Entries will be slow this week, as once again the real world and work are going to occupy my time more than they normally would. I’ll still be around, but only for a few hours a day and at hourly rates that’ll make me wince.
Before I go, though, I thought you might enjoy these images of the 2010 Saab 9-5 in testing over the Grossglockner pass in Austria.
A reader named Rickard caught up with the test car on the road there and he tells me they had parked at the Edelwisspitze, then taking the car reasonably slowly down the curvy road in what looked like braking tests.
These are some great new photos and the second one, specially, has quite a presence to it.
Thanks Rickard!
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Car looks great! But are those hubcaps?
Swade, some time off to focus on job and family is well justified. You have done a tremendous job keeping us all Saabista informed and then some. As things will be seemingly quiet this week, a slower pace is in order.
Hopefully quieter, Kroum. There is that US bankruptcy deadline on Friday the 10th, but should be back at full steam by then.
Swade, your gravatar is so very Oz-Wizard.
wow, three different 9-5 tests in same week, different wheels on each.
give us a daily snippet post if you can.
Swade – don’t too far. The next 10 days should be important to Saab with the GM decision and the Saab negotiation front. From comments the last two weeks, the Sweden Government could make or break the deal the next few weeks.
What I don’t understand is if the 9-5 is so close to launch (Fall, Frankfurt), why are there still technical tests being done this late in the game ?
Cause the testers from GM have nothing else to do and they want to drive the coolest Saab ever? Who can blame them?
I think they fell behind few months when
GM fiasco suraced last year & than when
SAAB went in reconstruction in Feb.
Or they want to spice it up a bit, now that
they can see light at the end of tunnel.
Ups!
I meant to say “surfaced”;not suraced
I can’t wait for this car to be revealed!
Hahaha, maybe it’s Fritz Henderson driving around and the other GM staff can’t get him out of the car, LOL !
Yeah who are these people driving the NG around, and how do I get their JOBS!?
I think it is a good thing that they keep testing the viechle as this hopefully will mean a more matured product. Especially as they did simulations instead of early prototyping (where have I read this?)!?
As I software developer I’m to well aware of the fact that there is always one more bug…
Kroum: hubcaps, I believe. Ah, where is the fine art of hubcap design gone to? Why do all caps have to look as if the were alloy wheels? Why are are we back to “you can have it in any colour, as long as it is -emm- grey”?
Release vs testing: as you might recall, the NG9-5 has been postponed. It will be _shown_ in Frankfort, but released at least half a year later. So, evidently, still a lot of work and testing, and we might not even have seen the final shape, as the tooling is not yet made (?) and we have mostly seen mules so far.
They have a window open…
Does this mean that AC is an option? (-:
SaabKen – there’s testing all the way up to the preproduction series and even beyond. For example, when the VE Holden Commodore was already in production and exported from Australia to the Middle East as the Chevrolet Lumina, one of those Chevrolets (a white one) popped up in the US wearing manufacturrr plates: GM was testing it for the Pontiac G8 launch.
Nice! According to the Swedish Transport Agency the car has got 260HP… have we botten any news about the engines yet?
Nice! According to the Swedish Transport Agency the car has got 260HP… have we got any news about the engines yet?
I also took a short movie clip with my digital camera, since the bad quality. Posted it on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaHbJHtPJDg.
To bad the interior were covered up when i took the photos. Looked like it isn’t covered on the first photo, wonder if he had time to cover it up till we got to the top.
Hej Peter!
I assume the 260hp engine to be the Direct Injection 2.0L turbo inline 4 engine used in the Pontiac Solstice GXP, Saturn Sky Red Line, and Chevrolet Cobalt SS.
Kram!
Pedro
Nice, they are looking for me t deliver my new car
What a shame I wasn’t at home….
The last motor list for the NG9-5 posted here at SU looked like this.
http://www.saabsunited.com/2009/05/2010-saab-9-5-vin-decoder.html
Petrol
2.0T SIDI unknown
2.0T 220bhp
2.6t V6 260bhp or 280 bhp (Insignia/Turbo X)
2.6T V6 325 bhp (as in Insignia OPC)
But the swedish media have spoken of a 1.6T basis engine with 180 bhp (Insignia)
Diesel
2.0T 160bhp
2.0TT 190bhp
Both also found in the Insignia
A big diesel is still missing, as the VM-Motori 2.9 V6 Diesel won’t be build. From my personal point of view, I hope they can get their hands on the PSA V6 diesel or the new Renault-Nissan V6 Diesel.
Kroum,
if they were running a brake-stress test, and this is what every european car manufacturer does at the Grossglockner pass road, they had to choose rims that are as closed as posible, ant this are normally steel rims with plastic hubcaps or Volvo DRIVe rims
Ah, Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse…
that 2.8T V6 325 bhp will be a helluva car… with Haldex 4th gen on board. Just hope they will make it truly saabish i.e. fast, powerful, torquey yet relaxed… hopefully not all Polish Saab dealers will go bust before it’s launched as I might, just might consider swapping my 9-3 SS 2.8T XWD for this beauty
Me +1 on diesel. VW/Audi new U.S. ad campaigns focus on clean diesel.
The North American market is going to have a 3.6L direct-injection six with 260bhp so that could be it.
I have to agree that Saab needs a six-cylinder diesel if they wanna play with the big boys. Having said that I am happy for Saab to find their own road.
The slow pace is in accordance with this. Try to get in as much heat as you can under the circumstances.
That is the tourist test.
There are people who think that gowing down slowly but with the brakes continously applied is the safest way.
In fact this is the quickest way to burn your brakes.
So that is why they do the tourist test.
Just looked at Rickard’s film (BTW remove the last dot in the link, otherwise you get a failure message).
That confirms my idea that they were doing the tourist test. When you see the back of the vehicle the brake light are constantly on.
…focus on US way of clean diesel.
I’ve read an article about the renault-Nissan engine, and allthough it is clean enaough for the EU market, they can get it US-clean.
Zippy, where did you heard about that? It would be quite un-saaby to drive a 3.6L Engine with only 260bhp.
Zippy, I hope to God that isn’t true… it’s bad enough already that the stigma against 4-cyl engines in the US is making SAAB use the 3.0L DI V6 instead of the SIDI turbo inline 4 on the 9-4X.
The new 9-5 needs a strong Diesel engine!
V6, 3l, BiTurbo with around 300 HP and ~600 Nm torque.
Everything else won’t work (in Germany and France).
Why has SAAB have to have the most powerful Engine on the market to sell cars ??
Something about 250 bhp would IMO do the job quite well, btw what you describe is more like an Aero Diesel, but I don’t think this is the 1st priority for SAAB at this time.
Because nobody (no company and no private household) wants to pay SAAB-prices for a car which has lower performance and higher CO2-emissions.
Saab does not need the most horsepower, but it does need the torquiest engine.
Something like the 535d from BMW would be great.
180g/km CO2 and 300 HP with greate torque.
The Grossglockner Hochalpenstrasse is a great road, went up it on holiday one year. My Dad had a Toyota Avensis at the time and the brakes, clutch everything overheated (a 2003 estate, not a really old one).
Saab do need to bring a good diesel engine to the party to sell in the premium segment, the XFs got a wonderful diesel engine, as does the 535d.
Not trying to be personal, but your dad should learn how to drive in the mountains. I can’t imagine the Toyota being sooooo bad.
I would also like SAAB getting the PSA (read jag XF) engine. JÅJ said at the begining of the year SAAB had some alternatives to the Vm Motori engine, I hope when the wagon comes the Diesel will be ready.
Your link didn’t work for me but I believe this was the one you meant to post?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaHbJHtPJDg
Yes, just noticed that my URL didn’t work, and you were correct about the URL:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaHbJHtPJDg
/ Rickard
No it was probably a mix of both aspects, me exaggerating a bit and my Dad’s mountain driving not being very good, where we live there aren’t any, so not much room to practice.
That’s why Saab does this kind of test.
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