I’ve just got off the phone with Eric Geers, the Information Minister at Saab in Sweden (not his real title) and one of the first things I asked him about was the recent discovery of a design patent application with pictures of the Saab 9-6x.

The end reply: “That car is completely off the table”

it took a few moments to get there, mind you. This car is so far off the table that I had to go back and re-cover last weekend’s report on the patent discovery in order to introduce the subject.

Eric surmised, like many of you in comments, that it was something else that brought about this design patent. It certainly wasn’t any plan for production and the patent didn’t originate out of a Swedish office as far as he knew.

“It could be something to do with some legal issues or something, but I don’t know. That car has nothing to do with out portfolio planning. It was initially destined to be the 9-6….”

With the discovery of the patent application last weekend, a few websites began to speculate that the model might still be a possibility. The TurboNines forum speculated after a little historical research that this might have been the case. This story was picked up by Jalopnik, and shortly thereafter by Motor Authority and a few others.

I think we can now sleep safely knowing that the next rounds of Saabs we’ll see will be designed as Saabs from the ground up.

I covered a few other issues with Eric Geers during this call, and I’ll get around to transcribing those in the near future.

For now, take a final look at what would have been the 9-6x and kiss it goodbye.

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In part one of this story, EduSaab uncovered a recent Saab design patent for the the 9-6x design done a few years ago and registered under the name of one of GM Europe’s lead designers and a Saab guru, Anthony Lo.

In part two, I did a poll here asking you which vehicle you’d prefer: the 9-6x or what became the gap filler – the 9-7x. Over 60% of respondents thought the 9-6x would have been a better vehicle for Saab, despite the baggage of the Subaru connection that killed the 9-2x.

Actually, what was more interesting for me as a blogger was the low response rate. With only 156 votes, it seemed like people were somewhat careless about a Saab SUV all together.

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On to part three.

I wish I could tell you more about it, but the firewall on my PC won’t let me look into it further. That will have to wait until later.

What I can tell you is that some forum members over at VW Vortex’s Saab spinoff, TurboNines, claim that there’s some life left in the 9-6x story. I got this in via email from one of the TurboNines moderators:

I had time to do a little investigation last night via Google on what the rumors were back in 2005. Putting the pieces together, there’s a compelling case for the 9-6x being back in the cards. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on it.

Jalopnik have picked up on the story, too, and provide linkage to the T9 site that I can’t see.

Without having seen the material, I’ve got to say I’m skeptical about it. I’ll stick to the theory that they were just covering off their intellectual property.

The thought that there would be a three-year-old design on the way when the current designs (9-5 and 9-4x) are yet to make it into production just seems a little too far-fetched to me.

I’ll check out that material later and follow up, but in the meantime, check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

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Ah, it was nice to get sentimental over the weekend, wasn’t it.

News came out a few days ago that General Motors had lodged a design patent on the defunct Saab 9-6x, which was to be a Saab SUV built on the same architecture as the Subaru Tribeca. It didn’t happen, of course, because GM sold their interest in Subaru, they probably knew that XWD was in the pipeline, and maybe the flak from the 9-2x was too much to handle.

So, which would you have preferred?

The 9-7x has been met with a mix of criticism and praise. On one hand, it’s the best of the GM360 vehicles and very much appreciated by all the people who have actually bought one. It’s been Saab’s second best selling model in the US, has given them a quick, inexpensive presence in a market segment they were absent in and the Aero model sounds like the running of the bulls and goes like stink! On the other hand, it’s about as Saaby as a labrador retriever.

The 9-6x could have seen a lot more Saab input than the 9-7x and had the potential to use a much more modern AWD system and a more contemprary look.

But before you get all 9-6x-ish on us, though, remember that whilst the 9-2x was a reliable and fun car, it was roundly panned for being way too much Subaru and way too little Saab. The photos we saw of the 9-6x in prototype form showed that it was potentially heading that way, too.

So if you were king, which would you have made?

The voting lines are open…..

n

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As rumoured earlier, it does appear from news reports around the traps that the Saab 9-6x has bitten the bullet.

There’s a report here in Dutch about how the 9-7x is quietly slipping into Europe in place of it’s dead brother. For those that prefer English, Yahoo have a story, basically the same as the one I put up earlier, but with more detail.

“We’ve had a good partnership; however both GM and FHI came to the conclusion that there were not enough collaborative projects to sustain the alliance and that each of our interests could be better served through a different approach,” said Troy Clarke, GM group vice president and president, GM Asia Pacific. Clarke resigned as Fuji’s director of the board Wednesday.

Since GM acquired a stake in Fuji in 2000, the companies have been working together in product development, advanced technology and global purchasing. GM will continue work with Fuji on one production vehicle, the Saab 9-2x, GM said. But other projects will end, including the joint development of a crossover vehicle, announced last year.

This last section has now been confirmed in a GM press release.

Jan-Ake, can I buy this one?? I’ll give you $5

PS. Thanks to all of you that wrote to me on this subject whilst I was snoring away in the Australian night time. Cheers.

News just coming through the wires that Saab and Subaru have been consulting with…….wait for it……Porsche in order to develop a diesel boxer engine for use in the 9-6x.

Whoa!! This in from ITV….

….the big news is that the three-litre petrol boxer engine will not be alone. Saab and Subaru have been working closely to develop a boxer turbodiesel which is likely to debut in the 9-6X as a flat-four or flat-six. Industry sources say Saab have been working with Porsche engineers in an effort to advance the design of a horizontally-opposed turbodiesel engine. The German firm’s expertise in extracting high outputs from petrol-fuelled boxer layouts has apparently proved useful in creating an oil-burner with a sporting character.

How good could this vehicle be?

I’ve read in comments to the 9-6x preview photos that there’s a lot of scepticism surrounding this vehicle, but I suspect it could be a much better entrant in the SUV segment than the 9-7x. More individual, more versatile and if it comes with a flat-six diesel as an option, then it should be well and truly up to any towing tasks that you might have.

This is good news. The article quotes the 9-6x as being available in Britain in late 2007.

I just wanted to say thank-you to everyone that dropped a translation of the ‘Speedheads’ article either in comments or to me via email. You’re all sensational!

The article, in reference to the 9-6x photo, translates as follows:

“SAAB: Two new SUVs to bring momentum

Following the money cutting course including dismissal of a total of 12,000 employees in its european plants, GM will release new models in near future to improve capacity utilization.

For SAAB even two SUVs are to bring new verve. The bigger of the two models will certainly be an offset of the Japanese Subaru B9 Tribeca. Henderson did not disclose whether the second SAAB is to originate on the
same platform as the planned Opel-SUV that is positioned below the VW Touareg or the Mercedes M class. The SAAB models will be primarily produced for the US market.

Source: Auto-Reporter”

Here’s the photo again for those that missed it:

There is a reference, directly above the photo in the Speedheads article, to this being the 9-4x. However I think it is a 9-6x 3-door concept, based on the similarity of the rear-end to the both the photo’s I’ve received before (click here) and to the Tribeca itself.

Pavel’s idea (in comments) about ditching the Suuby taillights in favour of some SportCombi-style lights at the back is a one that Saab would do well to listen to. Not only would it look better but it’d also create a little more common DNA in the range.