Motor Crazy: saab

GM has announced that Saab has filed bankruptcy in Swedish courts in an effort to reorganize the company and to become independent from GM.

The reorganization of Saab will lead to the design, engineering and manufacturing being concentrated back in Sweden. But in order for this to happen GM needs to secure financing, which is the main issue. The Swedish government already rejected GM's request for cash. According to the Automotive News Saab may need as much as $1 billion to remain sustainable on its own.

Currently Saab plans on launching three new vehicles of the next year and a half, the 9-3X, 9-5 and 9-4X...well that's if Saab can raise the money to sustain itself.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Saab may have stagnated into GM-branded middle-of-the-roadness in recent years, but when the engineers from Trollhatten are left to their own devices, they can still come up with some pretty nifty technology.

Like this, the 9-X Air Concept. Forget the standard Saab concept face and eminently sensible 1.4-litre turbocharged engine (E85 powered, naturally) and take a look at that roof instead.

The Air Concept is, essentially, Saab's guess at what the next-gen 9-3 convertible will look like when it goes on sale around 2013, and it features a very cool folding soft-top roof.

There's a two-piece fabric cover with a solid glass rear screen, which descends when the roof is folded back and then raises back up to cut out turbulence in the cabin.

Shunning a fashionable folding hard top is good news for weight, while a glass screen eliminates the need for one of those huge cumbersome deflector-thingies that fit over the rear seat. Neat, eh?

Saab reckons the added lightness should allow the Air Concept to hit 60mph in just over eight seconds while returning a healthy 107g/km of CO2.

We'll get to fiddle with the Air Concept's clever roof at the Paris show early next month, if the Saab engineers let us near it...