A little distraction to pass the time…….
DRIVE is a motoring section attached to one of our larger media groups here in Australia, a group called Fairfax.
Like many motoring publications, DRIVE has an annual Car of The Year award and they’ve just announced their winners for 2009. No, Saab does not feature anywhere here, but I thought I’d cover this out of curiosity and as an extension to my comments about over-capacity and diversity from earlier today.
Here are the various categories and winners:
- Drive Car of the Year: VW Golf 118TSI
- Small car under $20,000: Ford Fiesta
- Small car over $20,000: VW Golf 118TSI
- Medium car: Mazda6 Classic
- Large car: Nissan Maxima 250 ST-L
- Convertible: Porsche Boxster
- People-mover: Honda Odyssey
- 4WD: Land Rover Discovery
- Performance car under $60,000: Volkswagen Golf GTI
- Performance car over $60,000: BMW 135i
- Luxury car under $60,000: Volkswagen Passat
- Luxury car over $60,000: Jaguar XF
- SUV under $40,000: Subaru Outback
- SUV over $40,000: Volvo XC60
- Utility: Holden Commodore SS ute
Now bear in mind as you read this list that Toyota are – by a large margin – the #1 seller here in Australia. Holden and Ford take up the next two spots.
And yet despite those three having the top three sales numbers for the last few decades, they only manage two awards between them. And neither of those awards were won by Toyota, the #1 seller.
The other curiosity here is that the vast majority of awards were won by European manufacturers. Only four of the awards came from Asian based companies and none of those companies took home more than one award.
——
These awards are just the thoughts of the motoring press at DRIVE. But they do go some way to showing the strengths of various companies and the diversity of what’s out there on offer.
And this is the parallel I’d like to draw with my argument against killing Saab off merely because of over-capacity in the market place.
Toyota show that having a variety of affordable and reliable vehicles can mean a lot in terms of sales, but this is just one small pointer towards the main thing everyone knows about Toyota – that they are far from aspirational or inspirational.
There are plenty of car buyers out there who want more than just adequate transportation and in a world market place of XX million vehicles per year, there’s definitely room for Saab to make 100,000 to 150,000 of those vehicles – as long as they’re good.
If the world’s manufacturing capacity has to shrink a little, I’d much rather see it shrink from the bloated volumes that companies like Toyota (lexus), Hyundai, Ford and GM put out into the market. Not from interesting marques like Saab, Jaguar and Porsche.
Just a thought.
Related posts:
{ 31 comments }
Haha YES! Finally a magazine that realizes that Toyota doesn’t really make a good car, just reliable ones! I’m not entirely familiar with some of those cars being that I’m from America, but I have to say that looks like a pretty good list of vehicles for once.
Two individual comments:
Performance car under $60,000: Volkswagen Golf GTI
That’s pretty awesome considering the GTI’s price tag. Again, not sure on the models in Australia but that’s a tough group of cars. After spending some time in one though, it isn’t surprising at all.
Performance car over $60,000: BMW 135i
This one doesn’t really make any sense. If we’re talking about cars at LEAST $60k, why not go for a 3 or 5 series? Now those are better cars than the “weeny” little 1 series (speaking comparatively) right?
Anyway, it’s nice to agree with one of these lists for once! Thanks for the post!
Hmmm…
Mighty impressed by Sportivo Aurion picked up Tulllamarine recently; great engine, performance, reasonable economy; superb chassis, nice stiff ride without being a pain in the city, great handling; very little body roll. Pity about the tackiest speedo and tacho, and dangerously poor rear and 3/4 view from inside.
Also just been driving wife’s 93 Camry to work for 3 weeks; very smooth and relaxing V6; Toyotas impress and inspire not by style or elegance or wow facto but by just being plain old good, useful and affordable… That’s quality!
Whether it’s cool or not but Toyota make exceptional, reliable, real world cars for everyday people – hard to beat really…
Garage: 88 Prelude, MY09 93, MY10 125i
Interesting perspective, Swade. Given the ups and downs of Saab’s business history, the level of enthusiasm for the brand is far greater than sales figures would suggest. Let’s hope that there remains a place for cars that have that certain something.
BTW: Let me +1 all the folks who’ve congratulated you on your masterful coverage of all things Saab. Way to go!!
The 135i is a very strong performer; 0 to 100 on about 5.3secs; it may be slower than a new M3 but is definitely more agile, communicative and seat-of the-pants.
Its twin turbo is so, so, sooo good, it scared the crikes out of my wife and I from getting it, fearing multiple traffic infringements and danger to body/limb!
And oh yeah… its growl is like singing man… its exhaust is music maker and you can definitely hear it!
And oh yeah… no turbo lag… no torque steer… instant response!
Only so so economy though…
Dammit!
I like to avoid giving praise to BMW, but I must pay respect where respect is due…. BMW are onto a winning thing with the 135i. Little car, monster engine.
I hope and wish for a Saab equivilent of this vehicle
I don’t have an interest in any of those cars on the list. 100% Saab.
When the time comes could you let me know how to invest in Merbanco.
Also, if you could I would like to know which 215/55/r16 97H tire is best for the 2008 9-3 2.0T. Is there a reason Saab went from a 93H tire in 2006 to the 97H in 2008? If it is safety, I will stay with the Pirelli’s, but is there a better tire?
@TinT: Invest in Merbanco? It will likely require the purchase or lease of a new SAAB automobile. The Merbanco info that I remember from here is they specialize in turning around distressed brands and making money off that activity.
@Toyota reliability: Several recalls have brought that into doubt. The reliability issues have caused troubles in Toyota’s dealership network (at least in the Southeast US). Toyota dealerships have historically had Audi-esque service departments. As a driver, the dealerships felt that “you suck, and they hate you.” Toyotas would not break, historically. Now they do. The volume, number of models, and number of suppliers caused the inevitable. Service departments at Toyota have had to make the painful transition from oxymoron to actually providing service.
@everyone: Cowboy Up!!
There’s a predictably biased but nevertheless interesting column in The Detroit News about the recent decline of Toyota:
Toyota not looking so shiny now
Also, the Toyota Urban Cruiser recently failed miserably in the Euro-NCAP crash test, which is something that would never have happened a few years ago. Maybe it’s inevitable to grow complacent when you’ve reached the top?
I have a 2008 9-3 and a 2009 9-3 XWD. But, I was really surprised when my wife didn’t want the 2009 9-5.
Toyota is a reasonable car for reasonable people. It expresses sanity and morality. You wear it like a pair of socks hidden beneath long leg pants (probably not jeans). They feel ok but you wouldn’t brag about them. The Saab socks go well together with a pair of shorts. You may not be god’s most pretty creature but by god you have the socks and you will show everyone ..
Today it’s all about long pants and long skirts. Tomorrow the skirts will shrink and the pants come off.
Too bad. She likely missed a really good car. I got a 2009 9-5 Griffin SportCombi in August. It’s the best put together 9-5 of the three 9-5s that I’ve had. For the Dame Edna haters, SAAB toned down the front by using matte aluminum trim.
My wife had test driven a ’08 9-5 Combi and didn’t like it. She says my 2009 is a far different and better car.
Is your 2009 9-3 XWD a Sedan or Combi? 2.0T or V6? Impressions? I am fighting temptation in the name of a 2009 9-3 Aero SportCombi XWD wit the V6.
If you were to live in Western Australia [its a decent size state] and do country driving then a 4 x 4 from toyota OR nissan is the only way to go due to extreme conditions and the given marques reliability.
That’s because there’s often been such a gap between what Saab as a brand stood for (and by extension, what most people get all rosy thinking about when they hear Saab) and the the actual Saab products that were available for sale.
It should be no surprise then that Saab’s best years in terms of market share were when they were building cars that honored all of the brands core principles and pushed them to their limit, while still satisfying everything that people expected from a car in their price range. On top of that, they combined that faithfulness to their brand heritage and class-competent execution with an exotic “gotta have” factor that made them into objects of desire to all sorts of people who were far-removed from the ranks of the brand faithful.
Saab may now have reached the end of it’s road, but if fate grants it one last chance to try and prove itself, the importance of once again imbuing it’s products with that brand faithful, “gotta have” factor is second to none.
My wife’s 2009 9-3 XWD is an ice blue 2.0 T SS. It was the only 2009 XWD on the lot. The one 9-5 on the lot has a black interior without vented seats. Not a good choice for Lubbock, Texas. The 9-3 Aero seats have a problem with the seat belts if one is short. It’s a break a finger nail thing. I like the 2.0 T engine. It’s a mpg thing. 24mpg city and 38mpg hwy. My laser red 2008 9-3 is a piece of art. It’s a beauty thing. None of our Saab’s have black interiors.
Off topic:
Saab 9-3X Test Pilot
In September 2009 the action “Looking for a test pilot for the Saab 9-3X”
started. The winner received a unique opportunity to drive the Saab 9-3X for six months. Applications to test pilots and the
Selection process took place at the International Motor Show
Frankfurt, 17 to 27 September 2009 at the Saab stand, the
Test pilot was selected from over 1,400 applicants.
The lucky winner is Kathrin – for six months, the Saab 9 –
3X be a part of her life. She will test how the Saab 9-3X is in active life – fits on the daily trip to work as well as to the way to the next mountain bike ride or a ski trip with friends.
Read the blog of Kathrin and learn more about their experiences with the
Saab 9-3X.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Saab-Test-Pilot/332951710252
Hey Trouble,
97H vs 93H bumps up the recommended load (weight of the vehicle) by an extra 200 kilograms or so – read here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tire_code
I was going to recommend Continental SportContact2 tyres as well…. but they don’t make a tyre your size (which is odd?).
I have the SportContact2s on the Viggen and they’re great….. but rim size is 17″
DOH!
That should have read 200 “pounds” not kilos…… and that’s per tyre by the way.
Where’s that edit button at?
I have considered changing rim size, but not to just trade the car in for a 2010 9-5. I will have to see the 9-5 in person first.
@Trouble in Texas – I just picked up my ’07 9-5 Sportcombi from your local Saab dealership in Lubbock just last Wednesday. Fortunately, it did have the ventilated seats – which surprisingly came in handy in late November in Lubbock.
Toyota might making boring reliable cars, but lets try to understand what “reliable” really means. Most people, sad but true, do not do the required maintence on a vehicle, and many cars, especially Saabs, take that abuse. Yesterday I drove a Saab trade in where the power seat controls were ripped off, both SIDs were destroyed, and no one had bothered to maintence the brakes or probably do regular oil changes.
What both Toyota and Apple are great at is educating the customer on how to use (drive) the device (car) and take care of it as simply as possible. Thats what reliability really means: how much will the car endure before it breaks down with bad driving and neglect. Toyota’s entire sale process is geared around this. They have a 500+ page manual that describes every feature of the car very simply and they also provide a detailed regular service booklet that TELLS the customer when to come in and get their maintenance.
The dealership where I work at (we have a lot of Saab refugees here) takes it a step further. We guarantee your engine for life if you perform your scheduled maintenance which includes FREE oil and filter changes for life. I explained it to one father who bought a Prius for his daughter… that this helps encourage people to learn about their cars and take an interest in taking car of what they own. You can even understand the Prius in this manner; Hybrid cars require less maintenance and are even more reliable than gasoline cars. If you have ever sat inside a Prius, there is no tachometer, temperature gage, not even a speedometer. They are designed to be “reliable” but also constrict the driver in order to ensure safety and reliability. Watch some of the videos on youtube about how to drive a Prius, completely reinventing the way we drive and handle cars.
Honestly I feel like part of some “driving elite” in my Saab, particularly that I try to work on my own. But in order to change this consumer trend people need to become invested in the spirit of what it means to drive, that awareness, and also need to learn about the value of taking care of their car.
At Toyota its about training customers by providing them excellent customer service: analyzing their needs with their financial situation and then luckily having the free oil changes and such. I wouldnt say we offer so much for free because Toyotas are a hard sell. Its really because people just generally do not “appreciate” in any sense of the word. In that way I am glad the 1980s are over. The current financial restriction might hurt Saab (or kill it) but hopefully Saab will be able to focus the way Toyota does by producing cars that both educate people into a higher strata of driving and also make super cool cars (pneumatic valve timing!!!) for us “driving elite”.
Toyota/Lexus have gotten rich selling the automotive equivalent of beige orthopedic shoes, and the majority of the media would have you believe that you should wear/drive them as well. If I ever spend $20-70k on something I don’t love driving every day, I’ll hang up my license and take the bus instead- it’s about as thrilling as driving anything Lex-ota has offered since the last Supra. they are offering an IS-F, which costs as much as a CTS-V or a lightly used M5, and a $400k supercar that performs like a $100k Corvette- I could buy a small aircraft for the remaining $300k to get my kicks. My answer to anyone who claims that they bought a Toyota because it “never breaks down” is simply: Neither does the bus.
@TinT: I live in South Carolina and firmly agree about ventilated seats. I had a black 9-5 with ventilated parchment seats. I now have a “glass gray metallic” (light blue) 9-5 with ventilated black seats. I honestly feel the blue car with black seats gets cooler quicker.
I too like the 2.0T engine. My wife’s 9-3 convertible has one. The MPG experience agrees with yours.
How’s your wife like the XWD factor? Any time on ice, sand, dirt, or gravel?
@sarah: Thanks for the insight into the Toyota sales and service experience. It is my understanding they’ve been turning it around in the past few years. Toyota service used to be kinda bad around the Charlotte NC area when my contact was in the dealer biz. I hope SAAB gets into the consultative sales and service approach. My SAAB dealers both say their customers know more about SAABs than SAAB corporate ever trains them on. That needs to change to bring more SAAB drivers into the fold and keep those cars maintained so we all have better resale potential.
I known that 2007 9-5 SC. It is white with 30K+ miles and scratches under the front bumper. My red 2008 9-3 SS only has 18K miles. I gave the 9-5 SC some thought. I still like my 9-3 better.
Yes that is my case when it comes to Saab. In buying my last Saab, I knew more than some of the salespersons, which was very discouraging! Though I want more of the technical data sheet than a sales pitch when it comes to Saab. But in terms of getting Saab into the open market and take a bit of Toyotas market share, it will have to be similar to Apple’s effort with Windows. Just like
CJ at Merbanco said, Saab needs those sales tactics from both Toyota and Apple combined with what their strengths are to tackle the world!
And at my dealership I have to wear complete business attire. We are very formal when it comes to selling cars; we do it right or we don’t do it at all. If you are from Charlotte NC I’m sure you have heard of Priority Automotive. Also! my first week here I met the body shop manager who is a retired Saab Master Mechanic from DC. He looked over my car, and I met some guy who rebuilds performance vehicles. He is driving around a rebuilt Saab 900 convertible. So my stint with Toyota is not without some serious Saab and Saab benefits!
No time on ice, sand, dirt, or gravel.
That’s the one! Figured that with a snoot as low as the 9-5 Aero’s, the scratches are just saving me the trouble from being ticked off at myself when I get my first scratch. Small world we Saab fans live in, eh?
I’m glad S and D sold another Saab – just wish it was a new one.
Swade makes a great point about unique brands not being the same as overcapacity… What is so unique and different about Acura, Infiniti, Suzuki, Skoda, Seat, GMC, Kia, etc etc etc? If any of those were to vanish, what would be lost? And, an actual historically unique brand like Saab is on the chopping block? Hard to believe…
I was at Thanksgiving dinner with a relative of my wife’s (an architect, of course) who just bought a ’09 9-3 2.0T XWD, his latest in about 20 yrs of Saabs. He was totally unaware of all of the latest news and chaos, loves his care, and would happily pony up for another because “They’re just so pleasant, like a best friend. Comfortable, reliable, and DIFFERENT.”
I’ll repeat what I posted on Autoblog in the comments second about “difference” in reply to someone posting that the entry of the Japanese brands essentially killed Saab… I’ll break it up into three parts… Warning – LONG!
PART I:
To JerryB:
I think you’re probably about half right. Certainly, the entrance of the Japanese makers really did help kill essentially all luxury makers not BMW or MB, but the story is, well, sadder and more complex than that.
Both Saab and Volvo (as well as Jaguar) were essentially victims of their own success. Their cars at their peak, whatever their flaws, were truly different from the mainstream. Even today, the 70′s and 80′s Saabs, Volvos, and Jaguars are iconic. Anyone can identify their profiles easily, and each brand really did stand for something. However, each of these “stable” brands came up against threats they were, as a result of their stability, uniquely unprepared to challenge, including:
- Regulations and market forces resulting in the increasing perfection of cars… Even the most mediocre of cars is bristling with safety features, performance, utility, engineering, craftsmanship, comfort, and value, items that previously defined the very identity of Volvo and Saab in particular… What car isn’t safe these days? Is a Volvo really safer today than a MKS or C-Class? Remember the days when a Saab 9000 Aero was the quickest in its class? These days, a Camry V6 would smoke that car… Who doesn’t have performance now?
- The undeniable, monolithic success of the MB/BMW/Lexus: Their model schemes, BMW’s performance, and Lexus’ silky luxury approach have made them the defacto standard to the point where they almost define luxury today. If you don’t try to at least match or ape their characteristics, you’re not “truly” a luxury car brand…
- The Japanese makes, for better or worse, redesigned their cars so fast that brand “identity” no longer has time to marinate and mature anymore. Thus, we get overdone, forced design languages (Bangle for BMW and Acura’s current “robocop” motif anyone?) and constantly shifting brand identities (Acura, Infinifi, Lexus) as they all try to leapfrog one another. This instantly condemns less resource rich yet stable brands identities (Saab, Jaguar, etc) to being stale in the marketplace…
- Ownership (Ford, GM, etc) that didn’t understand their brands succeeded by being different, and only saw them as gateways to “Euro Premium.” They understandably wanted to chase the same huge and only growing 3-series/E-class/X5 customer base. Both companies thus tried to morph their three small, unique European premium brands into “me too” BMW/MB/Lexus chasing mainstream brands. The irony is that both failed in different ways, GM failing by just failing, while Ford failed by succeeding. GM failed, underinvesting in Saab and thus it lost the interest of its customer base. Ford has built perhaps the best Volvos ever, but these BMW/MB competitive cars, by being more like their competition than different now, are less distinct, and thus have lost the interest of their customer base… Different story, same result.
TO BE CONTINUED……..
Part II:
The saddest thing for me is that the customer is partly to blame here too… Why do we all want cars that are so similar? Why don’t we want/tolerate/buy diversity? Look back at a 1983 car guide and marvel at how DIFFERENT in feel, look, and flavor all of the luxury cars were… Caddys and Lincolns were boat-like; Saabs were smart, quirky, and fast; MB were rolling bank vaults; BMW’s were practical performance cars; Volvos were utilitarian rolling bricks with cool, slotted, see through headrests.
Today, that’s all gone, and all luxury cars are different flavors of the same thing. Everyone is chasing a variation on a theme of the 3-C/5-E/7-S and if you’re not, shame on you! You’re not in the game… What, you don’t have a Lexus-style, creme colored, soft touch wide center console covered with flush buttons and back-lit in teal? Then you’re not class competitive… You don’t handle like a 3-series? Get outta the ring… Don’t have MB ride-handling balance? Don’t even apply… You lack all of these characteristics in one product? Then why exist? And we, the customer, are in part to blame… And before you dismiss me as an old fogie, I was in the single digits of age in 1983 and not certainly buying cars then… We’re in an undeniable golden-age of automotive speed, reliability, comfort, and, unfortunately, uniformity. I’m just jealous I don’t have as much choice now as buyers had in the past…
TO BE CONTINUED…
PART III:
And, my friends, that is how Jaguar, Saab, and Volvo, under new owners, have the potential to survive… By being genuinely different. Not like it is now… Saab, if it wants to survive, for instance, has to stop building 3-series or 5-series wannabe’s that throw a floor mounted ignition here or a joystick dash vent there to define “character.” The new 9-5, for as great as it really looks, is undeniably a Saab slant on the 5-E theme. No, I want a next-gen 93 or 95 that’s REALLY different, that doesn’t at ALL resemble what MB or BMW have on the lot… I want apples and oranges… I want a future 9-3 with a roof configuration, an interior layout, and a design scheme that absolutely defies comparison with a 3 series… I want the 3 to be from Mars, the Saab from Venus to the point where no comparison test would dare put them together and, if they did, only did so since their share the same price point. They should be that different… McLaren F1 for sedans kind of different. Apple computer kind of different.
If companies like Saab, Volvo, and Jaguar (and for my money, the me-too Acura, Infiniti, and Audi also, who really don’t have solid reasons yet to exist in my book) really can’t do this, really can’t create authentically DIFFERENT alternatives from, say, a 5-series rather than a car that feels like a 5-series with a superficially altered veneer, they they all should either fail or pack up their tents and go home. BMW, MB, and Lexus have won, and won handily. Don’t compete with them… You’re guaranteed to lose. You have to be different to survive. This is how Mini works… This is how Porsche (used) to work… This is how Cadillac (love or hate their design) has been trying to work… This is what Lincoln is groping (somewhat unsuccessfully) towards… Models of luxury (Swedish, American, etc) different from the MB/BMW/Lexus motif that will sell…
My question is, if those companies success, will the public actually care enough to buy them? I hope we live in a world where that’s so, and if Saab can do it, I’ll be first in line…
One more thing…
I own a 135i (my last BMW) and it’s a pretty special little car… Incredible performance in a very classy, unassuming package. Its biggest problem that it’s just SO capable, SO overwhelmingly accomplished that it’s more than a little boring as a daily driver. You need an empty, twisty, police-free road (which I don’t have much of) to really bring out its personality…
Very little on the road like it and worthy of the award.
Comments on this entry are closed.