I can’t see the future, thus I don’t know how dark or bright the future of Saab in the states will be, but reading a report from www.goodcarbadcar.net about the Luxury SUV sales in America & Canada I get good vibes about the effect of the 9-4x in the the North American sales figures.
And what makes me feel so good about it? The Saab is the stepsister of the Cadillac SRX, and the Cadillac did sell quite well in the States, leaving everybody behind by far.
Yes, the Caddy is this big yellow pie piece.
In Canada the SRX did only reach the fourth place with 2.918 units behind the Mercedes GLK, Aqura RDX and Audi Q5.
This makes a total of 54.012 units, which is quite a lot. Even comparing the SRX with the Mid-Size SUV, which fits better the size of the SRX, the Caddy would stay in second place behind the Lexus RX in the US.
I’m not saying that Saab will be able to sell even half as much 9-4X as Cadillac has been able to sell SRX, but the figures that are floating in the net indicate that GM will only produce about 9.000 units of the 9-4X in the first year. And if 54.000 North-Americans think that the SRX is worth while buying, why shouldn’t Saab find 9.000 buyers for the 9-4x?
—
BTW, Saab seems to know how to market the 9-4X. This is Saab’s full Ad in the March US issue of the Glamour Magazine.
The first page of this multi-page Ad has already been discussed here.
Thanks to AJM !!
I do believe that the 9-4x will be a big seller, especially here in the Northeast .
I agree Red. Based on those figures 9k could be a low number! It goes back to strong product will always sell. I also note that analysts attribute the success to a number of factors not least to the focus on “real world” engines rather than hi output versions.
I suspect there are a number of joint Caddy/Saab dealers (mine is) and that should also help drive 9-4X sales when they see it beside the SRX. That is, if they can price it comparably.
Yeah, I forgot about the separation. My dealer still shows Saab and caddy in same show room but there’s a time limit. They are setting up a separate show room.
The product sounds like it will be up to snuff. SAAB’s challenges with the 9-4x will be two oft-discussed issues – sparse dealer network and letting potential customers know of the vehicle’s existence. Regardless, I’m optimistic of SAAB’s prospects with this car.
Good placement for the Adverts too. These types of crossovers in the US are very popular as Mommy-mobiles.
Saw the 94x at the Washington auto show.
Very impressive. Great interior, good outside and on the right place.
Also saw the jag xf which is a reminder what excellent design, top notch interior and new engine can do to a medicore car (s type). Should be able to go the same to 93ss
Hi Jason,
the figure of 9000 is a figure I remember, because I can’t find the source again, the plant director of Ramos Arizipe mentioned in an interview.
OK, I’ve found two links, one from Saabactu(French), saying that the contract between Saab and GM is a 5 year contract, with 13k units in the first year and 18k afterwards.
Then I have an article from a Mexican newspaper(Spanish), where the Mr. de Hoyos, the plant director in Ramos Arizpe, says that the 9-4x production could reach the 17k units, but the market will decide how many will be build.
Red J
The 9-4X is vital for Saab. If they manage to move 1,000 units a month (e.g. match the XC60 numbers) that will be a huge achievement.
Agreed!
Also I feel if they were to offer a killer warranty/ scheduled maintenance as a gesture of faith in this vehicle… they will sell many. I know it would cost Saab long term but it would increase the sales near term. IMHO.
I think that’s a but harsh Tuu, the BLS was a pretty cynical piece of badge engineering. I agree that Saab needs a new generation of buyers but I don’t think “father to son automobility” ever existed, the point of being young is NOT driving what your dad did:)
lol 🙂
Sounds good in theory and hope it materialises. We must remember the 9-2x didn’t do very well and it was a Subaru Impreza. Did not see any Cayenne numbers.
I wish 9-4x would be priced like in US in other countries…
And I wonder why they compare SRX to XC60, while it’s size is clearly XC90-like
Naturally as the USA is a major SUV country, dealers have every reason to be very excited about the 9-4, but it should not be mixed up with sales of sister model. If something needs to be compared it would be 9-7 sales and think sales potential from that point of view.
I hear that lot of snow has come again some days ago, hopefully that will translate into XWD sales.
Fact is that the 9-7 sold quite well in the USA, though nowhere else. I have always wondered if those good US sales were because of the Saab badging (i.e. the more exclusive brand feeling) or despite the Saab badging (in the end, Americans like to buy American and the 9-7 is just a Trailblazer, no matter what the nose job looks like).
Don’t take this too seriously 😉 …
Ivo
According to the numbers I have (lacking 3 months during 2010) Saab sold the 9-7X in a total of 19254. This number should be divided in a sales period over 64 months, giving an average of 300 cars per month or about 3600 per year.
The 9-7 was a big car, while the 9-4X is smaller and in that way more attractive to some customers I guess. We can just wait and see how it goes.. 😉
Looking good !
The design and engine choices has written US all over after all.
Will be the “sofisticated” choice for the soccermom.
The Lexus Rx is not listed. I believe that car has traditionally been the best seller in the class.
Frank,
the Lexus has benn sold more than 90.000 times in the US, but the Lexus is classified as a Mid-Size luxury SUV, whereas the SRX is seen as a Small luxury SUV.
RedJ beat me to it. If you go to the GoogcarBadcar site linked, it shows the original graphs, from which RedJ’s chose the relevant one to the SRX to show here.
It’s an interesting classification because having seen the 9-4x, it’s not a vehicle that I would class as ‘small’. The same probably applies to many on the chart.
Charlie, spinning a caddy off the 9-3 platform and calling it a Cadillac is about a cynical as you can get. Yes it was a good car it was a 9-3 after all. It’s about as cynical as rebadging Chryslers as Alfas 😉
I wouldn’t expect more than 8000 sales. The TTiD would be a nice differentiator but its not certified for the US market. IF Saab could offer something with 30 HWY and 20 city then the 9-4X would be relevant but the numbers are going to fall well short of this target.
I couldn’t believe the sticker on the 2.0T 9-5’s…18/28…that’s a whopping 1 MPG improvement over the 2.8T which offers 80 more HP and XWD. For me its a NO Brainier!
Well, the SRX has the same engine that the 9-4X will use and that sells. Now there will be a price difference between them, but I guess that the sales numbers of the SRX shows that it is not soooo important with low milage per gallon to gain customers in the US.
Would there be TTiD XWD version of 9-4X available, I know my wife would force me to consider.
Does anyone know official Euro cycle consumption measures?
As we all know; quality, design-quality and sense has – unfortunately – nothing to do with sales-numbers. If it had the 9-4X would out-sell all the SUV-market – if not the SUV-market would be sold out by smaller and more sensible cars… 😉
Regarding the BLS caddy, I think it was a strange act to put this ugly Caddy-body on a fine 9-3 underpinning. And even more strange, it had any buyers at all!
The 9,000 sales figure is purely a guess.
If you saw the figures in retrospect, selling 1,000 could be explained by it being a partial year of sales. Even a 3,000 sales figure for the 2012 calender year is plausible.
On the other hand, selling 10,000 during the 2012 calender year is possible plus another 5,000 for the rest of the world.
So that makes it a range of 3,000 to 15,000, both figures being plausible. I fear that 9,000 is a bit optimistic.
“And if 54.000 North-Americans think that the SRX is worth while buying, why shouldn’t Saab find 9.000 buyers for the 9-4x?”
Agreed. My wife wants to know when the 9-4Xs will be in the showrooms. The 9-7Xs sold out before the 2008-2009 9-5s in Lubbock, Texas.
AFAIK, in the states the order books are open since LA.
Otoh, the TIguan has only received a facelift, it is absolutely the same car.
BTW, it seems like Volvo has run out of Diesel – Miljöbilar. 😉
Looks like there will be some Saab visibility during the Super Bowl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7qx8vXDwt8
Looked great. I went to the site that they mentioned (collectionautogroup.com) and ended up at http://www.saabnortholmsted.com/ . Wish they had some info about the 9-4X on that site…
Aint Super Bowl the most expensive when it comes to TV ad secs? Fantastic news if Saab name gets shown in that.
not only that, there are those who watch “just for the commercials”
Wow.
Would that be a local market ad, or nationwide? Local would make more sense, and perhaps doesn’t involve the multi-millions per 30-second slot that the nationally syndicated ads have to pay (tho this is a 15-second ad rather than 30).
I don’t think I’ve had much direct dealing with Saab of North Olmstead, but have heard very complimentary things about them.
Great to see.
Has to be local. And probably relatively cheap. My guess is that “real” super bowl ads probably cost as much to produce as they pay the network.
Yes, more than likely for local area, but it still reaches a lot of people who are glued to the tube.
The 9-4x will sell well if people understand Saab is alive and well. I hope the
Super bowl ad, or whatever it is, creates this understanding in the US. Then we are on the right road, again. We will know tomorrow.
Chris