Saab TTiD Archives - Swadeology

Saab 9-3 TTiD vs the Top 10 green cars in Sweden

I’ve talked a little bit over the last few months about what Saab engineers were able to do with the Saab 9-3 in terms of reducing emissions. Today, you can order a Saab 9-3 TTiD with a full 180hp (or 160, or 130) that emits only 119g of CO2 per kilometer.

The powers-that-be didn’t think that was possible with the 9-3, and yet Saab achieved this figure, first with the Sport Sedan and then with the SportCombi, in just a matter of months after being freed to pursue this goal. It’s a prime example of the engineering expertise that exists here at Saab Automobile.

Some of you, like me, may not come from a country where vehicle taxes are based on emissions and the significance of this might be lost on you. Others will understand a bit better right from the get-go.

In Sweden, a ‘green’ car is referred to as a miljöbil and this vehicle class attracts quite a few benefits. Firstly, a new car that is compliant with Euro5 and has CO2 emissions of max 120g/km attracts zero vehicle tax for its first five years. Company car drivers who choose a miljöbil for their company vehicle may also benefit from reduced fringe benefits tax rates compared to non-miljöbil choices (which would be a massive drawcard for Saab).

There are other benefits, too, which some will make use of more than others. In Stockholm, for example, miljöbil drivers pay no congestion charge and there are parking zones in many cities around Sweden that miljöbil drivers can use for free.

So, some significant benefits are there if you’re driving the right sort of car. It’s not just tax benefits and parking convenience, though.

A car has to fit in with your lifestyle. One of the biggest criticisms of a vehicle like the Nissan Leaf, for example, is range anxiety. That is, the car might be able to run on pennies per day, but if it can’t get you where you need to go (and back) without running out of battery power, then it’s not really suitable for anything other than a short commute.

Some of the cars you’ll see on the list below have wonderful emissions figures and prices, but do they allow the average family to live their normal lifestyle, to travel with comfort, performance, safety and adequate space – AND accrue the various benefits of a miljöbil?

To give us all a better picture of what Saab have been able to do, of what Saab can offer in this segment of the Swedish market (and some others that incentivise the same way), I thought I’d put together this table.

The following table shows the Saab 9-3 TTiD range as well as the current top 10 selling miljöbil offerings in the Swedish market.

[table “26” not found /]

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So what’s the point?

The Saab 9-3 TTiD involves no sacrifices. Some cars on the table have equal (or better) cargo capacity, but the driving experience will be compromised due to much low power and torque.

Others lose out on the driving experience as well as the storage capability, relying on their small engine size and weight to get under the emissions limits.

Saab engineers re-worked the 9-3 TTiD SportCombi so that owners can have a complete vehicle experience – all the comfort, performance, safety and amenity that the car offers in its normal configuration – PLUS the benefits of a miljöbil.

Bottom line: You don’t have to drive an underpowered rollerskate to get the benefits of driving ‘green’.

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Saab staff driving Saabs

Many of our staff get to drive new Saab vehicles as part of their daily routine. A lot of them are testing vehicle components, or they might have a car assigned to their area for use.

There’s a quite a lot, a majority in fact, who don’t. And seeing many of them have some down time at the moment, we thought it would be a good idea to give them an opportunity to drive most of our latest offerings. A staff drive event kicked off last week at Saab and is running for another few weeks, giving Saab employees the opportunity to check out models that they may not have had a chance to drive yet.

There are four vehicles in the fleet made available for this period.

Saab 9-5 TTiD
Saab 9-3 Griffin TTiD (low emissions 180hp)
Saab 9-3 Griffin Convertible
Saab 9-4x

I jumped in with a few guys from our Parts Analysis area today as they took the Saab 9-4x for a spin. The 9-4x is proving to be the most popular model in this test. As it’s not made here in Trollhattan and is only present in very limited numbers here, this presents a prime first opportunity for nearly everyone who gets into the car.

Mats, Johnny and Lars-Erik all took a turn driving the 9-4x and all gave it a resounding thumbs up at the end of the drive.

I sat in the back for the whole trip – a first for me – and was pretty impressed by that panoramic sunroof. Even with the glass section open, the wind is deflected in such a way that you can only feel the faintest feather of a breeze from the back seat.

I also discovered that you can control the radio station from the rear seat control panel – something parents might want to keep in mind if they have curious kiddies in the back (I’m not sure if there’s a way to disable this).

After riding with the guys in the 9-4x, I grabbed the keys for a solo drive in the low emissions Saab 9-3 Griffin TTiD. Once again I came away keenly impressed by the 9-3, which despite some age is carrying itself extremely well.

I was particularly interested in this low emissions model and how it would drive. Saab sell versions of this car with 130, 160 and 180hp and all of them attract tax reductions in appropriate markets. The 180hp version that drove is outstanding. The torque on this car is amazing and it pulls effortlessly from all speeds.

Like many of you, I’m not from a particularly diesel-friendly country so I’ve always owned pertol-driven cars. I’d own this in a heartbeat. It’s so easy to drive and the Griffin enhancements (leather/textile trim, rear spoiler (below), front fogs, etc) accent the vehicle beautifully. This is a great way to send out the 9-3, trust me.

The drive program goes for another few weeks.

I’m sure there are going to be a lot of first-time drives in that time, and a lot of smiling faces as Saab employees get to check out the company’s latest offerings.

If only we could get these into showrooms and on the road!

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Saab dominate ALD fuel economy test in Spain

RE-POSTED – This effort from Saab Spain got drowned out by news earlier this week. It’s been re-posted to give people a fuller opportunity to read through what they achieved here.

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This is a story that I covered briefly in a Saabosphere posting a few weeks ago, but I’d like to cover it again today in more detail.

In short, Saab Spain entered a voluntary test that would measure a vehicle’s fuel economy over a 350km course on real-world roads. They ended up achieving the largest fuel economy reduction in comparison to official figures amongst all vehicles tested.

The reason I’d like to cover it again is because I recently had a chance to meet and talk with Ramon Cano from Saab Spain. Ramon was the guy at the wheel during this test, with a Spanish journalist sitting in the car with him (to ensure no funny business happened during the test).

Ramon, left, was accompanied by a journalist from Autofacil during the test (click to enlarge)

When a vehicle is released, it always comes with an official fuel economy rating. in Europe, this rating is measured according to criteria set under Regulation 715/2007 (Euro 5/6). You can click here and see how it’s done, but in short, they put the vehicle on a chassis dynamometer and ‘drive’ it according to a set course for a number of cycles. The reason for doing this is so that all vehicles can be measured according to the same course and under the same conditions. You don’t get the variations in temperature, wind, traffic, etc, that could influence a real-world measurement.

As mentioned previously, one of the tests in the ALD fuel economy challenge was to see how far under this official result the vehicles could perform.

The number of entrants into this competition is pretty small, with only nine manufacturers making vehicles available. I guess if you’re not a chance of starring in the competition, it’s best to avoid the potential for negative publicity. Entries were fielded by Ford, Mazda, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot, Renault, Seat, Volvo and of course, Saab.

The entrants had to select a car from their range to participate in the test. All they knew was that they would have to drive it along a route that was 350km in length on public roads. The actual route was kept secret until just before the test in order to reduce the possibility of teams preparing specifically for that route.

Vehicle selection, of course, is quite important in a test like this. Driven carefully, a manual vehicle will generally achieve better fuel consumption results than an automatic. A petrol engine is generally more desireable than a diesel in a test like this because a diesel has very low official figures before the test even begins. There’s more room for improvement in the figures for a petrol engine.

With a desire for a petrol-engined manual car, Ramon probably thought his luck had completely run out when he was given a TiD automatic 🙂

When you hear about ‘hypermiling’ competitions, you’ll commonly hear about a small car cruising flat roads at around 40km/h in low gear. This ALD test actually included a timing component, like a regularity rally, meaning that entrants had to drive at a reasonable speed in order to make it to checkpoints along the route within a given timeframe. Taking too long between checkpoints attracted a time penalty that was applied to your final fuel consumption readings, thus negating any advantage you might have got from going slowly.

Driving the car as much as he could in manual mode, and with careful application of the throttle and equally careful use of coasting opportunities, Ramon managed to improve significantly on the official fuel economy figures for the Saab 9-5 TiD. The official figure for this model is 6.8l/100km and the final figure achieved on the test was 5.641l/100km, a reduction of some 17% over all.

I’ve heard many, many stories over the years of Saab owners getting actual fuel consumption readings that were better than the official figures. It’s a reasonably common occurrence. But 17% is quite incredible, especially when you consider that the Saab 9-5 TTiD is a 5-meter long, two-ton-plus vehicle fitted with already officially low-consumption diesel engine, as well as an automatic transmission.

Ramon’s driving tips for better fuel economy:

The key factors is to always drive in advance of real events.
Remove pressure from the throttle when a traffic light ahead is red, despite how far away it is.
Increasing the ‘security distance’ between you and the vehicle in front of you, so that your speed is more constant.
Avoid using your brake as much as possible (using the brakes destroys energy you create when you’re on the throtte).
Keep the engine within the optimum turbo range as much as possible.

Saabs have a habit of looking quite comparable to others on paper and then performing extraordinarily well in actual real-world conditions. This phenomenon is well noted in respect to vehicle safety, where Saab have often emphasised their “real world” philosophy and have earned great respect from insurers and other groups because of this.

Anecdotal evidence is accumulating more and more with tests like this one in Spain, suggesting that Saab vehicles seem to be more economical than some official test results claim. Of course, we’re happy with those official results, too, but it’s nice to know that Spanish customers will have some local, monitored tests to look at to show what they might look forward to.

Congratulations to Ramon and the team at Saab Spain for their achievements in this exercise.

Report: Saab residuals up in British market

“The rise in forecast values for the Saab 9-3 over the last ten months has been driven by an increased confidence in the brand; allied to an improved product content creating a better future used car,”

We were all pretty pleased to see that quote in a report in the motoring press today, commenting about the fact that Saab’s residuals have improved by around £1,000 in the British market place. (The report is based on a Saab GB press release, which you can view here for the full facts).

The improvement is said to be based on several factors. The first is some renewed interest and increased confidence in the Saab brand since it became an independent brand under the ownership of Spyker Cars.

More specifically, there is also the desirability of the new Saab 9-3 TTiD range, which offers a full-sized, powerful Saloon or SportWagon with the benefits of emissions under 120g/km. Low emissions means big taxation benefits for customers and Saab’s corporate customers are taking notice.

How much notice? Saab’s sales in Great Britain were up 73.1% in the first quarter of this year and Saab GB have had to increase the size of their corporate sales team to deal with the increased demand.

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A few days ago, in a post called Relief and Determination, I wrote about my belief in the future of Saab Automobile, based on the fact that there was just too much good stuff going on at this company, and too many people interested in it, for it to shut down.

You can call the type of innovation and success reflected in this story “Exhibit A”. Saab are making great products for markets around the world. I really believe that the Saab 9-4x is going to have a similar effect on Saab dealers in the US has what the sub-120g 9-3 range has had for British dealers.

Bottom line: there’s a lot of incredible stuff happening at Saab. We just need to tell people about it more and show them the product. It’s all about the product.