It was in the summer, back in 2002, when I worked at Saab and I first got to see the 9-5 Arc. The model was meant to attract the luxury line of people with an all leather interior, V6 Diesel engine, 16″ wheels and a very special wooden dashboard. Many people hated the color of the wood, many people loved it. I was one of the ones who absolutely loved that car.
I first got to sit in a brand new one a few months later. That car had just rolled out from the production line and was placed in “hagen” the big parking lot where all the new cars were placed awaiting the trucks to take them to their customers. The car had the little green sticker on the front windshield. The smell of a new car was great, I can still feel it. It was always the first thing I wanted to experience every time I went in to the production plant in Trollhättan. I used to go to the first car I could see, open the door and smell it… The seats were great, the best that Saab had ever made. One could literally drive for hours without getting tired.
Being fairly young at the time the only thing I thought that car was missing was the sports seat. My thought was that one must be able to combine sport and luxury. Well today, its exactly what Jaguar is doing…
Anyway the Arc version was rationalized away a few years later, Saab wanted to be pure sporty so luxury had to step aside. The V6 Diesel engine in that car was a constant pain for the people on the production line, there was nothing worse than to get a right hand drive V6 Diesel… this one had most of the stuff on the wrong side and the engine was almost too big to fit into the car, which made the operators curse a few times as things were fitted very tightly.
Well in the end it wasn’t the operators building the car who were cursing, a lot of the drivers as well. The engine suffered many problems even though it was a great engine to drive with =) The best car I ever drove was a 9-5 Arc fitted with the 220 hp 2,3T engine that Saab had for a few years. That engine had just enough power to make you smile and not too much power to lose once license on every straight piece of road out there. That power packed with such a nice car filled with a luxury sensation was the best car for me!… its just a shame that I never bought one…
