Saab 9-5 NG pre-series 2009 on the way on the BAB 7

It's one of the very early pictures of the Saab 9-5 NG that a reader provided us with. On June 22.06.2009, 9, this pre-series Saab 5-7 NG was heading south on the BAB XNUMX. Still heavily camouflaged, as Saab had not yet released images of the final design. What nobody suspected at the time was that GM Trollhättan would close at the end of the year. The exciting question - then as now - is there a Saab with a hatchback?

Actually, the Saab 9-5 NG is a pure GM group car. The Saab that most of all models ever built is GM or Opel. All licenses are held by the Americans, every component bears the GM imprint. Saab only had something to say marginally. When it came to fine-tuning, or tweaking the design. That was created in Trollhättan. Opel loaned employees from the design center in Rüsselsheim to Sweden for months.

The Saab 9-5 NG that came from Hesse

It is surprising that the end product was still so convincing Saab. It showed that GM and Carl Peter Forster understood the brand at the very end. Which doesn't make it any better. Then there was the big drama, Victor Muller and the brand's struggle for survival. That turned the GM-Opel 9-5 into a hero, a Swede and thus a Saab, where nobody asks about the origin anymore.

Actually, the 9-5 NG should be built at Opel. Together with the new Insignia, the basis of which it shares, it would roll off the assembly line at the brand's main plant with the lightning bolt. The pre-series was made in Rüsselsheim and the tuning drives were mostly carried out by Opel-GM engineers.

The Swedish license plates on the pre-series car shouldn't fool you.

Only later, after the separation from GM, did the development become a Saab affair. With each month in production, small changes flowed into the series and the chassis set-up. Any major change, of course, required GM's approval. The freedoms were limited.

Is there a Saab 9-5 NG hatchback driving there?

Lars, who took the picture of the pre-series vehicle, thinks he photographed a hatchback variant. At first glance, that seems to be the case. But it is camouflage that is well made and deceptive. A closer look reveals the camouflaged pre-series 9-5 as a sedan. A simple but clear indication is the third brake light, which sits at the height of the trunk lid. Hatchback or hatchback versions a little later photographed were, carry the brake light below the vehicle roof.

And here, too, the question arises as to whether it was really a hatchback or just a perfectly camouflaged version of the 9-5 NG sports suit?

The idea that Saab had a third body style in the works has been in the minds of fans for years. Their existence was never officially confirmed. Except for a few images with camouflaged vehicles, there is no evidence that they really existed.