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

Could they license a platform from a company (say, the Suzuki Kizashi), and make unique body style (hatch), put in a unique drivetrain, and give it a unique interior and exterior? That would be a stop-gap to help wean them off GM platforms and buy several years for them to develop a truly unique platform.

I can't imagine Suzuki would say no if Saab Spyker asked to license the Kizashi platform. Suzuki would get money for the platform (which right now only underpins one car and thus has a long way to go to paying off R&D), and a next-gen 9-3 wouldn't remotely compete with the Kizashi (which is far, far cheaper) or anything else Suzuki sells. And the Kizashi platform is the right size, handles well, and can accommodate AWD.
 
^ An he will say this is the evidence there's still nice people in this world... :D
 
They needed a replacement for the 9-3 yesterday. I own one, it's a good car but it's SAAB's volume seller and it is already 8 years old.

If 9-3 is technically competitive product(what it is especially with XWD) then age is not that much of a problem.

Current 9-5 came at fall 1997 into market and it has been improved again and again, enabling steady sales until last year.

One problem age brings is work hours needed to build the car. Every new generation takes less time and hands.
But old car has one advantage, better reliability as problems are found and fixed time ago.

. Perhaps a skin looking like an Aero X could be placed over the innards of one of the Spyker models being produced in Coventry. That would be cool.
Saab will engineer future Spyker cars and it would be rather easy to make cheaper Saab version, and it might be even mandatory to generate synergy savings.
 
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If 9-3 is technically competitive product(what it is especially with XWD) then age is not that much of a problem.

I haven't driven one myself, but everything I've read suggests that the 9-3 is not a competitive product. Miserable steering feel, so-so handling, terrible manual transmission feel, and lack of rigidity in the convertible are the complaints I remember from various tests.

Current 9-5 came at fall 1997 into market and it has been improved again and again, enabling steady sales until last year.

How well has the 9-5 been doing in Europe? Because I've literally never seen a single one here in the States. I don't see 9-3s every day, but probably every week. But the 9-5? Literally, never.
 
He looks like he could be Stephen Fry's dad.

I feel slightly more optimistic already.

He looks like a cross between Stephen Fry and Chris Evans. While we're commenting on appearance, the other guy looks like Lee Iacocca crossed with Sam the Eagle.
 
If 9-3 is technically competitive product(what it is especially with XWD) then age is not that much of a problem.

Current 9-5 came at fall 1997 into market and it has been improved again and again, enabling steady sales until last year.
I would disagree. The long product cycles for SAAB have contributed to its downfall. The 9-5 has been a lame duck among lame ducks in the SAAB lineup for a long time. Victor Muller himself has commented on this.

The facelift for the 9-3, the TurboX, the 9-3 with XWD and the 9-3X will keep the 9-3 fresh enough for the time being, but development for a new car really needed to start yesterday. In the meantime, perhaps an interior refresh (it was hardly altered at all with the exterior facelift about 2 years ag, and the new turbocharged direct injection engine from the new 9-5 would be nice, but it depends how long the current 9-3 has to stay on for.

I haven't driven one myself, but everything I've read suggests that the 9-3 is not a competitive product. Miserable steering feel, so-so handling, terrible manual transmission feel, and lack of rigidity in the convertible are the complaints I remember from various tests.
The handling and steering isn't that bad. It isn't epic, but I wouldn't say it's terrible. It's certainly better than the other two cars that I drive regularly (Holden VX Commodore, VW Passat), but that doesn't say much really.

Interior fit and finish isn't that good. Grey plastic that starts to rattle after a few years seems to be a GM trademark - it's like that in the Holden as well. It is supposedly improved with the facelift, but I haven't been in one myself. Interior noise levels are supposed to be improved with the revision as well.

How well has the 9-5 been doing in Europe? Because I've literally never seen a single one here in the States. I don't see 9-3s every day, but probably every week. But the 9-5? Literally, never.

:blink::blink:

I can't drive for more than half an hour without seeing another 9-3. 9-5s, 9000s and 900s (classic and GM) are less common but hardly a rare sight. At least a few a day. I might just be more aware of them, but the older SAABs are more common than, say, Audis of a similar era.

SAAB must be far more common here than elsewhere in the world.

He looks like he could be Stephen Fry's dad.

I feel slightly more optimistic already.

:lol:
 
The handling and steering isn't that bad. It isn't epic, but I wouldn't say it's terrible. It's certainly better than the other two cars that I drive regularly (Holden VX Commodore, VW Passat), but that doesn't say much really.

Interior fit and finish isn't that good. Grey plastic that starts to rattle after a few years seems to be a GM trademark - it's like that in the Holden as well. It is supposedly improved with the facelift, but I haven't been in one myself. Interior noise levels are supposed to be improved with the revision as well.

Good to know. American magazines tend to test it against the 3-Series (not sure why, it's not really the same price point) and it always comes up short.

:blink::blink:

I can't drive for more than half an hour without seeing another 9-3. 9-5s, 9000s and 900s (classic and GM) are less common but hardly a rare sight. At least a few a day. I might just be more aware of them, but the older SAABs are more common than, say, Audis of a similar era.

SAAB must be far more common here than elsewhere in the world.

Saabs are concentrated in a couple regions of the US--the mountain states (particularly Colorado) and New England (particularly Massachusetts). 9-3s were all over Boston when I was going to school there. But in the rest of the nation, Saab dealers and Saabs are few and far between. There are five significant metro areas in Oregon, each an hour or more apart from each other (sorry Klamath Falls, I'm leaving you out). BMW has at least one dealership in all five. Saab has a dealership in just one, Portland. I don't know whether they don't sell Saabs here because nobody buys them, or nobody buys Saabs here because there's nowhere to buy them (and get them serviced).
 
Oddly enough, there's a fairly large concentration of newer 9-3s and 9000's in my college town. And it's a very redneck, ultra-conservative, smoke stacks coming out of Dodge/Ford/Chevy 3/4 ton pick up beds kind of place.

I'm late to the party, but cheers to Saab's sale!
 
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