Volvo and Geely?

So, Saab was bought by Koenigsegg, a luxury sports car manufacturer extraordinaire. Volvo, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be as lucky, as it appears they are in the process of being bought by Chinese car manufacturer Geely, who are best known for their fine selection of metal death traps, or "death vessels" as China Car Times calls them, and their embarrassing and poor copies of well known car models.

I'm guessing acquiring Volvo is a way to improve the safety of these cars by utilizing Volvo's technology. It's harder to see what Volvo could possibly get out of this marriage. Not much, I'd say.

Koenigsegg and Saab

It seems true then, that Koenigsegg will be buying Saab Automobile, backed by a number of large investors.

Will this mean that Saab will finally get to broaden their model palette, and actually get some of their pretty cool concept cars into production during my lifetime? And will they possibly include some fancy schmancy technology from Koenigsegg as well?

I know I wouldn't mind a Saab 9-3 with a 800+ hp BioFuel engine...

No matter what the future brings it's still bound to be a much better deal than Saab ever had over at GM.

Photo: createordie

Saab 9-3X - there's the BioPower!

I have to say this caught me by surprise, but apparently the two engines available in the coming Saab 9-3X will be the 2,0T 210 hp with and without BioPower! This means that Saab will finally give the car buyers the option to buy a 4 wheel drive Saab that runs on E85. Great news, and definitly a car I'll be looking into when it hits the streets.

I just hope they've managed to make it a bit less thirsty than the current 9-3 2,0T...

Foto: Auto Motor & Sport

Saab 9-3X - where's the BioPower?

Norwegian car magazine bilnorge.no has an article on the coming Saab 9-3X and 9-5. Personally, I think the 9-3X looks really neat, but then I'm also a fan of the regular 9-3.

This particular car is fitted with the familiar 2.0T 210 hp engine, and of course the XWD-system from Haldex that we already know from the 9-3 XWD models. There is talk about diesel engines as well, like the 1,9TTiD 180 hp.

Strangely enough, though, no talk about BioPower! The 2.0T enigine is already built for E85, so there's not a whole lot that needs to be done in order to give the customers a 9-3X BioPower. Where is it, Saab, where??

Photo: Carparazzi/Bilnorge.no

Have my prayers been heard? Saab 9-4X

The new small-size SUV from Saab, the 9-4X, has been observed in the northern parts of Sweden, and it looks pretty promising from what the pictures in this article reveal. The most interesting part, though, is the information that it will be equipped with a 3-liter V6 petrol engine (262 horsepower and 300 Nm) capable of running on E85 as well - in other words a perfect candidate for a 9-4X 3,0 BioPower.Oh, it'll be thirsty, but at least it'll be drinking cheaper, environmentally friendlier fuel.

So, in regards to my previous post, "All I want for Christmas...", could the Saab 9-4X actually be what I'm looking for? Let's see:

• 4WD - Yes, the very same Haldex 4WD that's available in the 9-3 XWD, hopefully even with the eLSD differential.
• Large and luxurious - Well, it's not a full-size SUV, but perhaps it's good enough. Luxury-wise I'm not so sure, judging from the interior pics. I guess only time will tell.
• A desirable design - Hard to tell through all the camouflage, but if it looks similar to the concept car, it should be pretty good looking (see below for a pic of the concept).
• Nice performance - 3-liter V6 engine with 262 horsepower should definitly be enough for most people, including me.
• Running on some kind of renewable energy - Check. Although, I would love it if Saab/GM would create an engine that is optimized for E85, so the fuel consumption would be a bit more reasonable. This baby will probably drink around 1,5 liters of E85 per kilometer. At least.

Nevertheless, this is definitly the car that comes closest to my late Christmas wish.

Saab 9-4X interior pic

By now we've all seen the spaceship-cockpit design of the 9-4X prototype, but as usual these fancy-schmancy interiors are usually quite a bit more boring when the production model finally hits the streets.

Auto Motor & Sport in Sweden have captured a picture of the 9-4X interior of a test car, and while it doesn't look quite as fancy as in the prototype, it's not really that far off. The only thing I'm waiting for now is an interesting engine to go with that. The 300 hp biopower (ethanol) engine of the prototype was nice.

Oh, Saab, no! Part 2

Can't say I'm really impressed with Saab these days. First the incomprehensible decision to not incorporate XWD on diesel or biopower models. Now they cutting their warranty in the US, from a brilliant 5 year/100.000 miles to not so impressive 4 years/50.000 miles, to cut costs. This is definitly not good PR for Saab, leading us to believe that the cars have poor reliability, and that Saab now wants to push as much of the repair costs as possible onto the buyer.

Oh, Saab, no!

According to the nice people at Trollhattansaab.net, the 2009 Saab 9-3 will finally feature the XWD all-wheel-drive system for the 2.0t motor range. Great news, you might think. What I'm struggling to understand is the fact that they ignore their most selling models, at least in Europe. There will be no XWD available for the brilliant 1,9TTiD diesel engine, which is the engine of choice for most European countries, and no XWD for the E85 (ethanol) version of the 2.0t engine, which is by far the most selling engine configuration in Saab's native Sweden.

Why, oh why, Saab, won't you give us the car we want? I'd like a fuel efficient Saab 9-3 1.9TTiD XWD, or an eco-friendly Saab 9-3 2.0t BioPower XWD, please.