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There were a number of announcements to kick off July 2008.

Hirsch announced their Saab 9-3 2.8V6 XWD tuning package, taking the car to where it should have been all along 300hp and 430Nm of torque. I’d love to drive that!

Saab USA released the specs for the 2009 versions of the 9-7x, 9-3 range and 9-5 range. The good news was bluetooth came to town (finally) and XWD came to the 2.0T range. The bad news was that there was no eLSD option for XWD in the 2.0T range, an upselling manouvre that’s going to cost them sales in 2009 – guaranteed.

I filmed a clip of Saab’s own Peter Johansson driving the wheels off the Turbo X around GM’s proving grounds at Lang Lang, here in Australia.

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We discussed the aforementioned lack of eLSD on the 2.0T model, as well the loss of the Euro Delivery Program and the Aero Academy. All were bad signs of worse things to come for Saab in the US.

We also got the low-down on using a tow hitch on the Saab Turbo X.

GM’s own words on the Fastlane blog:

70-80 percent of what you experience in the interior of a car is purely subjective, sensual, perception…. In simple terms it’s what you see, touch (feel), smell and hear while sitting inside your car but cannot directly point to when asked. It’s still integral in forming your perception of the car.

My response here at TS:

In this post, they’re talking more about quality materials and the way buttons etc ‘feel’ during operation, but all that forms a part of that blanket term, interior design. GM seem to know it’s important, which begs the question as to why Saab interiors have been dumbed down a little in recent times.

Why are Saabs selling so poorly in 2008? Maybe it has something to do with Saab losing their mojo? All of this prompted one of many discussions as to what GM should do with Saab – a question we didn’t quite know the gravity of at the time it was asked.

We also discovered a little of Saab’s early AWD history. Did you know there’s a 1992 Saab 9000 CS with AWD in the Saab Museum collection? Neither did I.

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Possibly the most underappreciated report of the year: Retrospective Motorsport won the vintage LeMans race this year in their Saab 93. An incredible achievement.

GM announced that they were bolstering thir liquidity position by $15 billion through 2009. That announcement was supposed to give hope and security, which I guess it did – for a few months at least. Earlier this month they went to the US congress to seek around that much again in order to stave off bankruptcy.

We saw our first photos of the AWD Saab 9-3x production vehicle. These photos were a Djup Strupe special and played quite large in the motoring press.

I argued for GM Europe to acquire and maintain a fleet of classic Saab 900s for their Saab staff to drive. I still can’t imagine a better source of inspiration in terms of designing things for the future in a truly Saaby way.

In contrast to their counterparts in the US, Saab divisions in Europe decided to give customers access to the full XWD system in 2.0T models, including the all-important eLSD.

There was news about the possibility of Saab building a 9-1 on a platform smaller than the one used as a basis for the 9-X BioHybrid concept. There was also plenty of opinion about this news. The more I re-examine all this model mess from this year, the more I figure GM hasn’t a clue what to do with Saab.

Lance Cole penned another piece for our enjoyment – the Saab Psychosis.

We discussed the loss of the Saab 9-3 button dashboard, used from 2003 to 2006. Bring it back!!!

In 2007 we met Peter W, who was working on the restoration of one of the few original Saab 16v vehicles. Essentially these were the first ever Saab 900 Aeros. We got an update in July and the car was looking absolutely fantastic, though there’s still a long way to go.

The month closed with the initial whispers coming through about a possible Saab convertible concept appearing at the Paris motor show. And what a vehicle it turned out to be. More on that in the next month’s review.