Saab History

Photo Credit: Saab History

Carl Levine, the genius behind the Audio Troll Ipod Integration accessory, had the great opportunity to report for Nines Magazine at the North American premiere of the MY 2008 Saab 9-3 Turbo-X.

Here is well written review of the experience in his own words:

11.30.2007

M08 Saab 9-3 Turbo-X Debut

By Carl Levine

BOSTON - Boston, Massachusetts is a city that is all about heritage. It is one of the oldest cities in the country, with roots of our nation’s founding planted deep within her soil, home of some of professional sports’ greatest organizations and the earliest port of entry for a certain car manufacturer we all know and love. Yes, some fifty years ago the newly formed Saab Motors, Inc. of New York City chose the port town of Hingham, just south of Boston, to be the first port of entry for a humble little coupe called a SAAB 93B.

The launch of a new car is always an exciting event, especially when it’s an hour from home and in such a great new location. Located across the harbor from where Saab got its start in America, the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is the new home of the New England International Auto Show; a vast improvement over the dark, poorly laid out Bayside Exposition Center down near Dorchester. I arrived about 15 hours early for the launch to assist Ryan from Saab History who was there to film the event. One of the first obvious Boston clichés happened as I stood in the lobby of the hotel adjacent to the convention center and fellow New England native, and General Manager of Saab Autombile USA, Steve Shannon stopped to say hello; sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name!

I spent the evening socializing with a couple members of the press, as well as people from Saab’s communication department and product marketing departments. It had been a few good years since I had the chance to chat about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff with anyone in this capacity, and I don’t believe I’ve ever had a discussion about torque steer over dinner, so that was pretty neat. Through this experience, I learned about GM’s renewed commitment to the brand, that the people at Saab were calling Turbo-X “Black Turbo” as some of the blogs had speculated the car’s name to be for some time, and that a refreshed product range is in the works in coming years.

Tuesday morning was the big event. With a grande egg nog latte from that certain trendy and ubiquitous coffee chain warming my hand, Ryan and I made it a point to go down to the front of the hotel just before sunrise to capture time-lapse footage of the sun rising over the facade of the new convention center, and the stunning Ice Blue 2008 9-3 Aero convertible out front. Ryan’s brother Kyle came down from just north of the city to assist him with the videotaping efforts for his site, and we proceeded to acquire our press credentials. Once on the show floor, the vast expanse of the new convention center could be truly realized; and in the theme of Saab’s marketing as of late, it was interesting to note that the structure was very reminiscent of an aircraft hangar both in size and design.

The Saab stand shone like a beacon of Scandinavian brilliance amidst its GM brethren. Huge backlit signs divided the space with sweeping panoramic views of roads once thought to be the product of dreams, with a 9-3 Aero driving along or that classic picture of the Saab 92 sitting under the wing of a Saab J21A superimposed on a image of the Aero-X sitting on a runway. In the section where the Turbo-X would be launched, there were two other cars sitting. One was a replica of the Aero-X concept (as seen at SOC07) and the other was the newly restored 1985 Saab 900 Turbo SPG from the GM Heritage Collection; a fine example of the original series of “Black Turbos”.

At 9am, Steve Shannon, the General Manager of Saab Automobile USA took to the stage. Steve is a native of the area, so he was excited that the car would be launched in his home town. Boston holds a great deal of significance for Saab, both as its original port of entry but also the nucleus of its largest American market. Much like the once beleaguered and now legendary Boston Red Sox, Saab is up to bat with its best intentions and as soon as Steve and Bob “Uncle Bob” Sinclair pulled the wraps off the Turbo-X it was as if Jonathan Papelbon himself were there, throwing in that last strikeout to win the series all over again. Truly, the Turbo-X is a glowing example of Saab’s dominance in the area of responsible performance, active safety and innovative design. Jet black metallic paint flanked the lowered body, with titanium-colored accents on the grille, fog lamp surrounds, trunk handle and distinctive split
3-spoke alloy wheels.

The most crucial part of this product launch is Saab’s new Cross Wheel Drive (XWD) system, a feature that will transcend the 9-3 range down from the Turbo-X over the next few years. XWD is an amazing new evolution of Haldex’s AWD technology which has been featured in a number of Audi, Volkswagen and Volvo products over the past several years. XWD is the 4th generation of AWD systems from Haldex, and uses Controller Area Network (CAN) technology to intuitively interact with other systems in the car including the engine control module, transmission control module (automatic models), electronic stability program (ESP), and anti-lock brake system (ABS) among others. This allows XWD to intelligently send power from the front wheels to the back wheels in roughly 10 milliseconds. Turbo-X also includes eLSD, an electronically controlled limited slip differential for the rear drive module which can shift the power at the rear of the car to either side. eLSD will be an option on the regular 9-3 Aero XWD models that are due out this spring alongside this limited production Turbo-X Steve proceeded to refer to the Turbo-X “the most satisfying Saab of all time”, mostly on account of its enhanced handling capability from the XWD, enhanced suspension and braking systems and the 2.8L V6 Turbo which makes as much torque as a BMW M3 V8… two thousand RPMs lower. Turbo-X comes fully equipped with just about every box you can tick off on the order sheet: Premium black heated leather seats, satellite navigation, carbon fiber inserts on the door panels and shift bezel, a really sharp looking rear spoiler on the sedan model and the ability to have a personalized greeting message show up on the SID when you start the car.

Checking out the Turbo-X after the presentation, I was thoroughly impressed by the materials on the interior of the car. The seat leather was a lot softer than that of a stock 9-3, and a bit more grippy as a result. The steering wheel had a very similar treatment, and its thickness can be best associated with that of a late 70’s/early 80’s Saab Sport and Rally steering wheel. But as much as I loved checking out this new car, there was some 22 year old sexiness staring me down from across the booth. Swedish, sleek, athletic and all dressed up with nowhere to go. I’m talking of course about the fully restored SPG that GM brought along as a tribute to the age of conspicuous consumption, the 1980’s. I could just hear that Kajagoogoo playing in my head as I made my way over to this fine piece of machinery. The car was impossibly black, with only a few little details out of place that only a C900 nerd such as myself (or Linnea, Johnny del or Jeff Proposki, who were also there ogling this thing) could pick out. To me, having the SPG at the show specifically for the purpose of expressing the Turbo-X’s heritage is a bold move by GM to cement their commitment to the brand in the minds of the consumers aware of their ownership. It was certainly more than what the other brands were doing.

And just what were the competition up to this year? Well, I took a little stroll to find out. About a stone’s throw away from Saab’s stand was my favorite, recently divorced car brand, Mercedes-Benz. That new C-class looks nice and all, but unlike Saab, their quality has been slipping since the mid-90’s when they strayed from the nice boxy 124-chassis cars in the E-class and started complicating things. I wasn’t impressed, so I moved on rather quickly. Audi showed up with their R8 supercar, which really has no relevance when you consider it’s a completely different genre of conveyance. They had the new A5/S5 coupe series, along with an RS-4 cabriolet; while I haven’t driven an Audi in a few years, I wasn’t shocked to see that the driver’s environment is still a bleak expanse of miniature buttons and little orange indicators. Where was Audi’s heritage car? Was Saab the only brand who cared about where the inspiration for their cars comes from? Apparently, because the BMW people didn’t have a 2002Tii sitting next to the new 135i — the apparent spiritual successor to the 2002-series. Shame. They had an E92 M3 coupe up on a platform, out of reach from the peasantry. I don’t see why, honestly. They had a 335xi coupe on the floor next to it, and it was rubbish. All the controls looked really overcomplicated, the seats felt like the vinyl ones in a 1974 2002 Tii (well, maybe they didn’t need the old car afterall!) and the Turbo-X makes just 5 ft/lb less torque as that twin-turbo I-6. Why would anyone in their right mind pay $52k for a car that can be outdone by a Swedish one for $10k less (fully, fully, fully loaded). Then came Volvo… well, I didn’t even
bother with them for more than 3 minutes but I know I’d be crying if I were the engineer in Sweden who put his heart and soul into designing a platform that underpins a poorly selling American fleet queen like the Taurus. If you want to talk about a Swedish brand who has lost their soul, it was never Saab.

Upon returning to the stand, the show workers had already torn down most of the temporary partitions that were used for staging the launch and moved the Aero X onto a platform. I got a last good look at both the Turbo-X and the SPG before going to a lunch with a keynote by Bryan Nesbitt, VP of GM North America design. When lunch was over, I thanked and bid farewell to my friends from General Motors who really went above and beyond to ensure that SCNA/Nines Magazine had access to all the resources to really make the most of the New England International Auto Show experience.

To recap, the Turbo-X is coming to our shores in March/April. They’re only making 600 for our market, so you’d best get down to your favorite local Saab dealer with a pen in hand getting ready to commit to $42,510 for a sedan or $43,310 for a SportCombi if this is something you want to get your hands on. If you do it before January 31st, and happen to be one of the first 100 to do so, you get a free trip to the Aero Academy’s special XWD training class at Road Atlanta!

Until next time, happy Saabin’ and have a festive holiday season!