Saabosphere Archives

Saabosphere – links we liked this week

First things first – I’m looking forward to seeing some photos from France today, as French Saab fans gather in Paris in a show of support for the company.

This is an initiative of Saab France as well as supporter websites, Saab Actu, Saablog-In and saabsunited.fr. It’s wonderful to see gestures of support like this, done the right way.

I know from a few messages here and there that some other gatherings were in the planning stages and if they do end up happening, please do let me know. I’d be happy to pass the word around so that interested parties can attend.

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Moving north…….

I got a message from a Belgian Saab fan overnight, about the Saab 9-5 SportCombi and Saab 9-4x being shown at his local dealership yesterday.

At this point, I don’t know how long it’s going to be there, nor where else it might be showing. I’ll try and find out some more information as to whether or not there’s a Belgian Tour going on (you’ll recall there was a break scheduled in the middle of the Spanish Tour).

For today, however, the vehicles are at Saab Kegels Turnhout. The address is Ambachtstraat 3, Oud-Turnhout, Belgium.

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These guys have been trying to get this Saab 9-3 into the Swedish Touring Car Championship for a couple of years now. It seems they’re working again with the hope of getting things going for the 2012 STCC season.

I really wish them every success. It’d be great to see Saabs racing again.

Great photo, too!

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And speaking of great photos, there’s a wonderful set on Flickr from the 2011 Roger Albert Clark Rally, in England.

Amongst the set are some absolutely wonderful images of Saab 96s competing in the event.

Great stuff.

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And last, but by no means least, I’d like to thank everyone who commented on the “Why I want Saab to survive” post here, over the last few days.

I’m going to pass those responses on to our communications people in Sweden and make sure that all employees are able to see your thoughts. They were very encouraging and a testament to the work that’s been done in Trollhattan over the years.

Thanks very much.

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Saabosphere – Links we liked this week

There’s a story in Dagens Industri where they ask whether or not Saab will file for bankruptcy. Victor Muller’s answer to that question could be summarised with a “No”. That is, whilst there is still negotiations to be made and a climate that allows them, our people will continue to do everything they can to save this company rather than file for bankruptcy.

We’d all prefer some definitive good news right now. As a Saab person, I take the fact that people are still working hard to get an outcome that sees us continue business, as being a good thing. If there were no hope for a resolution, there would be no ongoing negotiations.

“Never, ever give up” is not just a catchphrase.

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If you read Wulf’s Saab 9-4x owner review – part 1 – the other day, then you’ll likely want to catch up with part 2.

If you didn’t read Part 1, read it now. Then click the part 2 link. It’s your must-read for today’s Saabosphere.

Wulf casts his critical eye over his Saab 9-4x 3.0 Premium’s interior to see how it passes muster.

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You might remember that two blogs, SaabActu and Saablog-In, were running a photo competition for the Saab Dealer Tour of France.

It looks like the entries are in and there are some fantastic photos amongst them. Head over to either of the blogs to check them out.

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I link from time to time to the Charles River Saab weblog, written and maintained by a good friend of mine, Pierre Belperron.

Pierre has written a wonderful piece today that focuses on one of his favourite retailers, a small audio/electronics store that unfortunately went into liquidation a few years ago.

His story poses more than a few questions for companies like Saab, especially with recent commentary stating that kids prefer smartphones to cars.

As always, it’s interesting reading.

Saabosphere – links we liked this week

There have been plenty of Saab stories doing the rounds in the last few days and despite the current climate surrounding the company, the overwhelming majority of them have made for some very pleasant reading.

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I’ve got two Must Read stories for you this week.

The first is a quick writeup about Bud Clark on Car and Driver. US Saabers, especially those in California, may be familiar with Bud Clark. Sonett owners and enthusiasts will be familiar with the name, too. If you’re not familiar, consider this your chance to get acquainted.

Bud is one Saab person I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting personally yet. The first time I heard his name was in relation to his turbocharged Saab Sonett. Those last three words should give you an idea of the character and the Car and Driver article comes across wonderfully well.

You can see videos of Bud’s Sonett on Youtube. And if having a turbocharged Sonett isn’t cool enough already, it’s also fitted with Inca wheels, which looks absolutely perfect.

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The second must read article is actually in Swedish, so you might have to get Google Translate working to read it.

This SvD article profiles an American Saab-owing couple, who recently travelled to Trollhattan on holiday and actually attended the Saabs United Octoberfest event on October 1. SvD sent a reporter to their home in New York to see some more of their collection and speak to them about their passion for the brand.

For me, there are two stories here. The first is the couple themselves, whose support for Saab is steadfast (they just bought a 9-4x to support the company and have nine other Saabs between them). The second is SvD sending a reporter to the US to get the story, which is a commendable commitment of funds for a Saab good-news story, from a newspaper that I’ve been fairly angry at from time to time.

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The Local has a post that would make for some interesting debate in the future – What is a Swedish Car, anyway?

There is still a small amount of xenophobia floating around a potential Saab sale. And yet Saab haven’t been Swedish-owned for over 10 years. Volvo are in the same boat. And both are still considered as Swedish companies.

As I said, we’ll save this one for the future, but it’s an interesting thought piece.

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What’s a 1992 Saab worth?

$150 a week to this particular owner, who is renting is Saab out to strangers as part of an experiment in Collaborative Consumption. He’s also renting out his guitar, an air mattress and his dog!

It’s not a Saab based article at all but still makes for some interesting and entertaining reading.

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Spontaneous grass-roots support at it’s best. We’ve been watching this silently for a week now and done nothing to promote it, nor do we intend to, but it’s being talked about publicly now and as a Saab fan and enthusiast, I have to acknowledge it.

We have the best fans in the world. And the best behaved, I’m proud to say. Your support is appreciated, but the way you carry yourselves with dignity and respect is appreciated even more.

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Saabosphere – links we liked this week

It’s been another week of waiting in Saab land.

I know you’re all getting antsy. I can’t sit still and I’m worn through to the scalp from scratching my head so much.

Here are some links from this week…..

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It’s good to see some video posted for the Snap up a Saab competition. The competition is about to enter its fourth and final week for regular entrants.

I hope some readers of this website have jumped on board because it really is a great opportunity to share some of the Saab Spirit around, and if you work hard enough for a week or so, you’ve got a very good chance at winning yourself the new Saab of your choice.

Here’s the video. It’s “Vote for me” rather than the vehicle itself, but good to see some expanding their reach, which is what the competition is all about.

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Back when Saab were being sold by General Motors, we sold off some old technology to Beijing Automotive, or BAIC.

BAIC are reportedly ready to unveil their new Saab-based sedan to the Chinese market at the upcoming Guangzhou Motor Show.

China Car Times has the article and some photoshop guesswork as to what the car will look like. This model is based on the previous generation Saab 9-5 and I’m sure Saab fans will find it interesting to follow the direction this particular branch of the family tree ends up taking.

There are also some mule spyshots here. The interior is certainly quite different to the original.

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It’s not the greatest article, but the headline raises an interesting thought – Could the Saab 9-4x become the rarest new vehicle in the world?

I think it will be one of the biggest injustices ever if that comes to pass and I hold out hope that this will be proven to be just another piece of smart speculation.

The Saab 9-4x is an absolute cracker of a vehicle and with a chance to properly market it, it would be a big hit for Saab. A friend of mine in Germany got to drive the Saab 9-4x Aero recently, as part of the German Saab dealer tour. You can read his thoughts here.

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Whilst we’re talking Saab dealer tours, I’m reliably told the next market to host the tour will be Spain. I’m still waiting on getting dates and locations and will bring those to the site as soon as I get them.

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Finally, a couple of absolutely fantastic Saab 99 advertisements from the 1970s.

They’re featured along with a number of other automotive advertisements from the period and they look fantastic.

My thanks to Fredrik T via Twitter.

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Saabosphere – links we like in the middle of this week

It’s a little unusual for me to do a Saabosphere in the middle of the week, but there were a few good things out there worth sharing.

Via Saabworld, here’s a great video from Autoweek.nl. They travelled to Trollhattan recently to have a chat with some Saab employees, as well as some of the locals. Their interviews gauged feelings about the recently announced Memorandum of Understanding with Youngman and Pang Da. It should be noted that the interviews were conducted before General Motors made their preliminary announcement of not supporting the deal.

The video is mostly in Dutch, however the interviews are conducted in English.

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Is it time for another poll?

Auto Express have also written a story about the Saab/Youngman/Pang Da deal, with their focus being on future Saab models.

They claim an image of the Saab 9-3 replacement vehicle in the story, however it should be noted that it’s not an official image and not one that we have any comment on. All images claimed or shown by magazines should be viewed as their own. We’ll show ours when we’re good and ready 🙂

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The Snap Up a Saab competition continues……

Seriously, if you’re within reasonable distance of Saab of North Olmsted and you haven’t submitted an application for Week 4 of this competition, you’re missing out on what is possibly your best opportunity to win a new Saab of your choice.

All it will take is a week’s hard work, showing the car around and getting your friends and connections to share the vehicle as well.

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Life with Saab has an interesting post about real-life fuel consumption figures in the Saab 9-5 TiD.

The author, Arild, has achieved fuel consumption figures under 5 liters per 100km. That’s 47mpg for you folks in the USA and 56mpg for folks in the UK.

That’s pretty darn good for a car with that much space. Sure beats the carrying capacity of a Yaris.

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And last but not least…..

A study of the modern history of the Saab front grille. Do you have a favourite?

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Saabosphere – links we liked this week

Let’s start with a few internal links…….

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The Saab dealer tour of Austria continues. Here’s the 9-4x in Klagenfurt/Carintha yesterday…..

The tour continues today at Auto Eisner, Autohaus Winter and Auto Ebner and then moves on to other venues every day this week, until Thursday. Click the image below for dates and venues.

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I’m tracing details of proposed tours in other countries and will bring the dates to the front page as they come to hand.

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If you haven’t seen them yet, we put together three mosaic images to celebrate reaching 100,000 fans on Facebook. They’re available for download, either in very large format or in a smaller format suitable for your computer desktop wallpaper.

Get the mosaics here. And this video shows you how we put it together.

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One of the readers at the Saab World forum has posted a review of his Saab 9-4x XWD Premium. Mark V has had his 9-4x for around a month and he gives a very thorough review of the car, which is his fourth Saab.

I know people thought I was just being a company guy when I wrote about how good this vehicle is (part 1 and part 2). But I wasn’t, it really is an absolute cracker. And there’s no-one more qualified to tell you about than a guy who’s forked over his own hard-earned for one.

Saabosphere – links we like this week

I have a feeling that next week, we’re going to be liking a lot of links from Ohio!

For this week, however, here’s a quick run down of some key Saaby stories on the web.

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Life with Saab has what I think is a good outsider analysis of what’s expected to be happening today at Saab. I wish there were more to give, but ‘radio silence’ is the buzzword right now and as always, I’m a good soldier.

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There is some news buzz floating around the web about salaries at Saab. I can pass on that money has been received under the government guarantee applicable for companies in reconstruction. This doesn’t cover the full month of October, however, and calculations are being made to distribute the funds equitably, which will be done ASAP. Arrears will also be made up as soon as funds are available.

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Just Saab, a dealership with two outlets in Ohio, USA, recently participated in an autocross day with a number of their customers.

Saabs United has the full story at that link, with pictures.

The results are here (Saab’s in a separate class). You’ll be amazed at how the 9-4x performed in the Saab group!

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Anyone else see the guy on the Maptun Facebook page who tattooed his foot?

Ouch!

Actually, there have been a number of Saab tattoos turning up recently. Perhaps we need a feature investigation on this?

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Ericsson have sold their stake in the Sony-Ericsson communications venture to Sony, ending the Swedish company’s interest.

Sad for us, as we used to have a wonderful co-operation with them at motor shows, getting people to take photos of the Saab stand with the Xperia phones.

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And finally, a video mashup put together by Saablime that we’ve been liking for a while now.

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Saabosphere – holiday edition

I’m on vacation until the 11th, so things will be quieter around here this week. Here are a few quick links of things you should see around the web.

I’ll be back in full swing on the 12th. Enjoy your Saabing until then!

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Some TV4 video showing a report on last weekend’s Octoberfest happenings in Trollhattan. It’s mostly in Swedish, but it was great to see my friend North Toronto Punter getting a few words in English.

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This looks like fun, for little kids and big kids alike!

Patterns for Classic Saab cutouts!

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A Saab 9-5 review over at Automobiles DeLuxe.

I didn’t expect the Buick-based lines on that one. But a good read nonetheless.

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I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen this Saab advertisement in use, but I like it.

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And finally…..

How to build a Saab pick-up.

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Saabosphere – "The Best" edition – links we liked this week

We have the best people here at Saab.

Readers of this website will know that I’ve been talking about why their is so much belief here in what we do. It’s why we continue to fight for this company’s future when the “experts” out there tell us we should give up. But it’s not about tough circumstances, it’s about the product and the future.

It’s not just me talking about it, either. A couple of Saab people from our engineering department have taken it upon themselves to write to the biggest paper in Gothenburg. Their letter has been published and you can read an English translation of it at Life With Saab (enthusiast site).

The separation from GM gave many of us the necessary confidence in the future to complete a number of the future-oriented development projects. Our loyalty can be simply explained by the fact that we want to see the car in which we put so much energy also drive out on the roads. We want the picky consumers to experience the driving characteristics we have developed.

Read the full letter, entitled “Don’t Count Saab Out” at Life With Saab.

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We also have the best fans here at Saab.

One of our most active enthusiast websites, Saabs United, is hosting a weekend gathering here in Trollhattan, along with companion gatherings in a number of cities around the world.

Informal gatherings will take place on Friday night with the full program of events happening on Saturday, October 1st.

Click here for full details of the SU Octoberfest

09:00 – Event opens at ANA
09:10 – Welcome speech by Tim Rokka, Joachim Lind, Manfred Lenherr and Fredrik Bengtsson
09:20 – Cars for test-drive arrive
09:30 – Test Drive of original Saab Cars and Hirsch Tuned Saab Cars begins
09:30 – Car Show begins
09:30 – Boot-sale begins
10:00 – Test Drives begins (test-drive hirsch / maptun software in your own car!)
11:00 – Presentation of MapTun Performance by Fredrik Bengtsson
12:00 – Presentation of SAAB 9-3 e-Power
13:00 – Presentation of Hirsch Performance by Manfred Lenherr
15:00 – Test-Track closes
16:00 – ANA Closes
18:00 – Dinner event starts
19:00 – Presentation of SUHRT & Saab History (Jörgen Trued is the host with several interesting guests!)
23:30 – Thank you and good night!

I’ll be there. Ex-Saab Finnish rally champion Simo Lampinen will be there, too, amongst a host of others.

I hope you’ll be there, too.

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And speaking of rally champions, we have the best former Saab works drivers still winning trophies 🙂

Congratulations to Per Eklund on winning the Swedish Supercar Championship decided at the final round of the Swedish rallycross circuit at Kinnekulle last weekend.

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It was nice to see a particular Saab Sonett pop up on Flickr today. I’d actually received some photos of the same car via email just a few days before.

It’s owned by a guy I’ve not met in person, but have corresponded with quite a bit over the years. It’s one of the very few Saab Sonetts that have made their way into my native homeland, in Australia.

The car is owned by Stephen B and last weekend he and his wife Wendy broke out some 1970s clothing and took their 1970s Saab to the “Bay to Birdwood Classic”.

The Bay to Birdwood is one of the bigger drive-and-concours events in the world, including over 1,800 vehicles. And Stephen tells me that whilst there were quite a few Volvos in attendance (including a P1800 that finished Top-10 in the concours), there was only one Saab – his.

Looked great, too.

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Saabosphere – links we liked this week

It’s been another big week or so in the immediate life and times of Saab Automobile. We’re relieved to be in calmer waters now, but we know that there’s a lot of work to be done and we have plans in place to do it.

You can read some initial information about Project Cheetah in English here, or in Swedish here. I’ll see if there’s some more information about this process that I can bring forward in the near future.

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If you’re still catching up on what’s happened with Saab this week, the best summary news article is at Bloomberg (as usual).

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And on the same theme, here’s some video of Victor Muller from yesterday, reacting to the reorganisation decision. Video picked up by Saabworld.

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Your must-read for this week is the Saab 900 Enduro website.

If you’re not familiar with it, the Saab 900 Enduro is a rather bonkers edition of the 900 that was commissioned by Saab Australia back when the 900 first came out. There were only 12 of them ever made and it’s thought that only half of those still exist.

I’m hoping to do a video with at least one – and maybe more – of the existing Enduros, some time in the near future. Contact was made earlier this year and we’re just waiting on some further restoration to one of the cars.

Should be fun.

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Those of you who are interested in scale model Saabs really, and I mean really, have to add Griffin Models to your bookmark list.

The site’s not complete, but when you visit, you can see some of the stuff they’ll be selling, as well as reading about how they’re making them. Hand made from scratch.

Great stuff.

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I have a couple of other links to send on, but they’re so big that they really deserve posts of their own.

So they will come tomorrow.

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