by Swade
October 31, 2010 in Saabology
For those of you who are into it, I hope you enjoy your Halloween festivities. As a side note, Pontiac officially dies today.
Saab lives.
Till72 and family did some pumpkin carving for the occasion. Can you tell which on he carved?
Here’s a closeup:
And here are a few motorised pumpkins for your enjoyment 
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by Swade
October 31, 2010 in Saabology
You’ve got to love the Irish. They have a way with words.
Any road test with the words “by golly” is one that I want to read. Unlike so many other articles you might come across, you know that someone using that phrase is not trying to be a road testing rock star.
Our author draws parallels between the resurrection of Saab and the resurrection needed in the Irish economy:
This car had a strange effect on me. Let me tell you why. Last year, the chances of me reviewing it were remote. Saab was in its death throes. The obituaries were written. It was effectively on the scrapheap.
Yet by dint of perseverance and God knows what else, somehow it was salvaged. It now has a future. It now has plans…..
…..I am so numb with the gloom of economy and society at this stage I am beginning to wonder if we are anaesthetising ourselves with the bleakness. Sure, an economy is not like a carmaker but there are parallels. And we have to believe we can do a Saab.
He eventually gets to driving the 2.0 TiD as well. It’s not 100% wine and roses, but it is a very good and honest assessment of the car, without the flowery catchphrases you get used to in the motoring press sometimes.He even goes so far as to recognise when his criticisms might constitute nitpicking. Amazing!
There’s praise for the engine, the cabin, the seats and the solid build quality and cruising comfort. On the flip, there’s some downside on the gearbox and dashboard. As mentioned, it’s a very honest assessment.
I’ll let you get to that yourselves. Click here to read the full review over at The Independent.
For a final word, though:
I wish we had the equivalent for dealing with the whiplash of budget cuts. We don’t. But we might take some heart from the Saab experience. We can bounce back. No doubt at all about that. And what a great symbol it would be if we could get the ministers out of their big state cars and into a few Saabs. It might stand as a daily reminder of what can be achieved.
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by Swade
October 31, 2010 in Troll Stuff
Bloggers do tend to observe these things sometimes…..
Trollhattan Saab ran for nearly four years and attracted just over 50,000 comments. SU has been operational for around 21 months now – and we’re about to tick over to six figures.
Thanks to all who come along and join in the fun. The 90,000th comment came in overnight. It was “hipchecker” talking about the Art of Camouflage ad.
Cheers,
SW
by Swade
October 30, 2010 in Saabology
This is an ad for a clothing store. Or Owls.
It also features the Saab 9-5 quite prominently.
If you’re in Holland, then go buy some shirts, or owls, at the Art of Camouflage to say thanks.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFzkDkAWf-I
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by Swade
October 30, 2010 in News, Saabology
Olav’s road test of a Saab 9-5 1.6T was part of a long test drive event – a Saab Caravan – being held by Saab Norway.
The event is about half way to being done, but the good news if you’re in Norway is that there are still plenty of dates where you can join in the fun.
Click.
Check out the Saab Caravan page at Saab Norway for full details and make sure you get some seat time in Saab’s new 9-5.
And kudos to Saab Norway for a great initiative.
by Swade
October 30, 2010 in Saabology
Any of you who are in proximity to Huy, in Belgium, and haven’t made your mind up to go along to the big gathering there this weekend, here’s a brief look at the program.
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Schedule for the Meeting on sunday 31/10:
9-11 – Arrival of the cars (on the Grand Place and surrounding streets) and set up of the parts fair
(on the Place Verte)
9-14H Meeting and Parts fair
14-14H30 Official end of the meeting with announcement of the most beautiful car of the day.
Starting 14h30 we would like to invite you to join us for a drive through the region.
departure of the cars…
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As I said, it’s brief.
Don’t let brevity fool you, though, this is going to be a great gathering with Saabs coming from plenty of surrounding countries to join in.
The Brits are on their way as we speak and they’ll be joined by a bunch of French Saabs in convoy.
So if you’re even remotely close, get along and enjoy the day. Etienne and Golfhunter would love to see you there!
by Swade
October 30, 2010 in Saabology
The headline says it all.
I think it might be high time for some Turbo X appreciation, too. It’s a model that copped a small amount of criticism from some quarters at first, but it’s position in Saab’s history as the first XWD vehicle and quite a special car is pretty well assured now. Hindsight’s a beautiful thing. Best we keep that in mind.
This is Nate’s story, complete with obligatory Saab hug. There’s some good stuff about dealer relationships in here, too. Kudos to Iowa City for doing what they do.
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I took possession of my Turbo X SportCombi on Tuesday, October 19th, and I could not be happier. I have longed for this car ever since we saw the spy pics of the prototypes that were bashed as looking like Pontiac Sunfires! I am blessed to own my dream car.
My original plan was to purchase one with a manual gearbox. I ended up purchasing the automatic gearbox. My wife and I plan to own this car for some time, so I thought the automatic would be the safer bet. A lifetime of high impact athletics has left me with bad knees and I would hate to have to trade my Turbo X because of my gimpiness! Trust me; it was a battle royal between Macho Nate and Responsible Nate. I even had a manual lined up for purchase at an out-of-state-dealer.
I purchased the Turbo X from my local dealer at Iowa City SAAB. It was purchased sight unseen. I have a lot of trust with my local dealer. If they say the car is clean, then that is good enough for me. They backed that up with a CPO warranty, too. I think that there is a great lesson for any SAAB dealer. Develop trust with your customers and they will buy cars from you. My wife and I have now purchased three cars from this great dealership and I am sure that there will be more in the future.
A side note: This car was traded in for a NG 9-5. I am happy to take one for the team!
The car is GREAT! I have never driven an AWD car before. I have never known what the expression “drives like it is on rails” was meant to describe. I do now! This car is just stuck to the ground. My friends that have driven it have all commented on the firmness of the car and how much control the driver has over it. And this is with the automatic gearbox. They would be even more impressed if they only knew of all the compromises that SAAB to deal with and engineer around.
The exhaust note is great. I actually think that the car is very quiet and the exhaust is subdued in the cabin. I know that this is something that others have complained about. I am very familiar with the interior since it is a lot like my wife’s car. If I have one criticism it is the door handles. I have read other commenters complain about the Cadillac door handles in the past. I often wondered what the big deal was. Now I know. They are clucky when compared to traditional SAAB door handles.
Our financial plan dictates that my wife and I hold onto our cars for some time. Given that, it is quite fitting that we both have black sportcombis. We call them “his” and “hers”! She has a black 2007 9-3 SportCombi 2.0 Anniversary Edition. They make quite a pair in the driveway. Although I will own this for some time I plan to spruce it up once a year with some type of Hirsch goodie. Initially it will likely be the interior. But once Hirsch gets the 300 HP engine tune here in the US I will be all over it. Genuine SAAB also has a 2-point sub frame brace that I am aiming for and of course, a SAAB roof rack for my kayak ☺
by Swade
October 30, 2010 in Saabology
RE-Posted as a response to the Spyker Cars Q3 report from yesterday. Those in the media and elsewhere who look merely at the bottom line without looking at what’s behind it are doing Saab a disservice.
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This one’s for the skeptics, the non-believers, the ones who said that Saab could never make it past 2009 and the ones who say they’re not doing enough now.
Saab were at death’s door at the end of 2009. GM were trying to sell the company but it felt like precious little real progress was being made. One deal fell through. GM gave Saab a month to live and a liquidator was actually sitting in the CEO’s chair in Trollhattan, making plans to break up the company. A company rarely gets any closer to being dead without actually dying and all this happened after Saab went through the biggest corporate reconstruction in Swedish history.
The road ahead won’t be easy, but it’s worth taking a moment to look back and observe everything that Saab’s been through – and achieved – so far in 2010.
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They made their first Trollhattan-built convertible in early January.
An agreement was reached to sell Saab to Spyker Cars NV on January 27. Don’t let that short sentence dissuade you from the gravity of that occasion.
They produced the final of the old series Saab 9-5 in February, gearing the plant up for the new series to come. The Saab plant in Trollhattan would now build the full 9-3 range – sedan, SportCombi, Convertible as well as the new Saab 9-5, with the new 9-5 wagon still to come.
by Swade
October 30, 2010 in Saabology
Saab are promoting the runout of 2010 stock in the US and have run this advertisement today in both the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.
That’s some massive coverage not just for this campaign, but for the brand as a whole.
Just checked out Shaw Saab’s stock of 2010 Saabs, too. They publish around 80 photos of each car in stock! Amazing.
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by Swade
October 30, 2010 in Saabology
by Swade
October 29, 2010 in News
The Elmia Subcontrsactor Fair is one of the bigger trade shows for suppliers and when Saab turn up at the Elmia Subcontractor show, it’s usually as a buyer.
This year, they’re taking a stand of their own as a provider of engineering services.
This is all part of Victor’s plan to lower the bottom line – share your technology, your expertise, and expertise is something that Saab’s got plenty of.
The following Googletrans was sent through by Arild (original):
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Elmia Subcontractor presents: The Subcontractor Saab
Saab Automobile is coming to Elmia Subcontractor, 9-12 November, as an exhibitor.
- A very exciting development! I believe that the fact that Saab is committed to broadening their business and finding new ways can inspire many others to new thinking, says Jonas Ekeroth, project leader at Elmia Subcontractor.
Saab took the decision to start selling its services to other companies in the spring and expects to thereby employ 100-150 people during next year. The plans were to first introduce the concept at a fair in the U.S., but the company has now chosen Elmia Subcontractor instead.
- We see this as an acknowledgment of the importance this meeting place has for the industry. We have in the past year tried to emphasize the possibilities for Swedish subcontractors if they dare to venture out into new markets and find new customers. In that respect, I think that Saab could be an important example for many, says Jonas Ekeroth.
When Saab was separated from GM in spring, the company was in some areas considerably oversized. But instead of cutting down on the workforce, Saab decided to set up the unit Saab Engineering Services, which offers its expertise to other companies. Above all they offer their engineering expertise in design, testing and prototyping and also press forging.
An additional gain that Saab sees in this decision, besides the economic, is that by working with other industries Saab can acquire new knowledge that can be used in car production.
- I notice that our engineers enjoy this, to test their knowledge with other industries and gain experience. By extension, this is positive for the cars we develop and build here in Trollhättan, says Per Lindberg, president of Saab Engineering Services.
by Swade
October 29, 2010 in Saabology
There hasn’t been much said about the baby of the Saab range to this point. The 1.6T must have just started making its way to dealers as I haven’t read anything about it yet.
One of our longest serving regular readers – Olav S from Norway – recently attended a dealer event and had a chance to drive a couple of 9-5s, including the 1.6T.
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Today I was invited by our local SAAB dealer here in Stavanger, Norway, to meet SAAB Norway’s SAAB Convoy. They had brought a lot of cars with them (a lot of different versions of both 9-3 and 9-5), but I was only interested in different versions of the new 9-5 tonight. Earlier this year I test drove the 160 hp TiD with the automatic gearbox. Nice car, but since I don’t care about diesels in fine automobiles I was pretty much excited that today I could take a ride in the 220 HP Aero with automatic and XWD. And I did, BUT, I also test drove a 9-5 with the new 1.6 Litre and 180HP engine!
Some impressions below, I’ll start with the newcomer.
SAAB 9-5 with the 1,6 litre 180 hp engine, blue metallic exterior with cream coloured leather (I don’t remember the codes), manual gearbox, navigation and (I guess) 17” alu wheel on soft winter tyres:
Then I jumped in and took the Aero XWD with 220 hp for a spin. The Aero was fitted with (I guess) 19” turbine wheel, automatic gearbox, HUD, navigation plus more. Colour combination: Silver with dark leather.
The 9-5 with the 1,6 litre engine felt to have a harder suspension setup than the Aero. I found that strange, but forgot to ask the SAAB representative when I returned the keyless thing.
It’s a short and a fast summary in very bad English, and maybe it’s not news at all, but I just wanted to share my enthusiasm.
I asked my Dealer about how the SAAB sale was going, and he just smiled and said the good old SAAB days are back. When I was out there they sold several new SAABs, and they had also received around 20 new SAABs this month – they were all already sold out to customers. Well, not exactly, the Dealer should keep two as they needed more demo cars.
It was very nice watching the new enthusiasm at my dealer, and what a healthy sign it was to see lots of people queueing in front of the desk, signing their names on the list for test drives.
Go SAAB, GO!
by Swade
October 29, 2010 in News
From comments, it seems Spyker’s shareholders were expecting better results from the Spyker Cars 2010 Q3 financial report. A continued loss was expected, but maybe this is more than expected. The share price is down 11% on early trading.
TTELA have put together a report based on the conference call given in relation to the report. The following is the Googltrans:
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Loss for Saab owners
Dutch Spyker, owner of Saab Automobile, has made a loss before tax of EUR 50.1 million (470 million) for the third quarter.
During the same quarter in 2009 made the Spyker was a loss of 3.4 million. For the period 1 January to 30 September 2010 is the loss of 158.9 million euros.
Losses are expected as Spyker’s management to continue roll in 2010-2011, but in 2012 the company [expects to be] be profitable.
For the full year, Spyker expect a wholsale volume of 30000-35000 cars.
During the third quarter of 7430, Saab sold cars to customers. Compared with the second quarter is an increase of 34 percent.
But over the same quarter last year, this is down 10 percent.
Over the first nine months, it is much worse for Saab this year than last year. Until September, Saab’s total sales of 17 965 cars.
Both Saab’s President Victor Muller and Saab’s CEO Jan Ake Jonsson says that there are many challenges left for the company. But they stick to that plan is followed.
- We are on track and feel full of confidence,” says Jan Åke Jonsson at a telephone news conference.
He highlighted that sales will increase after the summer.
- September was 100 percent higher than August, “he says.
At the same time allows Jonsson that management believed that the recovery would be faster.
- We had hoped to recoup much of the volumes that we lost in the winding-up but now we see that it does not. We had some disruptions in the supply chain at the start affecting us and we had some delays in its product range, “he says.
Jonsson also points out that Saab is currently focusing not only on volume.
- Volume is not everything for us right now. It is important that we maintain discipline and sells the right way so that we can profit and get down break-even level, “he says.
Last year, Saab has sold 32 609 cars between January and September. This represents a decrease of 45 percent.
The rate of production at the plant are much higher now than in the third quarter of 2009. Saab has built 9777 cars compared with 2780 last year.
by Swade
October 29, 2010 in News
Click here (right click, save as) to get your PDF copy of Spyker Cars third quarter financial report.
The PDF isn’t letting me cut and past text, so you’ll have to make do with screenshots for now.
Click.
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by Swade
October 29, 2010 in Saabology
This is one of the bigger reviews for Saab. It’s not Car and Driver, or MotorTrend, or any of those big buff mags. What it is, however, is one of the biggest publications in one of Saab’s biggest markets – The Boston Globe.
One great point about the review is their coverage of the campaign waged by enthusiasts to support the sale of Saab. It really emphasises the point that this is a company that was worth fighting for. The new Saab 9-5 is the first reward for that fight.
……when GM said in December that it would “wind down” Saab after failing to sell it, they couldn’t issue another press release and walk away. Saab dealers had become used car lots as GM halted production. Saab loyalists were furious.
Through their rage in the media, protests at GM headquarters, and outpouring of support to local dealers, Saab fans convinced GM to allow a proper sale in January to Dutch-based Spyker Cars.
The review comes out quite favourably for the Saab 9-5, too, although I wish the author had concentrated a bit more on the 2011 range than on the 2010 car he was driving. The focus on what is a very short model year takes some of the shine off the car as a potential drawcard for customers in the Boston market.
Some other snippets…..
Now that it’s here, the 2010 9-5 is a modern, distinctive luxury sedan. The blacked-out pillars, angled roofline, turbine fan wheels, and blue-tinted light surrounds create an elegant form. Green interior lighting dresses up the trademark “egg crate” vents and sleek driver-oriented dashboard…..
…..When you’re not manhandling it, the 9-5 feels quiet and unobtrusive. Directional stability and rain-sensing wipers were top-notch as I forged through a heavy storm, following a convoy of journalists from the Poconos. I was one-handing the 9-5 as it got pelted and drenched, tuning the radio to country and sinking into the firm, ventilated seat. This is the only time I’ll say this, but there’s no chance I’d have traded it for my colleague’s Corvette ZR1.
Click here to read the full article at the Boston Globe.
And well done to my good mate at Charles River Saab, Pierre Belperron, for setting up the test. Good pro-active stuff!
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