These photos are around two months old now, but as I flicked through my email and rediscovered them tonight, I was totally awestruck once again by how amazing a car the Saab Aero X really is. There’s truly nothing else like it.
Photo by Ivan. More here
The Aero-X was recently on display in Hungary, and Z and Ivan both hooked me up with some photos of the exhibition. Their enthusiasm upon seeing this car was a joy to behold. I saw it around six months after it was first shown in Geneva back in 2006, and I felt exactly the same way.
You can’t look upon the Aero X for the first time without it bringing a smile to your face and an increase to your heart rate. If you don’t experience a connection to this car when you see it in the flesh, chances are you’re a robot of some sort.
This is possibly the most emotive vehicle ever to wear a Saab badge. Period. And next year, we’ll see the first car we can buy that’s been designed from the ground up with this as the reference point.
Photo by Z
When you read interviews with Saab executives and they talk about GM’s real involvement with, and commitment to Saab starting in 2005, this is the car they’re talking about. The Saab Aero X made its world debut at the Geneva motor show in late February 2006. I took them 12 months from early 2005 to design and build the car from scratch.
It feels kind of nice to know that this car was conceived right around the time this blog started - in February 2005. Kind of like kindred spirits, if I may be so bold. If I only knew what was coming down the pipeline…..
Photo by Z
The Aero-X won the Best-in-Show award at the Geneva motor show in 2006 and it’s not hard to see why. It’s absolutely stunning in photos and even better in person. It’s got more presence than Brangelina in a mud hut and looks faster than Lewis Hamilton on speed. And all of that’s before you hit the controls and raise the roof, at which time this car confirms itself as truly being from another world.
Photo by Z
It’s a shame that they won’t build it and it’s taken far too long to build something brand new baased on its design language, but the 9-5 that we’ll see next year will probably be as close as we get to an Aero X that we can buy.
It’ll be an all-new and improved drive and a vehicle design that unlike the 9-3 - which was supposedly the first vehicle to take on the Aero X design language - the next Saab 9-5 won’t have any legacy design from a previous generation to hold it back.
GM’s ‘commitment’ to Saab started almost five years ago. That’s a heck of a long time to take developing a new model and now that it’s almost upon us, we have to hope and pray that the gaps will be smaller in the future. But I can’t help but look at these images and think to myself that the 9-5 we’ll see next year is going to be a ballpark-busting home run of a motor car.
With a parent like this, how could it be anything else?
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11 responses so far ↓
1 J
// Oct 23, 2008 at 12:18 am
Droooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool…
*smacking face*
WOW. It looks fast when it’s in park!
I’ll take one in all black (w/ black leather), please.
Cheers!
2 Talonderiel
// Oct 23, 2008 at 1:10 am
There is no denying it, the Aero X is just downright automotive porn… but with a fine eloquence that lets you know you can take her home to mother for praise. Every time I see it, I can’t imagine a reason why it’s remaining solely as a design piece. If it were to have an Aston Martin symbol on it, it would be the first vehicle chosen for a Bond movie; no questions asked. Yet, thankfully, it doesn’t have that symbol on it, because it would like certain performance and safety qualities one perceives in a Saab.
Maybe the reason why I’m a poor college student and can’t afford another car is because kharma is telling me to wait for this to reach production in 5 years?
3 conor
// Oct 23, 2008 at 1:14 am
As nice as the latest Saab concept car have been(really some of the best), I think I’ve reached a point where you see a concept (aka the AIR) and just kinda roll your eyes. If history shows us anything chances are you’ll never see that model in your driveway, and if it does come to fruition bank on it taking on such a rediculous span of time that by the time its released you’ve had to commit to other choices. Pick up the pace please Saab.
4 Gio
// Oct 23, 2008 at 1:54 am
Haahahahahahha Swade, i LOOOVED the “baased” “baas” “saab”
5 Andy Rupert
// Oct 23, 2008 at 2:39 am
That car caught everyone’s attention when it came out—including both my sons. Being that it’s not going to be produced, it just makes you wonder why? Why wouldn’t GM want SAAB to produce an incredible machine like that in Europe? or in the states? It was an immediate classic. Just think what it would have done as a production vehicle.
6 Alex
// Oct 23, 2008 at 3:28 am
Compare it to Alfa Romeo and its Brera concept, they both renewed interest in a flagging brand while introducing a totally new design language that’s forward-looking while still retaining some of the brand’s design heritage. The difference is that you have been able to buy the production Brera for a couple years now while we’re still looking longingly at the Aero-X concept.
I just don’t understand why a halo car can’t be part of GM’s turnaround plan for Saab, a production Aero-X (I’d love to see it called a Sonett IV) would be a great tool to get people into dealerships and new butts into those fantastic Saab seats.
It doesn’t have to be something exotic either, if anything I think it would be most successful as a down to earth $55-60k competitor to the lower-trim 6-series, CLK, S5, etc. GM could build it on a shortened, widened Epsilon II with a couple engine choices topping out with a ~350-400hp turbo V6 and XWD standard, or they could build it on an AWD version of the CTS coupe platform with that same engine. Just tweak the proportions a little to make it look more “classic Saab” and more feasible for production i.e shorter nose/hood, front wheels pushed back a bit, etc. Like what Alfa did with the production Brera, and like the production Brera it would still be one hell of a looker.
Can you tell how much I like the Brera?
7 Nate 9-3
// Oct 23, 2008 at 4:53 am
Alex,
I can tell that you like it, but not as much as you like the Aero-X!
8 ck1x
// Oct 23, 2008 at 7:19 am
And maybe someday soon this or a moderation of the model will be the halo car for Saab, just as the Audi R8 is now to Audi. But that didn’t come until Audi became profitable again by platform sharing with VW for a very long time. So with the direction that Saab is now taking I can see them turning things around very soon! They already have the buzz going for them, they just need to deliver on the product…
9 wilfried
// Oct 23, 2008 at 8:11 am
Aero-X should be compared with the Alfa 8C, not the Brera, well when ever anything like it should make it into production. The audi R8 indeed is also a worthy competitor.
Helas, not a Saab is comparable with any of these at the moment.
Except being a rare collectors item, the 8C in reality is a nothing but a mere marketing vehicle for the baby-alfa MiTo.
The Brera is a nice piece of design, but more (matuvu) a posers car, not a drivers car.
10 zippy
// Oct 23, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I cant wait to see the 9-5 in the flesh!! Hopefully it will be at the Geneva show when I go on 11March.
11 Jeff
// Oct 23, 2008 at 8:39 pm
It would be cool if someone built an Aero X replica out of a Sonett.