Friday Night Snippets
Strange things are afoot at Saab dealers in various parts of the world:
- From Sweden, I’ve received one email telling me that you can’t custom order a Saab 9-5 anymore. The writer wanted to order a 2.3t BioPower next week, but has been told by his dealer that they will only be able to sell him a “Griffin Edition” vehicle, which I assume must be available in a BioPower variant, but possibly without the equipment or options that he’d like. Can anyone expand on this?
UPDATE - It’s been confirmed. From October 1, prospective Saab owners in Sweden can only choose from a Linear Griffin 9-5 and a Vector Griffin 9-5.
Here’s one of the wheels, this one being available on the Vector Griffin with sports pack:
- And here in Australia, Saab are about to launch a revamped owner loyalty campaigh, which will apparently blow the previous scheme out of the water ($2000 loyalty cash when purchasing 9-3 and $4000 when purchasing a 9-5). The strange thing is that they’ve all been sworn to silence. Saab will be calling owners privately to inform them of the scheme in the next few weeks. If you get a call, let me know.
- News on the grapevine is that a GM dealer in Sydney has ditched Saab rather than be forced to take on Cadillac next year. Any dealer with Saab and Hummer must also take on Cadillac.
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After the recent Saab Australia greenwashing fiasco, which just about everybody got wrong in their reportage, you can imagine the mood I was in when I read Robert Farago’s exercise in pedantic tomfoolery at TTAC this morning.
In the October issue of Vanity Fair, a Saab 9.3 Turbo ad proclaims, “We believe every person should recycle. And so should every engine.” So far so good. But according to the body copy, “By taking exhaust that typically escapes out the tailpipe and redirecting it back into the engine, the Saab Turbo maximizes performance…” Now wait a minute. Saab engines can run on exhaust gases?
YEAH! Exhaust gases, fairy farts, scary looks - just about anything will get your Saab going.
It’s worrying about trees like this that allows for entire forests to disappear. It was obviously a slow day at the TTAC office today.
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GM have realised that Saab have been right since the late 1970s and are going to invest $370m in a four cylinder engine plant in Flint, Michigan. Around half the engines produced will be turbocharged, however I don’t think Saab will get any extra kudos for having been so sensible all these years, let alone for the expertise they’re sure to lend to the engine development.
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Back to Australia, where 10 manufacturers have declined invitations to display vehicles at this year’s Australian International Motor Show, in Sydney from next week. It’s a big 10, too, with Audi, Alfa Romeo, Bentley, BMW, Citroen, Fiat, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche all deciding there’s better ways to spend their money.
Manufacturers are trying to pressure the orgainsers of both the Sydney and Melbourne Motor shows into agreeing to a bi-annual show: Sydney one year and Melbourne the next (a-la the Paris and Frankfurt arrangements).
I guess this is a time to be thankful for GM, as Saab will continue to maintain a presence in the corner of the Holden display.
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A photo I took of the Saab 9-3 we had on loan from Dueck Saab in Vancouver. Nice shot, that, if I do say so myself.
Click.
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I came back from Canada to find I’d won $100 in music downloads from Telstra Big Pond here in Australia. At $1.70 a song, that means I’ve got 58 songs to consider from what will probably be a fairly generic catalog.
Suggestions welcome.
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More from this category
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- Update on Euro Delivery Program for US market
- “Saab is working according to plan”
- US dealers flogging courtesy cars as things get….touchy
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TTAC never even heard of standard exhaust gas recirculation (EGR)? Wow…
Given that 9-5 engine production will shut down within the next few months, I think that Saab just planned one last push of 9-5 production to take them to the end of the model year.
It makes more sense to just offer a “fully loaded” model and keep the factory running at a reasonable clip for a short amount of time, rather than have production slow-down to a trickle for the next 12 months.
It’s true Saab may not get enough credit as GM builds a new plant for turbo-ed engines, but if you’ve been to Flint Michigan (I was supposed to attend school there) you know this plant is great news. Flint was booming back in the 80s, until GM closed a body-shop there. Ever since it’s been an economically and otherwise depressed place, oft listed as one of the most dangerous cities in america.
Well, the exhuast gases aren’t completely recycled back into the engine per se, but they are cycled through the turbocharger. This is a brouhaha over language, and neither are clear.
I hope that the 9-5 limitations indicate that the plant is readying for new models.
You’ve indicated that you like Snow Patrol, so I’d suggest Death Cab for Cutie, Keane, the last two Weezer records and the last REM album. If you are going for something a little different, the Raveonettes, Sun Kil Moon (Mark Kozilek), Built to Spill, and Bob Mould are real favorites of mine that you have a shot at liking. If you really want to veer of the path into things much more regional in flavor, I suggest Calexico, Son Volt, Sigur Ros, or Medowlands by the Wrens.
Oops, forgot to mention that allmusic dot com is your friend.
Yesterday the Union of Lear Corporation plant in Roquetes(near Tarragona, about 200km south of Barcelona), announced 30 days stop of production. This factory produces electrical parts, as wires and its most important customer is Saab. Lear has the electrical components division base in Valls(near Tarragona) were it has an R+D center.
The reason about this stop of 30 days is for the lower demand of Saab of those parts.
regards
Well as a matter of fact SAABs do run on exhaust and other dirt and pollution and then actually cleans it up!!! This is a byproduct of the Trionic controls. See this video. SAAB = Green machines.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/11/13/video-saab-trionic-actually-cleans-the-air/
I’d like one of those “Griffin” badges for my car!
What’s the deal? They spell it “Griffin” even though this is presumably a model only destined for the Swedish Domestic Market? I thought “Gripen” is Swedish for “Griffin”. Why would they use the English spelling?
I have the feeling I’m going to blow through some money (as soon as I find a new job!) customizing my wife’s new ‘05 9-5 Arc SportWagon (they apparently called it a “SportWagon” until 2005 and then after that switched to “SportCombi” in solidarity with the 9-3 SportCombi, I guess). I’m looking to first tint the windows and I’ve got my eye on a spoiler. I wish Hirsch had a distributor in the States.
If the award-winning Saab Combustion Control (SCC) of eight years ago were actually implemented on Saabs Farago couldn’t really have a beef with that ad. I believe on the “recycling” Saab television commercial they mention it’s the energy of the exhaust which is recycled (via the turbo). This would be a fair characterization.
Bernard: Given that Forbes magazine has reported (as reported here at TS a few days ago) that the Saab 9-5 is the worst-selling car in the U.S. (the only car in the U.S. to have sold fewer than 2,000 units so far this year) and the U.S. is Saab’s biggest market and the car industry as a whole is taking a downturn along with the economy and that the U.S. dollar is very weak relative to the Euro and Kronor and despite the “Employee Pricing for Everyone” program being run and massive discounts/incentives/favorable financing (this past weekend at my local dealer I saw very little traffic on the Saab sales floor and from what I can tell NO sales the entire day on Sunday, except for the CPO 2005 9-5 Arc SportWagon I bought) I think that in this last year of 9-5 production they’re going to have to start even more deeply discounting the 9-5, especially once buyers get a glimpse of the next-gen 9-5. (how’s that for the longest run-on sentence EVER?) Who would want to buy the current 10 year-old model when they know the new improved one is just about a year away? The sales guy at my local dealer mentioned as much.
In fact, salesmen at my local dealer don’t even tell customers about the 9-5’s existence. They assume they can only sell people a 9-3. There are only two 9-5s on the dealer lot (none on the sales floor) and there’s only one 9-7X parked in the storage lot across the street covered with dust. This dealer just stopped selling HUMMERs as well. Shockingly there seems to be a lot of interest in the $70K+ Cadillac Escalade Hybrid, but I don’t know if that’s directly translating into sales. Too bad Saab is left without a hybrid offering.
I read on CNN’s “crawl” yesterday that GM has officially put HUMMER up for sale.
Oh wait, I just figured it out. They can’t call it “Gripen” because presumably Saab Aerospace holds the trademark on that name (for the JAS 39 fighter). I remember hearing years ago that they were allowed to use “Viggen”, but not “Gripen”. That’s got to be the reason for the English spelling on a car destined for the SDM. I want a “Draken” badge for my old ‘85 C900T!
In that TTAC article, one guy mentioned that “nobody hates (GMNA/Saabusa) more than Saab owners”….true that.
But did they ever finish the development of SCC?
http://www.caranddriver.com/buying_guide/saab/mechanized_madness_car_news says:
“The engine needs some refining and has problems such as long-term sealing of the rubber bellows joining the two block halves. But the project is essentially idling with a skeleton staff while the company tries to interest parent GM and other automakers willing to share the development costs”
That was February 2001. So, what happened in the end? Did GM drop the ball?
Response to Gripen - I want to see that wagon with tint and spoiler. Well done.
ColorCode252: scraping the bottom of the barrel cashwise to buy the car so it’s going to take a few of the wife’s paychecks (I was laid-off last month) before we can afford these “upgrades”. Also in the planning stages is adding the Bluetooth kit. Next time we get-together it’s going to be hard to decide whether to bring the ‘85 C900T or the ‘05 9-5 Arc SportWagon! Hey, I just learned today that Philippe turns 100 years old on Monday, 6 October and they’re selling coffee for $0.05 and French Dips for $0.10 for 24 hours!!!
Rune: I believe you’re referring to SVC (Saab Variable Compression), not SCC (Saab Combustion Control). Both were debuted to various engineering awards and accolades around the same time. Saab last year filed a patent for a new way to do SVC, so hopefully we’ll get to see it in production in the near future. It’s around time Saab becomes known as an innovator again.
Actually SAABs do run on exhaust and any other fumes or pollutants in the air. In fact after a SAAB has driven past the air is actually cleaner. This is a result of the Trionic controls used on SAAB engines. Here is the video.
http://www.autobloggreen.com/2007/11/13/video-saab-trionic-actually-cleans-the-air/
Michael Moore’s first movie, Roger and Me, tells the story of the demise of Flint. The new engine plant is very good news. (No rants about liberals now–some of us welcome the label!)
Cheers all,
B
Bruce, I think of Michael Moore when I hear about Flint as well, despite never having seen Roger and Me. I saw Fahrenheit 911 (and enjoyed it) and Sicko (and didn’t really enjoy it, seeing it as one-sided propaganda) though. Have you seen the ads for the upcoming spoof of Michael Moore called An American Carol starring the late Chris Farley’s little brother as “Michael Malone” (an obvious parody of Moore)? Looks pretty funny from the trailers. We’ll see. As much as Michael Moore bashed GM and how GM is to blame for “killing the electric car” (ignoring the fact that they’re the ones who gave birth to it), I’m surprised GM would invest in Flint again. You’d think as a big “screw you” to Michael Moore they’d steer clear. It’s nice to see that GM is above that.
I don’t know where to post this next thought, so I guess a “snippets” post is as good a place as any to change the subject: does anyone know where I can find how many Saab 9-5 wagons were sold in the U.S. in 2005? I remember seeing an episode of Top Gear a few seasons back where Jeremy Clarkson was comparing the low sales volume of some rather pedestrian car (I think it might have been a Vauxhall) to sales of exotics like Ferraris and Lamborghinis in Britain and concluded that the car with the low sales volume was “more exclusive than a Ferrari or Lamborghini”. I like to think the same thing about my wife’s new-to-her 2005 9-5 Arc SportWagon, but I want the numbers to see what it’s more exclusive than!
Secret Loyalty Bonus …. yes, it is REALLY worth your while to trade up, but you will need to visit a dealer for the lowdown…….
here is the link to the SAAB trionic video
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7091492525320672012&ei=rYzdSPn8HouE-wHQoPycCw&q=saab+trionic
Swade,
eggs is right on with those bands. I just saw Sigur Ros in Boston and they are just as amazing live.
Other bands that sound amazing in the car (and of course at home):
Hooverphonic (search for the song Battersea and you’ll be hooked)
Portishead
Tragically Hip (although recently being in Canada I’m sure you are sick of them)
Zoe Keating
Have fun!
Gripen, I was actually referring to both SCC and SVC. Is SCC in any of the production cars now?
Rune: neither SVC nor SCC made it into production. Saab utilizes only Opel-designed (Ecotec inline-4 in the 9-3, the V6 in the NG900, 9000, and 9-5), Holden-designed (9-3 Aero 2.8T V6), FIAT-designed (TTid and Tid), GM-designed (all options under the hood in the 9-7X), and Triumph-designed (2.3-liter inline-4 in the 9-5) engines. As far as I know Saab has never sold an engine of their own design. Even the two-stroke 3-cylinder in the old 93 was a DKW design (a company which was later absorbed into Auto Union (AUDI)) and the V4 in the 96 was a Ford Europe design. If an SVC engine were ever offered in a production Saab it would be the first indigenously-designed Saab engine in the 60+ year history of the company.
Kylie Minogue is always a good choice.
I dunno if you’ve already used up those songs, but Eggs suggested the last two Weezer albums. No. No no no no no. Avoid those. Weezer’s first two albums are two of the best albums to come out of the 90’s, along with Third Eye Blind’s eponymous debut, They Might Be Giants’ Flood, and It’s A Shame About Ray by the Lemonheads. If you get nothing else, get Weezer’s Blue Album, and if you get two things, get that and Pinkerton.
Now, *I* like Weezer’s last two albums, but they’re one of my favorite bands. Even so, I’d never recommend them to anyone who doesn’t already like the band.
I dunno, Jeff. The last Weezer is pretty accessible.
You may have disqualified yourself from playing with posuers like Third Eye Blind, but you’ve reinstated youself with TMBG. I don’t recommend TMBG to anyone unless they show something in that direction. My kids LOVE them, but, then again, they’re my kids! I agree that Flood is in the top four or five records released in the 1990s.
It’s a Shame About Ray — very good in the day, I don’t think that it’s stood the test of time, it wouldn’t make any of my 1990’s “best of” lists. I haven’t listened to it in three-four years, perhaps I should get my copy out and listen to see.
90’s had some really good music. Don’t get on Jeff about Third Eye Blind. It was a very good album, even though it was a bit commercial.
You’ll laugh about this, but the first Gin Blossoms was a fantastic too.
I loved the Gin Blossoms.
Am doing the downloads now. The BigPond music store was quite lame. Most of the stuff I wanted was WMA and DRM protected, won’t work on iTunes. I just managed to scrape together $100 worth of purchases. The Weezer recommendations were WMA, so no dice there.
I ended up with Bob Marley, Amy Wino, Metallica, Melissa Etheridge, Wolfmother, Springsteen, CCR, Eminem, Scissor sisters, Offspring, Van Morrison, Vanessa Amorosi (Aussie with a HUGE voice), and a few others.
Downloading now.
Oh, and Gripen, you’ll be pleased to know I just re-found your American Music CD from back in January. Will be loading that up shortly, too.
Swade - iTunes converts WMA to MP3/AAC automatically. Also, Ew, who, hope it’s Death Magnetic, eh, they get really boring after like three songs, ew, eh, good, YUCK, good, eh, and whatever floats your boat.
I would mail you a data dvd of way too much music if you wanted me to.
Eggs - The last Weezer album was great for like four songs and then nothing. You have no idea how much I was let down by the Red album. I wouldn’t even call the album as a whole accessible. Troublemaker and Pork and Beans were good, but the album has a chronic problem where Rivers will finish a song and then add a completely unnecessary minute. Greatest Man Who Ever Lived should have been a full two minutes shorter, Dreamin’ should have cut out the stupid outro and the useless slow part, Heart Songs and Troublemaker should have been a verse shorter…I could go on and on.
No offense, but you’re just flat wrong about Third Eye Blind’s first album and there’s no getting around it.
I’ve seen They Might Be Giants four times and all four times they’ve been amazing.
Definitely give Ray a re-listen. It’s still one of my favorite albums. I don’t know how much you like the Lemonheads, but the albums before Ray had a lot of gems on them, so you should give them a shot (in case you’re like my Dad, who only has Ray, Come On Feel, and Car Button Cloth). Their new(ish) self-titled album was pretty good, too, especially because the rhythm section was Bill Stevenson and Karl Alvarez, who are both in the Descendents. J Mascis from Dinosaur Jr. did some guitar work on it, too.
Two of the first songs I played after buying my SAAB: “Brand New Car” and “Driving Too Fast”. Both by The Rolling Stones. Strangely enough, some of the songs on their latest album gives me flashbacks to some twisty Swedish roads that I might have been taking on too fast…
The first song I played in my Saab after I got it was Drive My Car by the Beatles. The first song I played in it after getting the stereo replaced was Black Sabbath by…Black Sabbath. The first song I played when I drove it cross country was California Uber Alles by Dead Kennedys. The last song I played in it before it died was Ace by Descendents.
All this off topic music distracts from the core of this entry.
Griffin only 9-5 variant surely means we might see the new 9-5 soon. Paris ?
Sounds like music to my soul.
(And if ever iPod/mp3 can be nicely connected/integrated in a future saab, i hope someone develops some decent aftermarket stuff. I’m getting more & more annoyed by badly FM-transmitters and cable salads).