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The following is a guest post by David Blumberg, a Swede now living here in Australia (part-time, at least).
He sent it to me this morning as a possible piece for publication some time and I liked it so much I thought it should be posted straight away.
This is just one guy’s view on what a re-thought Saab could become.
——
My idea for Saab Reborn
by David Blumberg.
The current GM crisis and the debate about the future of Saab got me thinking. What if Saab got to start all over, say in a few months? Maybe GM will collapse and Saab will be sold. Maybe the Swedish government will buy it and provide it with a fundament for continuing its business. The politicians in Stockholm seem to be very committed to green cars and point their fingers at Saab (and Volvo) for not building proper modern cars that consumers want and the world needs. In a way I can agree with that. There is almost no carmaker today that properly has the future in mind and is building cars that will reduce or remove the use of fossile fuels. What a great cosy nest for Saab to land in! Saab has the opportunity to be the first “big” carmaker to occupy that spot and lead the way. Saab has led the way in so many things before that this seems like the most logical step to take.
The new Saab should be know for its commitment to the environment, turbo power, safety and practicality/funcionality. Saab already has the three last points down, so all that is required is the green image to be part of the new century. Born from jets is cool and all, but I do not think it is the primary reason for new buyers to choose Saab over other brands. The main concern for the new century is the environment, and although Saab has already been a player in this field for a long time with its right-sized engines and turbo technology, it is now time to fully and wholeheartedly cement this image.
The new Saab should have three core models: a Golf-competitor, a 3-series competitor and a 5-series competitor. I think these three market segments are key areas for Saab to be a player in. While reading some comments here at TS recently on a post I cannot recall, someone suggested that Saab should go back to its old modelname convention, ie. 90, 900, 9000. It struck me as a bit strange at first but I really came around to the idea and I think it would be great to go back to the past and use those names again. The small Saab would be the 90, the medium Saab would be the 900 and the large Saab would be the 9000. The range from 92 to 99 could be used for future concepts and the like, perhaps.
The new 90 should be a Golf-competitor, available as a CombiCoupé and Convertible. The 9x BHC and Air spring to mind as providing the perfect basis for this car. It would be small, sporty and of course practical, appealing to younger drivers and those without big bucks to spend but still want to drive Saab. The new 900 should be a 3-Series competitor, available as a Coupé, CombiCoupé, Combi and Convertible. Nothing new here really… And finally the new 9000 should be a 5-Series competitor, available as a Coupé, CombiCoupé and Combi. Also this one is familiar territory…
By Coupé I am referring to a sedan (if that was not clear). I seems logical to put the CombiCoupé (hatchback) version at the center, because it is a mix of a sedan and a wagon, and then split that word into two, thus getting the two other version the hatchback is made of in the first place.
Beyond these three core models there would be room for other models, such as a new Sonett perhaps. But one model that definitely needs to be in the line-up, perhaps even in the core one, is an electric car. I recently came across Tesla Motors and their electric roadster (http://www.teslamotors.com/). This car really fascinates me, and based on the figures provided on their website, it is one hell of a car! 0-100 km/h in 3.9 seconds and a range of 350 km/charge is definitely something to be impressed by. For Saab to survive in the future, it needs to be a green carmaker, and there is nothing greener than going electric. If Tesla can do it, I am fully convinced that Saab can do the same. Most likely Saab will do an even better job!
The engines for the new Saabs should all be green. Petrol engines are a thing of the past and it will probably not take too long before they have been completely replaced, be it by biofuels, hydrogen or electric. Until then, all engines should be small, turbocharged, make use of the Saab Variable Compression concept and be built for a variety of biofuels. Engines sizes could range from the 1.4 litre engine seen in the BHC to the classic 2 litre and 2.3 litre engines. Using petrol with these engines will of course not be a problem, as Saabs BioPower engines have already shown, bridging the gap between the petrol of today and the biofuels of tomorrow. All cars should also use hybrid technology as standard (plug-in, of course) to cement Saab as a green car. Saab should be unique in offering plug-in hybrids through out its entire range.
Even though it might be negative for sales, I do not believe that Saab should have either crossovers or SUV’s. I have never been a fan of SUV’s and similar cars because they are big, heavy, polluting, inefficient cars that most people do not actually need. The fact that most SUV’s drive around in cities should prove my point, and it would be contradictory of Saab to produce such vehicles while aiming to be green.
In terms of design, Saab should go back to its roots and bring back the Sixten Sason heritage. There would be no Saab as we know it had it not been for Sason. He drew the first 92 and the legendary 99 (among others), which came to be Saabs design philosophy ever since. Saab still has this design philosophy but it has suffered since the last OG900 left Trollhättan. There was never a more distinct Saab than the 99/900. But the recent concept cars Aero-X and 9x BHC/Air really show the way back to more distinct cars and what the future of Saab should look like. Sason already invented this design forty years ago: the curved windscreen, the hockeystick, the meeting of concave and convex lines. All new Saabs should be a clear expression of Sason’s idea, breaking away from convention and the grey masses, just like all the cars that Sason drew.
If any of this is financially possible, or viable, is of course another matter, and I am certainly no expert in this field. But I do know that what I am proposing is by no means impossible on a technical level. All the technology already exists, some of it is collecting dust because of mismanagement and some of it was stolen by GM for other vehicles that were considered more important than Saab. This is simply my idea or vision for what I want Saab to be in the future. And by future I mean as soon as possible because I want that little Swedish company back that stunned the automotive industry with inventions and innovations that changed the world. Saab was always at the forefront, sometimes ahead of its time, and I believe that my humble little idea would bring Saab back to that position and secure the brand for the future.
——
By the way, Top Gear tested the Tesla this week. If you haven’t seen it yet, click here.
——
I’m not sure that I subscribe to all of David’s points, above (but if we all agreed on everything then life would be a little bland, no?), but I think his case was really well thought out and definitely a possibility.
Points of minor disagreement:
- using the term coupe when you mean a sedan. Why deliberately confuse the market?
- Re-birth of the ‘90′ badge. It probably wouldn’t matter except to old-time Saabists, but the 90 badge doesn’t carry a lot of cachet, I don’t think.
Other than those, I think the idea of a refocused Saab being a concentrated environmental leader is a great idea – as long as they’re still fun to drive. The notion of them being able to finally use some previously discarded technology would be great, too.
Thanks a bunch, david, for your thoughts and effort.
–
22 responses so far ↓
1 tom
// Dec 16, 2008 at 9:12 am
great take great thought and understanding
only one change or addition to your line up for the 9 5
the 9 5 4 door vert based on the 9 x air concept
tada
2 Adam
// Dec 16, 2008 at 9:27 am
In this case, it may be better to have Chinese ownership.
The Chinese have large polluted cities, for which clean cars would be welcome. Also, today I heard on the radio that a Chinese battery company debuted an electric car today. Between the biopower engines and that kind of battery technology, right there are biopower hybrids.
3 Markac
// Dec 16, 2008 at 9:50 am
Some good points David. It was me who suggested the return to the 90, 900 and 9000 designations recently, although others have suggested it before. I believe 9-3 and 9-5 names were a product of GM’s marketing men and supposed to relate directly to 3 and 5 series BMWs. In truth, I don’t think that idea has ever worked and a re-born Saab would probably be better of using the old model names. That said, the 90 designation was only used on a 99/900 hybrid that wasn’t sold in many markets. However it is fairly logical that a 90 would come before a 900 in the range.
4 Alex
// Dec 16, 2008 at 10:04 am
I know I’ve suggested the switch to 90, 900, and 9000 before as well, there’s just something psychological about those numbers that makes them sound far more appealing than 9-1, 9-3, and 9-5. The new designations sound bland and uninteresting, while “900″ or “9000″ sounds impressive before you ever see the car.
90 is kind of the oddball, and while it doesn’t quite have the buzz that 900 or 9000 do, it fits well with them and would make sense as the name for an upcoming small car.
I also think that Saab should do a bit more to play up their past, I’m not saying they should do the retro thing, but they should work a bit more on putting “heritage” touches in their cars like the red trim and plaid seats on current GTI’s. The orange turbo needle was definitely a step in the right direction, now let’s see them go back to the old-style needles and number fonts on all of their instruments. This sort of stuff is dirt cheap to implement, but it has a huge effect on the car’s personality. I know from driving my car that I’m constantly reminded that I’m driving a Saab from the unique font used on the instrumentation alone. It’s this sort of first-impression kind of stuff that can turn a car from “meh” to “must-have” for the first-time buyer. Maybe bring back the old “turbo” badges as a retro touch?
I think you’re spot on with your model lineup and engine options, while I agree with Swade Saab will have to retain it’s sporty driving experience. There’s no reason why future saabs can’t be environmentally friendly AND handle as well as BMW’s.
5 zippy
// Dec 16, 2008 at 10:12 am
ADAM, WASH YOUR MOUTH OUT, YOUR FOUL LANGUANGE IS OFFENSIVE USING SAAB AND CHINESE IN THE SAME SENTENCE! *Swade, may I request a SLAP icon to be available for such inappropriate comments? Ta very much!*
Unless you say “I drove to the local takeaway in my Saab to pick up some Chinese food” in which case such a combination is entirely acceptable. 
As for David’s idea, Im 90% behind everything he said but he forgot one important thing. The name on the CEO parking stall at Saab AB would have to be “The Right Honourable Steven Wade – CEO”.
6 Karen
// Dec 16, 2008 at 11:01 am
yes, bring back the Sason 99/900 design!!!! Please bring back the 900 hatchback – every aspect of that car was so thoughtful, including the flat entry to the trunk.
As to electric, better bury all the power lines before us snowbirds will trust an all electric car.
When Tata Motors Nano came under attack by environmentalists, they bought into Miljøbil Grenland AS (Norway) and decided to build E-Nano instead. Tata seems to be engineering driven, and able to make good decisions quickly. I am sure there is quite a future market for a 9-series Saab in northern India. (The E-Nano will sell for $2,500 USD, so why not four Saabs – at all four price points)
At the rate I’m going, all I’ll be able to afford is a Nano – flex-fuel plug-in hybrid please.
7 Smoke_Jaguar4
// Dec 16, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I’m probably in the minority here, but I think it’s time for Saab to leave behind the entire 9-based naming convention (both 9-n and 9 x 10^n). It’s time embrace actual names, not alpha-numerics. Saab already has some historic assets like Viggen, Sonett, Aero. Then you have the geometric names (Arc, Linear) and the very Swedish fighter jets (Gripen, Draken, Lansen). These names have personality which is too scares in today’s automotive world. Saab should embrace both its swedishness and heritage.
8 Charles
// Dec 16, 2008 at 1:15 pm
I’m going to agree with Smoke.
Having numbers for the name of the car just gets the car lost in the alphabet soup that already is awful.
It doesn’t help that the concept car names are relating to actual models. The X has been used for different reasons, its all rather confusing.
Saab Lansen and such, sounds very cool actually.
9 Andy Rupert
// Dec 16, 2008 at 1:25 pm
I’m not for the number thing either. Where would it stop?
9, 90, 900, 9000, 90000, 900000, 9000000, 90000000, 900000000, 9000000000, 900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
Also, the green thing is nice but some people actually have more than five people in their family. What then? And don’t get into a debate on population growth, etc. My point here is that limiting the company to small cars may be nice but it is nonetheless a limitation. It’s hard to have numeric growth with two or three models.
10 David Blumberg
// Dec 16, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Swade: “using the term coupe when you mean a sedan. Why deliberately confuse the market?”
I probably didn’t explain that properly. My idea was simply to start with the all mighty CombiCoupé (the CC is after all one of the BIG Saab trademarks) and split that into the wagon part (Combi) and the sedan part (Coupé) which it is made of. That sort of makes sense looking at the big picture. But yeah, I definitely understand that using the term Coupé for a Sedan is confusing, and it would probably ensure a lot of unnecessary criticism by automotive journalists who don’t get it. On the other hand Saab gets that sort of criticism all the time so it would simply be keeping up with tradition
Swade, Markac, Alex: “Re-birth of the ‘90′ badge”
True, the 90 badge does not make anyone overly excited. The original 90 was not the most exciting thing Saab ever built, but in using the old naming convention, the 90 would fit in quite well as the baby Saab. If I remember correctly, Saab changed the name from 99 to 90 way back when, to make it better fit with the 900 and 9000 series. Generally my reason for using the old names is mostly to relate back to the days when Saab was something more than a GM product. Both the 900 and 9000 Turbos have some significant historical value, such as the porsche-beating 900 and the long-run 9000. I’m not against the 9-5, 9-3 etc. names, but some combinations can sound a bit odd and too many people still insist on writing them as ninety-five and ninety-three instead of nine-five etc.
Swade, Alex: “sporty driving experience”
Yeah sorry, that was implied
The new Saab will of course be sporty, as they have always been!
And I agree with everyone who want Swade to be the new CEO of Saab. You got my vote, should the opportunity arise
11 Daniel B
// Dec 16, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Agree on 99% of it all,
Although I personally would love to have the old numerics of the model names back, one cannot argue that it is more romantic and fascinating with NAMES instead of numbers…
But in my opinion the only names that works are Aero, Griffin, Viggen and Sonett. The other ones are a bit corny IMO…:)
Draken= Dragon
Lansen= Lance
Tunnan= Barell
But thinking about it it could work as:
Saab 90 = (9-X Air/BH) = Aero
Saab 900 = (9-3) = Viggen
Saab 9000 = (9-5) = Griffin
Saab Aero X = Sonett
On the other hand, the words “Saab 9000 Aero” in one sentence ALWAYS looked stunning compared to “Saab 9-5 Aero”, so I´d have no problem to go for the old 90-900-9000 as well, BUT I think I´d like 99 instead of 90.
I agree 200% on hybrid engines that are compatible with petrol BUT should be optimized for Biofuels as well as electric. -I was just dreaming away about a Saab 5 cylinder 1,4 litre BioHybrid engine with SVC (WHY WHY WHY did you put this engine on the shelf GM??? Shame on you!!)
Imagine 200+ horsepower vith variable compression and a fuelcomsumption that makes the Toyota Prius GREEN of envy:)
12 Martin N
// Dec 16, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Daniel B,
Yea, because Sonett and “Thunderbolt” (or even “Tufted Duck” if you mean vigg as in the bird
) aren’t corny names? 
The names must work on an international market. Forget the Swedish market. I think we have proved for the final time that a car manufacturer can’t survive on with such insignificant home markets. So it doesn’t matter if they are corny for scandinavians.
Doesn’t “Draken”, “Viggen” and “Lansen” sound cool for you foreign (not Scandinavian) guys?
Does the meaning of the name really matter if it looks and sounds cool and Saabish?
(Hey, why not put some dots here and there to make it even cooler and more vikingish? Dräken, Viggën, Länsen, Sönett? (just kidding).)
13 ctm
// Dec 16, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Please, not 90/900/9000 again. There were always the jokes about the next car and if that would be 90000, or if the number represented number of cars sold per year… So no thank you. Also, with this “9-” thing there are more room for models (9-1 through 9-9, plus added X for special models).
14 Daniel B
// Dec 16, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Martin N…
Ha ha ha…
You are right on the spot there. We Swedes are probably a bit coloured about those Saab names…:)
Thunderbolt sounds cool though… maybe a bit Chryslerish….
And the 90000 comment wasn´t that just in Sweden when we didn´t have 112 for emergency calls but 90000 instead…?
15 van god los
// Dec 16, 2008 at 8:12 pm
I kind of like the 9-1, 9-3, 9-5 model names. Saab should be looking at the future so I don’t think it is a good idea to use the old names again.
Re-using small design elements (e.g. the orange turbo needle) would be cool, you know, as a salute to the saab-heritage. Together with or instead of an orange turbo needle, they could (also) install an orange volt/watt indicator for their hybrid/electric cars.
But simply updating an old dashboard design would be a huge mistake. It is my opinion that saab should come up with a total new dashboard concept. For example a full head up display, just like in jets … Thus showing that saab does not only have a great history but also a bright future and is still a very progressive brand with cutting edge technology and design.
Just my 2 cents …
16 DamoG
// Dec 16, 2008 at 9:12 pm
As a Mac fan boy as well as a SAAB fan boy, I can see some parallels here.
Apple was a bit stuffed about 11 years ago, so many models, lots of fingers in pies that they shouldn’t have been in, they’d ‘lost their way’ under a board that didn’t understand Apple.
They had Steve Jobs come back in, kill off the crap and then re-focussed Apple into four key areas. A pro laptop (PowerBook G3), a pro desktop (Power Macintosh G3), a consumer desktop (iMac) and a consumer laptop (iBook).
It just cleaned up the company and re-focussed on what it is good at. Now of course they have those iPod/iPhone things which help lol.
I’d love to see SAAB look at just having a very simple model line-up that appeals to a broad range of humans that also hark back to their heritage. Keep it simple stupid
.
17 David Blumberg
// Dec 16, 2008 at 11:42 pm
DamoG: I agree. Apple was close to out-of-the-picture a few years ago, but they’ve recovered majorly. I switched 1 1/2 years ago to an Intel iMac and have never been happier. So Saab needs a Steve Jobs… Steven Wade!!
18 Adam
// Dec 17, 2008 at 1:41 am
Zippy, the Chinese are coming. Get used to it.
Plus, it factually makes sense. The Chinese have motivation, money, battery technology, a low cost supply base, and a need for Swedish design. None of which GM has.
19 RMinNJ
// Dec 17, 2008 at 1:46 am
No.. Saab should stick to numbers. GM can come come up with some really
untasteful names that, despite their intent, can ruin even the most well designed car. Just
think of the Aztek or Cavalier. Even if the car were great…one can’t drive it based on the name.
Also, manufacturers here have been known to take a well
known name and put it on anything …like when they took the Nova name and slapped it on a
new small car… it had nothing to do with the original Nova.
I’m afraid if left to choose a name we’ll see the new 9-5 called a Pacer.
20 Karen
// Dec 17, 2008 at 3:34 am
Adam: Zippy is right, though a bit harsh on the Chinese. India’s Tata has every criteria you list plus Jaguar and Land Rover for high value engineering in Europe and majority share in Miljøbil Grenland AS (Norway) for electric/battery technology.
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Motors
“Tata Motors unveiled the electric versions of passenger car Tata Indica and commercial vehicle Tata Ace. Both run on lithium batteries . The company has indicated that the electric Indica would be launched locally in India in about 2010, without disclosing the price. The vehicle would be launched in Norway in 2009. [23].
Tata Motors’ UK subsidiary, Tata Motors European Technical Centre, has bought a 50.3% holding in electric vehicle technology firm Miljø Grenland[24]/Innovasjon of Norway for US$1.93 M, which specialises in the development of innovative solutions for electric vehicles, and plans to launch the electric Indica hatchback in Europe next year.”
21 Ying
// Dec 17, 2008 at 10:33 am
I hate the pararell drawn between Apple and Saab.
Apple is a company with weak engineering pedigree and all about flashy market driven, fashion consious style oversubstance crap.
The anti-Saab.
Ask sround how many computer software engineers who likes Macs. (Not this one).
22 Lance Cole (Author)
// Dec 17, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Nicely put David .
Swade -lets have a future – Saab name competition then?