You are browsing the archive for Saab 9-5 launch.

Avatar of Red J

by Red J

Do Singaporeans get new interiors?

January 5, 2011 in News

I’ve found a really interesting article on AsiaOne.

Saab sold in Singapore in the first 11 months of 2010 only 13 Saab cars, which seems to be very very low even for Singapore. But those Saab cars were only 9-3′s.

The 9-5 has been presented today in Singapore. It will only be available in two versions, a Turbo4 in Vector trim and the Turbo6 XWD in Aero trim. Maybe Saab can double the figures in Singapore this year with the introduction of the 9-5 Sedan. The 9-4X and the 9-5 SC will also follow this year.

But more interesting than the introduction of the 9-5 in a new market are the pictures in the article of the interior of the car . What at the first glance, looking at the thumbnails, looks like a dirty IP panel, is in reality a new material for the dull mate-black IP fascia.

The pictures seem to be from the Vector trim, and the new material looks like a grey wood structure. It is not easy to define, because those are no studio pictures, but it is definitely a different interior finish.

:-)

Update:
After reading all your comments, I would like to share some more thoughts about it.

The Geneva Motor show is almost there, and most rumours say that the 9-5 SC will be presented there. Other rumours also say that the 9-5 will be updated in combination with the introduction of the Wagon. If I were Saab, and I had some prototype IP panels, or even production-quality ones, I would show them in Singapore.
This was the introduction of the car in that market, so people maybe doesn’t even know about the IP fascia “problem”.

We see in the pictures at least 2 different cars, a silver one in Vector trim and a white one in Aero trim. The one in Aero trim does even have the sunroof, so I expect it also has the colour Infotainment screen installed.
Unfortunately we don’t have no pictures of the interior of that 9-5 Aero.

I’ve already said, that it is difficult to define the material used for that IP fascia, but it could be some grey wood, like used in the E-Class or 5-Series, or maybe some acrylic material with a colour structure.

Talking about wood, how would this finish fit with the cocoa interior and the amarello wood panels? I don’t know, but if they decide to put wood as the IP fascia, which is the place where I would expect it,the amarello wood should disappear.

BTW, I’m still thinking that those panels should be offered in the K’egg white carbon fibre used on the Trevita cars. At least as an option.

Tags: , , 65 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Saab 9-5 SU review – part 2 – Aero V6 XWD on the road

June 16, 2010 in Saabology

Jetlag is still kicking my backside, so I’m re-posting this to allow it to breathe a little longer. New content tomorrow.

–

Related content: Part 1 of the SU review of the new Saab 9-5

–

This has been at least 5 years in the making. Saab is said to have had a new 9-5 ready mid-decade but that vehicle was cancelled at the say-so of Bob Lutz (yes, I name names) and so the old faithful 9-5 was forced to carry on for another 5 years. Owners were asked to lease yet another vehicle – sometimes their third or fourth car of the same series. As rock-solid as the 9-5 became, a replacement was long overdue.

An all-new Saab flagship vehicle is a rare thing. The last all-new Saab from Sweden was back in late 2002. The last all-new flagship was late 1997 and prior to that it was in the early-mid 1980′s. I don’t want to overplay the sense of occasion, but this sort of thing doesn’t happen very often. Add to that the backstory about Saab’s survival against rather overwhelming odds and this really was a big day for a Saab enthusiast.

I started my Saab 9-5 launch experience with a day behind the wheel of the V6 Aero XWD model. This car has the high-feature V6 engine, assembled in Australia as it has been for the Saab 9-3 in the past. This engine is tweaked a little more so as to extract 300hp and 400Nm. That engine is matched to a six speed automatic with a manual mode that you can operate either via the shifter itself (slide it across) or via the flappy paddles on the steering wheel.
Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , , 18 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Video Saab hosts international media – 2 days in 2 minutes

June 15, 2010 in Uncategorized

Here’s a taste of what I did last week – a new video from Saab condensing both days of the media program into two minutes of video.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojbLlWH_6Ko

–

Tags: 6 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Video: Saab HUD and Traffic Signal recognition

June 11, 2010 in Uncategorized

A short video of the Saab Head-Up Display starting up, then in operation, as well as the traffic signal recognition system.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVekffxj5QE

–

Tags: , , 49 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Saab 9-5 SU review: part 1

June 10, 2010 in News

This is going to be a tough one (and a long one). The weight of expectation is pretty high and even more importantly, there’s a heck of a lot of information to get out there.

So how do you go about reviewing what is probably the most important vehicle launch in Saab’s history?

First, you have to look at it in perspective.

Yesterday we did a factory tour and much like the Saab Factory Tour that I did back in 2007, I saw cars going down the line and people working at putting them together. I saw hundreds of cars in the carpark and people/vehicles moving around constantly from place to place. The perpetual buzz of a big manufacturing company in action.

Whilst the 9-5 is the main story here at Saab right now, there is a second story for the press to see this week – Saab is alive!

Seeing all that movement around the factory yesterday, it would be easy to forget that just a matter of a few months ago, this place was under severe threat of extinction. In fact, it was effectively idle for 10 weeks (seven with no production and three whilst it ramped up to recommence). 2010 is only just over five months old as I write this, and for nearly half that time, the Saab plant was effectively idle.

So to see two ranges of vehicles on the production line, and one of them a brand new model, is a significant story in itself and a testimony to the work that was done to save this company at the executive level, and the work done to actually get the wheels turning again on the factory floor.

Having set the scene, we’re still talking about a car here and this car has to sell in various markets of the world. To do that, it has to appeal to customers and it must provide them with an experience that will make them happy to be back in a new Saab again.

——

So what of the new 9-5?

I’ll talk more specifically about the variations that I drove in subsequent entries, but here’s my overview of the model itself.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , 70 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Video: Saab 9-5 Infotainment System

June 10, 2010 in Uncategorized

I got one of the product specialists, Mikael Jakobsson, to walk me through all the electronic goodies available on the new Saab 9-5.

I drove a fully equipped V6 car on Tuesday and the integration of the electronics was a real feature, especially as I was driving by myself in a foreign country and was quite reliant on the information provided to me via the car. It all worked seamlessly, as advertised, and became one of the real unexpected highlights of the car for me.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF0UGsLcB_0

The menu systems are grouped in a smart way – can you call it ergonomics when it involves menu systems? I learned to use most of this stuff whilst driving, such is the intuitive nature of the systems.

Other items that we didn’t cover in the video are the Head-Up Display and some of the systems that run through the dashboard’s display.

For example, the speed sign recognition system, which reads speed-zone signs as you drive along and then displays the appropriate speed limit on the central dashboard display (it works brilliantly and is a bigger than expected help).

Then there’s the Head-Up Display, which shows important information projected on to the windscreen. It’s a great way to monitor your speed, but the biggest benefit I received from the HUD was the ability to see SatNav instructions right there in front of me whilst I was driving. Outstanding!

Autoblog were a little critical of the HUD because you can see subtle reflections of the actual HUD projector around the HUD information you see on the windscreen. I can see where they’re coming from, but it wasn’t prominent and the benefits provided by the HUD system far outweigh the fact that you notice something on the periphery of your view. To their credit, Saab have said they’re taking notice and will work to refine the system as time progresses.

My thanks to Mikael, who I’ll hopefully meet again when it comes time to review the Saab 9-4x as he’s the product manager for that vehicle :-)

Tags: , , , 30 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Video: Saab 9-5 XWD and DriveSense (test track mayhem!)

June 10, 2010 in Uncategorized

Last time I attended an event like this, I did a video in the first Saab 9-3 with XWD, with Kenneth Backlund from the Saab Performance Team. Kenneth was there again today, but frankly, after this drive with Stefan Rundquist from Saab, I was too queasy/shaky/stunned to even think about a lap with Kenneth.

Don’t take that in a bad way. What Stefan did in this car was demonstrate something approaching the extraordinary capabilities of the Saab XWD system.

You’ll hear the rain and see the wipers. This track was incredibly wet today. We were in a 2.8T V6 Saab 9-5 and on some of these long sweeping corners were doing up to 150km/h and the car was totally rock solid – totally.

You’ll see in some sections that Stefan is actually steering quite sharply and trying to induce some forced oversteer (at over 100 km/h on a bend) and the tyres just dig in, shift the power around and keep the car stable.

It really was an incredible eye-opener as to what this car can do. I’ve mentioned already that to me, the V6 version of the 9-5 seems more like a smooth cruiser, that it doesn’t invite you to really test its limits. I think this video shows that despite its long touring credentials, this car is capable of handling whatever tests you might throw its way.

The video is from a handheld camera so it does move around a little with the frequent changes in momentum and motion, but hopefully you’ll still get a good sense of what’s going on.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiBb4DFmvWQ

My sincere thanks to Stefan for the ride – now I know how Saab felt back in 2009!

–

Tags: , , , 27 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Video: Saab Factory Tour

June 10, 2010 in Uncategorized

To kick off day 2 of the Saab 9-5 launch program, they took us around for a quick tour of the factory. I had my still camera out for the first few minutes and then figured that was quite useless – and if we were allowed to bring in still cameras, then we could probably take video as well.

So I did.

We were driven around in a little cart with a bunch of seating buggies pulled behind, reasonably low to the ground, which is why things get blocked occasionally. The cart rarely (if ever) stopped, too, so it’s not the greatest video in the world, but hopefully it should give you some idea of what goes on there.

I believe the girl providing the commentary is the daughter of Saab’s marketing director, Knut Simonsson. That’s keeping it in the family for you!

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSsXftrMUy8

–

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYRfx5_dUos

–

Tags: , , 33 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Trollhattan Visit – Day 3 notes

June 10, 2010 in Saabology

I did several important things today.

First, I drove the 2.0T version of the new Saab 9-5.

Second, I drove the 9-3x.

Reasons why they’re important will come out in the road test reports (of which there will probably be a few). What I can tell you now is that the 2.0T version of this car is going to make a lot of people very, very happy.

——

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to drive the diesel. I had one car yesterday (the V6) and one car today (the 2.0T). The test track cars were all the same – six V6s all with the same spec level – so we couldn’t drive the road cars we were driving.

Whilst I’m disappointed to not be able to comment on it directly from my own drive, the common theme that I heard is that a base model diesels with the normal chassis that were driven by journalists lacked some prowess in terms of handling because they didn’t have the chassis improvements that were fitted to the petrol models.

There was talk of excessive body roll in the corners, etc.

I’ll talk more about this later.

——

We were at the Volvo test track today. Saab have their own small track in Trollhattan, but Volvo’s is a full test track with all kinds of roads and conditions simulated there. Saab has an annual contract with Volvo for use of this track and they now even have their own facilities building there.

We did a handling course and I can tell you that if today didn’t prove the virtues of XWD to the German press corps, then nothing will. It was raining all day, so we had a very wet track. Combine that with the daring of the Saab Performance Team drivers and XWD and you can probably understand why I’m about 3kg lighter right now.

Video coming soon.

——

If you’ve ever doubted how seriously safety is taken at Volvo, then this should give you a good idea.

There is no smoking allowed at the Volvo test facility – indoors or outdoors. They did allow Saab to set up a small smoking area near the hospitality tent, however.

Two ashtrays, and three fire extinguishers!

——

Saab factory tour on video?

Coming up!

The quality isn’t great as we were in a moving factory tour train, but hopefully it’ll still be worth seeing.

——

Lots of writing and processing to do. Lots and lots still to come.

–

Tags: , 20 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Saab 9-5 on handling track

June 10, 2010 in Uncategorized

I went for a ride with Stefan today, but it was not like this.

For a start, it was very very wet.

This video’s a great look at the car on the track and it gives a good overview of the new suspension system in the new Saab 9-5.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOqThNaCG_Y

–

This is an official video made by the experts contracted by Saab (G’day Charlie, et al). My video will make you sick with the way the camera was thrown around the cabin. Geez, it was fun.

Tags: , 29 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Trollhattan Visit – Day 2 notes

June 9, 2010 in Saabology

The first day of our Saab 9-5 drive is done and dusted and it’s been a truly pleasurable day. I’m glad I got that initial drive impression up on the site because it’s been so hectic with this program, with so many people to meet, that it would have been a long time between posts otherwise.

——

With all due respect to the many good reviews that have been written about the Saab 9-5 so far, this Saab 9-5 review from Autoblog is something to check out.

It came in via Mo in comments and as is mentioned by a few people there, this is definitely the most comprehensive and balanced piece I’ve read in the last 2 weeks.

Kudos to Chris Paukert for an excellent piece. His thoughts echo many of my own, but I’ll get to more on those later.

——

The 9-5 that I drove today had a testament to the caution I tend to express over cars being over-laden with gadgets, thereby reducing the role that people feel they need to play in the management of a vehicle.

There’s a small dent on the car that I drove, on the rear of the car just to the left of the Aero badge. Apparently one of the journalists who drove the car in the last few days backed the car up, relying on the parking sensors to warn him of obstacles and neglecting to look in his mirrors.

My understanding is that behind the car was some sort of railing that was on top of a thin post. The post was too thin to be picked up by the relative position of the sensor and likewise, the railing along the top was too high up. Bang!

Having driving aids present doesn’t mean one is exempt from paying attention.

——

I took the Saab 93 that Victor Muller drove in the Mille Miglia for a lap around the Saab plant today. What a car!

Funkier than a sack full ‘o grandpappies.

——

I was also fortunate to sit at the VM table at dinner tonight. VM was holding court with members of the German press and there was a great deal of discussion going on, mostly in German. They all seemed to be quite engaged and interested in the Saab story, though. Good signs.

——

I hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of selecting a little gift for Jan-Ake Jonsson on my way here, as a gesture of appreciation on behalf of the SU community. I had hoped to give it to him earlier tonight, but the chance passed me by. I’ll get it to him tomorrow some time. Photos will hopefully follow.

——

I believe that Jan-Erik Berggren is on to something when he speaks of south-bound airplanes. Similar news was mentioned in another Swedish motoring publication some time ago and I believe it’s correct.

——

I asked one expert here today the much awaited question – will there eventually be a manual option for the Saab 9-5 V6?

His reply “I believe there could be”

Me: “Can I quote you on that?”

Him: “Maybe not….”

The jury is still out, but I’ll keep asking around.

——

Saab did over 2,000 simulated crash tests on the Saab 9-5. When you consider that there’s adjustments to the parameters of the car or the conditions of the crash test, that’s a heck of a lot of testing.

And that’s before you get into the wanton destruction caused by physical testing.

——

More Saab 9-5 HiPer Strut for those who are interested…..

Whilst the same system also features in the OPC version of the Insignia, the Saab version is tuned quite differently, with specially selected bushes, dampers and settings particular to Saab.

Interestingly, the designated expert for the suspension area on the 9-5 launch is none other than Peter Johansson, the guy who was also behind the development of Saab’s XWD system.

There are some people at Saab who’s blood should be bottled and preserved. Peter’s one of them.

——

I’ve got some great video to process tomorrow, taking you on a walk-through of the whole infotainment system. It’s the one area of the car that made the biggest impression on me today.

I’m not a gadget guy at all, but even I was engaged with all this. They really hit the ball out of the park on the technology front. It’s not just the number of features you can select, it’s the way they work and how they’re integrated.

——

Tomorrow is the track day and another video with Kenneth Backlund from the Saab Performance Team beckons…….

——

I have to be awake in 4 hours and 45 minutes. Time for bed.

Have a great one.

–

Tags: , , 47 Comments »

Avatar of Swade

by Swade

Saab 9-5 Test Drive – First Impressions

June 9, 2010 in Saabology

The first drive leg of the 2-day test drive is over, driving from Landvetter airport in Gothenburg to the Saab Launch Center in Trollhattan.

My allotted car was the big daddy – the 2.8T V6 Aero with XWD and every other three-letter-acronym you can ask for.

This is just a quick impression whilst I’m waiting for the presentation here at the Launch Center. And that quick impression is……. superb!

I’ve got heaps of photos and a little video, all of which I’ll get to later. But I can tell you this much right now:

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags: , , 73 Comments »