[nadepalma]

Still some love for the current car; high hopes for the next one.

SOURCE: AutoCar-UKhttp://www.autocar.co.uk/blogs/auto...008/05/13/new-9-5-can-t-come-soon-enough.aspx

The new 9-5 is already done and dusted, and being polished ahead of its launch in less than 12 months’ time. I can tell you that the new car is big and the styling imposing and polished.

 

[mgescuro]

We'll see. We'll see.

 

[nadepalma]

We'll see. We'll see.

I hope so Marc. I really really do.

 

[nsap]

If the new 9-5 does not make a least a small splash on the market, I'm going to be calling for the sale of Saab. The 9-3 hasn't done much and it is an excellent car now....so I am holding little hope.

 

[paul8488]

The 9-3 hasn't done much and it is an excellent car now....so I am holding little hope.

I was expecting so much when the 9-3 came out. I'm quite surprised it didn't do better. The 9-5, as you say, will have to be a knock-out if there's any hope for Saab.

 

[mbukukanyau]

Saab needs

• A smaller car, 9-2
• lots of advertising with lots of Scadnavian overtones, not stupid jets
• the 9-4X
• 9-5
• the 9-6X

Lots of turbo charging
AWD systems

 

[johnstarnes]

Having just seen the AERO-X concept here at the MacDill Air Show, I hope the new 9-5 looks a LOT like it, including the dip behind the door. That car had a huge crowd around it all day long despite an ongoing air show!

 

[mgescuro]

I don't understand why people expected the MCE of the 9-3 to do better!??
The design is a discombobulation of style. It's a mess.
It's no longer a sleek Swedish sport sedan. It's part Swede, part boy racer, part Japanese car. It's a mess.

The 9-3's sales performance is quite deserved.

 

[paul8488]

I don't understand why people expected the MCE of the 9-3 to do better!??
The design is a discombobulation of style. It's a mess.
It's no longer a sleek Swedish sport sedan. It's part Swede, part boy racer, part Japanese car. It's a mess.

The 9-3's sales performance is quite deserved.

I don't know about anyone else, but I was talking about the original 9-3. It deserved to be a big hit.

 

[mgescuro]

I don't know about anyone else, but I was talking about the original 9-3. It deserved to be a big hit.

The 2nd Gen 9-3 started off great. It started off with a lower price than the 1st Gen 9-3. And it offered better performance. And then after about the 2nd year, it started to flounder a bit. That's when 9-3 should have gotten the SportCombi. Didn't get it. And the convertible. Didn't get that either. Should have gotten the Viggen. Didn't get that either.

GM dropped the ball. If the car got continual improvements... and if it didn't evolve into this odd Frankenstein... Maybe....

Yes... I really liked the 2nd Gen 9-3 (Pre-MCE, pre-interior update).

 

[paul8488]

Ah, just looked up on wikipedia... I didn't know that the hatch was ever called 9-3, back at the end of the 90s'... I thought that it had the 900 name until 2003 when the sedan-only version came out. Anywho that's the one I'm talking out, the 2nd generation 9-3. I think it looked as good as any Bimmer or Audi of the era, and was really a great price.

 

[t-rex]

Fingers are crossed....

Of course by the time GM stops draggingass and brings it to market, I'll likely have already bought something else.

 

[mgescuro]

Fingers are crossed....

Of course by the time GM stops draggingass and brings it to market, I'll likely have already bought something else.

I would love the chance to take a look at the new 9-5 (and the now delayed CTS MCE) before I finalize plans on the XF.

Besides, if this housing market continues the way it is, I'm going to scrap all plans to replace my cars and buy investment property. But darnit... houses in San Francisco aren't declining in value significantly. That's where I want to buy.

 

[Bravada]

The 9-3 hasn't done much and it is an excellent car now..

It was - and still is -a very mediocre car.

Handling isn't really much better than in the Vectra C - and it was not quite the class leader even among family movers/repmobiles. Interior had flair (pre-redesign), but was let down by inconsistent quality of materials used (they cheapened on the grabaround handles - the part you can find yourself touching for the most of your time in the car as passenger, which was the worst choice of part to skimp on). The design was neither strikingly "designer" nor quite "luxurious". Dropping the liftback body style and coupe/3-door eliminated many of the reasons people bought Saabs for.

Overall, it deserved not to make a splash, so for me it does surprisingly well for the cold turkey it is. Don't get me wrong, I would want one (not the Dame Edna one, the nice one with Saab dash, not corpo radio), but many people just didn't feel it was right to buy a Saab over BMW, Audi and Merc and could very well justify buying one of those. Or the Volvo.

 

[ChevroletRevived]

The 9-5 should be good, it'll be a big telltale on the future of Saab. First, where GM wants to take it and second on the viability of it in the future. Hopefully it will do for Saab what the XF is doing for Jaguar, and I don't see any reason why it can't. Other then that Saab has never done well. If GM gives it a go and invests without result I don't see any point in investing any further when there's other brands that will flourish and do well with investment (Buick with the Enclave, Cadillac with CTS and many other cars, Chevrolet with Malibu).

 

[DuSpinnst]

After seeing the new 9-3 a bunch of times, it doesn't look so bad.

I wish they kept the regular tail lamps though. And the chrome on the back is a bit much.

 

[mikmak]

After seeing a 9-3 going the other way on the highway today (with the running lights on) I thought it looked pretty good. Even the interior, which I understand is not liked by many, really strikes a chord with me. Whether or not the full flight TurboX would be on my shopping list (if I had 88k! to spare), is a consideration I would only make if I won about 2 mill.

 

[escapen]

I think the front ends of new Saabs are so amazing, however their rears are just pathetic. So generic, they dont have a common theme like say their cross country rival Volvo.

 

[Squachy]

i have a love/hate relationship with the 9-3 even though i dont own one (i always wanted one).

Sometimes i like the new MCE front end, but sometimes i hated it. I liked it cuz it looks aggresive. I hated it cuz it looks dated.

i dont care much for the interior but i much prefer the pre MCE one because everything appeared cohesive although it was a buttony mess. Everything looked like it belonged together and had a purpose.
The updated one slapped on the corporate radio and then gave those knobs/buttons for hvac and it looks cheap and dumbed down to me.