SAAB Of The Week

May 10, 2013May 11, 2013 by JasonPowell

This weeks SAAB Of The Week is no real surprise to anyone who follows us on Facebook. Harald Willumsen Østbø from Norway sent us a photo of his 9-4X and 9-5 Combi both of which were bought at the KVD Auction. When this photo was posted, we saw it almost become viral with 419 likes, 34 people shared the photo in other groups and 39 comments. It’s safe to say that many of us would love to be in Haralds position and own these two fabulous SAABs but this is not all of his collection and he has promised to take a group shop of all five of his special SAABs together, including a Sonett III closer to the summer. Thank for sharing with us Harald and I look forward to the group photo. As always, keep the photos coming to jason.d.powell@me.com.

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Stunning

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saabtek

The Dream Team!!

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Red J

Is this the lower fron splitter Saab was planning for the 9-5?

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JasonPowell

Yes it is from what Tim told me. I like it but more than anything, I really love that colour.

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My favorite. The Glacier silver Aero.
Why the ….. couldn’t the Swedish Government offer their iconic car manufacturer a helping hand to get over the second year hump? Bridge loan, EIB loan restructuring, stepping in as a temporary shareholder, buying out Spyker, FGS anything.
The first year losses were not so great that one could declare the post-GM era doomed. They just lacked working capital, big time.

The MY12 9-5 SC (and probably the 9-4X too) would have sold like crazy.

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rikard

+ 1 !

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Quixcube

I don’t know if the 9-4x had much hope of getting big sales numbers by the time it arrived in the US. 🙁 That segment is hyper competitive in the US and I doubt that Saab would have had the funding to stay current. In 2013, the SRX is still a top 5 seller in the US (in the small to mid-sized SUV and crossover vehicles category) but its numbers are closer to the bottom than the top. Lexus RS 7053, Acura RDX 4088, Cadillac SRX 3478, BMW X5 3444, Mercedes M-Class 3280 The Lexus was new for 2010 and… Read more »

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Eagle63

I would have loved to buy the 9-4X 2.8T !
No EVs for me, so now its probably gonna be th XC60 T6…
Not bad either….

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JasonPowell

We had an XC60 on the lot here a while back and it may just be me but when driving, it felt…. I don’t know of a better way to describe other than heavy. Nice looking vehicles though, I liked it more than the XC90 though. Also like that the hatch is one piece rather than the split that the 90 has. I really think that we would have done really well with the 9-4X, North America is all about sport utility vehicles and cross over vehicles and the 9-4X never really had a chance as everything fell apart just… Read more »

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Dan P

Absolutely stunning cars. I think they’d both have done very well over here, if priced right. That 9-5 looks amazing with that paint. Wow. Very, very sad they didn’t make it here.

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dcpattie

I love the NG9-5 SC! People should be in jail from not allowing it to come to market. However, I wonder how successful it would have been in the US market? Saab had a few things working against it: (1) IIRC, it was coming to the US in Aero XWD trim only (which was good) with the 2.0T motor. The problem with the “rightsized” 2.0T is it only achieved 1-MPG better than the V6 2.8T with 80 less HP. Maybe they could have bumped the HP/torque numbers up to the Caddy ATS level (272 hp/260 ft -lbs)? (2) the other… Read more »

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Very, very nice cars indeed! Nice to hear that he managed to get both of them street legal as well! 🙂

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Chris Carrier

Well, My 9-5 is not an SC, but I’m proud to say I have these very cars. If you’ve ever seen the inside of an 9-4x Aero, you might agree that many of the refinements coming to the 9-5 in 2012 were already in place. Interiors are the same, but the 9-4x has some upgraded stuff.

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montahue

The 9-4X is a decent looking car. The 9-5 is one odd sexy beast of a car and the Combi adds even more oddness to this. It’s a tragedy.