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Would you mind telling us who you are and where you work, please?

My name is Gunilla Gustavs and I am responsible for products and communications on a global basis at Saab Automobile, I work out of Gothenburg and Trollhattan.

OK. What I’d like to talk about is the Saab Brand Center. You work at the Brand Center? ……Is there a building with a sign out the front saying “Saab Brand Center”?

(laughs) No. No, and I think that is one of the tricky things. Had there been a building it would be much easier to explain. What the Saab Brand Center is, is a group of people who meet every week, with projects to work out where Saab stands. What does Saab stand for as a brand and how do we ensure that that which is important gets put into what a customer sees: Into the products, those things that a person will touch and feel and experience and even in the customer experience, that’s also something that’s important to a customer.

So these are people based in Trollhattan and in Gothenburg?

Yeah

Elsewhere?

No, not at the moment.

It’s people who are based out of Sweden, and that’s really important – that that activity, that group, that core of people is based out of Sweden because that is so central to the brand. Intitially in the thinking, we had considered that we would have a physical place where we would all sit together and in that way, cross-pollenate ideas, because we’re sitting together as a Saab Brand Center – that was one of the initial ideas, but actually another element is that we all work for our respective functions.

So I work in communications and my marketing colleagues work in marketing and all the engineers that work in the brand center work in their respective engineering functions, the designers work for design. So that is as important as it is to belong to the Saab Brand Center. You have your functional role, but then we get together as the Saab Brand Center.

What’s beautiful about it is that cross-functional exchange of ideas. Had it been a small company all sitting in the same place, that would have happened more naturally. As a large company I think maybe it’s harder to get those creative ideas going. Here you have maybe 10 or 12 people centered around a project – you have 3 engineers there, you have a designer and you have a communications person, a marketing person. Theyre all discussing, for example, “well, what should our strategy be regarding progressive design going forward?” You look at specific aspects of design. Of course, the designers take the lead but everybody weighs in on that.

That was going to be my next question….what sort of things are you doing at the brand center, what are the responsibilities of the brand center.

The role of the Saab Brand Center is to ensure the consistency of the Saab brand, globally, and that the brand doesn’t stay static – that it evolves.

We talk a lot about the brand DNA, that we’re true to our roots and who we are, and how do we take that and evolve it, moving forward. And then very specifically, how does that get manifested in the products that we develop?

How it’s set up is in the form of projects. The projects are more strategic in nature and they have to do with the brand pillars. So we have projects around progressive design and then there’s sub-projects within there: what is our external design strategy? Our interior design strategy? What are our over all design cues? We define things like the hockey stick C-pillar, the front grille – all of that is very well worked out and very well documented, so we can, in turn, communicate with those people who aren’t as familiar with the Saab brand: this is what a Saab is all about.

Another example is turbo characteristics. So when we were developing everything in Trollhattan, all the engineers there, they develop in the course of their work what a Saab turbo engine should sound like, how it should perform, and feel. But when you have development and it’s a global world, development is not only happening in Trollhattan, it’s happening in other places as well and there are very good things, good reasons to do that. But you cannot just tell a powertrain engineer who has not been working with Saab “OK, engineer in some turbo characteristics”. The engineer will say “well, what are the values you want to hit?”

That alone is a really good exercise because if you asked five or six specialists in Saab, maybe together they could come up with a really good turbo engine, but they’ve never really had to define it. So now you have that discussion, you have that debate. You have the voices in there from communications or marketing saying, for example, “well, before we really had a value in the way it sounded and people seem to appreciate that and I’ve got some articles from before that that is expected and this engine did not deliver on the sound, so maybe we should think about that….” So the project is ‘define the turbo engine’s characteristics’….you have discussion back and forth, some testing and then we put it down, and we have the definition now: this is what Saab turbo engines have to deliver in terms of sound, driving characteristics, etc.

That’s good. I was going to ask you if there were any concrete examples, like on the 2008 car – what sort of things did you go through at the brand center? What’s something we could see that’s come out of that?

That’s where it gets a little bit difficult as it’s a little bit more future-focused than that. The functions, like the engineers, the designers….if we were to change the knobs or something like that, they’re doing it for a reason, they’re working in their engineering capacity and they’re not necessarily part of the brand center, but the brand center works a few years in advance of that to say “this is what a Saab interior knob should look like …”

…Feel free to talk about the future things you’re working on now for 2 or 3 years time….

Well, it is these strategies. A lot of discussion about responsible performance. What is our alternative fuel strategy? What is our hybrid strategy? How will that all roll out, and fit together and is that consistent with the brand and the performance that Saab offers?

So we’re looking at…what do we, as a brand, want, and then communicating that more broadly in the organization so that we can get what we want. And that’s a good example because if you only deal project by project you only ask for certain things, but this helps us put everything into a really long term strategy – “why do we want this at this time, and how does that impact this longer term, bigger picture goal, so that we’re really building that consistency of the brand long term?” And we see it as a really vital component of how we’re going to work going forward.

I think it’s seen as an exciting new way to work with brands. Some of the other brands within GM are saying “oh, maybe we need a brand center”. So you might see other versions, other brands.

In physical terms, how many people are we talking about here, getting together on a Thursday?

I think there would be about 30 or 40 people who are really actively involved in these meetings. I think there are around 120 people or so who are officially involved with the brand center. Some are more active than others. My little team of six people, we are all involved in one or more of these projects.

For example, Peter Backstrom (curator of the Saab Museum in Trollhattan and a vast repository of Saab knowledge) is involved in two. One concrete example is our current work on Saab seats. “What is a Saab seat?” We have been, over all, very consistent with Saab seats but Peter knows the exceptions and he can tell you what it is about the proposed seat in Future Car X that is consistent with a Saab seat, or he can say “you know what? That’s not really a Saab seat” and he’ll tell you why. There aren’t that many people that reflect on what a Saab seat should be like, for example.

Are there more people like Peter, with such an incredible knowledge of the company, involved?

Peter is kind of unique in his holistic, deep understanding of the history, the heritage of Saab. But there are definitely other people with a lot of Saab history involved.

I’m thinking of some safety engineers, the whole safety thought process and real life safety. The people that are sitting in the brand center, they have a lot of Saab experience and going back to our last example, maybe they could say this is what makes a Saab seat safe. Those individuals, do they have as much background as Peter Backstrom? Probably not, but they have the detailed knowledge in there area.

There’s also chassis engineering, which is another key area. Or designers, like Simon Padian, who’s a key member of the Saab Brand Center team, and has a very good knowledge of Saab and is really invaluable from a design point of view.

So you’re working on cars and their development or is it also marketing and communications, all that sort of thing. Is there things that you do in the brand center that we end up seeing on billboards in Australia and in communications in Australia?

Very indirectly. A large number of those 120 people are marketing people so it’s very natural that that thinking, and that what the brand wants to emphasise, comes through quite naturally. What gets discussed in the Saab Brand Center also gets incorporated into the marketing and into the PR thinking. So we have something called the Marketing Core Group. I, as a PR person, am a part of that. Even Parveen Batish, from Australia, comes up for those meetings, as he did when he was in the UK.

He’ll actually physically attend that meeting?

Yeah. Maybe not every time, but often enough….. So what you, what the world will see in the future are products that will deliver on the brand. Are we going to proactively say “look how clever we are with the Saab Brand Center?” No. It’s just got to feel like a Saab and if it does, then fantastic. We don’t need to show you how it was made.

So the brand center is designed to fly under the radar, but it’s presence is felt in how things are designed and presented and done….

And also, I’ve been with Saab for a long time now, I know that this is a really good way to make sure that everyone is in agreement with what the Saab brand is. And not just on a theoretical level but also how it actually translates into the car.

Therefore, if we involve other functions within General Motors, which is – business wise – a smart way to build cars.. I am much more confident that we’ll be able to tell these people what we want and what we need to have. We will also be able to say “OK, maybe we don’t need a Saab specific fuel tank” because there are other things we would prioritise, and frankly, does the customer really care if it is a shared fuel tank or not? We can spend the money on the right things.

I think the feeling from the people that I talk to, which are the owners, drivers and enthusiasts, is that having an Opel fuel tank or something like that is neither here nor there. It’s things like the buttons, the design of the stuff that you touch and feel … the fact that we’d like these things to be… Saab things. Individual things. The stuff behind it, the switches, the circuits…

Do you care?

No, I don’t. I want it to work and work well. But this is me speaking personally, I don’t really want to see these controls (pointing out audio etc within the convertible) in a base level Holden. If it’s a global premium brand, I think a lot of the people that buy it would like it to have a premium feel to it …and half of that is getting a distinct feel.

Exactly. And this is where it’s equally important for other brands to understand what makes their brand tick. Cadillac, for example, they have a good idea of who they are and what their brand is right now. Some have a better idea than others.

Well, I have to wrap things up now and find Steve Shannon, so thank you very much.

You’re welcome…

It appears to be very polished and comprehensive coverage. I’ve not had the time to read through the entire article, but I will in due time, likely this evening. However, the real value appears to be in the various video interviews with various project participants from engineering, design, marketing and the professional skiing community.

Kudos!

I’ve got a new slogan for ya: United Airlines – Where it’s Two Hours Late, or it’s Free!

I finally got my flight home, which not only left late but also had to make an unscheduled diversion and stop in Hawaii to refuel due to strong headwinds. I shouldn’t complain – it’s better than running out of gas.

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Being back home again has provided my first real opportunity to go through my news feeds for the week. It was a good exercise, as I got to see all the 9-4x coverage out there.

It was good to see that there was plenty of it. It seems Saab’s feature spot in GM’s mainstage speech paid dividends as the Saab 9-4x concept was reported far and wide:

This quick video from CNET was interesting for me as it started right at the time I started my interview with Anthony Lo. We had to stop as this guy was so loud Anthony lost his train of thought.

Consumer Reports even had a writeup on the 9-4x.

MotorTrend refer to all the green concept cars as vaporware, a bold move considering the inevitability of cars getting greener. Their point, of course, is that whilst we keep seeing concepts, few of them ever make it onto the road. At least one particular car site is labelling the Tesla Roadster as vaporware for the same reason. Of course, there are millions of E85 cars on US roads already, though very few of them gain any advantage from this. On a related matter, one can’t help but wonder if the delay in getting Saab’s BioPower vehicles in the US has something to with GM’s announcement of the coming partnership with Coskata to produce cellulosic ethanol in the future for a much cheaper price than current methods.

The Saab 9-4x ski racks are included in Jalopniks list of top 5 concept car features that we’re never likely to see.

Many of the articles are your standard, press-release writeup such as this one at Car Keys. Still important, nonetheless.

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I’m going to keep tabs and give out e-slaps to any publishers that refer to the Saab 9-4x as a Swedish Cadillac due to both brands sharing this platform.

The Saab 9-4x has been designed as a Saab. The fact that a Cadillac will come on the same platform is neither here nor there.

First cab off the rank for a slap is AutoCar, who provided the following headline:

Saab 9-4X: a Caddy with a Swedish accent

Want to know how far you can trust AutoCar? Remember that it was AutoCar who first broke the erroneous story that the Saab 9-1 concept would be premiered in London in July 2008.

This is the sort of thing that happens when you base your prognostications on tea leaves and chicken innards rather than facts and sources.

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Thankfully, Autocar do manage a somewhat redeeming review of the Detroit Show in general, with a reporter actually at the scene.

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The Detroit News still have a little to learn when it comes to Saab:

The Saab 9-4X BioPower crossover is the struggling Swedish company’s first SUV, and uses design cues from the Saab Aero C concept……

Well, I guess the ‘C’ is next to the ‘X’ on the keyboard. And then:

….GM said the 9-4X, if built, would be produced in North America, making it the first unique Saab to be built outside Sweden.

Owners of Finnish, Belgian and Austrian built Saabs will be surprised.

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Robin M’s year of Saabs, photographing one a day from his local area, continues.

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And you’ll be hearing more about this, soon.

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“SwissTroll” has an awesome set of Saab scale models on Flickr, including this 1:90 scale Saab EV-1

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I’m sure there’s many reasons why they’re great, but here’s one reason US lawmakers suck.

Always scared poopless of introducing any taxes on the people (i.e upping fuel taxes so the user pays) they bring in new CAFE standards to raise the bar to 35mpg on average by 2020.

This way, instead of the lawakers losing votes, the carmakers will get the angst of the people when cars start costing around $6,000 more on average.

“We’ve done the research and it’s going to cost us $4,000 on some vehicles and $10,000 on others, with an average of about $6,000,” Bob Lutz told reporters at the North American International Auto Show. “That cost will have to be passed on to consumers,” Lutz, a long-time vocal critic of federal fuel regulations, said.

There may be some light at the end of the fuel economy tunnel for Saab, however:

Lutz also said GM is looking at entering the premium small car segment in another effort to gain more fleet-wide fuel efficiency. “We are looking at it,” Lutz said. “Making smaller cars that cost more will be part of the process to get to the 35 miles per gallon.”

GM’s North American sales Chief, Mark LaNeve, earlier Tuesday told Reuters the automaker is seriously considering developing a car for that segment, which would likely be branded a Saab, Hummer or Cadillac.

There is only one brand out of those three that should ever be seriously considered for a small car. Anything but a Saab out of those three and we will know that GM are not serious about managing their brands properly.

Seriously.

I made a point of photographing all the Saabs I saw as I wandered around both Millbrae, where I was staying, and downtown. Despite my diligent intentions, however, I missed half of them.

Here’s the other half:

That’s right, in a full day of walking around – including carparks at the local shopping strip – I only saw two Saabs. I saw half as many Lotuses and twice as many fire trucks!

There’s obviously some work to be done. If there’s anywhere in the world where you should be able to sell a bunch of Saab 9-3 Convertibles, it’d be San Francisco. That’s just my line of thinking.

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I didn’t do too much touristy stuff today. Gripen mentioned to me in an email that Macworld, the big Apple convention, was on in SF at the moment. Whilst walking around town I noticed a number of people with Macworld tags around their necks.

By using a sort of Macworld-visual sonar – walking in the direction from which the Macworld tags seemed to be coming from and then doubling back when they stopped coming – I was able to track down the venue.

In case you were wondering, it’s quite possible to just walk in to the Macworld expo whether you’ve registered for it or not. I figured I’d just walk towards the expo doors and wait for one of the door guards to stop me.

None did.

You might be thinking “what the heck’s this got to do with Saab?”

Good question.

A lot of people over the last three years have drawn a similarity between Saabs and Apple products. Their intuitive ease of use, good design and functionality – I can just see the smoke coming from Eggs’ ears now

Maybe Saab would like to consider sponsoring a rest area at the Macworld convention next year. Acura did it this year, complete with cars on display etc. With that perceived similarity between Macs and Saabs, not to mention that Saabs rate highly at Gaywheels.com research (this is San Francisco, after all), it might be worth a little of SaabUSA’s time to check out the possibilities.

Wouldn’t it be a while lot better if these people were checking out a 9-4x instead of this RDX or whatever Acura call this?

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So it’s goodbye from me. I finally get my business class flight. 14 hours or so to Sydney where I have a 6 hour layover before going on to Hobart. Can’t wait to get home.

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I’d like to take a moment to thank all the people I’ve been in touch with during this trip. It’s been a great experience. One can read all they want about places and people, but there’s nothing like visiting the places and meeting the people to give you a fuller perspective.

My advice to GM – This is the internet age. Move Saab’s offices out to California and you’ll have much happier and more productive employees.

My personal thanks to:

Jan-Willem Vester, Steve Shannon and John Libbos of Saab USA.
Tony Elder from Saab of Troy for the 9-7x drive.
Gunilla Gustavs, Jan-Ake Jonsson and Eric Geers from Saab Sweden
Anthony Lo and Andrew Dyson from Saab Design
Former Saab USA chief and expert driver, Bob Sinclair

Special thanks to Christer Nilsson of Saab Sweden for the invitation to attend and the team from Saab Australia for organizing the trip.

Extra special thanks to all the Saab nuts I met on the trip – Erica, Michael, Andrew, Guilbert, Walter Wong and Lukasz. Greg Abbott once again provided the stable voice of reason and it was great to hang out for a few days. Sadness at missing out on meeting up with Tedjs, Derek and Andy Rupert.

Extra special thinks with a cherry on top to Eggs for the help with keeping this place ticking over while I’ve been in transit and for sending along a suitable power cord in a time of need.

And extra special thanks with an El Coyote margarita to Gripen for all the assistance in getting around (200-plus mile round trip) on my first day here.

If I’ve left anyone out, please forgive me.

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And finally, some sleep pods at Macworld. I am without speech.

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First off, the official GM press kit for the Saab 9-4x may be found here. Two items there are certainly worthy of discussion on their own: the short treatise on “rightsizing” an automobile powerplant to maximize performance while being environmentally responsible, and the interview with Jan Åke Jonsson. I’ll whet your appetite with this little tidbit:

“Our target is to have the Saab brand represented in all major segments of the market.” Jan Åke Jonsson

Coming from a company that has typically had only one or two cars in production at any given time, this is a radical shift in thinking, if you ask me. I don’t think that I necessarily like it, either. It’ll take some getting used to at the least.

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Some great shots on Flickr from the Detroit show:

from Burnlab, a great set of some of the more outlandish autos at the show (shhh… don’t tell Swade about the Volvo plug-in, he probably couldn’t handle it.).

Polskiedetroit’s set is very comprehensive, and pretty well photographed. Great stuff, PD.

Finally, Paul Stamatiou has a staggering 600 pics posted here. Probably some great stuff there, but I haven’t the time to look at all 600.

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You can watch the entire GM Hummer and Saab press conference online on the AutoChannel website. Rick Waggoner isn’t the most vocal Saab proponent, but it’s important that he leads off this year’s NAIAS with Saab BioPower and the Hummer equivalent. It’s a good signal.

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Do you want to know how serious GM is about E85? It’s in for the 2008 Corvette Racing team in the US LeMans Series. The Corvette is holy, untouchable and completely off limits. Unless you’re really, really serious. GM is pretty darn serious about E85. That’s my take.

The good news is that I’ll finally get a business class flight as compensation for being so delayed.

If there’s a dealer in San Francisco reading this, I’d love to come in and visit today but I don’t know where you guys are. Please email me at swade99-at-gmail.com.

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In addition to my chat with John Libbos this morning, I also took a 9-7x Aero for a short drive with thanks to Saab of Troy. John and I were late hooking up this morning as we were looking for each other in different parts of the hotel. As a result, our time was limited and I only got to do a few blocks in the 9-7x.

It was a very interesting drive, despite the brevity.

The 9-7x is a very comfortable vehicle to ride in and they really have done a good job setting up the interior. I couldn’t drive it far enough to check out the suspension tweaks they’ve done.

The engine: it’s definitely not a Saab setup, but it’s fun in its own, big way.

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I got a few photos of it, but once again we were so pressed for time that I didn’t get anywhere near as much as what I wanted.

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We also visited the GM Heritage collection.

They have about 850 cars in the full collection, but the display only houses around 180 of these at any one time. It’s quite an impressive sight when you walk through the door and you’re met by all these gleaming old cars.

I’ll get to publishing some individual shots when I get back home.

There were only three Saabs on display. A Saab 92, a racing Saab 96 and a Saab 99 Turbo. All of them were gleaming and are a credit to restoration work that’s been done.

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Further to the travel delays, things are going to be pretty quiet here for a few days.

When I get home I’ve got some family stuff to catch up on, as we have a weekend trip planned with the Canadian relatives. So get into the archives and fossick around a little. Or even better, go get into your Saab and go for a good, long drive.

Swade has done an admirable job covering the NAIAS for us, and I’ll expect some great photos from his visit to the Saab GM Heritage Collection and the drive there in the Saab 9-7x.

How about the ‘other’ guys? You know, the mainstream media. How did they do with the Saab coverage? I report, you decide.

First from the Detroit Free Press, a short article on BioPower that groups the E85 Hummer and the E85 Saab 9-4x concepts together. They call Saab “struggling”. Hmmm…

From Winding Road, a little better coverage, few pictures and the official GM press release.

Road & Track has a nice little write-up, and some great pictures in the slide show, but apparently Saab hasn’t been advertising enough with R&T lately — the mag snubbed the 9-4x in their video cache in favor of the a re-hash of the Mazda RX-8, the BMW 335d and some cars that actually were deserving of video coverage.

Mr. Chang of the New York Times gives Saab some good ink and another group of great pics on his blog — kudos. The Times also included the Saab 9-4x in their “Notable Models” feature.

Mr. Chang also wrote a short article on the 9-4x entitled “Alcohol, but with restraint” which sums things up nicely.

Motor Trend has a great picture gallery (probably the best of the bunch), but little else to get excited about. Check this beauty shot!

Finally, there is cursory coverage at Car and Driver, if you care to read a little about the partnership with Salomon. This article also mentions that the 9-4x would be built in Mexico.

I’ll likely expand this a bit later, for now, I’m a little late for the morning appointment.

Use the comments for other web spotting of current NAIAS Saab coverage. Thanks!

Innovative Crossover Signals Saab Product Expansion

The Saab 9-4X BioPower Concept, revealed today at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, confirms Saab’s plans to enter the growing Crossover segment with a dynamic, driver-focused vehicle inspired by Scandinavian values in design and respect for the environment.

The Concept’s progressive design features are combined with a responsible, fun-to-drive appeal based on BioPower engine technology and a cutting edge all-wheel-drive system. “This concept is a clear statement of what our brand is about,” said Saab Automobile Managing Director, Jan Åke Jonsson. “It is also an important next step in our plans to enter new market segments with distinctive product offerings.”

The design of the Saab 9-4X BioPower Concept reflects a Scandinavian principle of simplicity of form, with clean and uncluttered lines, free of any cladding, mouldings or roof bars, and defining ‘ice-block’ surface and lighting themes. The progressive frontal styling and interior design elements also draw inspiration from Saab’s widely-acclaimed Aero X concept. Innovative load-carrying solutions include a unique ski equipment stowage system, developed in co-operation with mountain sports specialists Salomon.

Optimized for bioethanol (E85) fuel, the four-cylinder, 2.0-liter BioPower turbo engine demonstrates Saab’s commitment to rightsizing by delivering an exceptional level of power efficiency – 300 hp and strong torque of 400 Nm (295 ft.lbs.). Compared with gasoline, driving on E85 produces less CO2 emissions (see separate Powertrain release). Mated to the industry-leading Saab XWD (’cross wheel drive’) system, this advanced powertrain promises to make driving to your destination as enjoyable as the adventure itself.

The Saab 9-4X BioPower Concept has been developed by a team under Anthony Lo, GME’s Director of Advanced Design, in co-operation with designers and engineers from the Saab Brand Center in Sweden. “We focused on incorporating design themes from the Aero X in a Crossover execution, adding functional, lifestyle features to support the activities of customers using this type of vehicle,” he said.

The driver-focused cockpit in the sporty, four-seater cabin features an Aero X-inspired ‘clear zone’, with a flush-mounted starter button and ‘infotainment’ controls, that sweeps up from the central console to the main display screen. Signature green lighting is used for all instrument illumination, while other subtle references to Saab’s aviation heritage include the ‘altimeter’ speed read-out scale and aircraft-shaped trim on the steering wheel. The panorama glass roof is in harmony with a car designed to deliver the enjoyment of outdoor pursuits.

Saab designers worked with top Saab Salomon ‘Big Mountain’ skiers to devise an innovative storage system for stowing skis and equipment inside the car (see separate Saab Salomon release). The rear cargo deck features a sliding floor with a fold-out aluminum ski-holder, through which up to three pairs of skis and poles can be slotted. Boots are stowed in an underfloor, heated compartment and, for maximum practicality, the entire rear cargo area is covered in a waterproof and scratch resistant rubber ‘skin’.

The compact, aluminum, four cylinder BioPower engine combines the benefits of turbocharging, direct injection and variable valve timing for the first time with high-octane E85 fuel (85% bioethanol/ 15% gasoline).

Driver involvement is taken to a new level by the innovative all-wheel-drive system, Saab XWD. Active management splits torque delivery between both the axles and the rear wheels, via an electronically-controlled rear limited-slip differential (eLSD). Overall, Saab 9-4X BioPower Concept is a vivid demonstration of Saab’s commitment to customers with outdoor leisure interests who seek a sporty driving experience that is more in harmony with nature.

The first instalment is below and I think you’ll find there’s some interesting news in there. There’ll be more to come, as well as two more interviews from the show, when I get back home.

We started off just talking about the show in general…..

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Steve Shannon (SS): ……compared to either Macquarie Place in Chicago or the LA convention center it is smaller, but it’s good in a way, because everybody’s nice and tight and ….

Swade: ….you’ve gotta bring your A-game to the display…

SS: yeah, you do. The measure of a show is who brings their really hot stuff because whoever brings more hot stuff brings more media. Some shows just measure themselves by how the footfall is and Chicago’s the biggest in the country from that point of view but if you just talk about the quality of the new-car reveals, then Detroit doesn’t want to be unseated because we kinda control that.

Swade: You must be very happy with how things have been received with the 9-4x.

SS: Yeah. I talked with a number of American journalists and what I’ve heard from Jan-Ake and others who have talked to Europeans, it seems to be going over well. I think the desireability of that segment, just how much it’s growing…to offer a vehicle…it’s such a preferred body style in the US right now and I think the fact that it’s a good fit for Saab – it’s the modern equivalent of a wagon. The SportCombi’s finding its level in the US, but that crossover will have just a little higher seating position and be a little kinder for visibility, and coming in a car that has a high level of ride, handling and refinement.

Swade: Is there a feel for why the SportCombi has struggles because it’s just such a brilliant car, and the reviews that it gets are fantastic – the anti-SUV – it’s got great storage space, great utility….

SS: It’s interesting. Journalists, automotive journalists love wagons, they love to write about wagons. The American consumer is just not….it’s just not taking hold. The SUV shape, the crossover shape has just become…if you want something with more utility than a three-box sedan, I mean, you can try and logic people into, for not very much more money, with better fuel economy – and we’re seeing a little bit of that trade for Combis from SUV’s, but not much.

If we had a lot more advertising resources we might do a lot more proactive advertising with it.

Jan-Willem Vester (JWV): And it’s not unique to us. Audi, Volvo have lost, same with Mercedes, they’ve retracted the C-class wagon.

SS: Yeah. Fundamentally, they’re in the marketplace here because manufacturers develop them from Europe and there really is no incremental cost. No-one advertises them, even our competitors don’t….we just make it available for those that choose it and it’s a certain percentage of people (that want one).

Swade: Does that, as a company, give you a bit of pause….we had heard that there was going to be a crossover version of the SportCombi, raised up a little with cross-wheel drive and some ‘cladding’ …..does that give you pause on doing that sort of thing?

SS: We think it’s worth a shot. Cross wheel drive adds a lot more to that concept, with a little higher seating position, we think it’s worth giving it a try. There are some that…..you know, Subaru with the Outback…

Swade: Very popular in Australia

SS: Yeah, they’re big here too, especially in pockets like the north-east. So, it’s worth doing, but today’s SportCombi without AWD is seen as just like a sedan with a little backpack, and that’s just not quite enough to get people to make the jump. But we’re working actively with the folks in Sweden on what this alternative 9-3 Combi might be like, and …

JWV: …..we have the basic ingredients now, thanks to cross-wheel drive. We never could do it, but we have that now, so let’s explore it a little…

Swade: Are your dealers screaming down the doors for cross-wheel drive to actually hit the road?

SS: They are, especially in the north-east. We got some great dealers, like Len Schraeder, great long-time Saab dealer who’s in a great market in New Jersey calls me about once a week asking “when’s it coming?”

Just having any all-wheel drive system is a big benefit, and then the fact that this system is so capable, so sophisticated, it gives us that little extra. So not only do we have it, we got the best one. How the lawyers let us…..what the claim looks like, I’m not sure, but the ability to be very aggressive – we’re not the first by any means – but were not bringing any all-wheel drive system out, we’re bringing the right one out.

There was an interesting meeting the other day here in the US with a gentleman from out engineering group who had worked at Saab for a number of years and he remembers going through a number of studies in Sweden on different all-wheel drive systems and none of them quite passed muster. Not enough capability, too much extra weight, etc etc. So it’s not that we haven’t looked at it before….this is the right one, and it’s a couple of months away.

Swade: Recently, I emailed Saab Sweden and asked about the eLSD setup in the XWD. People are looking for whn that might become available with the Aero model. It’s not going to happen straight away?

SS: The latest I understand is it will be the 09 model year. The will be around four months worth of 08 model Aeros that won’t have it. As soon as 09 model starts, in about August, it will. In the whole engineering process of making it both engines, both transmissions….we just couldn’t flick the switch all at once, but we’re headed toward the eLSD for the V6 and no eLSD for the 2.0T.

Swade: And XWD availability with the 2.0T? That’s the other thing that people are asking.

SS: That’s with the model year change. For 09, so basically late summer, early fall. And so by the end of this calendar year, it’ll be available on the 2.0T and on the Aero, in both the transmission combinations.

JWV: …no excuses anymore (laughs)

SS: ….and I have my fingers crossed! No, no, no….

Swade: in 2008, aside from the economic conditions here….there’ll be a lot of people waiting for (XWD) so in 2008 we can expect a reasonably lean year in terms of sales growth.

SS: Yeah. If you look at all the different ingredients, we expect the first half of this year to be like the last six months of last year, around 16,000 and it might get better in the second half. There’s some industry headwinds there, but we do have, finally now, a good availability of the 08 9-3. The ramp up was a little slower than we would have liked, so now everyone has enough of those, and we have cross-wheel drive coming but it really only hits the volume car at the end of the year.

The 9-7x is another conundrum because the industry indicators and the segment indicators would say truck-based SUVs are coming down, gas prices are going up, but we think from a profitability point of view it makes sense for us to be a little bit more aggressive, incentive-wise, on the 9-7x. So, we may buck the trend there. Explorer will be down, and the Durango and the other truck-based ones, but we could be up on the 9-7x this year.

When you net all that out…..if we can do this year what we did last year (approx 31,000 retail and 2,000 fleet) then we’ll have around 33,000…..

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more to come when I get home…

In discussions with the Saab Brand Center’s Gunilla Gustavs at the Detroit Auto Show today, I asked if the badging we saw on the Saab 9-4x concept is representative of the badging we’ll see on Saabs in the future.

Gunilla confirmed that Saab Sweden have made a conscious decision to emphasise the company name more, using the distinct, capitalised lettering that’s been used on literature etc for many years now.

The griffin logo will still be used on the hood of the car and on the wheels, but the Saab griffin logos will be replaced on the rear (a-la the photo above) and on the steering wheel.

So, it’s poll time. What do you think of the decision by Saab to replace some of the griffin imagery in future models?

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You know they’ll be checking in, so have your say….