Detroit Auto Show | SaabsUnited.com

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by Swade

Detroit Auto Show – some quick points

January 12, 2011 in Saabology

Press Day #1 has come and gone at the Detroit Auto Show, which means it’s basically over.

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If you haven’t seen it yet, go and visit Kevin Miller’s wrap of the Saab/Hirsch press conference at AutoSavant.

Kevin also sent through some images that I featured here yesterday.

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The best wrap I’ve seen of the show so far comes from Pete DeLorenzo – as is usually the case. Pete’s a Detroit diehard with a big GM history but more than that, he’s a car guy, so it’s always interesting to get his take on the show.

A few quotes:

Hyundai:

By the end of [Hyundai's] press conference I really didn’t care whether the Veloster UAV (Urban Whatever Vehicle) was a hit or not – because I just wanted (Hyundai US boss) Krafcik to sit down over in the corner and shut up.

The Acura stand:

…..you could have shot-off a paint can filled with bottle rockets and not hit a soul

Toyota:

We’ve lost our mojo and there isn’t a search engine in the world powerful enough to find it….Toyota gets a giant “F” in Detroit, for Forgettable.

Volkswagen:

I had no idea that the new Passat would be worse than the Jetta because I couldn’t imagine any car company willingly designing and building such a soporific piece of crap in this day and age. Yet here we are.

BMW 1 Series M:

Slick, seductive and very, very well executed, it’s easy to predict that the new “M” will be the best BMW – at least for serious driving enthusiasts – in years.

Ford:

Ford continued to impress with its scope and reach, with its array of smartly designed and executed vehicles and with a clearly focused management team that shows no signs of slacking off not even for a minute.

GM:

GM showed well at Cobo Hall with the very appealing new Buick Verano (I’d beg to differ – SW), the new Sonic (formerly known as the Aveo), the CTS-V Coupe race car, the ubiquitous Chevy Volt, and enough enthusiasm and smiles to light up the whole show.

Audi:

….with the intro of the new A6, it has yet another impressive entry destined to become BMW and Mercedes-Benz’s worst nightmare.

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I was hoping that Peter might have ventured out into the cold to see the hardy Swedes with their Hirsched up offerings. I think he would have admired their courage. Alas, not to be.

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Speaking of which, here are two different photographic takes on the Saab stand outside Cobo, at the base of the Hotel Ponchartrain.

Look for the arrow….

Full story about that photo at AutoEvolution.

The angle on that shot isn’t entirely fair, though. Here’s a slightly better one, featured at Car Advice.

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Tags: Detroit Auto Show, Hirsch, NAIAS 23 Comments »

by Swade

Report: Saab to skip the Detroit Auto Show

October 5, 2010 in News

Automotive News reports that Saab will skip the Detroit Auto Show in January, 2011.

Auto show space is negotiated years in advance, so it likely will take some time until Saab makes that visual break with GM.

However, the GM link will not be an issue at the Detroit show in January. Saab will be a no-show, saving its dollars in this country for the Chicago, New York and Los Angeles shows — events in huge retail markets.

After all, most of Saab’s buyers in the Detroit area were GM employees, who received big discounts on their car purchase.

A good move, I say.

The Detroit Show is a big one in terms of media coverage, but car companies can generate media coverage anyway if there’s a new product to release. Revealing those new products at big(gish) auto shows where you actually have retail customers that can come look at them – as well as the media – is good strategy.

Thanks to John for the tip!

Tags: Auto Shows, Detroit Auto Show 59 Comments »

by Swade

Back in time – first thoughts on the Saab 9-4x

June 20, 2009 in Archive

This post was originally published at Trollhattan Saab back in January 2008. I was in Detroit at the time, had spent all day at the North American International Auto Show looking over this vehicle and gathering my thoughts. I put this together, hit ‘publish’ and ran out of the hotel to go get a big steak with Greg Abbott
The Saab 9-4x is in my thoughts more and more these days. Saab have a public relations coup on the cards with the Koenigsegg deal. They have the 2010 Saab 9-5 to pacify many of the purists for a while and there’ll be the 9-4x – a first real Saab in the crossover segment.
I’m pretty sure this vehicle is essentially ready to go. I’m sure the internal deal was that Caddy would get the SRX first and now everything’s held up further with GM’s and Saab’s respective situations.
Anyway, for those who might be a little unfamiliar with the Saab 9-4x, here’s a look at the concept vehicle on which it will be based. This is very close to the real thing in design terms, though the materials will be more garden variety and it won’t have all the tricks this car has.
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You probably know already, but let me tell you a little about how Auto Shows work.

You have a huge number of huge displays and a huge press pack moves around from display to display. The company executives come out and make their presentations, which typically revolve around the most important thing they’re doing at that time.
There isn’t a bigger presentation at the Detroit Auto Show than the GM presentation. It was climbing-room-only. And Saab was right in the middle of it.
GM used their address to announce a major partnership with Coskata, an ethanol group working on a new cellulosic production method that will significantly reduce the cost and physical resources consumed in the production of ethanol. You can read more about that here.
To accompany this announcement, GM also revealed two ethanol-fuelled vehicles – the Hummer Hx concept and the Saab 9-4x BioPower concept. It didn’t quite sink in at the time, but to have GM’s primary presentation of the show, with Rick Wagoner, Mark LaNeve and Carl-Peter Forster addressing the crowd and having Saab right at the center of it really put a spotlight on the 9-4x – and you could tell it worked.
This is the first view we had of the Saab 9-4x:

As I mentioned earlier, the press pack typically moved from stand to stand with the presentations. Today, there was one particular thing that worked to Saab’s advantage – lunch. I joked about it earlier, but the lunch break meant that people hung around, they looked at the 9-4x and in great numbers.
I can hear you – “Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!”
So let’s take a look at it.