by JasonPowell
November 28, 2011 in Editorial
While we are in the midst of a quite weekend with not much being said about what is happening with Saab, now seems to be a good time to bring up trade-ins or used cars. I’ve written a little about the safety of Saab’s and the exceptional value of a used Saab and to add to those two, I think it’s best we know a little about what goes into those traded in Saab’s and why I feel there is great value in used Saab’s.
by TimR
November 27, 2011 in Editorial, Technical, test drive
On friday morning, I bought my first car with an automatic transmission. I’m probably one of the most fanatic E85 drivers in the country and I’ve been on a constant quest to get the fuel consumption down and promoting the fuel to other drivers.
So buying a car with an automatic transmission I was prepared for some very high fuel consumption, having heard horror stories of extreme consumption with such cars. Well, today was the big test. There is a storm in Sweden right now so to make sure that I would be able to depart from Stockholm Arlanda Airport tomorrow morning, the operations office at the airline I work asked if I would be able to drive up rather than a plane or train, which would probably be seriously delayed or in worst case canceled due to the storm that is hammering down on the west coast of Sweden during sunday afternoon.
Loving the road like I do, I jumped at the chance! The total distance from my home outside Växjö is about 490 km, with about 90% of the route having a speed limit of about 110 km/h, about 30% being at 120 km/h.
Yesterday I did some basic maintenance on the car which I always do on cars I just bought, by replacing the oil, oil-filter, spark-plugs and air filter. This usually does good for the fuel consumption.
Anyway I drove about 50 or so km and then decided to refuel and start the big test. I filled up the tank with E85, the previous 2 tanks were also E85 so I’m sure there was no normal gasoline in it to spoil the figures. I started to drive the first 30% of the route fully automatic with the cruise-control at 110 km/h, at that stage the country side becomes very bumpy with some pretty long ups and downs and every time the road got a bit steeper the car shifted to fourth gear even though the RPM was above 2000. So I went to Manual mode and put it in fifth gear, driving almost the entire route like that.
After about 80 km after the re-fueling I checked the fuel consumption and I was extremely surprised. I was expecting something like 10,1 liters per 100 km which is fairly good for a car with manual transmission in those speeds. The actual fuel consumption was 9,2 liters / 100 km.
At this stage the speed increased to 120 km/h, the traffic was pretty fair but it was also raining constantly with a very strong cross-wind. The tires mounted on the car are Continental ContactSport 3, 225×50 mounted on 17-inch rims.
Getting closer to Stockholm, the average speed dropped due to the increase in traffic, the average speed for the last 60 km was about 80 km/h. Arriving on-time at Arlanda, I proceeded to the first service station which is located right next to the cargo terminals at the airport.
Checking the trip-computer I was expecting a big increase do the mixed traffic situation with a lot of de- and acceleration and some city driving around the airport as well. But, it was a pleasure to see the results:
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by Red J
November 27, 2011 in Saabology, ssd
I think it has ben a long time since the last snippets post from Saabsunited, but the reasons, at least from my side have been many and different.
It is a long time since I’ve posted about the Saab Sales Data. First of all, Saabsunited will reopen the SSD section of the site, but it is not the top priority now, and we all know why. Despite this I keep collecting the data and finding more reliable sources for the registration numbers.
by ValS
November 27, 2011 in Hirsch
It is quite a long time since a SAAB of the week of presented here on SU. Please welcome Sergei and his 9-5 Aero fully loaded by Hirsch – 280+HPs, 19”rims, exterior/interior, everything!
Now Sergei is casting different spells on the engine – new custom made intercooler, blow-off already installed and more to come!
Enjoy the pictures!
More after jump! Read the rest of this entry →
by TimR
November 27, 2011 in SaabsUnited Related
We have made a slight update of the Comments policy, which is now known as the Website Policy. Please read! =) If you have any suggestions for alterations of this, please e-mail us!
The new website policy can be found in the menu listing “About” or click here http://www.saabsunited.com/about/website-policy
by StateofNine
November 26, 2011 in State of Nine
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by ValS
November 26, 2011 in Events, News, Off-Topic, SaabsUnited Related
Sometime ago SaabsUnited became available in French. The idea was to share the information of the SU with our french speaking readers. The content of the SU.fr is quite similar to the content of the main SU.
So the similar idea is here – to make SU materials available for russian speaking Saab fans. We’re happy to launch the Saablog.ru! This will also help us to gather interesting information from russian speaking world as saablog.ru will share its info with SU.com via SU crew!
At the moment the authors are me and Nikolay Kachev, who’s also responsible for the technical support. The appearance is quite similar to the SU and most of the features are also availabe.
Welcome!! www.saablog.ru
by Red J
November 26, 2011 in News
Dagens Nyheter has posted a short article on what they think the new proposal from YMPD for GM is. As you can see, they are still trying to reach a 100% ownership of Saab, but now Youngman would be the minority owner.
I’m not sure if this will make GM move from the NO to a YES, but I also don’t think that YMPD has made this proposition without knowing GM’s real reasons for the NO.
We are now in a similar situation as in December 2009, we have a GM not willing to sell, and a new owner with very interesting plans for our beloved brand. I’m only hoping that this time the new owner really has the money needed to make Saab flourish.
by RobinM
November 25, 2011 in News
This cover picture from Teknikens Varld dropped into our mail box and I thought it would be nice to share it with you.
Big thank you to Jan Erik.
by Rune
November 25, 2011 in Editorial
Sigh.
Given the present situation, there are a number of problems I’d love to have in their stead.
Some of the comments left on SU the past couple of days are almost ecstatic. Most of you have seen them. Apparently a number of people told us that Antonov was a crook and Saab was better off without him.
First of all: An arrest does not guarantee a conviction in a court case. Antonov remains innocent until proven guilty.
With that out of the way, I am curious about what a worst case scenario would have been. We need to deploy the ‘what if?’-machine and go back in time.
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by Trued
November 25, 2011 in News
Last night a representative for the lithuanian finance & bank inspection argued that the money they claim is missing from the banks, and partly what the prosecutors arrest warrant was based on, has been transfered into Saab. If that is the case they are going to act in a way to get them back. This can not be good news at all for SWAN/Saab.
As fragile everything is now this latest story was not in any way positive. Lets hope the legal system in lithuania gets this case closed soon.
by TimR
November 24, 2011 in News
EDIT! London court has released VA after having settled a bail.
The owner of Portsmouth Football Club, Vladimir Antonov, has been arrested in an inquiry into asset stripping.
Lithuanian prosecutors want to question him as part of an investigation into claims involving Snoras Bank. They are also seeking his business partner Raimondas Baranauskas. Both are former managers and shareholders of the bank and deny any wrongdoing. Portsmouth FC said its business operations were unaffected and its day-to-day operations “carry on as normal”.
by TimR
November 24, 2011 in Editorial, News
P4 West managed to get hold of James Cain at GM in the United States despite the country having a national holiday today for a comment on the issues surrounding Saab. The message from him was clear: We have not changed our opinion!…
We have heard rumors of GM having made a counter-bid to Saab for a partial chinese ownership. What interests me greatly is that only Pang Da seams to have signed the MoU extension which expires tomorrow. Could it be that a new party has a deal which only involves Pang Da as a part-owner together with this new party.
GM’s issue with the chinese companies seam to only involve the production of cars in china, which is as far as I have understood is the main reason why Youngman is interested in Saab. If this fact was not an issue anymore, perhaps GM might accept a partial chinese ownership that would not involve any production in China, hence only Pang Da is left in the deal?
by Red J
November 24, 2011 in Off-Topic
Slightly edited by Trued. Sorry RedJ just had to do it!
I worked for Swedish DOT for 5 years in Traffic safety, working there when we together with other european DOT´s started up the EuroNCAP. During this time the 9000 was the most shining “safety-car” in the world. Saab was on top from 1985-1998. US. Highway Data Loss Institute, Swe. insurer Folksam rated Saab no.1. Saab themselves crashed the same car in front side back you name it.
The big guys are always trying to catch up which is good because society wins as well as the individual. Saab is up there check out for Yourself and make comparisons at www.euroncap.com
We need to focus on Saabs competitors and see how well they do, compared to Audi A6, Mercedes E-Class, BMW 5 series Jaguar XF. So how good is the NG 9-5. Well compared to the Audi, Saab comes out 94% compared to 91% for front seats adult safety. Even better compared to Mercedes 86%. Saab is up with 8%, that is big news. BMW wins with a mere 1% over Saab with a 95% rating. Jaguar XF is not en interesting to compare with a 79% safety and bad whiplash and overall marginal safety.
Pedestrian safety 44% Saab, 41% Audi, but Mercedes is up to 59% good job. BMW has a nice soft bonnet and gets a winning 78%.
Overall Saab is a FIRST class safety automobile. Better or on par with the BIG guys.
The talk later on here of the Chevy Malibu and its ratings well should be on par with Saab and they might even have worked out some tweaks probably with the knowledge from Trollhättan.
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In the last test series EuroNCAP has tested different cars like the (global) Chevrolet Malibu based on the SWB Epsilon II platform. It has performed slightly better than the current Saab 9-5, but it isn’t that strange as the team in Rüsselsheim had the experience of the Insignia/Regal and did know the flaws of that car. This shows the high dependency of GM on their European branch, and that it does’t make sense for GM to close GM-Europe.
But more interesting than that is the fact, that two Chinese cars have reached acceptable values at this test.
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by Jeff
It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn
November 27, 2011 in Editorial, News
Just when we thought the situation couldn’t get any more complicated, one of Saab’s greatest allies who enabled the sale to Spyker in the first place was arrested and charged with siphoning assets. While he’s of course innocent until proven guilty, his bank will now be liquidated and it’s safe to say his life as a high flying financier is about to change dramatically. The timing, to put it mildly, couldn’t be worse.
So how does this affect the sale of Saab? Fortunately, Latvia’s Financial Services Authority FCMC isn’t going to pursue the money loaned from Antonov to Victor Muller’s company Tenaci over a year ago. In an email to TT reported by di.se, they wrote that it’s not part of their mission to recover funds in a case like this. Whether that means Tenaci is now free of debt to Antonov is dubious, merely that Antonov if found guilty would be on the hook for the money that is missing.
Amazingly, most of the parties don’t seem to be deterred by the news, aside from making sure that the sale isn’t encumbered by any legal challenges by the developing Latvian situation. We’ve heard that even GM isn’t terribly concerned about it, much more about conditions necessary for a transfer of ownership (and who they’re willing to allow to own it). Though negotiations continue in all directions, there are signs coming to us that progress is being made on multiple fronts. All parties understand the urgency given that salaries are past due, and they’re simultaneously trying to protect their own bottom lines while preserving the deal. It’s as if they’re juggling while walking a tight rope. The news that the FCMC isn’t pursuing Tenaci’s debt should help ease at least one possible path to Saab’s rescue, which at this point appears to be the path of least resistance. Whether or not all sides choose that path is anyone’s guess though (edit: sources in the know say the structure of a deal that GM will approve is near).
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