Category: Saab

I’ve been on the road for a week, seeing a bit of northern Tasmania from behind the wheel of a new Subaru Forester. It’s a very fat and floaty car and I wouldn’t recommend one to a driving enthusiast. Families? It’s probably quite good.

Seems I didn’t miss much, but there have been a few good stories and happenings.

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I got an email from the very efficient Swiss people behind the Geneva Motor Show today. I’ve been offered accreditation for the 2013 Geneva Show. Didn’t even have to ask for it. Just fill out a form and I’m in.

If only they’d sent an airfare as well.

Geneva 2013 should be very interesting. Spyker should be there and Koenigsegg might show that One:1 hypercar that’s been doing the news circuit this week.

Another point of interest will be the international debut of Qoros, a Chinese-based venture with plans to launch internationally. The Saaby point of interest is that quite a few members of Saab’s former PR team are now working for Qoros.

Geneva’s very, very tempting…..

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Yes, GM screwed with Saab. It’s not really news and it’s not surprising, but the details of the dates are at the very least, interesting.

Despite that, however, it’s the latest news from Volvo that maybe puts what might have been Saab’s future into some perspective.

I always thought that Saab could have had a wonderful few years with the new 9-5, 9-4x and the 9-3 replacement designed by Jason Castriota. What I worried about, however, was the generation that would have to replace those cars. Having new product for the ‘now’ is a wonderful thing, but you’ve got to have new product for the future, too.

Volvo are about to embark on a US$11billion (with a ‘b’) investment spree to bring their production facilities up to date and develop their next generation of vehicles, the generation that will finally cut the ties with Ford completely.

Now let’s assume that Saab survived 2011 intact. I have a hard time picturing Saab getting even half that sum for investment in a future model range. Development on PhoeniX probably wouldn’t have cost that much, but it still wouldn’t have been cheap. Maybe we could have done it, but at the very least this decision from Volvo shows the sort of commitment and resources an owner needs to have to try and grow a stable, stand-alone car company in the global marketplace.

I still wish we had the chance. Good luck, Volvo. I wish you well.

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I have one BIG Saab story left in me. Might wrap it up, put a bow on it and leave it under the tree.

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I’m currently reading a book called On The Road To Winterhaven. I’m about one-third of the way through and despite it being a more ‘feel-good’ book than I’m used to reading (I’m more of a wintry Swedish crime reader), I’m actually enjoying it, quite a lot. That link, by the way, is to the Amazon download page, where the book is a mere $2.99 in electronic form.

The Saaby connection? On The Road To Winterhaven is the first published work by a guy known in comments as “J Fan”. He’s a long-time Saab guy from Ireland and this is his first book, a fictional piece set in the eastern United States at the end of the 1920’s.

Congratulations, Geoff, on realising a dream. I wish I had the skills, courage and commitment to do the same.

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Congratulations to a mate and long-time reader from New York, Hugh W, who just traded his 9-3 SportCombi in on a ‘new’ Saab 9-3x. It’s a 2011 model but had just 17 miles on the clock when Hugh picked it up last weekend. I got to drive the 9-3x a fair bit in Sweden and it was a very satisfying car. Hugh put 260 miles on his driving it home from New Hampshire and sounds well pleased already, which is fantastic.

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RIP Sami.

You’ve probably already heard about Hurricane Sandy’s most famous automotive victims – a bunch of Fiskers that caught fire after one of them short-circuited. That was the headline story. The sad fact is that estimates say approximately 250,000 cars may have been wiped out by Sandy.

Inundated. Washed away. Crushed. Whatever.

I heard a sad story last week, especially sad for a Saab fan, about the loss during Hurricane Sandy of one of the few 9-4x’s ever made. I checked in with a friend from Saab North America and found that there were only 467 Saab 9-4x’s made for the 2011 model year. The 9-4x is one rare bird. Now, in the post-Sandy world, there’s at least one less.

ADDED NOTE: I neglected to mention that this 9-4x is #58 of those 467 built. Not just a rare bird, but an early bird, too.

A friend in the US who works in the motoring press – a Saab fan, naturally – ended up with a 9-4x in his extended family when his Uncle and Aunt bought one. They weren’t Saab owners prior to the 9-4x, but they’d heard plenty about them thanks to the other Saab-owning members of the family. When it came time for them to buy a new car in February this year they were keen on the idea of an SUV. They tried the 9-4x and the Saab-apocalypse price made the deal irresistible.

They bought this Zodiac Black 9-4x for $27.5K plus a $700 shipping charge (the vehicle had to come cross country from Minnesota). They bought a six-year warranty through their dealer, bringing the total cost to $30K. Even with that warranty charge, it was a great deal. The MSRP was more than $38K new, with the car fitted with XWD, power package and full leather. It was a Saab ‘evaluation’ car with 3000 miles on the odometer.

Now, with just 12,000 miles on the clock, their 9-4x was claimed by Hurricane Sandy. Salt water inundated the car and it was declared a total loss late last week.

A very sad ending for one rare example of a model that never got the chance it deserved.

With the extended family….

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The Australian car industry nearly croaked last week.

Autodom, a parts supplier to all three local manufacturers, went into administration and were only saved by Ford and Holden coming together to bail them out. Toyota sat on the sidelines as they already had an adequate reserve of spares and didn’t feel compelled to intervene, a move that I’m sure won’t be forgotten in the future.

As I was reading this recap of what happened, there was one part of the story that resonated with regards to NEVS and their possible plans to rebuild the petrol driven Saab 9-3 (a plan that’s caused me even more confusion than their regular plans to build EV’s in Sweden and sell them in China).

It has been revealed this week that Holden and Ford may have been forced to shut down for up to 18 months if it were not for their swift response…..

….Industry insiders report that 18 months is the time it would have taken for the car makers move their tooling equipment out of the old factories and refit them into new ones and then undergo the battery of engineering tests required to ensure the equipment meets their standards.

That’s an 18 month shutdown for a company that makes hinges and other minor bits and pieces.

Now imagine re-designing an older car like the Saab 9-3 to meet new pedestrian safety rules as well as re-engineering it to take a new powertrain. There’s all sorts of re-tooling, re-supplying and factory organisation to be done with that, too.

My concerns with NEVS remain as follows:

• Why build in Sweden when China’s your #1 target market?
• Why rebuff Jason Castriota’s designs for the Phoenix based car when starting from scratch is only going to cost you a bucketload more in terms of time and money?
• Why burn cash on something other than your game-changing vehicle, the ‘ev-2’? Every dollar spent and day delayed pushes back your best hope of staying alive – new, innovative product.
• Why deviate from your stated business plan of EV’s only to consider rebuilding a petrol driven 9-3 in a climate where your markets have all but dried up, the product’s quite outdated and highly unlikely to generate any profit whatsoever?

The Australian case shows just how delicate the balance can be in the car industry, and just how long it can take to get something designed, tested and out to market. Those suggesting that NEVS can just “get an engine from XXXX” need to fully consider the business case that has to be made for whatever option NEVS might choose.

The BMW/Mini option, for example, was going to be massively expensive. It was a path that Saab took with a massive lump in its throat because it was going to substantially push the market price of the 9-3 replacement upwards. It was considered worthwhile, however because Saab had to go upmarket in order to survive as a small manufacturer. The BMW name added sufficient currency to justify the cost for Saab in 2010 because it was a long-term strategy they were embarking on, but would it make the same sense in 2013 with NEVS heading in a vastly different EV direction?

The old joke of “losing $$ on each car but making it up in volume” was/is just a joke. You can’t do that in real life. NEVS must have an ocean of cash behind them because right now, the path they’re treading just doesn’t make economic sense.

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To those who’ll feel inclined to criticise me for not appearing to support a new Saab venture, please understand this: It’s not that I don’t support them. I simply don’t understand them. I make no claims to knowing it all, but I’ve gained an understanding of what’s involved in this industry and just how hard it is to exist in it. Even revered boutique brands with outstanding products like Aston Martin are threatened constantly with being sold off to bigger players.

Why?

Because it’ll be damn hard to be a small player in the car business in 2012 and beyond. The only reason Saab was a saleable commodity back in 2009/10 was because it had three new products either ready for release or in the pipeline. Trying to start from next-to-nothing in a high cost country just doesn’t make sense with the little information NEVS has provided.

I wholeheartedly support the idea of Saab activity in Trollhattan, but I’m also an experienced realist who’s covered Saab for 6 years and worked for them for one. I understand the brand and the markets well enough to know that this is going to be a mighty uphill struggle and that the route currently being considered just doesn’t make enough sense to be real. I just hope they’ve got a massive rabbit they can pull out of their hat.

I only ask questions because I want it to make sense, for me and for the friends of mine who might be investing themselves in the idea of a new Saab product.

Unfortunately, NEVS don’t seem to want to answer. Their PR guy hasn’t even responded to my email with an acknowledgement that he received it.

When I worked for Saab, I made a number of videos that were posted to a special Inside Saab channel as part of Saab’s official Youtube channel. NEVS will most likely remove those videos in due course so I’m posting copies to my own channel as well (where I’ve got the original on my hard drive, at least).

I filmed and photographed this crash test of the 2012 Saab 9-5 SportCombi just a few weeks before I left Sweden for the last time. I don’t know for sure, but it’s quite possibly the last crash test Saab did in their lab prior to the bankruptcy.

The test was a EuroNCAP-equivalent 65km/h front offset test with four ‘occupants’ inside the car. Saab would have known the results via computer modelling before they tested this car, but they still had to do the physical test to confirm the results. You don’t want any unknown gremlins causing surprises at the EuroNCAP labs.

As you can see, the 9-5 SportCombi would have well and truly upheld Saab’s legacy for safety.

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If you want to see a little bit more about Saab’s crash test facility, this video from the Inside Saab series we started is a good primer.

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There were ten films in that series but we only got to show three of them due to the production stoppage. The news atmosphere was pretty toxic around that time and it wasn’t considered a wise move to continue showing these ‘feel good’ videos while things were so negative. We planned to resume the series when production started on a sustainable footing, but we all know what happened there.

It’s a shame the rest of the series won’t be seen as they were all quite good. They were made by a small media company based mostly in Stockholm but with connections to Trollhattan and those guys controlled the access to the films.

Just a quick note to let any interested parties know that I’m selling a few Saab 99 bits on Ebay.

I’ve got three items up there right now, with a few more to be listed over the coming weeks.

On sale right now:

• Saab 99 Turbo Inca wheels – set of 4
• Saab 99 Turbo Steering wheel with center pad
• Saab 99 instrument cluster (with tacho).

The items are located in Melbourne. They’re spare parts I picked up when I bought the red 99T three door a few years ago.

Happy bidding!

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Can you imagine the funky lines of the Saab Sonett III propelled along at lightning speed by a Suzuki Hayabusa engine?

Now this is my kinda hybrid!!!!!

It’s called Sonabusa and the build continues at Albany Speed Shop, owned and operated by former New Salem Saab proprietor, Darryl Carl.

Last time we checked, they’d just installed the engine and taken it for a first run. They’re a little further along now and I caught up with Darryl earlier this week to see what’s going on and what remains to be done before it’s legal.

From Darryl:

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Todays update is good:

• We are closing in on the first “legal” drive on the streets.
• The bonnet (lol, Sonett bonett) will be permanently installed within the week.
• The title is on the way – about three weeks out and then to get some plates (tags).
• The brake lights and heater and some of the other electrical has been completed.
• The throw on the shifter has been adjusted.
• I sorted my interior spare parts and was excited to find a NEW headliner, TWO NEW door seals, a NEW hatch seal and a NEW FRONT CARPET. Its unbelievable! I did not know I had them. So I have ALL the interior pieces and will be reinstalling it back to a prime STOCK looking interior.
• The tires and wheels that I will use have now come in and are installed. There is a little more poke than we wanted due to the width of the 1980 toyota corolla rearend we installed. You can see more pics on photobucket.
• I made new front aluminum splash pans/gaurds as the old steal ones were nasty and rotten.
• The cage is 98% done and awaiting final door tube installion until after the wiring and passanger seat was made/ re-fabricated.
• The rear panel in the trunk is done as is the battery hold down

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THE TO DO LIST:

• wiring wiper motor – a PITA as it involves two relays interrelated due to PARK and intermittant operation of the original system
• Heat wrap front pipe
• Interior – ALL
• Headlight system – gathering parts now… uuurgh!
• Finish the passenger seat – it had to be narrowed 2″ due to new driveshaft tunnel
• Wire in the directionals
• Add tachometer thats read 12,000 RPM 🙂
• Some other stuff, nothing huge that i can think of

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Did someone say they wanted to hear that Hayabusa engine?

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I can’t wait to see some finished video of this car in action. I’ve driven a Sonett and it’s bundles of fun but this is in a whole other league. If they can maintain the fun-to-drive nature of the Sonett’s lightweight frame and keep the whole thing controllable, then this Sonabusa is going to be a mega-Saab.

Rock on, Darryl!