Category Archives: Saab 9-3x

Saab 9-3x

Saab 9-3x vs Saab 9-3 SportCombi

Posted on by

I thought it these photos might make for an interesting quick comparison.

It’s amazing how some wheels, suspension and a bit of body kit can transform a car. Of course, the light and dark colors of the vehicles make the effect seem more pronounced, too, but all in all I think you’ll get the picture.

What you’re seeing here is the 2008 Saab 9-3 SportCombi in Aero form compared with the Saab 9-3x pictures that we got last week. I’ve tried to pick similar angles where possible so it’s an apples vs apples scenario.

They really do look like two different cars and you can see that Saab are intentionally toughening up the 9-3x to position it in that upper-Subaru wagon and Volvo markets. It looks a lot taller, a lot more rugged and nothing like the hunkered down form of the Aero.

I guess what’ll determine it’s success in that Volvo/Suuby market is the price. The Suuby market might find it a bit expensive though the smaller Volvo types might find it appealing.

The things we don’t know about the 9-3x that could make a big difference: levels of equipment and engine options. The base model 9-3 SportCombi with 2.0T and XWD comes in at $37,810 in the US. I can’t see the 9-3x being any cheaper than that.

I’m really interested to see this car in the metal. My tastes tend to skew towards the more sporting elements of the Saab range, but this one fascinates me to a degree, possibly moreso than the 9-4x at this point in time.

–

Spyshots: the Saab 9-3x appears

Posted on by

As has been mentioned a few times already, Saab had the 9-3x out for a photoshoot in the last few weeks and sure enough, Djup Strupe has come through with some albeit lo-res goods.

Here’s the car. Click to enlarge:

As you can see, it seems to have all the things we’ve mentioned here in the past: The riased stance, the cladding all round, the scuff plating front and rear, the roof rails.

The only difference that I can see is the set of wheels they’ve put on this one, which seem to be a new split 10-spoke wheel on this model vs the silver Turbo X alloys they had on the model shown in Germany.

For our previous intel and spyshots of this car, click here.

I just hope they market the crap out of this one as being the anti-SUV. Or can they not do that with a 9-4x in the pipeline?

–

Saab 9-3x on the road soon

Posted on by

Just in case you missed it in the interviews earlier this week, it’s worth noting that something great will be happening around Trollhattan in the coming weeks.

Back in June 2007, Saab unveiled the 2008 Saab 9-3 range, which featured a significant cosmetic facelift as well as a bunch of mechanical and structural upgrades. We started seeing that car well before June, however, courtesy of a number of spy photographers in northern Sweden and a few camera-carrying types in Trollhattan itself. In fact, but the time I got to Trollhattan – a week before the unveiling – the 2008 models were quite commonplace on the roads there.

So it will be again in the next few weeks with Saab’s own Eric Geers confirming that the 9-3x would be out and about on the streets of Trollhattan soon.

If you’re not familiar with this 9-3x vehicle but you’ve heard the name before, then you should note that this is NOT the 9-3x concept vehicle that Saab produced earlier this decade.

This 9-3x is a basically a Saab 9-3 SportCombi wearing some heavy boots. Most notably, it features Saab’s Cross-Wheel Drive (XWD) system to help you through some of the slightly rougher roads and tougher conditions. It’ll also feature some tougher exterior trim, with some body cladding most notable on the front and rear, some scuff plating, twin exhausts, Turbo X alloy wheels in silver, and a lift that’ll add around 30mm of ground clearance.

It’s the Saab for the faithful who previously left to buy a Subaru, a smaller Volvo Cross Country or an Audi Allroad. Come on back people, and get into a decent looking car with some good seats once again, eh?

Here are the images that were swiped from a dealer conference in Germany earlier this year. All you Trollhattan locals, this is what you’re looking for. Start snappin!

Saab 9-3x

Saab 9-3x

Saab 9-3x

Saab 9-3x

Saab have already done a photo shoot for this car and I expect some lo-res shots from the session to make their way to my inbox in the next week or so. The next big motor show is in Detroit early next year. I’d expect this car to feature either there or in Geneva in March.

It’s not a major addition to the Saab range, but it’s a good one nonetheless and at very little cost to Saab.

Saab were always a really popular brand in the ski towns of North America, a position of favour that’s eroded in recent years most likely due to the loss of the Saab hatch. This vehicle, combining SportCombi practicality and good looks with Saab’s brilliant XWD traction should be a good addition for those markets.

I’m looking forward to seeing it in action!

–

Chatting with Eric Geers from Saab – Part II

Posted on by

Recently, I chatted with Eric Geers from Saab Sweden. Eric is the Director of Communications for Saab Automobile and splits his time between Gothenburg and Trollhattan.

In part one of this interview, we covered the general conditions at Saab at the moment, especially in light of the current situation facing parent company General Motors.

Here’s part 2:

——

Trollhattan Saab: We’ve heard that they’ve been delayed, but how close were the 9-5 and 9-4x to being finished? We’ve heard that GM set priorities whereby a car had to be 90% ready to continue on in this current climate. How close were these cars to being done on time?

Eric Geers: First of all, we never officially indicate when we’re going to launch new products, but as I said earlier, there were so many speculations that in the end, dates end up almost living their own lives. So as long as a car hasn’t yet made it to market, it’s very difficult to talk about a delay.

There are always re-timings when you are developing a product. There are always timing issues for various reasons. What we did say is that the 9-4x has been delayed a little bit but the 9-5 is currently completely on schedule.

TS: So the 9-5 is on schedule from your perspective?

EG: Yeah.

TS: And that schedule hasn’t changed in the last six weeks?

EG: …….

——

Note, the vehicle is on schedule from Eric’s point of view. Whether that schedule ever aligned with the speculations here or elsewhere in the automotive web is another matter.

It’s at this point that things got a little blurry in terms of what I can and can’t say here at TS. If I get my information from a Djup Strupe, then I feel at liberty to share. But if I get it directly from an executive and he requests that I use it for perspective only and maintain confidentiality, then I have to respect that.

Suffice to say that should GM and Saab survive the next few months and the market improves, then I firmly believe that 2009 is going to be a better year than what we thought it was a few weeks ago.

——

Trollhattan Saab: The other vehicle I wanted to ask about was the 9-3x…

Eric Geers: The 9-3x is going to be here. I just don’t know yet if we’re going to do an official press release and turn that into something…but as of next week the 9-3x is going to be out for test driving on public roads around Trollhattan so we can give you a look at this one.

TS: I don’t know if I can ask you this, but are we likely to see this before the 9-5?

EG: Yeah, that will be before the 9-5

——

This is great news, but not too surprising. The 2008 Saab 9-3 facelift was seen on public roads in Trollhattan well before the official unveiling at the Saab Festival in June last year. That the 9-3x, which is basically a 9-3 SportCombi in heavy boots, will do the same is good to hear, but not a big surprise.

It’s also encouraging that this vehicle will come about before the 9-5. There was recent news from one particular market that the 9-3x would be delayed in that market until 2010. It’s quite clear now that if that news still holds, then that’s for that specific market only and not for all markets.

——

TS: The big question, because this would be such a good seller, with the 9-3x being raised up a little, is there now room for a diesel engine (in combination with XWD)?

EG: …..(pause)….err, that’s part of the thing that’s still being discussed, powertrain. At this point I can’t give you the full update, but BioPower will be there. Diesel is still being discussed but I assume that that’s also the case, but it might not be because of the XWD issues. We also have to look at the numbers and the markets, they’re changing and the sectors are changing. In the end it becomes a business case, whether it does make sense to have it with a diesel or not.

TS: I’ve had quite a few people, especially from Europe, asking about the combination of the TTiD and XWD..

EG: Yeah. I know…..but I can’t say too much about that one. It would be great to get it in there but in the end it’s going to be the volumes that dictate whether it makes sense to do it.

——

Reading between the lines here, it sounds a little like the TTiD/XWD is physically possible, but maybe only with a bunch of expensive modifications that Saab will have to justify with projected sales numbers.

I really hope they do it, but knowing that the SportCombi is already a niche seller, and that the 9-3x will be another niche, I think it’s going to be a little tough to make a case for a niche within the niche within the niche. If you know what I mean.

——

TS: Assuming that there would be a delay in the new 9-5, I was wondering how you anticipate plugging any gap that may arise between the old one and the new one. Do you have enough of the old one left to see you through if necessary?

EG: I wouldn’t worry about that one too much…

TS: Well, the main concern was with the engines. Do you have enough of them? You sold the engine plant a while ago, right?

EG: Yeah, but that’s a matter of planning and banking and so on.

TS: So you’ve got plenty of those engines hanging around then?

EG: Yeah, that’s all under control.

TS: You want to send one down to me?

EG: (laughs) Yeah, we can ship you a couple. It might take a couple of months, but they’ll be there….

TS: I’ve got nothing to put it in, I might have to shoehorn it into my 900

EG: Sounds good….

——

That’s all for the second installment and we’re about two thirds of the way through the call.

Still more to come.

–

No Saab 9-5 in Geneva 2009

Posted on by

I’m sorry to have to report this, especially for the guys who I know have already booked some time in Geneva early next year. But what can I do?

When GM let it be known last week that the fit was in the process of hitting the shan, I called SaabUSA and penned an email to Saab Sweden. The USA call didn’t yield much information, I’m afraid, but I received this email from Saab Sweden and am compelled to share the news:

For your information: you shouldn’t expect the new 9-5 early next year but expect some ‘activity’ in the latter part of 2009. What you should excpect though is that the car looks pretty spectacular also from an interior perspective.

The Trollhättan operations are in good shape (however, if you can end the economic downturn we could produce a few more..) with best ever quality of products roling out of our plant and we are preparing for production of next gen 9-3. sorry, no timing here either…

Note that we did some photoshooting of the 9-3X last week so who knows was there a spy photographer hiding in a tree who might serve up an image of a product that looks really cool!

The 9-5 info is the biggest news here, of course. This is something we assumed would be the case when news of the production car’s delay was ade known, but there was still a glimmer of hope that we might see it early next year.

That appears to not be the case, now. It makes sense, really, but it’s a bummer nonetheless. With news coming through that the 9-5 is likely to be released in the 1st quarter of 2010, I think it’s a safe bet to forecast an appearance at the Frankfurt Motor Show in the last quarter of 2009.

I’ve written back to ask if there’s any photos of the 9-3x on the cutting room floor. Will see what transpires, eh?

–

Bring the Saab 9-3x – stat!

Posted on by

The GM financial news revealed earlier today has revealed that the Saab 9-4x won’t be seen until some time in 2010. Given that the 2009 Saab 9-7x is the last of that line (the plant that produces the 9-7x will close in late December 2008) it’s fair to assume that there will be a reasonable gap between the last 9-7x being sold and the first 9-4x coming landing on a showroom floor.

Enter the Saab 9-3x.

Saab 9-3x

This is the car that Saab will need to plug that gap. The anti-SUV.

I want to take a moment to review the recent correspondence about this car as I believe there may be some misconceptions about when it may be coming. Right now, I’d suggest it’s ery much needed.

I’ve received several bits of Djup Strupe news about this car in the last few months. The problem is that they’re spread out over several entries and even updates within those entries, so I want to gather them all here in one place. We can’t get a definitive idea of when this car will come, but at least we might get a little clarity.

The first bit of bad news that came about this car was from a major-market Djup Strupe back in early October. At that time, he provided this information which was relevant to his market:

December 2008: We’ll get to see initial info and photos for the new Saab 9-5 sedan

February 2009: Motorshow appearance for 9-5 sedan

September 2009: 9-5 Sedan on the road

February 2010: Launch for the Saab 9-4x

September 2010: Saab 9-5 wagon and 9-3x launch

2011: Saab 9-3, written to me as being a facelift

2012: Saab 9-1 launch

And an update to that post contained the following:

A recent communication with Saab indicated that they were looking to the XWD 9-3 SportCombi to cross any gap between the 9-7x’s demise and the release of the 9-4x. I’d imagine the correspondent was referring to the 9-3x, which would make sense in that particular market (the US) and this would infer that the 9-3x would be seen some time in 2009.

Regarding the 9-3x info from Djup Strupe, above, it’s fair to draw the conclusion that the info doesn’t come from the US market and therefore, that the 9-3x might be released there first and in other markets at a later time depending on the demand they anticipate.

So, at that point we have the 9-3x coming to one major Saab market that isn’t the US in late 2010. There’s also the inference from another source that the car would still be seen in the US in 2009.

—

Later in October, I was able to share some intel from another Djup Strupe, this one being European based and verified, that the Saab 9-5 would be delayed. At that time, publications in Europe also reported possible delays to other Saab models and this was based on the same information I received from that Djup Strupe.

I wrote as follows:

Saab 9-3x: If anything on the horizon for Saab could be seen as non-essential, this is it. I’d already heard from Djup Strupe that the 9-3x was delayed until 2010. This could kill it completely.

In short, from what Djup Strupe had seen, the plans for the 9-3x had either been delayed or even cancelled. This is to say that in a scenario where he should have seen that information, the information had now been removed, which was unusual.

The European news reports about this issue drew a response from Saab Sweden’s Eric Geers in the Dutch paper, Auto Telegraaf, where he denied the delays, saying to them that they could “call him at the photo shoot”

—

Just this morning I spoke with Jan-Willem Vester from SaabUSA and asked him about the possible delay or cancellation of this model.

JWV was pretty guarded during the conversation in general, but when I asked about this car and any possible delay or cancellation his response was to the effect of “well, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense (to cancel it)”.

JWV said that the technology was there and the market was there for the vehicle and as far as I could tell from what he told me (not a lot) and the way he said it (a little more free than with the rest of my questions) I’d suspect that this car is a goer, for the US market in the near term, at least.

—

To that, I say a nice big hearty and well-meaning, non-blasphemous Hallelujah!

The 9-3x is now needed more than we realised. This slow leak of information hasn’t given us a full picture, but it’s given enough t see where the pieces fit in the puzzle. I loved the idea of the 9-3x when I first heard about it and was really disappointed the prospect of its loss.

It’s a car that uses existing architectures, existing mechanicals and interior with just a few modifications here and there. This truly is a car that shouldn’t cost much to bring to market and with the looming gap in Saab’s SUV line later next year, I really do hope that they can bring it sooner in the markets for which it’s needed.

In the words of those philophers from The Offspring: Give it to me, baby!

–

No-9-3x-in-Paris snippets

Posted on by

Unfortunately, I’ve got to rescind my contention that Saab will show the 9-3x Sportcombi crossover thingy at the Paris Motor Show.

I’ve just reviewed some Djup Strupe correspondence from a few months ago and it’s pretty clear to me that Saab are going to hold off with that car, possibly until one of the American auto shows in the winter (LA or Detroit).

It looks like the 9-X Air will be the main, and only big attraction at the Saab stand at Paris this year. I’ll be surprised if the 9-3x turns up. Pleasantly surprised, but surprised nonetheless.

——

If you frequent SaabCentral, then you might have seen this photo already. If not, you’ll get to hear the full story as soon as Wulf writes it up.

In short, he’s just bought a 2006 Saab 9-5 Sportcombi in California and is having some fun driving it back to Michigan.

——

If any of you British types are interested in a rare chance at Viggen ownership, WooDz has just placed his up for sale.

I published his restoration story here earlier this year. Definitely worth checking out.

——

The Saab Owners Club of Romania had their first meeting recently, getting together at one of the largest buildings in the world, the People’s House in Bucharest.

Looks like a good turn out, too. This is just a fraction of those in attendance.

More photos at Picasa, thanks to Fransisc

——

With thanks to Eric at www.svartamasken.com, here’s some video of the Saab 9-3 BioPower that’ll be racing in the 2009 Swedish Touring Car Championship.

——

Further to my story yesterday on Ivan’s custom Saab badges, Hawkeye’s just sent me a photo of the griffins on his 2008 Saab 9-3 BioPower.

Cool.

——

The flu sucks. We were given the flu as a parting gift from my sister-in-law back in Canada.

So I’ve got DVDs. Today it was There Will Be Blood. Tomorrow it’s Raging Bull and The Insider.

-

Saab at the 2008 Paris Motor Show

Posted on by

The Paris Motor Show is almost upon us, starting on October 4th and continuing through to October 19th.

Saab can look forward to a great show with plenty for people to see. All the hype, naturally, has been about the Saab 9-X Air concept vehicle, which does look absolutely stunning and I’m sure it’ll set the show alight. But that’s not the only new car that I expect Saab to show in Paris – Yes it is. I’ve just received word that it’ll be the 9-X Air only in Paris.

We’ve seen most of what there is to see with the Saab 9-X Air, although they’ve still got a trick up their sleeve: they’re yet to show the actual roof mechanism in action. Early reports indicated that they held this back because of patent concerns, but I’m not so sure. I think they just held it back for the sake of holding it back. Showing pictures of the car two weeks ago has built a lot of anticipation. Withholding the roof mechanism means that we’ve still got something to look forward to.

So what’s the other vehicle I expect to see at the Saab stand in Paris?

It’s the one we’re tentatively calling the Saab 9-3x – a raised and body-cladded XWD version of the Saab 9-3 SportCombi. Here are the preview pictures I broke here at Trollhattan Saab back in July this year:

Saab 9-3x

Saab 9-3x

Saab 9-3x

Saab 9-3x

–

Here’s the brief coverage I provided about this vehicle at that time:

For those who are unfamiliar with this future model, the car is being referred to for the time being as the Saab 9-3x. Saab showed a concept car with the same name around 7 years ago, but this car is no relation to that concept.

The Saab 9-3x seen here is what you might consider as a Saab response to an Audi Allroad or a Subaru wagon. It’s raised by approx 30mm, is fitted with Saab’s groundbreaking Cross Wheel Drive (XWD) as well as some scuff plating at the front and rear, twin exhaust, some cladding on the sides and some bling here and there.

Whilst the earlier mail had the car debuting in London this month (July 08), recent speculation from Auto Motor and Sport in Sweden has the car showing at the Paris Motor Show in October.

I think this is going to be a fantastic addition to the Saab range. Hopefully they’ll make it available with a full engine range. I could well imagine a TTiD version of this selling like hotcakes in Europe, but given that Saab haven’t managed to combine XWD with the TTiD before now, I’m doubtful.

Anyway, not long to go now. Roll on, Paris!

–