Paul is a guest writer who has his own blog called Saab vs. Scepticism.
When nature’s light dims, automotive lights take over, and few are as beautiful as the latest Saab’s. The Saab 9-3 features impeccably designed headlights with a highly individual look, spotting them coming toward me, puts a smile on my face every time.
Distinctive and stylish, the elegant light strip highlights the edge of the Saab’s bonnet, and when darkness really sets in, the perfect circular eyes send powerful beams out into the night.
Occasionally, I’ll be rewarded with a lesser spotted new generation 9-5; they too have the distinctive Saab light fantastic too, so next time you see one, look in your rear view mirror as it passes – the beautiful, narrow strip of red light reassures you that Saab really did get it right, in design terms at least.
You can see the original post, with extra pictures, here
Yes I very much agree. The Saab lighting really is in a class of it,s own. When a lot of our competitors started using LED type lighting they seemed to be more intent on making them look as decorative as possible as opposed to effective. Audi in particular look like they would be more at home on a Christmas tree! Putting all bias to one side I think the ‘eyebrow’ lights on our cars are by far the more stylish and classiest of any others in the marketplace.
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Agree !
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The 9-5 has the best looking rear end of any saloon car out there today. Saab nailed the lights……BIG TIME!
Yes !
And with the icy blue front lights, they got that end also.
The xenon on my 9-5 12/2001 almost blind. ;(
Some time ago I saw a pair of “eyebrowed” lights in my backview mirror,
and although the chance that it would be a 9.3 were close to zero, I was pretty sure it was one.
At the next traffic light I was proven right 😉
P.S. The only thing I miss on the “eyebrows” is a “daytime running lights” option…
Not sure if it is legal where you live, but you can switch the parking lights on with the fog lights. This activates the LEDs in the front, as well as the rear lights.
Not sure if the lights are configured to be used like this in my country…
maybe they aren’t simply because it IS illegal?
Beautiful post – the Flickr images are very impressive. My favorite detailon my TurboX and other 9-3’s of the same vintage is on the side of the headlight near the top rear, where there are 3 tiny lamps…now that’s attention to detail.
As a testament to the beauty of the 9-5’s rear light design, in the movie Arbitrage (just released a week ago with Richard Gere), the key scene in the movie is a reveal of a security camera image of his lawyer’s rear license plate, and wouldn’t you know it – it is a 9-5! I almost jumped out of my seat – I live in the Washington DC area and the only 2010 9-5’s I’ve seen have been on dealers lots – I’ve never seen one on the road. For the Hollywood researchers to find and focus on the Saab that is probably dead last in public reconition and select it for such a key moment shows a very high regard for the elegance of the design.
I’m hoping to someday see the further evolution of these wonderful automobiles…
Meh, BMW does those brow lights better. Although I agree the 9-5 rear is fantastic.
When the daylight running LED’s came I thought they were awesome. Now when every new car seems to have that blueish light (close to 5000K) on them and the shapes vary from model to model I have got bored with this “fashion”. I think all of them look the same these days. Also the wrong use of them makes traffic even a bit dangerous. When using daylight running lights some cars don’t have any lights in the rear and in rainy conditions that is a potential hazard…
I’m waiting for the first car with a warmer color of white in the daylight running lights… (maybe 3000K)
My NG 9-5 daytime running lights only work in the front. Of course, if it’s raining hard enough, the auto lights turn on the “regular” lights.
This is how DRL should work. =)
Perhaps, but I could swear that on my ’99 and ’03 9-5s, both the front and the back lights were illuminated in DRL mode. I know they were on my ’07 ovloV.
Where I live most of the new cars with DRL use regular incandescent bulbs, the fancy LED’s are too expensive for the people.
Apparently it was too expensive for Saab too. LEDs are used on Kias and Hyundais now. They will be coming your way soon.