Saab 9-5 2007 News

With the current model 9-5 now more than 10 years old, the newcomer signals the dawn of a new era for the brand. Supercar maker Koenigsegg is stepping in to buy the embattled General Motors-owned carmaker and it will return to Swedish control after more than 20 years. This makes the arrival of the newest 9-5 critical to pave the way for future models, according to Saab Automobile's managing director, Jan-ke Jonsson. The 9-5 is sleek, sophisticated and unmistakably Saab and gets its first airing at the Frankfurt Motor Show in two weeks. It will go on sale here next year. The car's styling is influenced by the award-winning Aero X concept car and pays homage to some traditional Saab design cues. Like Saabs of old, it will have a range of aircraft-inspired innovations like a head-up information display and the car's cabin is an evolution of its cockpit design. Like its rivals, it will get adaptive bi-Xenon headlights, adaptive cruise control, adaptive chassis tuning, keyless entry and starting, dual-zone climate control and dynamic parking assistance. Saab's all-wheel drive, called XWD, and its eLSD limited slip differential will also be available. The range kicks off in Europe with a 134kW 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel with CO2 emissions of 139g/km, as well as a 164kW 2.0-litre petrol turbo engine. All-wheel drive will be available on the top-of-the-line 223kW/400Nm 2.8-litre V6 turbo. Later a smaller 120kW 1.6-litre petrol turbo will be introduced, together with a 2.0-litre BioPower E85 engine. All transmissions will be six-speed. Jonsson says the company has leveraged its heritage in key areas of the car's design. Visually the front is defined by a deep grille flanked with curving, eyebrow headlights. The ‘disguised’ windshield and side A-pillars are reminiscent of the classic 900 model. Other Saab design cues are evident in the hockey stick belt-line, the strong rear C-pillars and the flowing roofline into the boot. Inside the cabin there is more leg and shoulder room, particularly in the back. The driver-focused cockpit is traditional Saab with a stop/start button replacing the ignition key on the centre console next to the gearshift.

Petrol, diesel or now renewable bio-ethanol. Saab is the first car maker to release a bio-ethanol-powered vehicle in Australia. The BioPower 9-5 is on sale.

Saab this week released photos of the new 9-3 range with much of the styling cues from the Aero X concept car.Outside, it is a much shapelier and curvy character with a “face” up front and no ugly black rubber strips on the bumper or doors.The front grille has much more impact, being bigger and curvier with a three-piece air dam and fog lights, rather than one horizontal strip.The headlights now wrap around and slope up at the outside like cats' eyes.The new 9-3 also returns to the Saab tradition of a clamshell hood, a tradition that started with the '67 Saab 99.GM Premium Brands communications manager Emily Perry said Australia would get all three 9-3 models — Sport Sedan, SportCombi and Convertible — all at the same time, in the last quarter of this year.“We will get petrol and diesel initially just as we have now,” she said.“We are interested in 9-3 BioPower for Australia, but we will launch BioPower in Australia in 9-5 this year and see how it goes.“So we don't have a 9-3 BioPower launch date just yet.”The new 9-3 range will come in three trim levels — Linear, Vector and Aero.“I don't have any further news on the interior at this stage,” she said.Although there are no details about the car's interior yet, it would be good if they broke away from the cliched fighter aeroplane cockpit theme.Perry doesn't hold out much hope for that: “It would be fair to assume that it would be very similar, or unchanged, to the current recently launched interior which is fresh into 9-3 this year,” she said.“Saab interiors still remain the `cockpit' styled interior and driving position but it has been simplified, giving it a clean modern look.”We hope so.

Where manufacturers have previously pursued one environmental solution, most are now embracing multiple strategies to the high-profile problem.GM chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner best summed up the industry's new multi-pronged environmental strategy as energy diversity.He referred to alternate energy sources such as electricity, ethanol, biofuels, compressed natural gas, hydrogen and combinations of these working happily together in the same vehicle.Wagoner says GM will also continue to seek improved efficiency from internal combustion petrol and diesel engines and expand its commitment to electric power.GM will introduce a test fleet of 100 hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox fuel cell vehicles in the US this year and 10 in Europe, he says.Other car companies working on alternate powertrain solutions, such as Kia, also pledged to introduce test fleets, particularly for government evaluation.The first of GM's new energy strategies to be introduced in Australia could be the extension of the Saab Biopower range from the 9-5 to the 9-3 model range, including vehicles running on 100 per cent biofuel.GM has also developed a new cleaner turbo diesel V6 engine which could power the new Holden VE Commodore.Wagoner confirmed that the 184kW 2.9-litre Italian-made engine would be compatible with the VE chassis, but he could not confirm its application in the Australian market. A GM Holden spokesman says the company will consider the engine.Mercedes-Benz has started its push to clean up diesel emissions with a detox system called BlueTec. It is claimed to reduce nitrous-oxides (NOX) from the exhaust by up to 90 per cent compared with previous diesels.The German firm has introduced BlueTec in its upper-luxury E320 sedan in the US market and will follow that up with three more models next year. The E320 and the follow-up R320 people mover, ML320 SUV and GL320 4WD will be released in Europe in 2008 and are expected here later in 2008 or early 2009.Volkswagen showed a Passat and a Polo with the technology, the latter capable of a low 102g of CO2 and greatly reduced NOX.Japanese makers are aggressively pushing hybrids. They are led in this by Lexus, which announced it is making more hybrids combining electric motors with petrol engine models than conventional petrol-fuelled vehicles.Geneva launched the Lexus LS600h luxury saloon that it claims has the power of a V12 with the economy of a V6. It has a V8 petrol engine combined with an electric motor to deliver 327kW. Yet Lexus claims the lavishly-equipped saloon will get an average fuel consumption of only 9.5-l/100km while having a CO2 emission level of less than 220g.Toyota showed a hybrid concept sedan, the Hybrid X, that is more a styling exercise than a mechanical marvel. Then there is the Toyota FT-HS hybrid sports car that combines a 3.5-litre petrol V6 with an electric motor; a car that doesn't ignore performance or style.But while Europe is going diesel and Japan is leaning towards hybrids, there is some blurring of technologies.Honda announced a NOX-depleting system similar to BlueTec and says it will be fitted to its diesel-powered cars. It plans to launch its new diesels within three years, first in the US and later in Europe and Australia.At the same time, Honda says it will make its fuel-cell electric car available to selected buyers by next year, making it likely to be the world's first car maker to make a production fuel cell passenger car.The new Honda, which uses hydrogen gas and air to produce electricity to power electric motors, is based on its long-standing FCX concept vehicle.To keep its feet in all camps, Honda plans to introduce a small-car hybrid that is currently in concept form.The Small Hybrid Sport shows that even hybrids can be fun and sexy.Subaru unveiled its 2-litre turbo-diesel engine that will go into European models later this year but won't come to Australia until at least late 2008. It is Subaru's first diesel and has been devised to improve sales in diesel-crazy Europe.Meanwhile, BMW and DaimlerChrysler have announced they will join forces to create a new hybrid system for the premium car segment.Both companies plan on introducing the new technology into rear-wheel-drive models within the next three years.A BMW spokesman says the technologies will be tailored to fit the specific character of the different vehicles.And, two battery city cars were among the show oddities, including the Zebra which was painted like animal fur.

The attraction of ethanol is that it is a renewable resource derived from plants and is essentially carbon neutral because the plants from which it comes consume carbon dioxide during photosynthesis.Manufacturing ethanol would not be carbon neutral unless the power consumed came from a source such as solar, wind or hydro electric generation.But even then, the energy consumed to make infrastructure for these power generation systems would consume non-renewable resources.It is a vexed question.However, using ethanol for transport has other benefits that need to be taken into account, specifically, it reduces our dependence on imported oil and we have all seen what that can do, particularly at the bowser.Using ethanol to power vehicles is probably not the answer to global warming, oil dependence and fossil fuel problems but is part of the solution as we wait for hydrogen engines to be fully developed.Ethanol can be viewed as a stepping stone along the way towards hydrogen.Saab is the first auto manufacturer to bite the bullet in Australia and release a production car that happily runs on mostly ethanol.More than that, the BioPower 9-5 runs better on E85 (85 per cent ethanol) than it does on straight petrol, producing more power and better performance on the "green" fuel.But E85 is not readily available in Australia, certainly not at a commercial level through numerous outlets.Our preference for petrol has seen ethanol almost completely overlooked as a transport fuel.Perhaps the best Saab can hope for in the short term with its BioPower cars is that the Federal Government is pushed into dealing with the issue and also that the average motorist starts thinking about ethanol as an alternative to petrol, LPG, and diesel.Right now, there are three ethanol producers in Australia: Rocky Point, Manildra and CSR.Total annual production from the three companies is around 170 million litres.This would have to be increased hugely should ethanol use for transport become commercial.However, even if every scrap of arable land in Australia was put under crops, it would still not provide enough ethanol to power the nation's vehicles.The Swedish experience (where Saabs are made) has shown that the move to ethanol has not been driven by petrol prices, but by demand for cleaner fuels.But the Swedish government has significant cash incentives for people who buy bio-cars.These incentives for the population to go "green" are not replicated here.Saab hopes E85 will spread rapidly as a transport fuel. It is already extensively used in countries like Mexico. 

Two of the fastest on show are the $659,000 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 and the $574,000 Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, each capable of more than 330km/h. But you won 't be able to buy them even if you have the money.Honda and Toyota are showing mock-ups of their 2006 Formula One cars, while Subaru is showing a mock-up of its World Rally Championship car driven by Gold Coaster Chris Atkinson to fourth place in the Monte Carlo Rally.Other show stoppers include Jaguar's supercharged 4.2-litre V8 XKR, Audi's $300,000 R8 which is not due for production until later this year, and the 500-horsepower seven-litre V8 Corvette Z06 American muscle car converted from left to right-hand-drive in Gympie by Performax International.At the other end of the power scale are a collection of 50cc commuter scooters with less than 10 horsepower, as well as environmentally friendly petrol-electric hybrids and Saab's BioPower 9-5 which runs on 85 per cent ethanol fuel made from sugarcane.Motor show manager Michelle Ramsay said the 311 vehicles on display were brought in this week by 450 trucks and 150 commercial vehicles. The show runs until February 11.

Demonstration vehicles with UK specification were on hand for the press this week at the appropriate sugarcane region in Queensland.The Saab 9-5 BioPower is flex-fuel capable, which means it can run on E85 ethanol or petrol or any combination.Saab Australia and New Zealand director Parveen Batish says 9-5 BioPower vehicles are available to order. He anticipates their arrival about late March. They are expected to have a $1000 to $1500 price increase over the current 9-5 range and will be available in sedan and wagon form.But as E85 is not yet publicly available at the pump and doesn't seem to be part of the plan for the near future, the cars will have to rely on E10 or unleaded petrol.Saab says there is no indication of when we will see E85, but hopes its BioPower 9-5 will help speed up the process.The bioethanol used by Saab, which is produced from biomass, reduces emissions in the environment as the CO2 released during driving on E85 is removed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis."Ethanol is the fastest-growing alternative fuel in the world, because it's renewable," Batish says. "It doesn't add to carbon dioxide. We at Saab believe ethanol is a key part to the environment's future."And Saab has proven that ethanol doesn't mean you have to sacrifice performance. Indeed, the BioPower 9-5 produces better figures on ethanol than on petrol.The 9-5 vehicles used for the launch had the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo engine, generating 132kW, up from the 110kW on petrol and 280Nm, an increase of 40Nm.But the models expected to arrive in Australia this year will be powered by the 2.3-litre, four-cylinder turbo engine, with 154kW, up from 136kW on petrol and 310Nm or torque, compared to the petrol's 280Nm.Driving the BioPower 2.0-litre doesn't feel different to a normal petrol-powered car, although it takes away some of the guilt, knowing you're helping the environment. It's like eating low-fat chocolate and knowing you won't put on the kilos.On the road, our test model made an unusually loud, jet-like sound, which apparently wasn't supposed to happen.There was ample power on hand and it gave off an adequate performance on the track and real-road conditions, but still seemed to lack pizazz. The cars driven will spend a few months getting a workout by the media, government, industry and fleets for long-term testing, with E85 provided for the period by ethanol producers from NSW, the Manildra Group."We are using the by-products of crops that are actually waste," Batish says.In order to run on bioethanol, Batish says no new technology is needed, rather the car just has to undergo minor engineering changes. By running on E85, the BioPower 9-5 is believed to reduce emissions by about 80 per cent.While E85 consists of 85 per cent ethanol and 15 per cent petrol and is already used to start vehicles in cold climates, Saab says it has also developed the ability to run vehicles on 100 per cent ethanol.BioPower 9-5 Saabs are already on the road in overseas markets, with more than 12,000 BioPower cars delivered in Sweden since July 2005. They are also available in Britain, Germany, Ireland and France, countries equipped with some E85 filling stations and where the governments offer tax breaks, reduced fees and cheaper parking to those driving the vehicles.But Batish says there is a whole industry of ethanol already under way in Australia.Renewable Fuels Australia executive director Bob Gordon agrees that ethanol is a good option for the present."Ethanol isn't going to solve our problems in decades to come, but until hydrogen-cell technology comes on line, we need a process to get there," Gordon says. "It's a stepping stone."Batish adds: "We think biopower leaves a cleaner footprint on the environment."Saab also released its 2007 9-3 diesel range this week. The company proudly boasts the title of the most fuel-efficient premium sedan and wagon on the market. It even has the first diesel-powered convertible in Australia, also making it the most fuel efficient of its type.The 9-3 diesel sports sedan has a 5.8-litre per 100km fuel consumption combined claim, 6.3-litres per 100km for the convertible and 5.9-litres per 100km for the SportCombi.Prices start at $44,900 for the manual sedan, $67,400 for the manual Convertible and the SportCombi starts at $47,400, all available with the Linear specification level.The 1.9-litre turbo diesel engine produces 110kW and 320Nm and all the models have a six-speed manual as standard, with a six-speed auto optional.Batish says there is now a greater acceptance of diesel engines and their positives, such as high-torque engines and better fuel efficiency.

It is, in its way, the best show for ages, with a quotient of concept vehicles and exotica balanced by real world stuff you'd actually consider buying.Highlights?It's hard to walk past Audi's R8, a fully-fledged supercar likely to come in with a "bargain" tag of substantially less than $300,000. Next to it is the second generation Audi TT, mightily improved and not screamingly unaffordable from $68,500 the entry model and about $20K more for its 3.2 V6 quattro sibling. We drove both of these through the Austrian Alps in June 2006, and will hazard the guess that Audi will struggle to meet demand for this superbly executed coupe.And, just for show, is a model of the R10 – the amazing V12 diesel that took first and third at this year's Le Mans.The great thing about concept cars is that they needn't conform to such tiresome criteria as Australian Design Rules - hence the lack of an A pillar on Saab's Aero Concept X. The lack of any pillars for that matter. Slightly more tangible is the 9-5 bio ethanol-powered wagon - a car to gladden the hearts of sugar cane growers.Lotus has revived an iconic brand name with the Europa S, a car that should affirm two-seater motoring can still be an unadulterated and largely unconstrained experience. When the product of mainstream manufacturers seems to keep getting fatter, like a choc-addicted neurotic, the mere existence of Lotus serves to remind us of (hard) core driving verities.Mazda's Kabura sports compact - with its cute 3+1 seating arrangement - is a concept from which the theme and shape of Mazdas to come can be divined. Ditto Honda's Sports 4 Concept for that marque. Or so we hope. While Honda's SH-AWD system is damn clever, it'd be neat to see it attached to something a little more athletic than the globulous Legend.A few metres away from the Kabura is the CX-7 - the crossover SUV with much of the Mazda 6 MPS's drivetrain - which you'll be seeing on our streets soon. It's one of two vehicles that perfectly defines what marketing types like to call the "zeitgeist" of the Australian buyer at the moment.The other, you may or may not choose to believe, is a Volvo. The S80 all-wheel-drive V8 luxury sedan might be the Swedish marque's new hero model, but their decidedly groovy 2+2, the C30, could be the car that finally puts paid to those ancient "bloody Volvo driver" cliches.It also points firmly in the direction that Australian private buyers are going ie: those of us not enamoured of soft road SUVs are downsizing but up-speccing.And speaking of good things in small packages, those who have queued long for the Volkswagen Golf GTI will be delighted to see that not only is demand being addressed, but the new to Australia three door-model starts $1500 under the five door at $38,490. VeeWee's highly desirable Eos CC, the big drawer at last year's Frankfurt motor show, finally made its Australian debut ahead of its release early in 2007.And yes, that's a turbo diesel variant you see parked near the turbo petrol. If diesel seems anomalous in a (part-time) open top car, it works.Given the mudslide of Holden hype this year, it comes almost as relief not to see some lurid concept jobbie from them for once, although unveiling the Hummer H3 did at least provide comic relief.With the pomp and circumstance we've come to expect from Holden on the opening day of the show, the covers were hauled off to anything but the reception they've come to expect.Far from the rapturous and somewhat sycophantic applause that greeted their Torana and Efijy creations, there was … well, the sound of no hands clapping. In fact, the silence that greeted this spectacularly pointless and ugly apparition could best be described as stoney.Nissan's Foria is a concept car we’d very much like to see come into fruition. Apart form the corporate grille, this is an elegant Lancia-like coupe intended as an MX-5-like alternative.