Clive M was the first guy to place an order for a Turbo X here in Australia. He’s pretty passionate about the car, passionate enough to convince someone to customise the message his Turbo X shows at start-up:

He’s also passionate enough to put together some thoughts about a road test that was published here in Australia in September last year.

The test was featured in The Australian, a broadsheet newspaper here that’s smack-bang in the heart of the demographic that Saab would like to reach. You can read the review (if you dare) by clicking here.

This all goes to show how wrong a motoring journo can be, as well as showing (again) that having the automatic version of the Turbo X as their press car was a wrong move by Saab Oz.

Clive’s thoughts:

The second photo is a shot of my Turbo X Sid showing 8.8 Litres/100km part way through a 2.5 hr country drive averaging 100 Kph. In fact, at the end of the trip it was down to 8.3 l/100.

The significance of the second photo is that the journo for The Australian newspaper car reviews recently went beyond reasonable accurate comment on the Turbo X, or should l say probably Saabs in general, including these pearls of wisdom:

* the car was black
* the brakes were inadequate
* the fuel usage was 16l/100km
* the car was noisy
* the suspension was hard
* it had turbo lag and wait for it ……
* the best one was the car had torque steer!!

l will take the last one first. How does the XWD Turbo X have torque steer when the complete XWD system directs power proportionally in a nano second across all wheels? You cannot even induce torque steer in this car.

The high litres per Kms you get when you absolutely nail this beast constantly with full screaming revs which of course all sane and thinking people do when driving in the city, and hey yesiree the Turbo X is black (actually he got that one right ).

The brakes are fantastic – l know as l worked for a number of years with a international brake manufacturer. And gosh golly gee, the suspension is actually set up for performance not marshmallow soft like his office chair.

l usually don’t take all that much notice of some journo who has been given the job of reviewing cars after a few years in the restaurant reports or travel section and hates the job, however l will make an exception this time.

It just goes to show how important it is to get the press car right. As mentioned, The Oz newspaper is one that’s read by many of the people that Saab would love to reach as customers. To have the car (inaccurately) panned as it was in that review was a dagger in the heart of that model launch.

Clive’s experience also goes to show that ownership of a vehicle is a very different thing to a guy getting it for a few days (or even just hours).

We have car reviews because people want to read them. Unfortunately, we don’t always have car reviewers who take the ownership experience or model variations into account. And like the torque steer case noted above, we have car reviewers who can be just flat-out wrong.

Jacco has been kind enough to scan a story from the print version of Autoweek magazine, the Dutch version. It’s too long for him to translate and I can’t read the thing so I figured I’d just post the photos and check out how the Saab 99 Turbo stacks up against the new black turbo after 30 years.

It’s 280hp and XWD vs 145hp and FWD. Power everthing vs power assisted disc brakes. If they weren’t made by the same company and if they didn’t occupy a similar space in the Saab pantheon, then it would be chalk vs cheese. If you take pure mechanicals, the Turbo X wins with daylight second and the 99 a distant third. But if you add character and history to the mix, it becomes a much closer contest.

[Read the rest of this entry →]

Four staffers over at the aptly named cars.com rate the Saab 9-3 TurboX SportCombi alongside the Audi A4 Avant Quattro and the Volvo XC70 T6. Surprise — the Saab loses and I’m thinking that’s probably correct given the circumstances.

To begin with, this comparison isn’t really what you’d call an in-depth report. It’s more of a summary of all three vehicles with some cutesy categories chosen to allow the writers (all four of them) to write witty little comments about each car in each category.

The categories:
- Non-grocery getter (this is the styling competition — one mustn’t look too frumpy driving a wagon!)
- Sporty driving experience
- Gas mileage
- Cabin luxury
- Ride comfort
- Driver comfort
- Back seat roominess
- Cargo utility
- Overall value
- Editor’s choice

The scoring:

Audi A4 Avant Quattro 2.0T wins non-grocery getter, gas mileage, cabin luxury, back seat roominess and overall value with a sticker price US$5,000 less than the Volvo and US$8,000 less than the Saab. As the smallest of the three the Audi loses in the cargo utility category.

Saab 9-3 TurboX SportCombi wins for sporty driving experience and loses (gets ridiculed, really) for the lack of cabin luxury and for the lack of value given the TurboX sticker price. The Saab gets kudos for a strong second in the cargo utilty comparison despite smaller dimensions than the Volvo.

Volvo XC70 T6 wins for driver comfort, ride comfort and for cargo utility.
It handily loses the sporting driving experience category, brings up the rear in the gas mileage comparison and finishes with the editor’s choice award for being exactly what the editors expect in a wagon.

Overall, I think that it’s an OK comparison — at least the three vehicles are similarly equipped, nothing out of the ordinary, etc. It’s simply a line up of comparisons that doesn’t really play to the Saab’s strengths, and I think that we’ve all realized by now that the TurboX package isn’t exactly price competitive (according to the article: “The outdated Saab seemed woefully overpriced.”). This “compliment” for the Volvo in the editor’s choice statement says it all:

When Americans think of wagons, they remember spacious people-haulers. That’s exactly what the XC70 is. With all its family-friendly features and a comfortable ride, it most resembles that classic wagon ideal, modernized for the 21st century.

I, for one, am glad that the 9-3 SportCombi can’t be described this way. In a context where the mundane is valued over the sporting character of the car, I’m glad that the Saab doesn’t win. If I wanted to remember the “spacious people haulers” of the American past, I’d buy a 1976 Buick Estate, for crying out loud!

However (and there has to be a however or there wouldn’t be a post in this), I am disappointed at the way that the 9-3 TurboX SportCombi loses two categories: the cabin luxury comparison and the editor’s choice.

In the cabin luxury comparison, the TurboX wagon is characterized as “A much older design” and judged “not luxurious enough for [US]$40,000-plus”. As if to rub salt in the wound, the editor’s choice segment squashes Saab again:

While it may be the most fun to drive and offers a sizeable cargo area, the 9-3 fails at just about every other step. Throw in the high price tag and we can’t imagine why people would choose it over the competitors here.

Ouch.

We need new product. Warmed over “much older” designs interiors (thanks Kroum!) from Vauxhall and Opel can’t cut it in today’s market. It’s getting downright embarrassing when your flagship product is panned like that.

Do you need a little light-hearted entertainment to take you away from all the doom and gloom surronding Saab’s corporate parent?

Rumours abounded when the Turbo-X was first seen that it would become the favoured vehicle of the supposedly mythical Sith. Some went to the extent of making movies about it. It seems those rumours have now been confirmed.

Flickr guy, Hyperleggera, has posted a series of snapshots he took of the Sith Lord, Darth Vader, frolicking with his Turbo X in an underground garage (of course).

This one is titled “Darth Commuter”. Fun for the whole family.

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2000+ words. Please forgive me.

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Last weekend I finally – finally - got some seat time in the Turbo X. Yes, it’s taken this long. Personally, that’s a pretty frustrating thing. I don’t want to blow my own horn here, but I’m quite sure I’ve helped Saab in their efforts sell a few of these cars in the last 12 months. To have to wait this long to get behind the wheel of a full production spec Turbo X is somewhat less than ideal, but that’s life as a blogger in a remote location for ya.

The occasion was our Saab Car Club event and as a special treat, our local dealer arranged to bring in Saab Australia’s only Turbo X press car, which is a SportCombi Turbo X with an automatic transmission.

I’ll get to the bad stuff later, because I’ve got to say right up front that despite the things that bugged me about this test vehicle, I still consider the Turbo X to be a magnificent piece of machinery and if I were so fortunate to be able to afford one, I’d get it in a heartbeat.

The look

This car has more presence than I’d remembered. It’s been a long time since I saw one in person. In fact, it was way back in January at the Detroit Motor Show that I last ran my eyes over one of these. The SportCombi is my favourite 9-3 variant and in Turbo X form it looks absolutely menacing.

The faux-titanium trims on the outside look much more subtle (read: better) than the standard model and the jet black metallic paint has to be seen up close on a sunny day to be appreciated. There were a lot of comments about the lack of rubbing strips down the side of the vehicle and whilst I can see the practical use for them, I’m personally quite pleased that they’re missing. I like the cleaner look.

Inside, I think that if anything, the carbon fiber accents are too subtle. It’s hard to see the grain in the material and there just isn’t enough of it, especially forward of the driver’s eyes. Maybe it’s me yearning for something to cover up the dashboard (which I’ll get to shortly), but my theory is if you’re going to go loud – then go LOUD.

The black leather seats are awesome both in looks and feel, but the best thing about the interior is the steering wheel. I’m no fan of the batwing wheel on the Aero, as you may know, so to have a chunky leather wheel in all-black suited my tastes perfectly.

The sound

Given the number of complaints I’ve read about the Turbo X’s exhaust note, the vast majority of which come from fillet-filled journalists looking for a bone to pick, I was expecting some sort of thunderous sound, as if a swarm of killer wasps were trapped with me inside the car.

To all of those journalists and complaining owners – pull your collective lips up over the top of your collective heads and swallow!

Both in motion and at rest, I found there was no intrusive noise whatsoever in the Turbo X. None. Zero. Zilch. In fact, at rest, I had to deliberately give the car a good kicking just to hear that sweet rasping noise from the twin rhomboid pipes.

All you complainers need to come spend a day at the wheel of either my Alfa or my Saab 900; now those are some cars that produce some noise. The Turbo X? It’s engineered so there’s noise when you need it. The exhaust note in the Turbo X is such a non-issue that I’d advise anyone who doesn’t like it to sell the car to someone who’ll appreciate it. Then call your mother – she’s duty-bound to care.

Maybe the reason I found nothing disturbing or irritating about the sounds coming from the Turbo X is because I had to concentrate so much by the time I got to drive it

The drive

All attendees at our club event were given the opportunity to drive the Turbo X. The keenest punters got the keys first and endured a horrible morning ride amongst the Sunday drivers in their camper vans, who were climbing through the twisties at around 70 km/h.

I waited for the return leg and took the keys for the first highway section of the trip so that I could test out the raw acceleration of the car. A gent from our club who I like to refer to as The Hammer, with a 2006 9-3 Aero (the perfect combination of V6 turbo and button dashboard), decided to stick on my wing for most of this leg. The Turbo X had the power advantage, but you could barely tell and John managed to stay on my tail until I hit speeds that he felt a little concerned about on public roads. I figured it was worth the risk and as far as I could tell, the road was clear.

We stopped for another driver change and selfishly, I hung on to the Turbo X’s keys. This was the road I’d been waiting for all along – a 15km stretch of twisty B-road between the main highway and a little village called Colebrook.

I turned in and immediately, Craig Y in his Maptun-tuned Saab 9-5 Aero (a 2005 wagon) was on my tail. Craig and I are old sparring partners of sorts and each knew what the other had in mind. It was Turbo X test time. The unspoken challenge was for me to drive the Turbo X just within my limits and for Craig to stay in my mirrors. The sport button was on and we were away, clear of the other following cars within moments.

What ensued was around 10 minutes or so of automotive bliss. I had Matt the fudgepacker in the car with me (and yes, we know what that means in your part of the world) trying to work the video camera – hand held. I haven’t seen the video yet but I have a feeling you’ll need a barf-bag to watch it.

The speeds aren’t important. What was important is that the car performed. The Turbo X felt so planted through the whole drive; it even had me feeling like a competent driver!

Seriously, this thing can handle any B-road with the greatest of ease. It’ll give you buckets of fun, leave you panting whilst it smokes a cigarette and asks you when you’re going to bring your A-game. To put it simply – this car is far, far more capable than 99% of the people who will buy it.

Which leads me to the reason for the title of this piece, and a few things that bug me……

The concept

I’ll say it again: this car is far, far more capable than 99% of the people who will buy it. The problem: many of them won’t know it, won’t think it, and won’t appreciate the Turbo X for the true technological wonder that it is.

I’ve owned three 99 Turbos in my time. Actually, I’ve only owned two, but I bought one of them, sold it and then bought it back, so I’ve had three ownership experiences.

The 99 Turbo was a car that was at least as revolutionary as the Turbo X should be. It was one of the first mass-produced turbocharged cars and I have no doubt whatsoever that the people who bought it knew – just knew - that it was something very special. Watch this old video if you don’t believe me – part 1 and part 2. Legend has it that that journo actually went out and bought one after doing the story.

The Turbo X should have had the same effect and for a select few who know the full extent of what they’ve got, it will. The main problem lies between the seats of some Turbo X’s and is the main reason why a number of them remain unsold – the automatic transmission.

The Turbo X should have been like the Saab 99 Turbo and the Viggen that came before it – a manual gearbox proposition only.

This is supposed to be the monster car that debuts the best darn all-wheel-drive system on the planet. Make it a monster!! The Turbo X with an automatic transmission is well and truly capable of scaring the pants off you, but only if you know there’s a sports mode button on the dash and you proceed to stick it with a red hot poker. Otherwise, it’s a perfectly well mannered road car. That sort of balance is nice for Aero owners, but the decision to be a Turbo X owner should be a somewhat more deliberate step in the insane direction, like the 99T and the Viggen.

I overheard several people who drove the Turbo X over the weekend talk about how it was ‘nice’ but none of them said it was inspiring. I know it’s capable of being inspiring. The problem is that with an automatic transmission, the default setting of the car is ‘nice’. Why Saab Australia chose a vehicle with the automatic as their press vehicle is way beyond my comprehension. Every writeup in the country is going to be based on a car with a character far removed from the XWD designer’s intention (and I know this because I’ve been a passenger in a Turbo X with him at 170km/h – on dirt!).

I guess an automatic has to be an option these days, however, which leads me to the lesson learned from Craig Y’s Maptun-tuned Saab 9-5 Aero, which is also an automatic. I was fortunate enough to reacquaint myself with this car on the weekend as well – what a trip!

The beauty of this car – and other remapped cars I’ve been fortunate enough to drive over the years – is the aggressive posture they adopt when called to do so.

Craig’s car is perfectly capable of being a docile town cruiser when required. In fact, his wife has put many more kilometers on the car than Craig has, just doing around-town stuff. Press the sport button, however, and some of Maptun’s finest work is brought to life and the results are truly exhilarating. The car responds like a tightly coiled spring.

In contrast, pressing the sport button on the Turbo X is something a little less stunning. The car does go from mild to something-approaching-wild, but you’ve still got to wait a good second or so for kickdown to occur and the results to feed back to the driver. In the Maptun 9-5 it’s more of a case of going from mild to mayhem! It’s as if the car kicks down milliseconds before you press the pedal and the response it gives is just fantastic. You’re in total control, but the adrenalin pumps and you feel like you’re really……….driving.

The Turbo X should be absolutely barking mad when asked, and I believe in manual form it probably is. With the automatic, a trip to the good men at Hirsch in Switzerland is almost mandatory.

A final lesson from the 9-5 Aero – the interior.

This is an interior that’s well finished. It makes you feel like you’re driving a pleasuredome on wheels, even amidst the mayhem.

The Turbo X’s interior, casting aside my previous concerns about the carbon fibre being too subtle, is just a little too spartan when it comes to the dashboard area. This is not a problem confined to the Turbo X.

This isn’t a photo of the Turbo X, but the look is basically similar. This is the TiD I drove on the last leg of the trip.

It might just be me, but I find the black plastic on the Saab 9-3 dash to be not only hard to the touch, but also hard on the eye. What really irritates me is the filler bits they’ve used in various places. Just to the right of the radio, above those four buttons (nightpanel, etc) are two space-fillers that are just incredibly awkward to look at. The Turbo X has them as well.

Again, a trip to Hirsch is warranted for the carbon lather dash so that these abominations can be overcome.

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The conclusion

I started on a positive note and I want to finish on a positive note.

Despite my concerns about the car’s identity, its setup in automatic mode and its interior finish, the Turbo X is one heck of a car. I can only imagine how much more fun it is to drive when you have to row your own boat when changing gears (and manual owners assure me that it IS fun).

This is quite possibly the best Saab car ever built, which is quite a statement. It’s a shame that some waste so much energy wondering about it. It’s a shame Saab and GM gave them something to wonder about in the first place, actually.

I’d like to think that every Turbo X owner has a switch somewhere in the back of their brain that allows them to go into ‘bonkers’ mode. The good news is that the Turbo X is very much a car that you can do that in. Even the automatic version if you try hard enough.

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It’s 15 minutes into Wednesday as I write this, but if you’re reading from the US, then it’s the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.

Get out and vote, people.

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I’m having server error problems tonight, hence the slower posting. Sorry.

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The Auto Channel has one of those always-interesting Saab reviews on site right at the moment – a review by someone who’s never driven a Saab before:

I was pretty excited when I found out I was going to spend a week with the Saab 9-3 Turbo X. I’ve never driven a Saab, but I have always thought they were a “cool” car. A little outside the mainstream. Design means something to Saab. I have to admit that I really haven’t followed Saab’s trials and tribulations, but I am hooked up enough to know that Saab is now GM. Doesn’t bode well, but I was still looking forward to my time with the Turbo X.

It’s a really fun read (OK, it gets kinda embarassing in one spot) and I always like reviews like this because they take you back to basics. As a hardcore Saabnut, I sometimes get bogged down in the minutae of the car and forget the bigger picture: that it’s a damn good car to drive.

Our reviewer sums up his experience pretty well at the end:

Get this car. Now.

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And speaking of Turbo X’s, this appeared on my Flickr feed today with the heading “Are You Shi##ing Me?”

I think that heading sums it up pretty well.

If you can get a Turbo X as a courtesy car, it’s good for the customer but bad news for the car. I’d leave my car in for service for a week!!

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As part of the special introductory offer to TS readers, Elkparts was giving away a Saab handwarmer with every order placed.

It must have gone well because on the Elkparts blog, John notes that he’s just run out of them! He’s giving away free Saab Move Your Mind luggage tags until the handwarmers are restocked, hopefully late in the week

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CTM asked a good question in comments the other day: What is Saab’s signature colour?

Black (the turbos)
Cardinal Red?
Dolphin Grey?
“Surplus” Green?

I think I might have done a post about this in the past, but can’t locate it right now. Feel free to have your say in comments.

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David Thomas from Cars.com has a Saab review published in the Boston Globe this weekend. The cars under the microscope are an Aero Convertible and the Turbo X and the review is interesting from a couple of perspectives.

The first point of interest is from my perspective as a reviewer of car reviews. David Thomas hasn’t been too reserved (or kind) when it comes to Saab in the past. I can recall having a couple of issues with his writeups with prior publications, but this one seems genuinely complimentary in a number of areas, whilst also maintaining a level of criticism where warranted. It’s a well rounded piece and whilst I don’t necessarily agree with some the points raised (see below), it’s worth a read.

Let’s take a look here and there:

That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to like about this eccentric, turbo-powered small luxury car, especially if you’re a station wagon fan. However, the competition is tough, and the 9-3 is only a bargain when you take into account incentives, and those won’t continue indefinitely.

Wanna bet? I digress:

The 2009 versions are on sale now, and the only change is that the company’s all-wheel-drive option is now available on more trim levels. There are no other significant upgrades.

I might just be me, but I think that glosses over the XWD just a little too much. Given how much people like to moan about torque steer, I’d have thought the addition of XWD and a fuller explanation about the system is in order. Unfortunately we don’t get it here, though there is a little more about it later on.

Overall, the sedan, wagon, and convertible are all relatively handsome on their own. The convertible received the most positive remarks during my testing, but it sure didn’t elicit any head-turns from passersby.

Many Saab owners like it this way. Understated design that’s appreciated by the few who take time to really observe it – that’s much more the Saab style IMHO.

Because the Saab is an aging model, the interior appears more dated than the competition’s. In some ways I thought the interior felt cheap, especially the fit and finish along the dashboard, where major panels meet the top of the dash. You could feel a very rough cut of plastic there.

Agreed. Overall, I like the 9-3’s interior design (even if I’d be overjoyed at the return of a button dash) but it’s let down a little by some materials. That’s why I go on so much about the Hirsch leather dash. There I go again!

The rear seats in the SportCombi Turbo X I tested were plenty roomy compared with a BMW 3 Series wagon. My wife also commented on how much more room there was than in our own Subaru Outback’s backseat. We had our same child-safety seat in both cars, and it clearly fit into the Saab more easily while still allowing more seat room for passengers.

That’s an unusual but welcome compliment for the 9-3’s rear seat. If you’ve got tall people in the front, it can be a little crammed back there.

My test of the Aero was in the convertible. Mated to a six-speed automatic transmission, the Aero convertible jerked between shifts, and the turbo kicked in far too often. This is typical of turbo engines . . . from five years ago. Most newer turbo engines have wrangled in turbo lag so well that most novices won’t even notice it. Not in this Saab.

Still, when the turbo kicks in under heavy acceleration it offers a thrill that most normally aspirated engines with the same power ratings can’t replicate.

This is one bit I just don’t understand. Is it kicking in to often or lagging to much? Is it annoying or thrilling?

I think a regular Saab driver finds it to be just fine and being a Saab owner and having driven the V6 a number of times, I have to say it’s a gem. I’d like to suggest most people get used to a Saab turbo pretty quickly – and most will find it much more thrilling than annoying.

For 2008, Saab produced a limited-edition Turbo X version of its 9-3 sedan and wagon. It features a more powerful version of the turbo V-6 that packs 280 horsepower. The extra 25 horsepower is very noticeable, and if you can find one of these cars still on a lot it will be well worth testing.

For me, it’s sad that he even had to write this. There shouldn’t be any more of these for sale. What a shame.

But here’s the good bit:

The bigger engine plus all-wheel drive give the Turbo X a performance-car feel that I’ve never experienced in a Saab.

The Turbo X really is a quality vehicle in every way. It’s a shame that history might recall it more for not selling out quickly than being the introduction of a new XWD system and one of the best Saabs ever.

I’ll let you read over the rest in your own time. I’ve got issues with David’s complaints about equipment levels, though it must be said that I’ve also got complaints about the fact that you have to pay for heated seats in the US market. That’s a crime for a Saab, where heated seats should be part of the standard Scandinavian heritage.

It’s an interesting and well considered piece. Kudos, Dave.

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When I saw that this Saab review was from the Times Online, I was nervously hoping that it’d be Jeremy Clarkson spending some much-needed time behind the Turbo X. Alas, it wasn’t to be.

But that shouldn’t prove to be a disappointment, because despite a lack of Clarkson’s descriptive prose, what we have here is yet another great review of a great vehicle from Saab. What I’d give to have one of these in the garage…..

The Times Online and the Saab Turbo X: It’s an estate of mind

Here are a few snippets from the review. After much discussion of the significance of the term “SportWagon”, there’s this:

The new model’s unique proposition is a highly refined all-wheel drive system, the full technical understanding of which will test your knowledge of “electronic rear limited-slip differential” and “wet multi-plate clutch units”.

Suffice to say that, as a result of this, the 9-3 X Turbo a) goes blisteringly fast and b) remains, unlike most cars of this shape, incredibly stable in and out of corners. That’s got to be good news for car-bound dogs everywhere. No more sliding helplessly across the boot in a scuttle of paws, and slamming your nose into the sidewindow.

And this:

…..twist the rubber stub in the Saab’s ignition and [owners will] hear something that you don’t associate with estate cars – the rousing top-note and burble of a conscientiously tuned engine. They’ll be able to peel away from standing as if they were in a sports car. And then they will be able to take their rubbish to the dump.

The Saab 9-3 Turbo X may inject a new and unforeseen level of covetousness into the battered and downtrodden estate-car experience. It may even be that almost unimaginable thing – an estate car that your neighbours are quietly jealous of.

It’s a great read and whilst I don’t wish to offend you sedan owners out there, the SportCombi Turbo X is my personal choice for most desireable current model Saab.

Oh, and if you feel like you do need a dose of Clarksonesque Saab coverage, his initial review of the Saab 9-3 SportCombi V6 Aero – the cockometer story – is here. And it’s also well worth a read.

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