Let me tell you two things I know about this vehicle.

1) Despite the traditional Saab-lover reluctance towards SUVs of any type, this is still a required vehicle for Saab. The segment is alive and well in the US market and Saab would benefit from being amongst it. I really believe they’ll do a pretty good job of it, too.

2) The 9-4x looks pretty darn good in black!

Left Lane News have acquired some spypics of the 9-4x in testing in Michigan, presumably in northern Sweden – Doh!!. Click through to see them in full, but here’s some sneeky peeks.

It’s probably just a product of the background blending so much, but the upward angle on the rear deck spoiler looks kinda awkward to me.

There’s a horizontal there as well, but it’s just that the angled piece looks so dominant in that shot. I’m sure it looks more composed in person and with different colors.

The Saab 9-4x is set to be delayed slightly from the original planned release date. And of course, the current turmoil with GM and Saab could see things shift again, but here’s hoping this one hits the floor as soon as possible.

–

We’ve had notice about the fact that the Saab 9-5 and Saab 9-4x – two vehicles that Saab dealers need desperately – are going to appear late due to GM’s current crisis. This comment from a US-based dealer puts some flesh on those bones:

GM, in an IDL (read: internal) broadcast told us on Monday to not expect to see the new 9-5 until at least first quarter of 2010. And the 9-4 is pushed back a full year until third quarter of ‘10.

Our big debut this model year will be the 9-5 Griffin. Whoopee! The model we sell one a month of dressed up with a rear deck spoiler, different wheels and matte chrome headlight surrounds and grille. Wow…be still my heart!

We are for all intentions a one model car company……to the best of my knowledge a first in automobile retail history,with the possible exception of the Ford Model-T.You can get the 9-3 in other colors, however, which gives us a leg-up on the “T”.

Aside from almost taking comment of the year status, this is the sort of timetable news we’ve been waiting to hear. It hurts, but you’ve got to get the truth out there.

The next thing to find out, if only for the sake of Zippy, Robin M, Golfhunter and Etienne, is whether the 9-5 will still show in Geneva in March next year as originally intended. Those guys have already made their plans. I have a feeling that with the new model release date being a full year away from the 2009 Geneva show, Saab will probably alter theirs.

——

Something interesting that I read today…..

This appeared in Crikey, an Aussie corporate and media watching magazine (which, incidentally, was started by a mate of mine from school, Stephen Mayne. My one local claim to being close to fame, aside from knowing Richo).

Crikey have some dot points at the bottom of an article on GM’s current debacle. On of them in particular caught my eye:

In its own history, GM reports: “By 1920, in the midst of a nationwide economic crisis, GM was on the verge of financial collapse. The crisis marked the turning point in General Motors’ history. New men were asked to assume leadership of the corporation. A new concept of management was forged and a new concept of product emerged.”

Is history about to repeat?

–

There’s not much we haven’t seen already, but the beauty of these is their clarity and the close nature of the images. There’s only a few layers of strategically placed tape between you and the car.

One image here. Click to enlarge.

Click here to see the rest of the images at Winding Road.

–

And if anyone’s got a clue where these were taken, I’m curious to know. Dunno why, I just am.

–

Thanks Gripen for the heads-up

-

That’s my dream: to see Saab truly given the vehicles, resources and treatment to make that claim truthfully and boldly.

Jan-Ake Jonsson has been speaking to the German pulication, Automobilewoche. Following is my cleaned-up version of the Google translation. I’ll share a few thoughts about the Saab 9-4x afterwards.

——

Saab: Gains by U.S. production and premium prices

Saab Managing Director Jan-Ake Jonsson plans to bring the Swedish GM subsidiary back into profit. In an interview with Automotive Week, Jonsson explains how the production of the SUV 9-4X in Mexico can help. The long-term annual sales target is 175,000 new cars.

–

Munich. Saab is currently the problem child of General Motors in Europe. The model program consists of two series. One of them, the Saab 9-5, is already virtually unchanged since 1997. According to Saab Managing Director Jan-Ake Jonsson, the resurgence plan that started four years ago will begin to bear fruit in 2009. “In the coming year we will introduce the new 9-5 and 9-4X. That means the restart for Saab,” Jonsson said in an interview with Automotive Week.

The SUV 9-4X could especially see the profits needed for developing the brand – if the segment of large premium off-roaders stops collapsing. Saab will try with the so-called Rightsizing approach to win customers for the 9-4X. Saab’s powerful, turbocharged four-cylinders follow the downsizing principle to find a buyer. A two litre, four cylinder engine from Sweden is designed to run on E85 and produce up to 300 hp.

The 9-4X will be buit in a Mexican GM plant. “This allows us to keep costs in dollars, which we export to Europe at a higher profit,” said Jonsson. Moreover, the 9-4X will be on the level of rivals BMW and Mercedes. “Finally we are the European premium brand of GM,” stressed Jonsson.

Jonsson also sees good sales opportunities for Saab hybrid models. “We will offer such vehicles. But because the cost of the technology is still very high, these cars can not shift from user-pays,” said Jonsson.

Overall, Jonsson sees Saab selling around 175,000 cars per year, “then we can achieve a good profit.” In the past year, Saab in Europe sold nearly 88,000 units.

——

Now, about the 9-4x.

Many of you may remember that I’ve forecast several times that the 9-4x will have a six cylinder base model. That info comes direct from the source. A Saab document.

However, as I’ve also mentioned several times before, that document was for the US market. Jan-Ake Jonsson is talking here to a European publication, speaking of European models.

But, the document I’ve seen was a preliminary document, sent to me early this year. Fuel prices (which have now dropped again, the credit crunch; both could have played havoc with the plans made back then.

For the moment, though, I’ll still back the document I saw. 4 cylinders and diesel for Europe, and a 6 and a big turbo 4 for the US.

——

Thanks to Albert VDB!

It seems to be the same photos on all the various websites, so I’ll just recommend one at this point: Tekniken’s Varld.

As you can see, there’s not much masking going on here at all. Saab seem to be quite settled with the notion that this vehicle is now a 95% known entity and people are going to see it out and about. Saab might also consider it a good distraction that stops people hunting so hard for the next generation 9-5.

Anyway, it’s looking pretty good. I like the stance in this photo and the rear view (go to the Tekniken’s link) looks fantastic.

——

There’s a subscription-only entry at just-auto.com that I’d love to read. The headline is: SWEDEN: Saab eyes bespoke small car platform and the byline reads as follows:

Saab is exploring a new go-it-alone platform for its proposed entry-level 9-1 model, managing director Jan-Ake Jonsson told just-auto.

If you’ve got access, please let me know.

——

I was a little puzzled when my RSS feed for GM’s FYI blog showed that the Photo of the Day was a Saab 9-X Air. They extract the Photo of the Day from Flickr and how could someone post their own photo of the 9-X Air on Flickr when it’s not been showed to the public?

Turns out it’s a photoshop of the 9-X Air, with the Flickr guy applying some of his own color to the vehicle.

He hasn’t done a very good job of it, but it does make for an interesting perspective nonetheless. If anyone has the photoshop skills to do it properly, here’s some source photos of the 9-X Air that you can use.

——

Memo to Volvo:

All the horsepower in the world and all the grip you can give it – none of this will change the fact that the rear end of the Volvo C30 is totally impractical and almost useless.

And utility is generally considered to be a trait of Swedish automobiles.

——

Thanks to various people for the 9-4x links via email. Too numerous to name.

-

But that’s not what this is about. For those who’ve been living under a rock for the last 24 hours (or if you’ve been away from your internet, like I have), the website of Saab Chile accidentally posted images and some specs for the Saab 9-4x.

Here’s a sample of the colors available, but the full palette is over at Jalopnik.

The Saab Chile website is no longer hosting 9-4x details. In fact, the entire site consists of just an “under construction” page. I accessed it via Saab Global just to be sure that it was genuine.

One interesting part of the exercise has been that the Chilean website posted the engine as being a 2.0 turbo making 245hp and around 400Nm of torque.

This differs from the specs that I’ve heard, which featured a normally aspirated six cylinder engine for the base model and a turbocharged six for the Aero. I’m interested in finding out which market the Chilean site’s specs related to. The specs I posted were for the US market and come from the highest source you can imagine.

Wait and see, I guess.

And with all that over and done with, what do you think of the looks?

I think it’s looking OK. Better than OK, actually.

——

Thanks a bunch to all the people who flooded my inbox with the news Sorry I couldn’t get to it sooner. Darn holidays!!!!

-

. .
.
.
.

Jalopnik has simply the front end posted (see below), but the Car Connection has a handful of full-length snaps that look much as you’d expect.

From Jalopnik

If there are surprises here, I’m oblivious. Please fill me in.

Click to enlarge

This interior shot shows much of what we’ve seen before with the dash vents and instruments remaining faithful in their basic form to the concept vehicle. The dash materials seem to be different, however, and more generic. I also note in this shot that the seat doen’t look like a Saab seat with the active SAHR headrests (see the AMS shots for the seat detail).

The car is wearing the usual padding disguise, the same wheels we’ve seen previously and it seems to be towing some sort of trailer with some unknown equipment on it. Load testing?

As mentioned before, click on through to AMS for all three photos, which are so huge I’m amazed the internet is big enough to hold them

-

Turbin’s given the new image a little nudge to get it back into perspective and he’s also dug out a concept picture with the vehicle set at a similar angle.

Here they are. Click.

Bear in mind that this is most likely an Aero version of the production vehicle that we’re seeing here. The base model will probably be dressed down a little and I can tell you know that the base version will have 18-inch wheels whilst the Aero will have 20-inch wheels as standard.

This image of the production vehicle shows Aero-X style turbines, which even the concept vehicle didn’t have. I’d be very surprised if it turned up with these wheels. The wheels on the 9-4x concept have been seen on several test vehicles and I’d suggest that these are more likely to be the wheels seen on the production model.

This Aero version is certainly showing plety of bling and muscle. The silver paint on the production version emphasises the bulge of the wheel arches, almost to a point where I’d suggest that a white car might be preferable. Other exterior bling can be found on the foglight surrounds, rear view mirrors and side vents.

Although we never got to see them in action, the concept car featured light pipes that tracked from the external top corner of the light cluster, down the indicator lenses and along the base of the headlamps. It’ll be interesting to see if the production version features this sort of setup, or if it follows the 2008 Saab 9-3 lead and has the light pipe across the top of the lamps.

It’s quite obvious that Saab’s promise of staying very true to the concept vehicle has been realised in this image of the production version. On the outside, at least. We’ll have to wait a little while longer before we see how much of that beautiful interior has made its way into the production version.

My thanks to Turbin for putting those two images together. It’s certainly some good food for thought. Although I find it hard to get excited about SUVs or crossovers in general, I do remember leaving Detroit with good feelings about the Saab 9-4x. I suspect that those who are looking for this type of vehicle will have a lot to look forward to.

For the summary article on the Saab 9-4x concept, including features and specs a ton of pictures, click here. Bear in mind that that’s the concept vehicle, though. The production vehicle will look similar, but will come with V6 petrol engines only in the US, and a combination of petrol or diesel engines in other markets.

-

A new version of the image has popped up at Edmunds and whilst still not print quality, it gives a much better idea as to what the front quarter profile of the production car will look like. It’s not much different to what we’ve already seen in the concept car, to be honest. The greater interest will be in the back, where they’re sure to tame down those tail lights.

Click.

——

I got a few emails overnight about this one: Mercedes Benz to Introduce Fully Turbocharged Lineup by 2010.

I’ve been saying for a long time that Saab should have established ownership of the Turbo segment ages ago. First BMW brought out their 335i and now Merc are going to go full-on into it too. I guess everyone is.

It’s pleasing to see some Saab defenders in comments there (Go David!)

It’s good to see Saab emphasising turbocharging in their recent advertising. They really, really need to hammer this home.

And speaking of that…..

——

Saab History has noted that SaabUSA have made some modifications to the “Recycle” TV ad that was featured here last week.

The voiceover, which repeated the script three times in the initial ad, has been edited to cut it down to two repeats (it’d definitely have potential to get on your nerves showing six times an hour during the Tour de France coverage) and the tagline at the end has changed as well.

——

Andy Rupert is the voice behind the “Release Me” video, a former Saab 900 owner (and I know deep down he really, really misses it) and as of a few months ago – a Volvo sales guy.

With the recent featuring of “Release Me” in the video widget (see the right sidebar), the song got a new lease on life, especially at Andy’s workplace, where they managed to entertain themselves with some high-volume repetition and a Volvo adaptation.

——

There’s been a bunch of recent Turbo X reviews come in:

* You can click here to download Go Auto magazine, an excellent Aussie publication, which has a review of the Turbo X based on the same session as the one I attended at GM’s proving grounds here in Australia. If you only read one of these reviews, make sure it’s this one.

* Drive.com.au cover the same event:

The test drive finished with a burst around the dirt circuit, where the Turbo X demonstrated a higher degree of sure-footedness than the front-wheel-drive Aero we were benchmarking it against.

A lap of the dirt track at rally car speeds with Johansson behind the wheel shows just how capable the Turbo X can be in skilled hands.

* Walkerton.com, from Canada, give a great insight into the good old days of Turbo in the X-review:

Count one, two, and then bang as the boost came on. You had to anticipate this rush because there was a phenomenon called torque steer.

Those were the days…..

Potent and sexy, the only real problem with the Turbo X is that only 100 are allotted to Canada and most are already spoken for.

* Autoweek have a “short stint” as well:

Most impressive is how it handles rounding turns. The all-wheel-drive system and sport-tuned suspension do a great job of keep the car planted when attacking corners. There are some signs of understeer when you push it hard, but for normal to semispirited driving, it provides all the grip you need. The stiffened suspension isn’t too harsh, either, for day-to-day motoring.

——

And finally……some Japanese Chinese towing images that I got via email. Unbelievable.

Thanks to Ying for the correction!