Saab 9-5 2008 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.

With almost two-thirds of its worldwide sales hinging on the new 9-3, Saab has made more than 2000 changes to the new model.The platform remains the same, but all-wheel-drive has been added.Due here early next year, the company hopes the XWD, Saab's designation for the latest-generation Haldex 4 system, which will make the model more popular with buyers.Australia's GM Premium Brands director Parveen Batish wants sales improvements in 2007 and says the 9-3 will achieve that.“We did 1650 last year and this year we're tracking 16.5 per cent up on that. We're aiming for June 30 when we hope to be over 20 per cent up. It's been a great start,” he said.Saab's priorities are the new 9-5 and an SUV (which appears destined for a 9-4 badge) and a compact car built on the next-generation Astra platform, to transform its sales results.The new 9-3 range is expected to sell here in November. The flagship Aero XWD and TTiD will arrive in the first quarter of 2008.The base-model has the 1.8t 110kW/167Nm motor, with 129kW/265Nm and 155kW/300Nm options on offer.The Aero gets 188kW (up by 4kW) and 350Nm or 206kW and 400Nm in the XWD model. The current 110kW/320Nm diesel is joined by a 132kW/400Nm two-stage turbo.The XWD's Haldex system is also used by Audi and Volkswagen.Its biggest asset is a system that claims to provide a better response to a lack of traction. In-car electronics and traction aids determine which wheel is best served with drive torque. It also uses a rear, electronic, limited-slip diff for added traction and yaw control.The all-wheel-drive system is, for now, an Aero-only option, teamed with the 2.8-litre turbocharged V6.The other newcomer to Saab's 9-3 range is a second turbo-diesel, the TTiD two-stage turbo-diesel.Displacing just 1.9 litres, the turbocharger has two turbines, one small, one large which tag-team depending on engine revs.It produces 132kW and 400Nm, with an economy of under 6 litres/100km.Prices are still to be set, but Saab wants the new model's price to be close to the present range.The new 9-3 has been fitted with more engine-bay insulation so that the new turbo-diesel is much quieter, though you are still aware of it at idle.Power delivery has been improved considerably, offering a wide spread of torque and power delivery in the upper-rev ranges. 

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.