Breaking news! Saab is NOT dead (yet) and the new 9-5 gets the green light.

Kowalski said:
Saab needs an A3, 1-Series and Golf rival available as a 3-door, 5-door hatchback with a hot version obviously, a convertible version and a crossover version. The hot version should be available in 3 door and 5 door versions.

The 9-3 needs to be overhauled ASAP! The new 9-3 should have a fastback shape to hark back to the old 900 and the boot lid should have an opening system similar to the 5-Series GT. It should be available as a fastback 5-door, fastback coup?, a four seater convertible, an estate and a crossover based on the estate.

The new 9-5 may be a good car, but it has to keep the pace with the rivals in therms of engines. The most powerful diesel engine available for the 9-5 is a 2.0 four cylinder turbo 160 Hp and that's not good enough when the rivals are now offering twin-turbocharged six cylinders engines outputting nearly 300 hp. The 9-5 also needs a powerful twin-turbocharged V6 petrol engine and a crossover based on the estate; it should be called the 9-5X.

The 9-4X will be a rival for the Audi Q5 and it's already being tested.
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They should put you in charge.
 
DarthBane22 said:
am i the only one that thinks the new 9-5 is fucking hideous?
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No, you are just in a minority :p

While I like the looks of the new 9-5 and consider it a great improvement over the fugly '06 facelifted 9-5, it cannot top the original IMHO.

9-5aero.jpg

saab-95-01.jpg
 
gt1750 said:
No, you are just in a minority :p

While I like the looks of the new 9-5 and consider it a great improvement over the fugly '06 facelifted 9-5, it cannot top the original IMHO.

9-5aero.jpg

saab-95-01.jpg
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That one looks classy and distinctly Saab.

The new one looks like a Nissan.
 
DarthBane22 said:
am i the only one that thinks the new 9-5 is fucking hideous?
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I wouldn't go that far, but the new 9-5 doesn't really look a SAAB ... which is half its problem.

The other major SAAB problem is that they stopped making what they're really good at - massive cars that don't look massive. The classic fastback shape from the 99/900/9000/early 9-3 needs to make a comeback. It's stylish yet incredibly practical. Once SAABs stopped being stylish, the pool of potential buyers dried up a bit.

The dude with ideas for SAAB products to save the company earlier in this thread had some great ideas. I still reckon that long term, each of the SAAB variants needs to have a fastback option. That, and an AWD version of the 9-3 and 9-5 - use the AWD system from the 9-4X to make a 9-5X and 9-3X, the latter two looking basically the same as their FWD brothers.
 
tone76 said:
I wouldn't go that far, but the new 9-5 doesn't really look a SAAB ... which is half its problem.
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The same can be said of the new Jaguar XJ. Thought that's not necessarily bad. It's a new design, a new brand ID and the new 9-5 is doing it right. ;)
 
You know what I think the 9-5 needs?

Skoda-Superb_2009_photo_39.jpg


Skoda-Superb_2009_photo_3d.jpg


Skoda-Superb_2009_photo_3e.jpg


Give the sedan-buyers who largely make up the buyers in this segment of car the silhouette they want, while giving Saab enthusiasts the hatchback they want. Everybody wins.
 
^ QFT ;)

The Skoda Superb's boot is something so simple, yet so awesome because it mixes the best of both worlds. Why noone thought of that before?
 
Hidden_Hunter said:
img_caprice_01.jpg


Just sayin'

Put a SAAB interior in it and we're good to go (the grill only needs a tiny bit of saab'ification)
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Dream on, it didnt came to Opel either, Pontiac didnt sold it an complete year before they written it off and Vauxhall sells only modells tuned by HSV.

That thing will never be mass-sold in europe, partly because GM doesnt want it to be here and because BMW's, Merc's and Audi's are way too far ahead in technology, and the cheap price of the holden cant wash away the fact, that the engine is an Gasguzzling V8 out of an Corvette, might be fun, but not economical enough for european customers.
 
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tone76 said:
The dude with ideas for SAAB products to save the company earlier in this thread had some great ideas. I still reckon that long term, each of the SAAB variants needs to have a fastback option. That, and an AWD version of the 9-3 and 9-5 - use the AWD system from the 9-4X to make a 9-5X and 9-3X, the latter two looking basically the same as their FWD brothers.
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They already do XWD versions that look the same, and beefed up versions like the 9-3X.

https://pic.armedcats.net/k/kn/knarkas/2010/01/01/saab-93x.jpg
 
We are down to our last new 2009 saab. We have a few 2010 9-3s allocated we can take and some 9-3Xs we could take but for right now we are in a holding pattern. We would love to be a able to take a few new saabs but if there aren't the programs in place to sell or lease them at prices that make sense then we can't build a business case to bring them in.

We have people that want to order new 9-5s too but we are in thr same boat with those orders. No progams mean no orders.
 
laxmax613 said:
So what is Sweden(or whoever you talk to) saying about all this? are they as in the dark as we are about what's going to happen?
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They don't tell us anything. GM never treated their Saab dealers very well anyway.

We sold our last new Saab yesterday.
 
New bidders just popped up.

Just when we thought the financial soap opera surrounding Saab couldn't get any more convoluted or tortured, it has. Bloomberg is reporting that General Motors has once again delayed a meeting planned for today to determine the Swedish automaker's fate. The gathering will now take place tomorrow, in part because a new bidder has entered the fray, Genii Capital, the private-equity group that purchased Renault's Formula One team just last month. According to the report, Genii intends to make a cash automaker for the brand, and it plans to use the business plan of an earlier bidder, Koenigsegg, as a roadmap to getting Saab into the black by 2012 with just 105,000 units per year.

For his part, interim GM chief executive officer Ed Whitacre told reporters yesterday that he isn't optimistic about consummating a sale, remarking that nobody has yet stepped up to offer the necessary funds for Saab: "It's real easy ? show up with the money and you can have it." Naturally, such statements might also be designed to increase the size of the bids, and that statement may have come before Whitacre was made aware of Genii entering the fray, but we digress...

Of course, Spyker Cars, the bidder for whom the deadline was originally extended until today, is still very much in the mix, but there are also new rumors of yet another Swedish group making a last-last-minute play for the brand. More as it happens.
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http://www.autoblog.com/2010/01/07/breaking-gm-reportedly-delays-board-meeting-as-new-swedish-bidd/
 
make it, sell it, i really want one
 
argatoga said:
Is that a good thing?
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I believe so. Even though the guy may be a little out there in some ways, there's no denying that he's got some serious business acumen. I think SAAB could really do with someone who is both a shrewd operator and a bit nuts. The only other businessman I can think of who has the right combination of genius and insanity is Richard Branson ... but he's never really come across as a car guy. He's more of a plane nut.

I am beginning to wonder if GM is that serious about selling SAAB. They've had at least 4 credible bids now. Surely it's going to cost them more to wind up SAAB kill it off than it would to sell it to someone else, even if the money being offered is below whatever secret 'magic' number GM is looking for.
 
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