We have some guests from interstate at the moment, hence the slow posting this weekend.
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My thanks to Gunnar from AutomobilesDeluxe and Etienne and Golfhunter at Saabhuy for acknowledging the birth of SaabsUnited on their respecitve websites.
Wind at your back, sun shining on you, etc.
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There is no official Saab distributor in India, which is why the sighting of this Turbo X in Mumbai is quite surprising.
If you're the mystery Turbo X owner in India, then please drop us a line and tell us the story.
Thanks Dippen!
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Chris Bangle has shown off his last hurrah for BMW with the 5-series GT concept.
Looks like a slightly flattened X6 to me and like almost every BMW, is just plain unattractive.
Whilst I don't find the car appealing from that angle, a look from the rear is a different thing all together.
So that's turbocharging and the hatch they're threatening to take from Saab.
Time for Saab to take them back if you ask me.
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And finally, AutoVisie claim that this is the new 2011 Saab 9-5 wagon.
Something in me says "I hope not"
According to the article accompanying the image, they say that GM have stopped development of the 2.9 diesel being built in conjunction with VM Motori (which would be both a huge mistake and totally unsurprising). They also say there'll be a lot in common with the Saab 9-4x in terms of the interior of the vehicle, and that the look of the car has been very well received in market testing they've done so far, better in fact that Audis currently on the market.
Thanks to Jeroen and Jacco!
2. 5-Series GT = hideous from the b-pillar back.
3. That thing looks like a 9-4X photoshopped to look like a station wagon. If you look at the sedan on the RHS page, it looks like a chop of a 9-X concept front-end grafted to a sedan body.
So actually I'm starting to think that the spyshots of the next 9-5 will be the only pictures we will see of the next 9-5.
Too bad; I like the cars...
Even Ovlov , Audi has a dealer in India.
2. 5-seris GT looks horrible i must say.
3.I hope that GM has not stopped the development of the 2.9 diesel! but with GM you never know.. :(
Patrik>
DI and their so called anonymous sources will say a lot before the 17 Feb. Thats typical swedish media with their doom & gloom.
as long there is no official announcement then work will continue as before.
Twin turbos & xwd on all vehicles, both diesel and petrol.
Soon a 9-1.
More fuel efficiency.
Possibility of tri-brid combinations would be nice (petrol-lpg-bioethanol), soory for the technical nonsense, I have no slightest idea if that's possible or can be done or makes any sense. But somehow in my non-technical brain it makes just sense. They need something to kill the 'efficient dynamics'-slogan. Just as the drivers car-image, introduced many years ago, bmw is doing it again. Backed up by their good engineering and tough image of 'built in german quality'. And it sells, no mather how ugly their X-variations are.
Does twin turbo on the petrol cars makes sense ? Yes, look at the bmw anabolics 135i & 335i.
Signs of banckrupcy doesn't sound good.
That 9-1 or whatever it should be called below the 9-3 & new 9-5 are needed fast. And a coupé.
I can't see the advantages for an audi-A8-sized 9-5.
If Saab Automobile AB goes bankrupt, GM loses control and basically the workers pay are state guarantueed. The court appoints an bankruptcy adminstratior which has the task of minimizing the losses, including workers losses during law regulated leave time (in this case I guess most workers are in the 6 months category). I think such proceedings are extremly likely to lead to a continued life outside GM, especially Fiat (which supplies a lot of goods to Saab) would have direct financial interest that operations continue in Trollhättan. (As a bonus if Fiat takes over, the 2.9 Diesel obviously will be on the table again.)
I think the swedish PM is aware of the latter scenario, and if GM goes bankrupt I think it's quite preferable that Saab Automobile does as well, because otherwise Saab Automobile will be handled by a US bankruptcy administrator which is highly likely to be worse. And which may very well happen if the swedish goverment just hands over some money to Saab Automobile.
For the moment, I think we have to trust that the swedish goverment knows what it's doing.
Completely ignore that 9-5 Wagon picture.
Trust me It will not anything like that.
A picture speaks a thousands words so if I manage a sketch I'll send it Swade.
As Saab is not yet independent from GM and has no seperate books, how can it be bankrupt without the rest of GM being bankrupt? The rest of GM might be close to bankruptcy, but Saab really isn't in any worse postion than any other arm of GM. The media is just playing things up.
Back on topic, that 9-5 wagon is nothing short of hideous too. It looks like a gelatinous blob and those rear lights scream out 'design for designs sake' instead of Saab's 'form and function' ethos they had when Scandinavians designed Saabs. I cannot see the Swedish government allowing thousands of Swedes to lose their jobs in an industry that is a big part of their economy.
Saab Automobile AB is a swedish company and by law has to keep separate books. As Saab is wholly owned by GM, GM may move money to and from Saab, but the tax authorities have a say about how and might want a share as well depending on what money is moved. So in theory it's perfectly possible for Saab to be bankrupt without GM, or vice versa. Saabs value is an asset for GM, but GM is not required to give Saab any money (and it's unlikely that the US bailout plan will allow much of that, anyway).
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/6672/saab95sporthatch2008traqq9.jpg
I may (and probably am) ignorant about design values but that is just too much.
Audi would also bring in the occasional model which wasn't for sale, but when I saw an A3 or an A5 it would have Ingolstadt plates.
You probably know that Audi, Mercedes and BMW all assemble their most popular models in India, and they are as sought after as you would expect. Of course you don't actually drive your own car in India, so you'd often see a proud businessman sitting in the back seat of a C180 while his very nervous driver tried to thread the car through the traffic, praying to Lord Ganesh on the dashboard that the car would not be scratched.
Would Saab sell in India? I don't think so - even though 'saab' means 'sir' in Hindi. Mercedes and the others are well known names, and the idea is to be seen in one so that people know you have plenty of money. You don't get that if your car is from an unknown brand. I never met anyone who had heard of Saab, even the car-mad people in the office who dream of a Maruti Swift.
And finally there are very few places in India where you would ever be able to make use of the capabilities of a drivers' car like the Turbo X. They say Sachin Tendulkar has a Ferrari, but that's just because he is Sachin. Establishing Saab in India would cost an absolute fortune, and there are so many places where that marketing expenditure would pay much greater dividends.
Now _that_ would make a great microsite! But please no flash. :D
But what IF it would end...?
To me it would feel like losing a familymember.
It would feel almost as bad as when Concorde stopped flying, or when we stopped landing men on the moon... You see, I believe in Progress, but nowadays sometimes it seems there isn't much progress in the world anymore..
I started driving Saabs 25 years ago (a 99 Turbo!) because I was more into airplanes than cars; so to me it was a logical choice.
So I really hope I don't have to go shopping for another car-brand anytime soon..
As I saw the picture of that monstrosity I doubted a few seconds if I would by the magazine, scan the picture and send it over to swade, but then realized that this was a weird combination of 9-4X and SsanYong Rhodius, with a bit of old 9-5.
So decide to forget it. Hey woodz we 're waiting for your scetch!
As for the V-6, I am really unsure if the V6 still makes any sense and can fully understand it that GM halts this development. The 2.0 liter Vm diesel already brings in biturbo version 190 hp and 400Nm!
This will do for the first two years.
Don't know if I like the new 5 series GT. The X6 is hideous because of the size, but this is probably a better size. Maybe this is what everybody wants when they ask Saab to bring back the hatch.
ovlov's cheapest car in India is priced at around $100,000 when converting at current exchange rates. They have managed to create a brand image comparable to BMW over there since they were starting with a clean slate unsullied by the "family box on wheels" image of the past. Don't we know another Swedish brand that really could use hefty margins like that? Come on, GM. What are you guys thinking.
Of course it works against them now as most inter-city buses, whereever they were made, have the word 'Volvo' (or occasionally, vovlo), painted on the side.
The 95 wagon looks like a pretty rushed photoshop so I'm ignoring it.
Given the current market, I'd think that BMW is probably taking more notice of Porsche (Panamera) and Aston Martin (Volante?) with their upcoming super-hatches than Saab. Who haven't sold a hatch for 6+ years.
I'd love saab to be leading the field in this area ( ditto turbo'd engines) but to be realistic about it, that will take a big turnaround from the current picture. Flattery is the highest form of compliment and so we should be grateful that well-run and progressive businesses like BMW and Porsche are into turbos & hatches these days. Seriously, these guys are not Saabs problem. if anything, cars like this GT show the way for the future of Saab too.
Bangle is gone. Since the new 7-series the cars have been designed by the new guy at BMW (dont know his name). They look the same and are very boring.
This 5GT is like a lower X6. BMW is going the wrong way, I think, I hope ;)
To the pictures from AutoVisie, If they haven't got the front right, why should the know how the car looks from the back ??
To PT:
Maybe cost a Pannamera or a Volante 2x+ the price of a 5-series ?