Car and Driver have put together a list of 25 cars worth waiting for, and included in the list is the 2014 Saab 92. It great to see the motoring press getting excited for future Saabs.
There are also a couple of interesting comments, that I doubt the validity.
- the 9-3 successor, which will likely be called 900
- At first, the 92 will get Mini’s turbocharged gas four-cylinder; diesels and a three-cylinder gasoline engine are possibilities.
It’s not a long piece, feel free to pop over and have a look
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11q1/2014_saab_92-feature
Brendan
???Looks like the 9-X hybrid.
It’s just a teaser image, nothing more nothing less. Even Jason Castriota doesn’t know exactly how the 92 finally would turn out at this point, there are so many variables involved.
Imagery sells.
Also, the photo they use for the speculated 92 is the same photo they used for the speculated 9-1 story at the bottom of the same page.
I`m waiting for the 9-2 to arrive. In the meantime I have bought a C30 T5
I really hope the successor to the 9-3 won’t be called the 900. It would bother me less if they called this upcoming possibility a 92, as opposed to a 9-2. I’d personally prefer 9-2 to stick with the current nomenclature, unless they plan to change the naming structure. I do hope they resurrect the Sonett name, without making a copy of the previous Sonetts. Drawing inspiration from, sure–though I suspect rehashing an old design wouldn’t pass a number of present-day guidelines.
+1!
I feel the same… The current naming convention works. Removing the “-” between the numbers wouldn’t matter much to me, but returning to a “900, 9000” scheme would be going backwards to a convention that, even if bringing great memories, doesn’t work that well and should belong to those memories only…
I totally agree and potential consumers would just be confused. If you need to take the “-” out of 9-3 then by all means do so but still call it a nine three not ninetythree.
Zippy,
I totally agree with you as well. Think of (I know that it’s not even close to the same car or company) Ford when they came out with the new Taurus and called it a 500, a year or was it two later they changed it back to the Taurus bacause people weren’t buying it. I’m sure that was because of confusion. Please everyone, I really am not comparing any Fords to Saab, just the changing of model names…. The only time a new model name should come to be is, oddly enough, oh I don’t know, when you have a new model.
I agree, it´s something desperate about going back to 900. I vote NO and I dont think Saab really want that name but they think it can atract the old costemers by that name. It´s the wrong road. Show some guts and don´t reuse that.
Think new not old my suggestion.
9-30 It´s something new
9-33 Tell us that it´s third generation 9-3
9-3 II Another version
9-3N the N stands for New
9NE3 Playing with niNE
9-3PH PH stands for PHoeniX platform
Or something smarter than this, feel free to develop…..!
Be of good cheer. C+ D, along with R + T, are two American car magazines that matter. The fact that one of them would print a positive Saab story is a shot in the arm. I don’t care what they call it, I just hope they can produce it. I think this is a market they have needed to be in for 20 years, or more. You have to have a base car to create a market to move people upscale. I don’t remember what the 900 base price in 1979 when introduced, but I would bet it was well under BMW. Anyone happen to know?
Well,
I looked it up on NADA. Base 3 door 900 1979 Sticker price was $ 8198. BMW ( cheapest I could find) 320i base price $ 11,473 Only about a 14% difference, closer than I would have thought! But I also remember the 320i as being so hot a seller than no one got out the door with a base model.
I disagree (politely) with you there, Chris. I’ve been reading C&D since 1981 (9th grade) and C&D has been steadily going downhill for years since William Jeanes left, but most notably since Csaba Csere left as chief editor, and also (Patrick) Bedard’s departure. I don’t mind Eddie Alterman, the new chief editor, but the rest of the current staff just don’t impress me (and puh-leeeeze, take Phillips out to the pasture and lock, load …….)
Good news is, C&D veteran Don Sherman is actually coming back.
Motor Trend is my new C&D. Can’t beat Angus Mckenzie for his knowledge and insight. And the rest of the editing team is pretty strong too.
My $0.25
As a similar longtime C/D reader (well since 1990 or so), I would argue the 90s were the heyday of the magazine. The 2003-2009 period was one long snooze. Recently however, C/D is way better. I believe their slump is over. Automobile has always been a class act since day one. R/T I never understood.
Weirdly I disagree, Ken. I’m with Jim in that these past two years they’ve gotten a lot better. I’m actually liking their editing team, Steve Siler and Jens Meiners do a great job on their reviews and their new layout really impresses me. I’ve actually added C/D’s blogs to my daily reading list. Different strokes for different folks.
Even if you’re not into their style, you have to be at least a little impressed that they’re trying to keep Saab relevant, and they’ve reported on every single big Saab story these past few weeks. I know they’ll be hitting the Saab stand hard at NYIAS, so we’ll see what goes on from there. That the name Saab is on the list of 25 cars worth waiting for period is a huge deal, and I’m grateful to them for that.
Actually I’m not that far from your positions, gentlemen. Definitely the ’80s through ’90s were the heyday for C&D (I kept virtually every issue from 1981 to late 2000’s).
Alterman is trying to turn things around and it shows.
Automobile was always the “artsy” mag.
R&T ….. I only read Peter Egan’s column.
Those headlights and they the grill part fits in is sooo good.
Hey, as long as they are talking about a Saab being worth while to wait for, it’s good. I just wish they would say that what we have right now is worth running in to get NOW. Need to get those writers writing about what we’ve got now. The 9-5 is incredible and the 6spd base is awesome as it sits, doesn’t need anything else, so much fun.
+1
I like the idea of using the name 900 instead of 9-3. It will be confusing surely, but “900” is so much cooler number than “9-3”, eh? I hope we´ll get some scetches from JC & Saab what it will look like.
And the rest?
9-2 -> 90
9-3 -> 900
9-3X -> 900X
9-4X -> 9000X
9-5 -> 90000
9-5X -> 90000X
Actually, I am not so sure about that system old naming system! At least it seems like Saab might get a bulk discount on the zeros when they place the order…
I agree. Even if the 900 was a very good name I don’t like the self nostalgic feel of it. An innovative car manufacturer should not look back at “the good times” and try to recreate it but rather look into the future!
Sure, the 9-“x” system may not be ideal but if they are going to change it I would prefer completely new names.
OT: I have read about firefox crashing on the new site and it happened to me too yesterday…
Likewise, but I cleared out my cookies and it hasn’t happened since.
FYI, Firefox 3.6.16 update is downloading as I type.
Since yesterday I’m running Firefox 4, seems to be working fine.
Believe it or not, when the 9-5 was being readied for launch, SAAB contemplated whether to go with the “90000” moniker. But it seemed silly. Also, they were embarking on a branding strategy for their cars that implied direct competition against similar BMW segments. Hence the new 9-3 and the 9-5 conventions.
This is referenced from a Car & Driver (or Road & Track, can’t recall which) review article in the late ’90s.
It would be nice to see on the market a 9-2 model priced reasonably.
However, to make this car attractive to prospective buyers Saab should provide this model with some distinct features in order to differentiate it from the Mini and the other competitors.
What would you think these distinct features should be?
Sexy design is one thing. What about the rest?
Why a potential buyer should choose a 9-2 and not a (beautiful) Giulietta or a (best selling) Golf ?
(just to keep the ball rolling)
2 seater
mid-mounted engine
50-50 front-rear weight distribution
convertible
less than 2500lbs
Oops, sorry, wrong forum…..
Saab features for a future 9-2:
-Pure aerodynamic shape (like the old 92), not a “fashion shape” like competitors. Class leading aerodynamics should give best in class fuel consumption. Such a shape would stand the time well.
-Practical boot and hatch (check out the European Honda Civic)
-Saab functional cockpit dash
-Real Saab seats and comfortable suspension to allow for relaxed long trips
This is great publicity for Saab-based on the addage that any news is good news for a brand but it strikes me as a triumph of style over content.
Why would Saab call something mini sized a 900? wouldn’t that be a more likely fit to the 9-3 type platform? I don’t really care what its called as long as there’s some logic to it… It would have been nice to see a little more current Saab news on the actual innovations in the pipeline for models actually planned for release (e-AAM/Boston Power etc-coupling that to XWD-all that good stuff) rather than another pipedream.
One step at a time people..
The other problem with any of the above-showing technoligy soon is it gives the consumer an imperative to wait…that’s bad-let’s see some further sustained good quality articles giveing reasons why you should by now…maybe there should be a post for that alone that Saab and the dealerships may benefit from-properly constructed quality arguments on why Saab is the best choice right here, right now…
I hope SAAB can deliver much better reliability then MINI (well I know they can but I hope they do!!) The 9-2 illustrations I have seen all look pretty interesting. I think this segement has huge potential but pricing must be bang on. I say high teens low 20’s for the 9-2…not higher then 25 for a 9-2 Aero. maybe 28-29 for a well executed AWD hybrid.
Right now I guess any publicity for Saab and its future is good (as with the PhoeniX concept), but I found this article amazing in that they do not clarify that the 9-3 image is just a Photoshop job, that the 9-2 is not even in plan yet (so how can they say it is coming in 2014?), and the fact that they list a price for it? None of that is factual, yet they do not say that is their guess…..they make it sound like it is information Saab has made public. Just some clarifications of fact vs. speculation and reference to the new 9-3 (which has been announced) would have made it much better.
I have in a previous comment just after the Geneva show mentioned a Swedish journo from Sydsvenskan that the new 9-3 will be called “900”. A rumor is certainly out there. Can anybody (Djup Strupe) verify or, at least deny?
Well that would make it very Saaby as long at lives up to the previous 900 in class leading “pace and space” 🙂
i reckon the new small saab when it comes should be called 96 because it could be saabs return to wrc and the 96 was one of the top motorsport cars of its day and put saab on the map, and hopefully the new one can carry on from where the 96 left of.