"Jet-aircraft heritage evident in new Saab 9-5"

This is doubtful, but apparently good advertising copy. The association with jet aircraft engineering certainly didn't work for Rover when it was owned by British Aerospace.

But nevertheless, a car is more than four wheels, it is also style, fashion and good-feeling in the cabin. In other words, it's a bird-magnet.

The only thing evident to me is that you are either a f****it or have been paid by GM.

The Saab car division was sold to GM more than 10 years ago and there are no longer any relations with the the aircraft manufacturer (which is the real Saab company!!). Thus any GM advertisments in this direction should be considered as a major fraud to fool us poor consumers.

-- th

You are one twisted sick fucktard

I am surprised by all of you here, beyond words.

I will make this brief. If there is anything that Saab can do is more advertising and this association with aircraft is true. Furthermore, the current advertising campaign making the relation on the current Saab automobile lineup is accurate as it has roots in the aircraft industry and that is history which cannot change. It is a great tagline and has meant one of the best starts to a year in Saab's 59 year history.

Stay positive, optimistic and proud that things are coming back again!

Keep Saabin'

SG

The descriptive beauty of the English language.

advertising and this association with aircraft is true. Furthermore, the current advertising campaign making the relation on the current Saab automobile lineup is accurate as it has roots in the aircraft industry and that is history which cannot change. It is a great tagline and has meant one of the best starts to a year in Saab's 59 year history.

But did you read the newspaper article? A hangar for your 9-5 Aero? What planet are they on. Yes, Saab has aircraft heritage, but so has BMW and Rover and even FIAT. It maybe good advertising to point out the link since aircrafts must be build to high standards, but it's doubtful that any aircraft engineering is found in a modern Saab. When this association is exaggerated, you feel like a little boy in in a toy car that can take off and land. I can imagine people thinking: Poor guy, he thinks that his car is a jet aircraft. Hence that made me speculate what is a car these days. It's a lot about style and presentation.

advertising and this association with aircraft is true. Furthermore, the current advertising campaign making the relation on the current Saab automobile lineup is accurate as it has roots in the aircraft industry and that is history which cannot change. It is a great tagline and has meant one of the best starts to a year in Saab's 59 year history.

They are making relevant comparisons to continue the campaign slogan in a variety of ways, creative of Lowe.

I don't think people think the car has a jet engine though.

SG

The best possible outcome for Saab is for GM to go totally bankrupt and for the liquidator to sell the Saab brand back to a non US auto manufacturer.

We can only hope.

Pssst...he's paraphrasing someone _else's_ review.

Hehe, TV car advertising is somewhat hit and miss. The most embarrassing TV advert at the moment is for Honda Civic, I just can't bear so watch and have to change channel. It shows a chorus making various sounds. The ad is just so baby like. One of the best was the ad for Citroen C4 transforming into a dancing robot. But I don't think any potential buyers expected that the C4 could do that...

What a bunch of curmudgeons... lighten up.

It's 10 years on and you are all still bitching about GM having the audacity to not only buy Saab, but to keep it alive and reasonably intact.

More points to GM to drop good money into an ad campaign for Saab. I hope they get paid back 1000 fold and they carve out a great enough niche for the marque to survive for years to come.

Flame away you flamers.

The feathered or more human-like kind? 8-)

Craig.

I wonder if, with GM having so much trouble and now having decided to dump yet another Asian car-maker out of it's stable, whether Saab is next to get dropped?

With Saab's HQ still remaining in Sweden (despite GM ownership), you wonder what might happen if Saab was set free. Certainly not having to take on GM's pathetic approach to conceptualising what people want to see in a prestige vehicle would be an immediate benefit, but the finances of the company may now be tied so tightly into GM's central revenue flows that seperating Saab might be more difficult than seperating a pair of siamese twins on the operating table... Unfortunately.

Craig.

Almost all car-makers are hang-overs from world-war 2 which, like Saab, diverted attention to other things in order to retain a body of skilled staff. Saab are probably one of the best examples of the transition from war-time workshop to automotive innovator.

But I do get a bit sick when GM tries to claim that IT is the driving force behind reviving the 'aviation heritage' banner. I bet Saab's own people would not have wanted such an intense revival and would have preferred a slower, more paced re-inforcement through good engineering over time.

GM's only after quick profit if you want to look at it from an end-game perspective. Especially with the parent company in the US faltering so much because they're creating a company so big that it's incomptencies grow at the same rate until they leave big holes like the shell holes that ripped into the Bismark, thereby creating crippling wounds.

Otherwise GM would not have fobbed off Suburu (aka Fuji), and now Isuzu.

Craig.

Not unless that watched that Monster Garage episode where Jesse puts a jet engine into a car. 8-)

I think a classic 900 would have the structural strength to work in that situation but where do you get a jet engine that will fit? lol

Craig.

Gee thanks for that Einstein

Dear lord - what a load of horse feathers.

They rebodied the 9-5 having had an unfortunate experience rebranding an end of lifecycle Suburu last year - then suckered someone at The Washington Times who evidently knows literally zip about SAAB engineering history into publishing yet another ill informed hand job about it using GM PR copy. It's the Times though, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.

However what I still don't frankly get, having failed to use the above public relations model to generate substantial interest these past 10 years, is how someone again convinces the powers that be at GM to go with it.

The 9-5 is actually a pretty respectable family hot-rod for $30,000+. Gets great mileage for the size, has *way more* than enough pick-up and toe-in to really toss the family around in their seat-belts for the price and while it is no 9000 Aero - it remains a fairly dignified ride in an undignified time.

As regards why everyone whines about GM SAAB, well I think I can say that from the repeat owner's point of view - the only that really happened when GM bought SAAB was that evidently lesser quality, but more expensive, components where engineered into the marque than was popularly hoped for when the news of the buy out hit the streets.

That's hard to bounce back from when people catch on frankly.

Putting aside that in my mind GM completely missed a fantastic opportunity to honestly improve all their model lines by exploiting and mass producing the then industry leading turbo and engine management technology in favour of more/cheaper cylinders - they did manage to fix SAAB transmissions - which I suppose is always something GM did wonderfully. Sadly, they then screwed the pouch by trying to save a $10 on a oil-pick screen in the sump and started losing engines instead of tranny's for a decade.

I guess at the end of the day, SAAB has done well with the 9-5 *despite* the evidently ill-informed and patronizing marketing. Which, if you ask me, is why so many hard-core SAAB enthusiasts react so very strongly when they see it.

The only thing a current SAAB has in common with a Jet fighter is that they both have turbine compressors - one is big enough to swallow a SAAB whole, the other isn't. My 9000 has several interesting cockpit features that I'm pretty sure were gleaned from military Aircraft - big buttons and green back lighting for example - but that would be about it and my 9000 is 13 years old now.

Trying to trade on the aircraft heritage when SAAB has so very many other more legit and desirable milestones to claim - first general production turbo, world rally titles, pikes peak records, Tallidaga endurance x2 (or is it x3 now), European Sports Car championship ('93 or '94 I think), countless club and regional racing titles and several highest safety standard ratings on both sides of the Atlantic - well - the evidently long 'aircraft' stretch is just so very lame isn't it?

Anyway - I say again - epsilon platformed, wider/lower 9000 Aero with a 3inch exhaust, 50mm swaybars front and rear, recarro leather package and a turn taken out of the steering rack - you have a honest to goodness world market beater every day of the week. I actually sketched it out in photoshop a while back and have it tucked away somewhere - looks even better than the original.

Sadly, I know that anyone at GM who should be interested long ago stopped reading this missive and has missed the good advise above. More's the pity, because I can keep my C-SAAB on the road indefinitely for the finance and insurance it would cost to lease out a new 9-5 with all the trimmings.

Cheers brothers - hope all is well where you are.