Chinese car companies – SAABSUNITED

Two weeks ago the Geneva international motor Show started. Not being there felt a little bit disappointing, on the one side, because it means another year without New SAAB branded cars, and on the other side because it is fun to be there during the press days and you get the info first hand.

Nevertheless lots of new things have been introduced in Geneva, but for me only two were really of interest.

Koengisegg_Regera_front_moretwist First was the Koenigsegg Regera. It is always fascinating to see a new car coming from Koenigsegg every year, and on the booth in front of Koenigsegg you have seen the very same car for the last 6 years albeit in different colours. (You can guess which car brand am I talking about).

The Regera is an interesting way of using the capabilities of a hybrid car, but with all the respect to CvK, the Regera is a hybrid car. What I didn’t like about the Regera was the way the press was talking about the car. I mean it is no rocket science what Koenigsegg has done.

Why do cars need a gear-box? No, it is not to be able to drive fast, more than that is to be able to start moving. At low revs an IC-Engine has almost no torque at all, and to get a car to start moving needs more torque than to keep it moving.

Read moreNot SAAB related

Slightly edited by Trued. Sorry RedJ just had to do it!

I worked for Swedish DOT for 5 years in Traffic safety, working there when we together with other european DOT´s started up the EuroNCAP. During this time the 9000 was the most shining “safety-car” in the world. Saab was on top from 1985-1998. US. Highway Data Loss Institute, Swe. insurer Folksam rated Saab no.1. Saab themselves crashed the same car in front side back you name it.
The big guys are always trying to catch up which is good because society wins as well as the individual. Saab is up there check out for Yourself and make comparisons at www.euroncap.com

We need to focus on Saabs competitors and see how well they do, compared to Audi A6, Mercedes E-Class, BMW 5 series Jaguar XF. So how good is the NG 9-5. Well compared to the Audi, Saab comes out 94% compared to 91% for front seats adult safety. Even better compared to Mercedes 86%. Saab is up with 8%, that is big news. BMW wins with a mere 1% over Saab with a 95% rating. Jaguar XF is not en interesting to compare with a 79% safety and bad whiplash and overall marginal safety.

Pedestrian safety 44% Saab, 41% Audi, but Mercedes is up to 59% good job. BMW has a nice soft bonnet and gets a winning 78%.
Overall Saab is a FIRST class safety automobile. Better or on par with the BIG guys.
The talk later on here of the Chevy Malibu and its ratings well should be on par with Saab and they might even have worked out some tweaks probably with the knowledge from Trollhättan.
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In the last test series EuroNCAP has tested different cars like the (global) Chevrolet Malibu based on the SWB Epsilon II platform. It has performed slightly better than the current Saab 9-5, but it isn’t that strange as the team in Rüsselsheim had the experience of the Insignia/Regal and did know the flaws of that car. This shows the high dependency of GM on their European branch, and that it does’t make sense for GM to close GM-Europe.

But more interesting than that is the fact, that two Chinese cars have reached acceptable values at this test.