rest will fall in place. If you can, try to read Richard Bryanston Screw It - Let’s Do It and you will get the gist of what I am saying.
Swade, Enjoy the holiday. And, regarding the future of TS, do whatever you enjoy doing. Life is too short to do otherwise.
Regarding the personal touch not applying anymore: As a freshman college student in 1962, I write GM a letter critical of their cars (vs Ford). Someone actually sat down and drafted and signed a letter to me, addressing each point I raised in my letter. I was impressed. Fat chance of that happening today.
Nothing to do with the Poms winning more gold medals than the Aussies, then, Swade
Good luck finding Saabs in Canada. When I was in Vancover a few weeks ago, I saw more Aston Martins than I did Saabs. There were a few more around Whistler, but still, I probably only saw about 5 Saabs in the week I was up there, and none of them were Aeros or Viggens or anything very remarkable.
-Rogan
Swade, Enjoy your holiday travels with family!
Take care & give us your travel impressions…
if you end up in vancouver, be sure to look up the NEW AMSTERDAM coffee shop. the hippys have the best hydro. i didnt know it was legal there, but it makes it funner to find the saabs.
best wishes for a great trip. also you might check out the baluga whale near stanley park where they have freindly animals and great landscaped parks, pix pix and more pix
tom
As far as I know, Swade will be hanging about in the Metro Vancouver area during his stay here (specific dates still to be announced by him). Some of you here may know me as the founder of Saab Club of Western Canada (SCWC), if not …. SURPRISE ! [wink]. You can find SCWC here:
http://ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/scwc_list
Once I have details from Swade about his itinerary and thoughts about organizing local meets (and/or runs) or just to have a few cold ones somewhere and shoot the breeze, I’ll put the information on our website above. If you haven’t already, feel free to join SCWC and the discussion forum. It’s a free membership and we meet on the last Saturday of every month at one of the two IKEAs in town (alternate between Richmond and Coquitlam ….. end of August will be at Coquitlam). If you join the SCWC forum you’ll receive automatic reminders and notifications for events, as well as touch base with other local Saabers.
Cheers
Ken
saabken@yahoo.ca
Saab Club of Western Canada (SCWC)
Lets make the Seattle meet happen. I’ll start scouting some locations. There is no place like driving around this city, especially in the Ballard/Fremont area to see Saab’s in big numbers.
Take heart, Swade. It’ll work out for you and Saab. And be sure to enjoy your time in Canada, eh?
Blackturbo - I’d love to do that. Can we make a pit-stop at The Red Door Ale House in Fremont ? [grin]
As far as I know, Swade will be hanging about in the Metro Vancouver area during his stay here (specific dates still to be announced by him). Some of you here may know me as the founder of Saab Club of Western Canada (SCWC), if not …. SURPRISE ! [wink].
Once I have details from Swade about his itinerary and thoughts about organizing local meets (and/or runs) or just to have a few cold ones somewhere and shoot the breeze, I’ll put the information on our website above. If you haven’t already, feel free to join SCWC and the discussion forum. It’s a free membership and we meet on the last Saturday of every month at one of the two IKEAs in town (alternate between Richmond and Coquitlam ….. end of August will be at Coquitlam). If you join the SCWC forum you’ll receive automatic reminders and notifications for events, as well as touch base with other local Saabers.
Cheers
Ken
saabken@yahoo.ca
Saab Club of Western Canada (SCWC)
Swade,
enjoy the break and it will no doubt give you a chance to reflect on future TS postings.
speaking of which I have a bit more optimism for Saab’s future concepts. Personally there is no reason why they can’t hint toward the new 9-3, especially if Saab do view a Convertible version. I think it was Bob Lutz that said in an interview that the 9-xBio-Hybrid was GM’s idea of what a future compact vehicle could look like and that is exactly what the next 9-3 will be. Why can’t Saab bring back the hatch? lets face it moving to a sedan in 2002 hasn’t exactly brought an abundance of extra units for the company has it. I actually think you will have more news to write about in the next 6 months than you have had in the past 2 years.
As for your nil-response for Saab during summer-time, the Trollhättan factory really is a ghost town. Don’t dwell on it. I guess Saab have finally been corporatized…?
Look out for next weeks post…
Is GM really the BorG collective???
Have a great time with the family in Canada
regards WooDz
.
Swade, have a good holiday !
What worries me more than the lower posting pace is the knowledge that the 9XBH-plans are in the fridge right now. A bit shocking reading that. Saab & GM need this car.
Again another design study in the pipeline? No one is awaiting that, I’m afraid. That just leads towards some alloy variants later on.
What worries me also is the missing communication between Saab & Swade’s TS. I hope that will be fixed quickly. A good support by Saab themselve of all non-official saab related sites is essential. They can’t ignore that.
Do the Swedes leave their factory alone in the summer? No production at all? Or is it in the hand of the Trolls?
Strange people up north.
Yes swade, your season is over. Mad monday starts in 2 weeks- its too early to retire. Go lions.
Hi Ken,
Am here in Maple Ridge now. Will try and call you in the next 24 hours. Have a very slow computer connection here, though. Grrrr.
2 Saabs sighted today.
Swade - how was the flights - any experience of the dreaded dvt on such longhaul flights? Enjoy the scenery and try to soak in the few 9-5s and 9-3s you may see. Slow internet connection in Canada?
SW , doesn’t matter if Saab doesn’t support , because we do support you .We’re old school guys in majority .You can count on us .
Have a nice time in Canada.
Talk to you soon .
Jeff
Big article today in a Swedish auto magazine about future Saab:
http://www.teknikensvarld.se/nyheter/080821-saab-99-nya/index.xml
wilfried>my father works in Trollhättan Saab-plant, he says there is production still going on. But even he does not say to me whats new on the line. I probably messed up something during my childhood,,who knows:)
I dont know if Peter Bäckström from SAAB museum in Trollhättan can give us the latest news. He at least answers the mail.
Ctm:cool article about 9-9!
Ecxept the words saab and the 9-combinations and some bold marked words, I haven’t got a clue what tey are writing about.
Is there any of you (ctm ? dippen ?) that can translate this teknikensvarld article. Even with an explanation on this 9-1/9-2/aero-X/9-9 part, I’m happy.
The picture shown there is too much Passat CC, if you ask me. Not a hatch an not a coupe, just another designer gimmick, wich worked more or less with the Merc CLS, and now tends to be adopted by marketing guys all over the car industry.
Not much of scandinavian functionalism in that shape.
* Saab 9-1. Äntligen en liten Saab igen som förhoppningsvis lockar en yngre målgrupp, något Saab behöver. En liten lättare bil är också nödvändig för att klara miljökraven.
* Saab 9-2, en sportigare sedan, mindre än nuvarande 9-3.
(…)
* Saab Aero X, konceptbilen som markerade starten för ”nya” Saab. Om bilen blir verklighet kommer Saab att ha en sportig men lyxig coupé (is that a audi A5-bmw 3 concurrent in the pipeline)? i modellprogrammet.
(…)
* Saab 9-9 får samma plattform (Epsilon 2) som kommande generation av 9-5. För att tydligare profilera 9-9 som en lyxbil erbjuds den sannolikt enbart med fyrhjulsdrift, men visst – kräver marknaden en framhjulsdriven bil bör det inte vara någon teknisk omöjlighet.
I don’t have time to translate the whole thing, but not to worry, there is very little here that is new. The article is mostly speculation, history and opinion.
They do cite Jan-Ake Jonsson, however. He has promised at least one new product, production car or concept car every year for the next six years. He is also satisfied that product development is following the strategy that was laid aside (or is that “put in place”) three years ago. 2009 and 2010 SAAB will return to profitability and that will happen through the introduction of new models and a broadening of the existing models. After that it is not clear that any of the other information comes from Jonsson, although the author alludes to having “uppgifterna”. Which in Swedish is much more than guesses and deductions, it is more like information. I will leave it to others to let us know how much of this is real.
For the list of models, the author just generalizes about the type of car. There are specifics only for the 9-4 and 9-5 and there is nothing new.
For you dreamers out there, the author says that the Aero X concept car marked the start for the “new” SAAB. If the car becomes a reality, then SAAB will have a sporty but luxurious coupe in its model lineup. The bottom box just says, sporty luxury car with four wheel drive.
For the 9-3, they mention a sedan, a half-combi and a combi. The half-combi should be a combi-coupe, so either that is actually being discussed or Teknikens Varld would like to see it.
For the 9-5, the author says that it will be no longer, but it will be roomier inside. We will see it at Geneva 2009. The author also says same body styles as the 9-3. (That would include the half-combi. Since the Insignia comes as a four-door hatch that half-combi would probably be a four door hatch as well. The Insignia has also been shown as a real coupe, so who knows?)
So the big new is the 9-9. The article does not promise that it will come, and says there are still a lot of outstanding questions about it. If it does come, the author says that it will use Chevrolet Volt hybrid technology, AWD, the Epsilon-2 platform, next generation Cadillac CTS technology including electromagnetic shocks, and be produced starting 2010 or 2011. More details will be available fall 2009.
The size is at least 5 meters long, at least a 3 meter wheelbase and competitive with Lexus GS, Merc E-class and Audi A7.
Engines are detuned a 250HP 2.8LV6, a 350HP V8, and a 250HP V6 diesel with 600Nm. The author notes that such big motors, especially the V8 may not fly as Volvo has dropped its V8 in the XC60. (I say go for the V8 Twin 4 based on the current 2.0 and make it twin turbo biopower. As was posted here, an example was built in Finland 20 years ago and it worked great.)
The author notes that the reflector design that goes all the way around the rear of the pictured 9-9 is from the old 9000CS. I hadn’t thought of that. They also had it on the GM 900.
the 9-9 is groovy!
Swade,
Check my email to your gmail. There’s also been more chatter on the TS meet-up plan.
You’re out in Maple Ridge …. the sticks, man. Come into town and your Saab counts will go up. Mostly 9-3s, NG900s and C900s, although OG9000 and CS9000 are not uncommon.
Hope to touch base with you this weekend.
just a bit off-topic news from Trollhättans Tidning (Trollhättans newspaper). Translated version.
Temporary cut in production on Saab 2008-08-23
Saab will cut the production rate in September.During the week 36 & 37. This means that there will be no production on Fridays. The result will be that 750 less cars will roll out from production.
The reason for this is the slowing sales in the US.
-We have a flexibility in production and we adjust after the demand says Eric Geers, the Director of Communications for Saab Automobile AB
Whats for sure is that Saab will not hit the 125000 figure for sold cars this year.
According to the Metal-union ceo Paul Åkerlund at IF-Metall says cutting the production rate is not a big thing. It is a method that has been used 12 years back when demand is slow.
Paul Åkerlund says that the goal for sales figures has been revised two time this year and the figure now stands on 90000 sold cars.
-If sales continues dropping then we have to revise that figure again says Paul Åkerlund.
Source: http://www.ttela.se/?article=41548