Drive, the automotive arm of the Fairfax news group here in Australia, have just released the results of their Car of the Year awards.
The worry for GM: there were fourteen categories and Holden only won one of them – Best Ute.
The worry for Saab: the 9-3 Convertible didn’t even make the top three in the best convertible award, which was eventually won by the Audi A3 vert. Methinks price played into this a little.
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The Saab Salomon connection continues with Salomon’s new Aero-X skis:
Like a car axle, the Aero X skis feature ‘hybrid’ technology so the front and back of the skis have very different functions. The front half of the ski is designed to enable the skier to maximize the turn and gain power through it, allowing the skier to choose and control the radius of their arc.
New for 2009 the Aero X skis is constructed with a full wood core for added stability. The core combines with the double monocoque construction to deliver power with impressive torque. The Salomon Aero X ski range offers maximum performance thrills with full assistance, so that every turn becomes intuitive and skiers can unleash the power while remaining totally in control.
Sorry, but I get sort of ‘whatever’ about skis. If you’re a snow bunny then Santa could drop these under your tree in exchange for around 800 Euros.
I’d prefer a real Aero-X, but that’d cost a little more.
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Saab have also released the most luxurious, well-designed and coolest ice scraper in the world. Those are their words, not mine, but having a closer look it is pretty darn cool.
It’s called the Funk-Is and it’s certainly quite Funk-y
It’s made of thick, frosted Plexiglas with sharp diamond cut edges, a plough-shaped blade and even a special groove for clearing snow and ice from the wiper blades. Its ergonomic, comfortable and warm grip is made out of leather and pure lamb’s wool. It’s quite simply the ultimate in funky design.
Makes me wish Australia was freezing cold sometimes instead of the warm utopia that it is. 
The full GM Europe release is here.
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I’m not sure who McClarenX is on Flickr, but I like the cars he’s got access to.
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Wow, a press release about an ice scraper.
What …… no Scraper X BioPower Concept ?!?!?
Yeah, they decided to release the scraper straight out without a concept scraper, otherwise we would have been waiting several years for the scraper.
It is a nice scraper, though. The king of scrapers.
I use my parking disc as ice scraper… Not as funky, I guess.
Funk-Is:
Funk = Funk (D’oh)
Is = Ice
Funkis = Swedish jargon word for functionalism (mostly “functional architecture”)
Cool black pair !!! I was very skeptical on black as a color until my X arrived. Now I can’t somehow see any 08 9-3 in any other color !!! Some signs of being besoted I guess !!!
well i use my ANA Trollhättan – Saab scraper:)
It is interesting to see a November 2008 press release on an ice-scraper from Saab.
Elkparts has been stocking Funk-Is since 14th December 2006 – that is almost two years before their press release
GM must be in severe financial difficulties if they are now trying to flog ice-scrapers!
It is the best ice-scraper I have seen, though!
is there a price on that scaper?
There is.
It is a BIG one!
Don’t look it up unless you are sitting down. This is a gift for the man who has everything except, maybe, a credit card that he destroyed clearing his windscreen of ice
The Salomon Aero-X skis are hardly new. I remember reading about them last year, if not earlier. It was when I was inquiring with Salomon about if they also have a Saab co-branded snowboard (they do not). I then figured it’d be better to just buy a big Saab sticker and put it on a bare snowboard to make my own!
Being a lifelong Southern Californian I never could appreciate things such as engine block heaters, remote engine starters (though in the 80s 007 novels Bond had one installed to detonate car bombs linked to the ignition from a safe distance), or ice scrapers. But last week I was in Chicago for a training class and the weather was unseasonably cold. It was mid-January-type weather in November. Getting in my rental car (a Pontiac Torrent SUV crossover thingy, which was pretty ergonomically awful, but I won’t go into it) one morning with ice on the windshield I found myself wishing I had that option I’ve heard of on some cars: heated windshield washer jets. I’m lazy and don’t like scraping the window out in 18 degree (Fahrenheit) weather! Another Saab accessory product I think I’d own if I lived in a cold climate and owned a 9-3 would be that windshield ice scraper that stows in the 9-3′s “smart slot”.
It does look like Saab is really stretching trying to find items to put in a press release. As John from Elkparts mentions in his comment above, I saw this scraper years ago. It’s not new. But at least they’re not putting out a press release for the ice scraper in April or May, like when they debuted their XWD system… Leave it to the Swedes to design the world’s best ice scraper.
On a somewhat related note, at the L.A. Auto Show last weekend I saw that in the Porsche shrine (they rent-out this HUGE room to themselves every year at the L.A. Auto Show as L.A. is Porsche’s biggest market) they had a whole storefront where they were selling their overpriced Porsche Design products. I always liked Porsche Design products (but could do without the logo on everything). If they were to begin manufacturing their folding sunglasses from the 80s I’d buy a pair in a second! I wish Saab would have some nice equivalent. The stuff I’ve bought from Saab Expressions looks nice on the webpage but when you receive it it’s generally poorer quality than what I’d expect from Saab. It’s also got “made in China by X company exclusively for Saab” on the tags and such. Saab merchandise is generally more affordable than that of say, Porsche, but I’d pay a little more for quality. That said, some of the Saab stuff I like (like the Saab bicycle) are grossly overpriced.
Everybody from Audi to MINI to Cadillac were selling their merchandise at the show but Saab was not. I remember in previous years Saab were though.
1985 Gripen – Saab used to sell a washer fluid heater for the classic 900……….I wonder if the 9-3 has such an option (I’ll have to check)? I used to have an engine block heater in my ’81 900 and really came to appreciate it during New England winters (that and Gislaved snow tires which made the 900 UNSTOPPABLE)! That kind of stuff probably appeals to Saabers more than $200.00 designer skivvies and whatnot, am I right?
They did, indeed! It was a section of copper tube with a copper pipe which was wound around it and encased in plastic. Plumb it into the radiator top hose (IIRC) and the tubes to the windscreen was tubing and you got heated windscreen fluid. More effective for removing bugs and clearing frosted windscreens.
Saab discontinued this item around four years ago. It was a popular accessory, originally for the 9000 but also fitted c900, GM900, 9-3 and 9-5.
If I could get them, today, I’d have one on my Saab. It’s very chilly in the UK at the moment.
A few years back on a winter business trip to the Canadian Rockies I rented a Subaru Outback from Hertz (I drove up there from Spokane, WA) and one feature I appreciated was that there were coils in the windshield glass under where the windshield wipers park. These are the same kind of coils that you find on your rear windscreen (and on the rear side windows in a Saab wagon). This was useful as when you turn on your defroster it defrosts the windshield wipers if they’re frozen to the windshield.
I’m surprised that the old Saab heated washers used heat from the radiator. I would have thought they’d be electrically-heated. The problem with using the heat from the radiator is you have to wait until the car warms-up before you can spray warm water onto the windshield, right? How long does that take? I live in L.A. so we’re always in a hurry!