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Yes, I get Kiplingers and was glad to see the notice for Saab, particularly for the car I chose to drive! It's sort of a competition in this economy among my friends these days to see who can get the best value on upscale items without being too flashy. The 9-5 obviously personifies this for cars, and leave it to the Business community to figure it out first; well, second, after Saab loyalists. And, the cars really are under-rated by the general public, especially when considering their price point. The design, interiors, and driving experience is really quite a bit better than Saab's closest comparison to the general public; ie, Volvo. And, Saab's price is better than Volvo, to say nothing of the astoundingly overpriced Audi, which Saab seems more and more positioning itself against. If more reviewers of Saab could focus on the economics of the cars, as Kiplingers has done, the cars would begin to see more attention by the general public. The real problem in regards to the general public's perception of Saab remains in my opinion the lack of a full product line. I saw a posting on the general board discussing a British car magazine's 'confirmation' of Saab adding, in addition to the well-known variations of the 9-3SS, a 9-7X SUV and a 9-2 hatchback. I actually think both of these would be exceptional choices for Saab--so long as they were engineered and styled with the traditional Saab care. I love the idea of a 9-2 competing head to head with the Golf. And, as a general rule I despise SUVs, but, admittedly, the new Volvo XC90 is pretty cool as it seems to be bested in all of SUV land only by the BMW X5. Imagine a real Saab SUV entering this mix at a competitive price point. Not only could they sell this model, I think, but it wouold give the other models more of a civilized rugged look that Saab seems to be trying to promote. (Kelly-Ennis or whatever her name is seems to agree about the SUV.) Volvo may have made it earlier than Saab, but Saab's I guess sportish and non-conformist image seems overall more capable of marketing an SUV with crossover appeal.
Anyway, with this type of line-up Saab could position itself to cherry pick the best of several worlds, and hold it together without all of the excess of embarasssing models seen at other manufacturers.
Just for fun, but trying to be a little realistic:
9-2 over the VW Golf & Honda Civic Si due to performance and image.
9-3SS over the S-60 in price/performance/image, over the Acura RSX in performance/image, tied with the A-4 due to price, and tied with the Infiniti G-35 due to image.
9-5 over the S-60 & S-80 in price/performance/image, and tied the A-6 due to price.
9-7X over the Volvo XC90 in price/image, and over a host of other foreign and domestic models due to a mix of price/performance/image.
posted by 12.100.24...
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