Saab’s Geneva cars – when you’ll see them

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Earlier today I had a minor meltdown, showing an image of Saab’s Geneva cars all covered up and playing a guessing game as to what they might be.

I could have avoided all that by actually reading the text on the image, going to the website noted on the image, where it laid out which car was which. Screenshot below….

The site also gives an idea as to when we can expect Saab to lift the various sheets off the cars.

Saab Concept Car – This won’t be seen until the Geneva Motor Show on March 1.

Saab 9-5 SportCombi – the first image has already been released, but the car will be seen in full at the Geneva show, too.

Saab 9-3 Griffin – Will be seen on February 23.

Saab 9-3 Independence Edition – Will be seen on February 23.

February 23, of course, is the one-year anniversary of Saab’s independence from General Motors. Saab’s media website indicates that they’ll be holding events in Trollhattan on the 23rd, although at the time of writing, it’s not known what those events will comprise.

At the very least, there will be an unveiling of two new 9-3 versions.

48 thoughts on “Saab’s Geneva cars – when you’ll see them”

  1. I’m really looking forward to the concept and learning more about the new technology!
    The shape of the concept looks more like a “real” car than I thought it would do. I feared it would be a very futuristic vehicle with only some details revealing the coming design. Can’t wait for some pictures!

  2. off topic

    sales in austria have risen again.
    saab austria sold 12 cars from 1-10. feb.
    it’s very good compared to the 16 saabs which were sold in the first 20 days of jan 2011.

    1-10. feb
    saab 12
    jaguar 12
    lexus 6
    lancia 5

    • Excuse my words, but d*mn I like it when you bring us news like this. We are so many here who in a way just wait for a new month so we can dig into different sales numbers and start predicting and analysing. With this – you keep our focus. 😉 Keep it up!

  6. Off topic: in today’s “Autobild” (German car magazine), there is an article in which four design experts judged 10 new cars for their design, and the 9-5 came out second! First was the Audi A7. The experts specifically noted that the car looks betterin flesh than on photographs, as many SU posters have noted before 🙂

      • Audis definitely are boring, but they are a practical chice. They are higher-than-average quality on every detail, and that’s all. And almost noone else can match the interior quality for the same price. The interior is what surrounds the owner all the time, and if everything else (price, exterior, engine, etc.) has no flaws, interior quality becomes the key point.

        • What I mean, in the interior you can build almost everything from good plastic and use good buttons but then you make one or two details that ruin the whole experience, and Audi wins, because they’ve got _everything_ average-good. No controversial design decisions. Appeal-to-everyone style, and no obvious flaws. So people look at them and say “OK, they are boring and there are tons of them on the streets, but at least that’s a safe choice. Everyone will understand my decision , the price may be a bit high but whatever. I can’t see any big drawbacks, so emotions aside.”
          Saab has a smaller customer group to target – so they should have bold, vigorous design that is close to art than Audi’s and appeal to people who like that, who’d like to emotionally choose the car, but also Saab should never have any compromises below Audi’s quality. In interior and exterior first of all. Tech stuff does not sell so much.

          • “good plastic”

            Good plastic is very wide concept, if you ask what is good plastic from an engineer, designer, fireman, economist, environmentalist and cancer researcher. They will all name a different plastic materials what is good or bad.

          • Good plastic is the one that satisfies customer better, that’s what cars are made for! 🙂
            Of course, it should be safe, other features are not so important!

    • This is really good news! That the 9-5 has participated in the competition and than ranked second just after Audi but before BMW and others is great. AutoBild is the most widespread car magazine in Germany. Saabs are not that visible out on the streets, and this way the car is in a very positive way showed up to a mass audience.

    • I have an ’09 9-3 Aero and my wife has the ’10 9-5 Aero. I tell her I’ve got an awesome car but her’s is a g.d. rocket ship.

      • Funny you wrote that, Chris. My wife also has the ’10 9-5 Aero and I tell her the same thing. I’m not complaining though as I drive a TurboX SS. Best of both worlds, I figure.

        – E

  7. Funny looking convertible…Almost the same roofline as the SS.
    Anyway, any thoughts on the Indepedence Edition? Fully loaded package option like the Anniversaypaket in 2007?

  9. It is just me, or does every one of those unreavealed shapes with the car covers still draped over them look like a hatchback?

    Especially the concept car…. it looks like a Classic 900 hatch.

    • That’s right, I suspect the cloth is a rendered model wich has nothing to do with the shape of the cars. 🙂

      • Oh damn…. you’re correct.

        I notice now that the shdow marks on all three of the cloths are identical, probably just a copy and paste job from a generic shape… or an older Saab rendering 🙁

        Still, I hope there’s some hatchback involved.

  10. I don’t think we should draw too many conclusions about the real cars based on the masked cars, since they are all covered by the same image, modified a bit here and there… 🙂

    I guess that the concept is a teaser of the new 9-3, just like the 9-4x concept was a teaser.

    • According to Jason it is not supposed to be a concept of the new 9-3. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

  11. Does anyone know if the interior of the 9-5 Sport Combi will be identical to the sedan, or will it already have the upgrade?

  12. Exciting, can’t wait for the unveiling of the concept car. It looks like a hatch, but maybe this is just the form of the cloth. And it looks flat, at least when compared to the 9-3 and the 9-5. The dynamic shape of the bonnet reminds me of the OG 900. Counting the days!

  13. Mike 900. Exactly my thoughts. The rear looks very hatchback. And the 9-3’s have quite the teardrop silhouette like the saab sketched logo image..

    In fact if you look at the drapes they have only used one drape and photochopped it onto the cars. Which makes me wonder – was it a photo of the concept car under a real drape, the drape then reused to fit the other cars or is it entirely a digital drape? Either way, the 9-3 rear ends don’t look genuine – not sedan enough to my eye. So then the concept car may be the original photo and it looks very much like a 900. One detail I have always loved with the 900 was the A pillar being tucked in at the bottom giving the car a shoulder / cockpit style. I hope this look makes a return, as no other car on the market really has that look.

  15. Off topic

    I noticed several test drive videos on Youtube of the 9-5 2.0T Aero sedan which is not available in the US. Maybe I missed it on earlier posts, but is there any indication of a 2.0T Aero in the Sport Combi being available in the US?

  16. Haha! I just realised this is the old Saab teaser trick again!
    The cover is actually the same graphics as the teasers for 9-X in 2008 – which in turn was a covered 9x from 2001… (image-google for “saab 9-x teaser” or click my link and you’ll see what I mean).

    • No weirdly I like when new content is posted in comments. Links to news articles, polls, videos are all great to me. I suppose it’s because there’s no other mechanism for people to share news since this is more a blog than a forum. I’d be kind of sad if people felt like they couldn’t share new relevant news in comments. But I like when they also stay somewhat on topic, so I’ll add to the discussion…

      The interesting thing to me about the independence edition is its paint color. I just noticed that most 9-3 convertibles I see driving around are often in wild colors you just don’t see on other cars- chartreuse green, sky blue, bright yellow. I remember seeing Ford was trying a program to get colors to match those in fashion to stay ahead of the curve. Amazingly, the hottest color of the year according to all the fashion mags is a geranium red, sort of coral. Exactly the shade of that independence edition under the cover from what I can see (sunset red). Nice to see Saab staying ahead of trends, and makes even more sense for them to be advertising in fashion mags. I think they should follow up the 9-4x advertorial with one for the independence edition and showing off other red accessories. That’s the kind of buyer that car will appeal to.

  19. Swade… I thought you might like to see the very positive review of the 1.9 l twin-turbo diesel 9-3x in this morning’s on-line Berlingske-Tidene (Copenhagen, Denmark) from the Danish auto mag “Bilen”… they love it as “tight”… and “wow”… mentioning that the “x” doesn’t mean four wheel drive on the diesel… They mention that the diesel is Fiat developed and will be remembered from the Cadillac “BLS” (which most of the world never got to see… a SAAB 9-3 with a Cadillac “snout” added…) Good pictures and videos as well… they think the V-60 wins on the basis of refinement, but the SAA has that “wow” factor…

    SAAB’s price with tax in Denmark is +/- US$ 92,000
    Volvo’s is +/- US$ 112,000

    Jan

  22. It looks like many of the big decisions and hard work that have taken place over the past 12 months are now coming to fruition. I am proud of our little company!

  24. Completion of the design study car is in the finishing process at a contractor in Italy.
    The guys are working hard and wish them all the luck getting it ready on time.
    Saab has used italian companies for the completion of show cars before, the 9X was such a car.

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