I was visiting my local Saab dealership this past weekend and what did I see when I arrived, what appeared to be none other than the Saab 9-6x!

Upon closer inspection, it was actually a Subaru Tribeca, and with the recent news about the patent filing on the car, I could not resist the urge to photoshop it slightly into the appearance of the 9-6x because afterall, the 9-6x was based off of the Subaru Tribeca anyways!

I finally believe that I can close this chapter now seeing the closest photo to the real thing, even though it was photoshopped.

What a great “slightly modified” Saab sighting of the week!

Image Credit: US Patent & Trademark Office

The Saab 9-6x, which was evidently canned when GM sold their stake in Fuji-Heavy Industries (Subaru) after producing the Saab 9-2x, have recently submitted an application for their patent of the 9-6x with the U.S. Federal Patent & Trademark office in Washington, D.C.

I wonder what this means, moving forward, especially since one of the leading Saab designers, Anthony Lo, whom I interviewed back in January of 2008 in Detroit, submitted the application along with German & Swedish design associates, Kelkeim & Anders Gustaffson Hindås, respectively.

So here’s the question, why were they submitting this information recently, given that the program was scrapped back in late 2006 when GM sold the Subaru stake?

Photo Credits: Unknown

The Saab 9-6X was a planned vehicle based on the Subaru B9 Tribeca Crossover Utility Vehicle.

The Product development of the Saab 9-6x was in the works just after the Subaru branded 9-2x was produced, beginning 2004.

The 9-6x product was cancelled as soon as General Motors sold all of their shares of Fuji-Heavy Industries in October of 2005.

There is very little known about this vehicle other than it was in the works and the photographs above were taken by someone high up on Saab Automobile’s management who had access the secret viewings of this work in progress.