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What car would Spyker-Saab have to make in order for you to part with your cash?
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A car that looks like a Saab (nothing wrong with that), seats like a Saab, efficient reliable powerful engines, gearbox like a Honda, and much better chassis and build quality. For starters!
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I agree with retaining the Saab looks and seats.
Do the efficient petrol / common rail diesel engine offerings for the fleets and A to B motorists. Also offer a range of slightly mental turbo petrol engines. Relaunch the Carlsson specials, in black, with menacing bodykits and 250-300 bhp. And give every single model that Saab feeling of old, of sheer unburstability, and the sense that the car will do 300,000 miles on little more than routine servicing.
I would be at the head of the queue.
Edited by DP on 26/01/2010 at 20:08
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Saab should be the Subaru of Europe. Something ultra reliable, slightly unusual but ultimately a sane choice of someone who can afford the usual 'executive' makes but doesn't want to stand out as that 'wealthy'.
Imagine a Saab version of a Subaru Legacy. More interior space, a more European designed interior, traditional Saab wrap around windscreen, big wheels with high profile tyres. Stonking petrol engines and smooth economical diesels but with some punch.
I would not be buying an XC90 to replace my Outback if Saab made what I have just described.
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Imagine a Saab version of a Subaru Legacy.
There was actually a Saab version of the Subaru Impreza. It was called the 9-2X. Here's a picture.
www.9motors.com/images/saab92x.jpg
No, it's not been photoshopped. I actually know someone in the States who owns one of these monstrosities.
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Also they should revert back to a more practical hatchback design, like the classic 900. I don't understand why manufacturers like Honda now only offer an enormous estate or a saloon with the Accord, unlike their previous car. I'm sure it puts many buyers off in this country. We like hatchbacks here!
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Hear! Hear! Well said!
A former boss had a Saab hatchback. Immensely practical and plenty of grunt - the seats used to hit you in the back when he floored the accelerator.
Like so many manufacturers they abandoned the hatchback in the quest for the "executive" market. Utter foolishness - Potential Saab customers don't want an imitation Audi/BMW/Merc - they want a REAL Saab!
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Amen, LDO. The boot of my 1998 9-3 took full-size suitcases standing upright and I once brought a sideboard home in it. In contrast, even the Avant version of the Audi A4 has a tiny boot for its size, and yet that's what GM persuaded Saab the 2002 9-3 should copy. I chose a Volvo (perversely enough, a saloon, because Saabs aren't meant to be saloons and other makers do them better) and would take a lot of luring back now.
But give me back the hatchback, some big, oblong headlamps, a radio display up where I can see it, instruments with orange pointers, and an ignition switch out of the way between the seats and I might be tempted. Even so, I'm very much afraid it's too late.
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There seems to be a general consensus here which can be summarised as 'Saabs as they were pre-GM'- or at least before GM got 100 % control.
When Volvos were like tanks to drive, Saabs were sometimes called the 'thinking man's Volvo'. Volvos haven't been spoilt by Ford as Saabs have by GM, and they've been good todrive for some time now. As W deB says it may be too late - unless Saab find some other USP to get our cash. His and DP's S60s do most of the job, apart from not being hatchbacks.
Not only Volvo - my current Octavia does everything that I've wanted from a Saab in the past.
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I need a good big estate car / motorway barge. They very nearly got it right with the 95 3.0TID estate but they screwed up somehow and the engine was deeply unreliable. When it worked it was brilliant, but I got fed up with the engine warning light coming on every week and although it was a nominal estate car its load carying capacity was poor and the rear suspension bottomed out and / or the rear wheels tended to coincide with the rear wheel arches.
Oh and the dreaded DMF ... least said the better
Edited by veryoldbear on 26/01/2010 at 23:18
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As someone who has owned three Saabs and two Subarus I support the idea of Saab as a european Subaru ie some concept of design and ergonomics, associated with rugged reliability. Retro designs have worked well with the MINI and Fiat 500. How about a "new" 99/900 Combi with large hatchback, an update on traditional Saab interiors and a return to reliability. No body kits please. Direct competition with Audi/BMW/etc is not the way as in the past Saab were bought for what they were not as well as what they were.
alfalfa
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I own a 2002 3 door SAAB 9-3.
On the whole I enjoy owning it. One point I would like to make, the displays for the radio are very unreliable.
Back in the day you would think that a company that used to design planes would not just make do but come in with a better design.
Perhaps in the future they will.
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No good being the European Subaru, Subaru are too niche and simply dont sell enough cars.
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I echo the statements above: make Saabs reliable (not hard, if you stick to simple engines, with maybe some LPT on regular cars), keep the great seats and safety features and go back to hatchbacks.
They need to innovate more too. They need to offer something Volvo can't. Maybe it just takes a different approach to design, something very customer focused rather than volume sales focused. Something GM couldn't do for them.
My ideal Saab for the 21st century:
a 9-1 (Astra sized, it was rumoured to be in the pipeline prior to the sale), offering small turbocharged petrols. Saab could try and build the first non-hybrid petrol powered car to get under the magic 100 g/km mark. If they could manage that, then they really would have something to offer. Don't say it can't be done...
Maybe a 1.0 3 pot with added turbo (base engine borrowed from GM, who are still big shareholders in this deal), tweaked to knock out maybe 90bhp. Should be enough for the modern world, and with some tricks maybe just get into tax band A?
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Spyker are fully lumbered with GM parts and designs - there's nothing else now at SAAB.
It won't do.
I suspect that unless Spyker have thought of something really innovative, there's no solution to this and they certainly won't get my cash. When my much loved real SAAB became too old to do my job, it was reluctantly replaced with a big VAG diesel. I really miss that car but it could not be "re-invented" and designing and tooling up for another "proper SAAB" would be totally prohibitive.
SAAB are in a similar position to that of Rover and will fail for much the same reasons. Applying sticky labels to another mass produced vehicle will only fool a few people - and not for long.
And certainly not in their target market.
659.
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>>SAAB are in a similar position to that of Rover and will fail for much the same reasons.
If thats true, then they might as well not bother even trying to make it work. How can we get this thread into the 'what shall we do with SAAB' meeting at their head offices?
Some good ideas on here on what people want from a future SAAB, and I'll wager many people in the country would want to see the same. Basically to go back to properly engineered vehicles with a touch of individuality, the sort of thing that people would be willing to hand over money for.
If 659's thread is right and they do another mish mash of GM bits and pieces, then they might as well throw in the towel now, and kiss goodbye to the prospect of interesting and individual cars. Bland, corporate, tosh, no substance like McDonalds and Starbucks.... :-(
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