Wins for Saab seem to reasonably rare no matter where the location is these days. Here in Australia, they’re even rarer, and when they do occur there always seems to be some sort of furore.

This week the fuss is over a local mayor in suburban Melbourne choosing a Saab 9-5 BioPower as his mayoral vehicle.

Cr Hemphill is cruising the streets in a $51,000 Swedish-made Saab 9-5 Biopower sedan. It was chosen over three cars made by Toyota, one of Hobsons Bay’s biggest employers.

But the new mayor defended the purchase, saying the vehicle was the most environmentally-friendly available and it supported the council’s policy of promoting bio-fuels.

The Saab 9-5 can run on 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol mix and has a low carbon dioxide emission rate.

Hobsons Bay Community First spokesman Colin Palmer said the mayor was snubbing a local manufacturer in Toyota.

“What has Saab ever done for Hobsons Bay?” Mr Palmer said.

Given them the opportunity and I’m sure they’d love to do a lot!

The council had the option of buying an environmentally-friendly Toyota Prius hybrid, worth $44,900, a $34,000 Toyota Grande and Toyota Aurion Presara, which according to the Toyota website retails from $49,990.

It’s the United States of Toyota all over again

Cr Hemphill said the Saab, bought in Footscray, had the full support of other councillors and denied he was snubbing a local manufacturer.

I’m a little bit surprised there’s someone selling Saabs in Footscray. Let’s just say it’s not typical Saab territory. Many of the locals wouldn’t be able to spell Saab, even if you held the word up in front of them.

“We buy or lease a range of cars, we’re not exclusively Toyota,” he told the Leader.

“There was a resolution (regarding biofuels) that was decided in 2006 and we just acted upon it. I think some people are getting mis-information whether we’ve spent more than what we’ve normally done, (the price) is comparable.”

“We’re not exclusively Toyota”

It’s nice to hear that once in a while.

Knut Simonsson in Autovisie, recently:

We knew for a long time that 2008 and 2009 would be lean years for Saab. Actually, these years internally were called just that: The Lean Years.

I’m pretty sure that in all the time that I’ve been writing this website, the Saab 9-3 has been at #2 in the Swedish sales figures. Up unitl recently, the Saab 9-5 has been solid at #4, though that changed through 2008 as more flexfuel vehicles made their way onto the Swedish market.

It was a little bit of a shock, then, to see that the decline of the 9-3 when I looked up the Swedish sales figures for January 2009.

Saab Sweden sold just 439 units of the Saab 9-3 during January. This was a massive 61% drop from the 11,35 sold in the same month last year. I know Saab set their forecasts for lean times, but this lean?

There were 220 units of the Saab 9-5 sold. This was another huge fall – 68% down on the 694 vehicles sold in 2008.

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The 9-3 was still the #2 vehicle in the ‘green’ sales tables, with 307 vehicles sold. The 9-5 was #5.

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Um.

Suggestions?

January was a nice consistent month here at TS. Traffic was down on last month, but then we didn’t have a bombshell like the GM restructuring plan in December.

There were 251,000 page loads during the month, an average of 8,098 pages viewed per day. That’s 2,000 per day less but it’s been a relatively quiet month, so I’m pretty happy maintaining last year’s average.

Whilst there were less page views in January, we actually had more visitors. 4,000 more, in fact. There were 54,210 unique visitors during January 2009 compared with just over 50,000 in December 2008.

A few territories….

Greetings to those in the Arctic Circle….

…..and G’day to the BBC crew in Sydney….

…..and a big hello to our unknown friends in Baghdad!!

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The heat wave here in Australia’s causing some serious damage. Several people have died, the new big wheel scenic ride in Melbourne has been closed indefinitely due to damage from the heat, and it’s taken its toll on a huge number of vehicles as well.

The biggest impact was in my home state, Victoria, where they had almost a continuous week of 40+ degrees celcius.

One of our Saab mates, Bill, lives in Victoria and sent in this photo, which was taken during the week, as well as a few words about the durability of his Saab:

We have had a run of 40+ days for the last week and the nights are now extremely hot. Saturday was 33C at 11pm and last night our bedroom wing was 34C at midnight – and this section is more modern and all insulated!

Our daughter has returned to uni in Wagga (Charles Sturt) so we helped her move back yesterday. On the way back home it was reading 46C on the 9-5’s SID. We were cruising at 100-110 km and the temp needle on the 9-5 still sat on half way, it never moved. We set the air conditioner at 16-17C and were almost cold by the time we reached home. I hear people say “why buy a Swedish car? It wont handle the heat…..” Well, we saw two cars on the side of the road that had over heated……both Australian made!

This is what I love about SAAB. It will take whatever is thrown at it with ease. It kept us comfortable and safe.

I think we will retire to Hobart if this heat keeps up.

Good to hear some people taking my suggestion on board, even if it’s just a little…..

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An in a show of fairness, here’s one of our counsins from Western Sweden handling some even crazier heat in Western Australia today…..

Thanks to Chris D for sending it in….

I’m not sure I could be more pleased with the result of the CAR Magazine hot hatch poll.

You have a satisfied crowd, a great result for Saab and a surprise sprint to the finish for a fitting third placegetter.

The final results saw the Lancia Delta Integrale sustain it’s run in the last 10 days and runaway as a clear winner of the poll. The Lancia won 28% of the total vote and finished up with 6,969 votes.

The Saab 99 Turbo, based on solid support from various forums around the world, gathered 24%, or 5,800 votes, to finish in a clear second place.

The Volkwagen Golf GTI had occupied third place from around week two of the four-week polling period. It wouldn’t have been my choice if I had a second vote. My second vote would have gone to the car that ended up in third place – the Alfa Romeo Alfasud!!

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I’ve owned two Saab 99 Turbos in my lifetime as well as an Alfasud Sprint. The Alfa 33 that I own now is a modern version of the same car but with a 16V engine, so I’m pretty happy with this result. All I need is a ‘Grale and I’ll have owned all three!

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Hopefully CAR Magazine will do at least one article based on the results. I’d prefer if they did two articles, actually.

The first could be on the cars themselves and why they are so revered by the people that love them and voted for them.

The second article could be on the phenomena of obscure vehicle loving, which in Saab’s case is probably a fairly new revelation for CAR Magazine.

My thanks to all who participated in the vote.

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It’s Monday morning here in Australia and I’m skipping work to sit at home, relax, munch on some chips and watch the Superbowl!!

I’ve been keeping an eye on the NFL on and off since way back when Joe Montana was firing people’s imaginations back in the 1980s. In recent times it’s been much more “off” than “on”. I only get to watch it once every three years or so but this year it’s a must-see.

This is the kicker for the Arizona Cardinals, a guy by the name of Ben Graham:

And this is how we’re used to seeing him in Australia:

Benny was the captain of the Geelong Football Club in the AFL here in Australia, a position he left near the end of his career in order to try out as a kicker in the NFL. He missed Geelong’s first premiership since 1963 when they won i 2007, but I have a feeling he’ll put that aside if the Cardinals can get up and have a win today. He’d be way more emotionally attached to Geelong, but I think he’ll enjoy the experience nonetheless.

There’s been a number of Aussies play in the NFL (and a guy named Sav Rocca is a kicker with the Philadelphia Eagles at the moment) but Ben Graham is the first Aussie to play in a Superbowl.

No need ask who I’ll be cheering for. I have no idea if the Cardinals have a realistic chance of winning today, but I’ll be going for them.

I picked Rafa to win the Australian Open tennis. He did. Let’s see if I can go 2 out of 2.

Time for a look at a few specials from our excellent site sponsors:

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State of Nine have a special on their Saab logo mats. State of Nine typically test products from a number of manufacturers prior to choosing one to offer for sale, so you only get the best quality stuff, with the best quality State of Nine service.

This week they’re offering their famous Saab logo floor mats, available with either the Saab or Saab Scania logos, for 10% off. The price is for this week only and you need to enter the code TROLLOGO when you check out in order to get the discount.

Thanks to State of Nine for looking after TS readers so well….

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Elkparts first publicised the impending arrival of the Hirsch logo keyring around mid-2008. They had a lot of interest at that time, but it took a little while for the product to arrive in-store. It’s just come in, and Elkparts are now ready to receive your order.

Another new trinket from Hirsch is the Hirsch is the vehicle logo badge (pictured). If you’ve got a Hirsch-modified Saab but your modification was done before these came out, then you might want to pick one up and add it to the 9-3 or 9-5 badge at the rear of your Saab.

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SaabUSA Parts has added a new Saab Gear section to their website, and it includes some excellent new Saabological collectables in the form of two new Saab advertising posters. If you’re into collecting Saab stuff then these are well worth a look.

The first is an XWD poster that states “A car that reads the road. What a novel idea.”

The second is a turbo poster, which reads When we put a turbine into an airplane, we called it a jet. When we put one in a car, we turned it into a Saab.

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Following on from his initial effort, covered yesterday, “keeneyes” has produced another 2010 Saab 9-5 silhouette based on spyshots that we’ve seen already.

As ELBOBO said in comments “I haven’t seen it, but I have a feeling you’re darn close”. And I hope that’s right because this looks very tasty indeed.

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After a good debut last year, it looks like our unofficial Saab ambassador in the UK, Robin M, is organising another Swedish Day UK for 2009.

Last year’s gathering was a real success with a decent bunch of Saabs and even a couple of Ovlov’s turning up.

Details will be published here once they come to hand, like now, for instance.

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The blessing of having the right equipment when you’re going to take some photos….

And the beauty of what you can do with it…..from Flickr

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All going well, this website will cease as an active site from next weekend and will become an archive. You’ll directed to the new site automatically.

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