Sunday Saab Snippets

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If you’re in reasonable proximity to Connecticut (I previously wrote NJ – my mistake) and want to restore a 1993 Saab 900, Steve’s your man. The price is right if you can give it a good home, too.

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If you’re a Swedish company looking to re-establish yourself in Canada, now might be a good time to lay low…..

“We’re going to take out [our anger] on a Swedish company,” yelled one fan, waving an Ikea bag. “Volvo and Saab are next.”

One Toronto mother promised her children they would no longer eat the Swedish Meatballs at Ikea.

Ah, the passion of sports!

Sweden beat Canada in a 6-5 shootout at the World Junior Hockey Championships and given that hockey is more popular than oxygen in Canada, beating the national juniors may not be the best way to make friends there. I’m sure the big-hearted Canadians will get over it, though.

Maybe Saab Canada could have a “We’re Sorry Sale” to kickstart 2011 🙂

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If you’ve got a Saab 9-3 or 9-5 equipped with Haldex XWD then you might want to get in touch with them and get a badge for your car.

As you might already know, Haldex’s traction systems arm has been sold to BorgWarner, so the company is looking to give away their last remaining badges. Click here to get one (have a photo of your car at the ready).

Haldex Performance Badge

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Victor Muller is #47 on Motor Trend’s “Power List for 2011”

Very under-rated.

Thanks Lee!

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Murilee Martin left Jalopnik a few months ago but has taken his work over to TTAC. Those who follow Jalopnik would know that Murilee had two major themes – Old cars from Alameda and the 24 Hours of LeMons series.

I don’t follow TTAC so I don’t know if the Alameda series is running there, but LeMons crossed my radar because a LeMons race was held in Florida on New Years Eve and the coveted Index of Effluence trophy was won by a Saab 96!

Whilst there’s always a car that crosses the line in first place, the IoE trophy is highly regarded as it’s awarded to the team that does the most in a car that’s significantly challenged or has the most character.

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Ford is doing an engine tear-down at the Detroit Auto Show that will be similar in stature to Saab’s driving efforts at Talladega back in the mid-80s and 90s.

They’ve driven an Ecoboost F150 through a series of challenging events and tasks in the last year, amassing around 160,000 miles under extremely challenging circumstances (e.g. running at full throttle for 24 hours towing 11,300 lbs).

They aim to tear the engine down at the 2011 NAIAS to show how durable the engines are even after an equivalent 10-years of use in one 12 month period.

Great marketing. If only Saab could do a Talladega-style event again.

Thanks Ted!

12 thoughts on “Sunday Saab Snippets”

  1. I officially feel worthless to report any useable info anymore because Swade always has it before I can send it to him now 😛 Saw that on my local news (WGRZ is my NBC station) and thought I needed to send that ahead. Looks like Sweden is really playing well at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Amazing that nothing gets by you.

  2. Not only is hockey bigger then oxygene in Canada, from what i understand Junior Hockey is relativly even bigger. In sweden hockey is a big sport but no one really cared about the junior hockey until just recently. I guess it will become harder for the swedes to bet the canadians now when it comes to the final play. But still the swedish victory is an amazing thing because there are like one junior swedish hockeyplayer for every hundred canadian one. Sadly i missed this game, and didnt have a thought of it until right now when you “Swade the winter sports fanatic” pointed it out and i have atlest watched the best of clips:-) I hope the Canadians will get over this and understand that Victor Muller is Dutch and not to blame.

  4. As a quick update, according to the same station the King of Sweden will be in Buffalo for the semifinals or finals in a few days when Sweden makes it in. I’d love to get an impromptu Saab convoy to greet him at the private plane facility (prior aviation) or his hotel if anyone in the area and wants to join in 🙂

  5. “Maybe Saab Canada could have a “We’re Sorry Sale” to kickstart 2011”

    I’d settle for leasing being an option.

  7. I wonder how many XWD owners know that their brilliant all-wheel-drive system is primarily supplied by AAM. Its only some components that AAM subsequently sources from Haldex. The application finally, done by Saab engineers, is what does most to the excellent experience it gives. I would definitively only batch my XWD as “Saab XWD”…

    • American Axle Manufacturing? I realize they will co-operate with Saab on designing the electric rear axle thingy for the next 9-3, but they played a part in developing the XWD system too? Or are you referring to the joint operation set up between AAM and Saab Powertrain Europe?

  8. I’ve been watching the Jr. World Hockey Championship on cable the last few years (NHL Network). It’s really a great event. Fun watching young kids playing for mostly for the love of the game, as well as national pride. Reminds me of Olympic hockey before they brought in the Pros. Last years Canada vs. USA final was amazing. The Canada games have all been sell outs even though the event is in Buffalo, NY. Lots of empty seats at the USA games.

    Ryan Bourque is on team USA. He repeated asked my daughter out on dates in HS but she always said no. Damn. His daddy (Ray, who I have met a few times) could have got me good Bruins tickets.

    Mandatory Saab content: Today the Boston Globe made mention of Victor Mueller in a year end article on the 2010 auto buiness roller coaster. Said he may be the years “ultimate automotive under dog” – without mentioning the name of the car company he saved. Duh!!!

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