Saab in China

[nzsaab]

KiwiGuy

With Saab once again on the road to independance it is about 95% unlikely that GM's other brands will ever develop new models side by side.

It has been indicated by Spyker that they intend for Saab to develop their own models and possibly develop new models with other companies outside of GM.

Yes, Saab will be tied to GM for sometime. But only by way of what has already been developed. Current 9-3, all new 9-4x and all new 9-5.

GM will recieve dividends from the company of 4% between now and 2016.

[nzsaab]

Final Outgoing Saab 9-5 SportEstate Produced In Trollhatten

A sad day for all the fans of the 12 year old 9-5 SportEstate and the 13 year old 9-5 model.

below is the last of this model 9-5 SportEstate to roll of the lines.



The car, which incidentally is the 483,593th Saab 9-5 since June 1997, is a Snow Silver model, with a 2.3t BioPower engine with 210 horsepower under the hood. It's pretty much fully loaded, too, with similar spec to a Vector Sport Griffin Edition.



Like the final Saab 9000 hat rolled off the line many years ago, this one was made exactly to specifications requested by Peter Backstrom, director of the Saab Museum. Seen above hugging the car as he always does on special occassions.

The outgoing 9-5 model and its tooling has been sold to Chinese company BAIC and tooling is expected to be being packed up as we speak. Saab intends to have a very good long term relationship with BAIC thanks to this deal. Expect to see Saab based BAIC cars in around 2012.



More photos to come

[nzsaab]

More of the final 9-5 production photos!

[nzsaab]

Even more!

[Rally Red Lancer GTS]

nzsaab, you have a pretty good handle on what I'm looking at and looking in to. I'll keep ya posted, Saab fan!

[Rally Red Lancer GTS]

If my budget will stretch is a huge part of whether or not we'll buy a new Saab 9-5 Aero SportSedan. I love the design, the price is another story. I will need to study further all of the 9-5's assets and understand more about Saab reliability and such before I get closer to thinking about a potential purchase.

[nzsaab]

Rally Red Lancer GTS

If the Aero is to big a stretch then why not go for the vector and then add the things you really want?

From what Ive read things like heads-up display are options even on the aero.

[Rally Red Lancer GTS]

nzsaab-what's the vector? A lesser-equipped 9-5 Aero?

[nzsaab]

Rally Red Lancer GTS

Since around 2001 (not sure of exact date) Saab has been using architectural forms as a way to represent its sub models below the Griffin and Aero models. For example in New Zealand the 9-3 SportSedan range is available in base Linear, LinearSport, Vector, VectorSport and Aero. The varients differ from country to country.

It can get very complicated to explain without talking face to face however to put it simply most of the world consists of, Linear, Vector, Arc, Aero and sometimes Griffin (Griffin is only used on special occasions, i.e marking the beginning or end of a model.)

So to answer your initial question in short, rather than going on Vector is mid range so yes, a few less features than Aero. To my knowledge the 2010 9-5 Sedan will be available in Linear, Vector and Aero.

I have heard that the Aero is really only for enthusiast buyers or people who will have the car for a long time because they depreciate very quickly.

If you want good value for money, fantastic range of features and a reasonable resale value then choose Vector. Its not as downgrading as Linear but you wont get stung as much when you go to sell it like you would with an Aero.

As you can see I could type all day.

[nzsaab]

Sexy Swede, 9-3x Could Be Getting A Brother X!!!



The sexy lines of the dedicated Saab 9-3x model are clearly shown above and below. The 9-3x is a highly capable sport combi. The 9-3x Aero featues the worlds most advanced all wheel drive system that Saab calls cross-wheel-drive (XWD). The 9-3x's XWD system is linked to a powerful 2.0t Petrol engine while a 1.9TiD (not sure if its TiD or TTiD - someone correct me) does not feature XWD.

The 9-3x is 25mm higher from the ground than the 9-3 SportCombi and features scratch resistant black bumpers.

Is a brother around the corner for Saab? . . .



I have heard from many sources that Saab Automobile are planning on developing a dedicated Cross-Wheel-Drive (XWD) version of the next gen Saab 9-5 SportCombi called the 9-5x!

First things first however, the all new 9-5 SportCombi has to be shown to the world. Thats expected this year. The 9-5x could be shown next year (2011) however that would be the same year the 9-4x goes on sale.

I dont really understand why we need a 9-5x when the 9-4x is more capable. The 9-4x has an almost identical interior to the 9-5 and it will have better towing capacity too.

Below is an idea on what the 2011 Saab 9-5 SportCombi may look like:



What does China think? Comment below.