Have Saab reintroduced hatchback yet?

I lost interest in Saabs about five years ago when they stopped making hatchbacks. Have they reintroduced them yet? It was their best feature!

Reply to
Ric
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Ric ( snipped-for-privacy@tincan.ra) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Do I presume you're in the US?

Here in Europe, much of the "executive car" market - where the 93 sits - view hatchbacks as being inferior to saloons, and will buy a saloon in preference. Want the load capacity? Buy the estate version. If it's good enough for the German marques, it's good enough for mere mortal manufacturers.

With that in mind, I doubt very much that there will be a 93 hatch. There hasn't been a 95 hatch since they launched it a decade ago, killing off the

9000 hatch - which was outsold by the saloon.
Reply to
Adrian

They badly need something to compete with Volvo C30. Maybe there will be Saab hatchback based on the next Opel/Vauxhall Astra platform, a Saab 9-1 is rumoured for 2009.

Reply to
johannes

Are you sure? I see far more 9000 CS/CSE's around here than the CD/CDE. The 9000 CS is a nice design, it manages to be a spacious load carrier without looking bulky as an estate.

I did a google on the Saab 9-1 hatchback, there are plenty of sketches out there, but I was not very impressed with what I saw. It looked awkward compared to the elegant Volvo C30.

Reply to
johannes

johannes ( snipped-for-privacy@siz-2846553-efitter.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Thinking about later ones, I'd certainly guess so - but let's not forget that it's skewed by the survival rates. Big hatches are unusual, so 9000 hatches may well have survived better. I'm fairly sure that "back in the day", there was a load more late 9000 saloons than hatches.

It gets worse. It's a Vauxhall Astra underneath.

Reply to
Adrian

Here is an interesting website.

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Americanization of next Saabs is quite obvious from these pictures.

Reply to
johannes

I agree.

The 9000CS really hit the spot for me.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

Really ?

Certainly not in the UK. 9000CDs are very rare but CSs are quite common.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

johannes ( snipped-for-privacy@siz-2846553-efitter.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Guesstimates from an American perspective, so of course they spin it as fitting what they perceive.

The 1-series BMW and A3 may be laughable, but will a tarted-up Astra get even close to cutting the mustard against 'em? Not a cat in hell's.

Reply to
Adrian

I'm sure 9000CSs outsold the CD (by a large margin) in the UK.

I'd never buy a saloon/sedan simply because in a rainy country like England a rear wiper is essential for safety IMHO. Also, they're more difficult to park in tight spaces like we typically have here for on-road parking.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

Gross isn't it ?

I recently saw the Top Gear where Clarkson commented on the 9-5 'facelift'. His comment was that they'd put Dame Edna Everage's glasses on it !

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Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

I don't understand the US thing. I'm in the UK and when Saab deleted all traces of hatchbacks from the range, they deleted all traces of me as a customer.

Doesn't all this snobbish marketing bullshit make you want to throw up? The reason why no-one in the UK buys an "executive" hatchback is because it's all but impossible - *not* because they don't want one.

I recently looked at replacing my 2001 9-3, which is exactly the right size for my family of four. I have four options:-

  1. Get a pointless saloon so others will look at my car and think "Cor! he's really arrived! He has such an impractical car that he must have a butler to take his rubbish to the tip". When I do actually need to ditch a sideboard, I'll be stuffed.
  2. Get an estate, which doesn't have much more load carrying capability than my hatchback, yet is bigger, heavier, slower, doesn't handle as well and is more expensive to buy and run.
  3. Go "down market" to brands who's marketing men have their heads just far enough out of their arses to realize that people still want hatchbacks.
  4. Keep the 9-3 until it falls apart.

I'm going with option 4, followed sooner or later by option 3. I'm sure drivers of "executive" cars will look down their noses at my old hatchback, but I'll have the last laugh when they need take a dustbin home from the shop.

There, I feel much better now I've got that of my chest.

Cheers,

Colin.

Reply to
Colin Stamp

I don't know what this thing is with the cartoonized front end on new cars but I'd be embarrassed to drive one.

Frank /~

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Reply to
Frank Vuotto

Hmm. Not so sure I agree on you there. If you're parking it's extra handy, otherwise, seeing through a wet rear window serves its purpose as to "there are three cars behind me, two are tailgating the other."

Annnd even in heavy rain, at speeds over around 40 mph, you'll find the rear window is scrubbed by the aerodynamics - something my 9-3 hatchback does, come to think of it.

They're no harder than the majority of hatchback designs, unfortunately.

Reply to
DervMan

Yes, absolutely. Hatchbacks are for neds / pikeys / scruff, because they need to carry things. Saloons are for carrying people.

Or so that's the spirit of it. :)

From the sounds of it, that depends on where you are. I worked at a place where we had lots of Saabs, we had more 9000 saloons compared to hatchbacks.

Reply to
DervMan

But you can't see even that much without a rear wiper.

So, no good around town which is where accidents are more likely to happen as a rule.

I don't agree.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

That's a link to an ampliifer site.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

You're the first person I've come across to say anything like that.

I reckon your attitude is a good enough reason to not want to drive a saloon. I'd hate to be associated with ppl with such small brains.

Hatchbacks look smarter to me anyway. The lines are tidier and they do typically have lower drag too.

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

I thought diesels were for pikeys. They're load draggers after all. :-p

Graham

Reply to
Eeyore

Eeyore ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Let's look at it another way - if the hatch HAD have been the big seller, Saab UK would have been clamouring for a hatch 95... If the hatch HAD have been the big seller in multiple markets, there would have been a hatch 95.

Reply to
Adrian

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