I’ve received a few emails in the last month or so that are of a similar nature and tonight feels like the right time to share these stories.
There’s been just a little negativity in comments from one or two people about both the new Saab ownership arrangements and the new Saab 9-5. That’s OK. People are entitled to an opinion and we can’t all agree on everything.
I do wonder, however, why it’s worth spending so much time expressing a negative opinion about something. If you don’t like something, why spend time on it? I’m still here because I still love Saabs and I still love writing about them. When one of those factors dies off, then I’ll quite likely move on to something more enjoyable. Life’s too short.
Anyway, these stories……three of them have come in via email and one is through conversation and observation.
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Returning
One of them comes from a friend here in Australia named Bill. I met Bill a few years ago when I was driving my Saab 900 Aero down from Sydney.
Bill’s recently caught up with one of the teachers that used to teach his daughter. The teacher was a Saab owner for some years until he got a little disenchanted with the direction Saab had taken. He must be a man of taste, as he replaced his 1st generation Saab 9-3 with an Alfa 🙂
Anyway, Bill ran into this guy recently and the conversation got on to cars. The teacher starts talking about the Koenigsegg sale and the new 9-5 with some real enthusiasm.
It turns out he’s been following the Saab story, misses the rock solid nature of his old Saab and is very keen to check out the new 9-5 as soon as it lands here in Oz. He’s only seen pictures so far, but it’s been enough to get him seriously interested in the brand again.
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Supporting
Another email came in from a guy named Lars, in Sweden. Let me share a little of it with you:
I have a 900 convertible V6 that I bought new in 1997. In recent years I have had some thoughts about updating to the new 9-3. Earlier this year, I finally decided to order a new Saab, mainly for two reasons:
- At the time of ordering, it felt like this could possibly be the last opportunity to buy a new Saab.
- I think that if someone has the ability then it’s a good thing for them to buy a Saab car, to help Saab survive.
Therefore, I ordered a 9-3 Aero BioPower Convertible at the beginning of May and took delivery of it in the middle of August. In connection with the delivery, I got it “Hirsched” to 200/220 hp. It has now gone approximately 4000 km including a trip of 2800 km through Europe. (I kept and still drive the 900 for nostalgic reasons).
I am very pleased so far and want to stress some things that also should apply to other 9-3 models…..
Lars goes on to praise the performance of the car, particularly the automatic transmission and the communications system that’s built in to the car.
The final sentiment he shared in the email is that whilst all the attention is rightly on the Saab 9-5 at the moment, people should not make the mistake of overlooking the 9-3 is it is still a very good offering and very competitively priced against it’s European rivals.
Can’t fault that.
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Trying
No names on this one, but I do know of one guy who’s having a difficult time because his national Saab organisation aren’t able to take his 9-5 order yet.
That’s a nice problem for Saab to have, but I hope it gets sorted soon.
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Appreciating
Saabill is a friend of mine here in Tassie. I’m not sure how many Saabs he got at his place, but the number must be up into double figures. Up until recently, the oldest youngest of these Saabs was a 1993 Saab 900. With a collection like that, I think it was pretty fair for me to assume that Bill’s an old skool Saaber.
Recently, he purchased a 2007 model Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan. Last week he got a stage 2 upgrade from Maptun for it and it’s fair to say that after speaking with him last night – and especially after the performance upgrade – he’s definitely got a healthy appreciation for the newer stuff, too.
Obviously he was interested in the newer stuff enough to buy this car in the first place, but his enthusiasm for the car, especially the handling, took me by surprise a little. I know it’s not as dramatic a story as the others, but it was an interesting development from my perspective.
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These are just a few small stories to show that whilst the future for Saab has a definite bright hue to it, the present offering in the 9-3 and the immediate future in the 9-5 are more than worthy of anyone’s consideration.
These are not cars to settle for. For many of us, they’re still very much cars to aspire to.
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