A real Saab. History, continued
With all the focus on the current developments at NEVS, some recent news about the past would almost go unnoticed. First of all the fact that about a week ago, Spyker lost the appeal in a $ 3B law suit against General Motors. Secondly, a local court in The Netherlands ordered Spyker to vacate their facilities in Zeewolde today after having canceled their contract as the lease hadn't been paid for seven months. I visited their offices some time ago with my 9-4X, a truly amazing car that has been manufactured in late 2010 during the Spyker ownership of SAAB Automobile AB.
A real SAAB
ALTHOUGH the 9-4X shares many design features with the 9-5NG, it has a real distinctive own look and feel. Unfortunately only around 700 units were ever produced at the GM factory in Ramoz, Mexico; Quite a difference from the about 20,000 units that were made of GM's earlier SAAB SUV: the 9-7X.
9-4X is rather outnumbered by the 9-7X and the fact that the 9-4X never got launched outside the US, explains why the 9-4X too often gets confused with its older "brother".
Having said that, the 9-4X also has a GM sibling: the Cadillac SRX. Despite commonalities, the 9-4X looks, feels and feels like a real SAAB and I am planning to write more about this in a future post.
Family reunion
Here in Sweden, the 9-4X is a real rare sight. Getting as many as possible, but on 5 October the impossible happened when I was in Stockholm. Two 2.8T Aero's with US specs and one -even more unique- 3.0i Premium with European specifications.
We are doing a photo shoot of "the new SAABs". When we explained the actual situation, the disappointment was almost immediately suppressed by admiration and melancholy: "if only the 9-4X would have reached the market ...". History indeed, but continued!
.. I did it the other way round, I was asked with the 9-7x if this is already de new (.. so before 2 years I think that was ..) although he is not liked by many is the 9-7x part of Saab history and with us the workhorse in the Saab fleet!
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g8vlplvgt888r6l/DSCI2107a.jpg?dl=0
Latest news about the EV's:
swedish
http://ttela.se/ekonomi/1.3554884-bildalbum-vad-tyst-den-ar-
Great to see some more and new pictures from the 9-3EV! The story itself doesn't contain that much new information compared to Tom's earlier article: http://saabblog.net/2014/09/10/saab-9-3-ev-probefahrt/
Perhaps they will build them again, but this time as a 9-4EV?
Nevs are going to launch 4 new models! (Swedish)
http://www.automotorsport.se/artiklar/nyheter/20141008/nevs-ska-storsatsa-med-fyra-nya-saabmodeller
A very nice car. As a kid, this car was, the 9-7 Trailblazer was a Saab development, and Peter Doerich, who was responsable for the whole program, came from Saab too.
Thank you for this article and kind regards
Martin
Thanks Martin! You're spot on with the reference about Peter Dörrich. A nice clip of him making the “real SAAB” comment standing in front of the then newly launched 9-4X can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sKENuYb7r0
Amazing Cars, really nice
Chevrolet SRX or Cadillac SRX?
That was obviously a typo! Thanks for pointing it out and I've got it now.