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New 9-3 Article From Australia (Long Long Long)
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Posted by David (more from David) on Fri, 19 Jul 2002 09:57:20 Share Post by Email
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Saab Doesn’t Do Quirky Any More

Under pressure from owner General Motors to start making a profit, the other Swedish maker is trying to be all things to all buyers. Hilton Holloway looks at the first drive the new 9-3, the brand’s great elite hope to take its place alongside Benz and BMW.

Newsflash: Saab goes mainstream. Those who bought the Swedish cars because they felt BMWs were too obvious may be in for a surprise.

After years as a quirky but unprofitable maker of niche cars, Saab wants to rub shoulders with Germany’s elite.

But will it work? By virtue of making its cars more affordable and selling more of them, as it intends to do with the new 9-3 due later this year, the brand will become less six exclusive.

Saab also faces for the dilemmas. In the information age, it is becoming increasingly difficult to a cross over the new model’s origins.

Now wholly owned by American giant General Motors, Saab shares the new 9-3’s basic underpinnings with the humble Opel Vectra.

Apparently zigging when it should have zagged, Saab has deleted its three and five door hatchback models just as the rest of the world seems to be embracing the clever packaging.

Aiming to position itself as a rival to Benz, BMW and the like, Saab is emphasising its safety credentials, just as Ford’s Scandinavian brand, Volvo, is the Blue Oval’s safety showpiece.

For example, the maker claims, drivers of two new 9-3s, in an offset head-on collision at closing speed of 160kph should be able to walk away. Of course, don’t try this at home…

Saab also claims the rear end of the car will sustain an 80 kph shunt without bodywork intrusion into the cabin or fuel leaks.

The new 9-3 maintains Saab’s enthusiasm for turbo charged engines. Three petrol engines based on a new 2.0 litre four-cylinder produces 110,129 and 155 kilowatts. There’s also a 92 kilowatt 2.2 the turbo diesel.

With the 9-3 sports sedan, combining a stiff chassis and sophisticated aluminium suspension with turbo engines, Saab thinks it can take on the Germans.

Drive sampled the cars in Europe this week. Inside, the old Saab themes remain but the design is more contemporary and less rigidly Scandinavian. All components are freshly penned.

The seats are more conventional and the dash is a dead ringer for that of the 1991 BMW 3 series. The key, an electronic device, is still in the engine console. We tested a 129 kilowatt 9-3 on the motorways and back roads of Sweden and appreciated th e Swede’s efforts to distinguish the cars dynamics from the Vectra donor car.

The driver sits low behind the ultra clear dash and neat head-up display and feels more in tune and intimate with the car and in say and A4 or 3 series.

Saab’s new passive rear wheel steering set-up endows the 9 3 with quick reactions, even to such small wheel imputs as changing lanes on the motorway. The balance is more towards effortless progress than tail-ended snappiness.

On a winding lane, the steering and rear-end work together. The car displays not a hint of torque steer or nose heaviness common to front drivers.

There is something need, tidy, calm and ultra-competent about the new 9-3.

Compared with the old 9-3 coupe, however, the new model doesn’t feel anything like as blistering. Its general refinement reduces the sense of speed.

Under hard exhilaration it didn’t feel as sewing machine smooth as the old generation Saab turbo, perhaps because it was an early model with few kms on the engine.

The proof of this new pudding will be whether people want to buy; in a global market that keener than ever on premium brands, Saab sold 135,000 cars last year.

To put it into perspective, that’s virtually the output of Holden’s Elizabeth plant last year.

Saab needs to sell 200,000 cars a year to show a profit, and some fear that the Swedes risk losing their steadfast customer base by abandoning the classic hatchback format.

Saab has a logical response. In the hard-fought compact premium car market, sedan’s account for 60 percent of sales, sporting wagons 15 percent, coupes 10 percent, convertibles 8 percent – hatches take the remaining 7 percent.

It says its own research shows just 20 percent of its loyal buyers are hardcore hatch fans that will not by 9-3 sedan, and such a market niche is just too small. When the hatch sedan format of the previous 9000 model was swapped for the sedan and wagon format of the 9-5, sales doubled.

A smart 9-3 sports wagon under development will support a Subaru Outback style four-wheel-drive. The replacement for the classic cabriolet is due next year.

By switching to a sedan format, Saab has increased the car’s torsional rigidity relative to the outgoing 9-3, to the great benefit of safety and handling.

The vital question is whether there is a pool of premium car buyers who always fancied a Saab but have put off by the highly individual design and deliberate quirkiness. General Motors must hope there is.


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