Last week I posed the question as to what the diesel offerings will be with the new upcoming Saab 9-3x.

I’ve heard a little more on this issue since then and the answer appears to be both ‘yes’ and ‘no’, though perhaps not in the way many would like to hear.

The market I’ve heard from is within Europe. In that market, there will be both a 2WD and an XWD version of the Saab 9-3x.

The XWD version of the car will have the 2.0T gasoline engine, like the car in the photo, above.

The TTiD engine will be made available in the 9-3x, but according to the information I’ve received, the TTiD version will have a 2WD setup.

It seems the issues fitting XWD and the TTiD engine together are still in play.

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Here they are.

Daytime shots. Proper wheels. No falling snow and no disguises. The Saab 9-3x in all its glory.

I really, REALLY like the look of this vehicle. It’s a subtle change, but a great one.

The Saab 9-3x is due to make its official public debut at the Geneva Motor Show next month (March 2009). I hope it gets a really good showing.

There are more photos over at Auto Motor and Sport, and they’re HUGE!

Thanks Par!

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Carpix have been kind enough to send me a full size photo showing the rear badge of the Saab 9-3x vehicle photographed in northern Sweden in the last few days.

With the name settled, you can now resume your normal whining about how this car is too little, too late, etc.

Personally, I’m with PT on this issue:

Just a foot note for those who have their knickers in a twist about this car. Some Porsche-o-philes had the same reaction to the Cayenne and dittto for the X5 and ML series. All of those cars have basically bankrolled their respective companies to enable the ongoing production of their “true” models like 911s and M3s. Saab needs all the models and range-width it can get with a minimum of expense so please save your bleeding hearts and 4wd-phobia for someone else. If you want this company to hang around, you have to support this car and others like it. Its too late to be sitting on the fence and debating the merits of what is or is not art.

‘Support’ in this context will be different things to different people. Some will ’support’ it by buying it. Some will ’support’ it by just thinking it’s good to have it around.

There are no finger-snap solutions to Saab’s car range. This is a step in the right direction. One of many steps that are needed, but a step nonetheless.

I think this is a great step, and I’m looking forward to seeing it for myself.

Here’s a crop of one of the 9-3x rear end photos over at Motor Authority….

Things we can see…..

1) The 9-3x badge. whilst you can’t really make out the “x” there, there’s sufficient snow capped on something to the right of the “3″ to believe that there’s an extra letter there. If someone wants to bet on it being something other than an “x” then I’ll be happy to take your money.

2) Clearance: It doesn’t look that high off the ground due to the small-ish wheels it’s wearing for the snow, but you can clearly see the rear axle there, indicating a fair suspension boost over the stock model.

3) 2.0T and XWD badges. A very tasty combination. Here’s hoping it’s the Euro-style 2.0T/XWD combination with the eLSD available in all markets (the eLSD is not available on the 2.0T XWD in the United States).

4) Dual exhausts: Dual pipes are normal for the V6, less normal for the 2.0T, which indicates to me that they’ll be aiming to push this as an upmarket version within the 9-3 range. That’s just my theorising, by the way.

I believe some of the European automotive press are actually either on their way to, or are actually conducting some initial test drives of the Saab 9-3x in northern Sweden as we speak.

The automotive papparazzi seem to be hanging out there as well.

There’s a new gallery of shots over at Motor Authority.

Here’s a small version of one. Head over to Motor Authority for the rest, all of which are much bigger. All of them suffer from bright flash exposure and the snowfall that was happening at the time, but are still interesting to look at.

The question remains – are any of these diesels? And if so, do they also have XWD?

This isn’t going to help slow sales in the US, but it’s potentially a very positive development for the imminent release of the Saab 9-3x.

One of the bugs with the XWD system in the regular Saab 9-3 is that there wasn’t enough room to have both a diesel engine and Saab’s new cross-wheel-drive system in the same car. With diesels being so big in Europe, this would have made a great alternative to an SUV for the Euro market.

I’ve just heard from one source in Europe that the Saab 9-3x will be offered with a diesel engine, which raises a couple of possible scenarios:

1) With the extra suspension-induced clearance that might be available with the 9-3x (being a raised up and body-cladded version of the 9-3 SportCombi) they’ve now got enough room to fit both the XWD system and a diesel engine.

OR

2) There may be a FWD version of the 9-3x on the menu in addition to the standard XWD model that we’re expecting. This could offer the same drivetrains as the regular 9-3 SportCombi range, but with the body modifications of the 9-3x and no XWD system.

Option 1 is definitely the preferable scenario. When the XWD system first came about I heard from a lot of people who were interested in the combination of XWD with a diesel powerplant.

Although option 2 seems to go against the “x” part of the model’s name, I’d imagine this is the more likely scenario. Call me a pessimist, but I don’t want to get my hopes up for a diesel/XWD combination and then have those hopes dashed. Having both FWD and XWD versions of this body style would make sense, too, offering the vehicle to more potential customers who want the utility that comes with the ground clearance, but not the extra fuel consumption that comes with XWD.

There was no mention as to whether the diesel powerplant in question would be a TiD or a TTiD engine, so we’ll have to wait and see.

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I just got off the phone with Eric Geers from Saab in Sweden and unfortunately there’s absolutely nothing I can talk about here on the website. Eric is quite happy to keep me posted on the goings-on with Saab, but obviously at the moment everything’s quite delicate in terms of negotiations and plans, and I must respect the spirit in which the conversation was held.

Suffice to say that Saab are conducting their activities in a manner that suggests a faith in the favourable outcome of negotiations, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

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Two sources who don’t such faith……..well, it’s only one, really…….are Automotive News and Autoblog. Automotive News write the news and Autoblog re-hash it for those who don’t have a subscription (which is a great way to make money, by the way. Their income would be well into seven figures a year now and the cost of a AN subscription is only around $150 per year).

Anyway, Automotive News are saying that GM doesn’t have a clue what they’re going to do with Saab…..

Talk about pressure. Just a couple of weeks before General Motors has to submit a detailed plan proving viability, GM executives have no idea what to do with their losing brands.

With President Barack Obama still selecting his team of advisers, it’s a bit fuzzy as to how specific GM will have to be about its plans for Saturn, Saab and Hummer.

But at this point company leaders are stumped for solutions, sources say.

…..except they then go on to say that they do have a clue….

“We’re trying to see how much of Saab we could isolate,” the source says.

The next step is to secure funding from the Swedish government to help Saab run on its own. Saab hopes to launch the next 9-5 large sedan and new 9-4X crossover next year. The Swedish government has offered aid but does not want an ownership stake.

The third step, GM hopes, would be a successful launch of the new products, making Saab attractive to a partner or buyer.

GM does not want to hold on to Saab. If the plan fails, GM would likely close it, sources say.

If I were Saab, I wouldn’t want to hold on to GM, either. Well, not much of it, at least. There’s some useful bits like volume purchasing that are handy if applied the right way.

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There’s a great review of the Saab 9-3 Aero XWD over at AsiaOne.

They kick things off with some notes about the Turbo X, noting that only four were imported into Singapore and that all of them were snapped up very quickly by Saab enthusiasts there. One of them was bought by a reader of this site, Shyang, and we should be hearing more from him shortly about the new Nav/Audio system he just purchased for it. But I digress…..

A few snippets:

In essence, the new 9-3 Aero XWD is the Turbo X, unlimited. The car has the mechanicals of the Turbo X but not the fancy aesthetics. Not that the standard 9-3 really needs the look-faster bits to stand out. The angular lines look smart and different from the popular usual German suspects.

And I’ll draw your attention to my own comments about useable speed from a few days ago. Those comments came to mind as I read this….

The car’s touted 0-100kmh timing of 7.5 seconds (7.3 for the sedan version) seems nippy, rather than ballistic but Saabs are best known for their in-gear acceleration where the swell of mid-range torque (the Aero has 400Nm between 1,900 and 4,500rpm) ensures the most effortless of overtaking manoeuvres.

….which was my point, exactly.

The review is called Saabstance Over Style, and makes for a good read.

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Dippen has just drawn my attention to a note in the Saab Turbo Club of Sweden forum where someone is stating that the 12th February edition of Tekniken’s Varld will be coming complete with images of the Saab 9-3x.

Can’t wait!

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If you’re a daily reader here at TS then you may have reacted like I did when you saw the headlines all over the automosphere today saying that the Saab 9-3x and Saab 9-5 would be coming in 2009.

That reaction would be “what took those sites so long?”

Yes, GM did issue a press release in the last 24 hours about global sales in which there was a line about the Saab 9-3x and the new Saab 9-5 appearing this year.

In addition, Opel sales in Russia increased by 49 percent, while Saab increased 68 percent in 2008 compared with a year ago. The Opel Insignia won the prestigious European Car of the Year Award – a first for Opel in 22 years and a strong statement about GM’s global midsize vehicle architecture. Important launches for GM this year in the region include the Opel Insignia Sports Tourer and Astra; Chevrolet Cruze; and the new Saab 9-3X and 9-5.

This is the first time GM has come out openly and stated it, but both model schedules have been talked about here in recent timea, particularly in the wake of interviews I did with Eric Geers from Saab Sweden late last year.

So the good news is that new Saabs will be on display in 2009. The better news is that unlike many Saab display cars in recent years, you’ll actually be able to place an order for them.

Let me come out and say (again) what the press release doesn’t tell you – the Saab 9-3x will show at Geneva and the Saab 9-5 will show at Frankfurt later this year. You’re hearing that from me, not from Saab, so it’s based on educated guesswork, but please believe me when I tell you that I’m pretty well educated.

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