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Today the weather was perfect for the first photo-day for the 9-3 Griffin. Early morning the car was washed and cleaned so that it would look really great. After the wash the car was driven into the city of Växjö that has some really nice scenery. Here is a small taste of what we managed to produce today! =)

Yesterday afternoon me and Rune picked up our last 9-3 Griffin from ANA, we’re currently on a mission to learn and document as much of the car as time allows. Todays featured image is of the interior of the car. This car is equipped with the 300W Bose stereo system including a 6-disk cd changer mounted into the dash. It has the carbon-fiber panel inserts and the griffin steering-wheel. While I was driving the car yesterday I found that the steering-wheel is a significant improvement over anything Saab has ever had before and probably better than most things on the market today. The grip area is perforated and the leather quality is probably the best I’ve felt so far. It outclasses the one of the new 9-5 by far! The thing that I like best about Saab though is that all the controls face towards the driver and a small angle, driver focus is something most other brands have neglected completely.

While at ANA yesterday one of the sales-guys said that it is ironic that it took SAAB until the last model to get the dash-board right and I agree with him fully. The all black plastic dashboard is something that has been a negative thing for me since the new 9-3 was introduced in 2002. The old version had beautiful dash-boards in different colors. On the Griffin this has now been taken care of and even though the dashboard feels a bit plastic its still a significant improvement over the old one!

The seats in this Griffin are leather-textile and are very comfortable. The feeling of quality is very high and the colored stitching is a nice feature. You sit very firmly in these seat and it relaxes the body, I’d have to say, more than in full leather seats.

There is more or less nothing I can complain about with this interior, except one thing. The metal clip for the seat belt on the passenger side, when at rest, should have been placed much further down, while driving at certain angles it casts very annoying reflections towards the driver.

Today I visited ANA for a very special reason, the crew that has been building the last cars were going to finish assembly of the last 9-3 Griffin.

I arrived at ANA and signed the purchasing contract of the car, the money had been transferred only days after we stopped the donations, insurance and other fees have also been paid. After the contract was signed I moved on to the assembly building which is located about 1 km from ANA’s sales facilities. Once there the car had already left for the factory where it went through the brake and lights check at the special facilities located at the very end of the production line inside Saab’s final assembly factory. The car also went through the computer check system and its papers placed in the archive.

The car was also driven out on the short-track test-track where every car is tested for noise and other vibrations. Once this was done the car is officially finished. It was driven out of the main gate at SAAB Automobile and back to ANA’s assembly building. There it was washed and its emblems fitted as well as a final read-out of the computer system, no fault codes were found. The license plates were the last thing to be attached to the car.

Tomorrow the cars details will be entered into Sweden’s national car-register and made ready for delivery. Delivery service will be done and the car will go through an extensive check-list and also have some items such as floor-mats etc inserted and all the plastic protective covers removed. On either monday or tuesday the car will receive its Hirsch Performance engine upgrade that will upgrade the engine from 180 hp to 200 hp.