Saab has unveiled it’s new facelifted C-segment premium sedan – the Saab 9-3, and it comes in Sedan, SportCombi and Convertible models! The boys at Trollhattan (what an amusing name for a place) have added all-wheel-drive to the car (called Saab XWD) as well as a line of engine with three different options of fuels – petrol, diesel, or bioethanol.
The top of the line petrol engine is the 2.8 litre V6 all-aluminium engine putting out either 255 horsepower or 280 horsepower in different status of tune. Unlike most V6 engines which use twin-turbos, this engine uses a single twin-scroll turbo, with the twin in twin-scroll being fed by 2 banks of 3 cylinders each. There is also an all-aluminium 2.0 litre turbo engine, in 150hp, 175hp, and 210hp form.
For diesel fans, the 1.9TTiD engine uses a two turbochargers to make 180 horsepower and a massive 400Nm of torque. A single-turbo 1.9 litre is also available, using a variable geometry turbocharger in two different tunes – 150hp using 16 valves and 120hp using 8 valves. The option for bioethanol-powered Saab BioPower engines use E85 fuel. The baseline engine is a normally aspirated 1.8 litre putting out 122 horsepower. Kind of bland, considering how amazing all the other engines sound.
The Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan and SportCombi has high torsional rigidity of 22,000Nm/degree, and almost 60% of the body weight uses high strength or ultra high strength steel. The 9-3 Convertible has lower torsional rigidity as expected due to the lack of a roof- 11,500Nm/degree. For the SportCombi station wagon model, there are structural rings around the C and D-pillars, and transverse beams in the floor and roof to compensate for the lack of sedan cross-bracing.
For the convertible, the tonneau cover has a unique two-stage operation cycle for quicker roof deployment. The soft-top cover (were you hoping for a hard top convertible?) comes up in 20 seconds, and uses a weight-saving design, with the frame, swivelling braces, and front header rail all made of magnesium. The seat upholstery also uses “Hydroblox” water repellent textile, just in case you get caught in the rain and your top doesn’t come up in time. It also has DynaCage rollover protection which uses pop-up rear roll bars, strengthened A-pillars, sills, and automatic seat-belt pre-tensioning.
No news of whether this new Saab 9-3 will be available for the Malaysian market for not, but it may make an appearance if there is a demand for it.
More photos after the jump.
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Saab new design or copy paste ??? front looks like accord euro-r or camry something the grill like new subaru … haha but this one nicer then suBAru …. y the interior dashboard design so simple .. the engine they r using also high performance … v6 twin turbo … only comment the dashboard
total sweety.. sxe10r.. copy or new design, i think they did a very good job here..
by the way, who is the retailer for saab cars in malaysia? care to enlighten me?
Actually, Saab design has quite little changes over the past decade. More like evolution of design. so Saab did not rip off from anyone. As for the dashboard, well they are Swedish. Not cluttered, just like Volvo.
the looks still very sweet and mean to me… i oways love the design of saab… since its related to aerospace… other than tat, the dashboard here seems to look much simpler than the previous ones… nice one!
hmmm nice car…….only thing i find odd is the rear lamps which are white….not a nice color for that car.
the car is also very tough i guess from the figures of 22000NM/degree.
drool on da 1.9TTiD…..more horsie than any standard 2.4L cars in our market and not to mention nearly double the amount of torque.
The Sport Combi station wagon's rear end is almost a carbon copy of the Mazda 5's butt…. anyhow all look waaaaaay better then the Saabs of 2 generations ago.
i always admire SAAB 900 of the late 80s, uniquely designed and very individual (900 turbo Aero).., the later model is less saab,
but again now it a nicely saab in modern, and coventional
very controversial .
Yeah………now they mean business…….
digiman,
the agent responsible for SAAB is Auto Eurokars. the same agent for Porsche.
according to my inside sources, AE might not be bringing in the new SAABs equipped with XWDs due to the price. can't even match the BMWs. instead they'll bring the 2009 onwards in. by then i guess its too late.
and no i'm not siding anyone, i myself driving a 9-3 :)
peace out.
fierce lookin bunch of mofo… i like!
saab has always preferrd clean uncluttered interiors. considering that the current 'in malaysia, cbu' 150bhp model already costs rm215k, the new car would prpbably be around rm225k to rm230k just for the entry level linear spec car. that is too close to the local assembled 320i price of rm232k and rm249k for the se model. curse of being cbu imho. i don't think there'll be enough ppl preferring the saab over the beemer for the importer to bring it in. afterall in malaysia, european only means 2 brands. merc and bmw. right? of course there will be those who buy the odd volvo, alfa, audi and the third tier europeans like renault, skoda, peugeot, citroen etc. but it is still not enough without a decent price advantage.
the hardtop looks allright to me.
looks menacing as well. good job
demn…i like the turbodiesel option
its the greatest looking SAAB if ever seen! after the saab concept……..
just tested the 9-3 sport combi with the 1.9TTiD engine…..would have liked to try the manual transmission but given a auto……have to say I like the car…with a few flaws…..driving was comfortable…..with the 150hp and the torque churned out….it was really easy passing most of the cars on the road. The diesel engine are relatively quiet…compared to those I have tested recently. The dash looks simple yet it has plenty of features….with most of controls operational from the buttons on the steering wheel. as for the flaws…..despite being a combi…it lacks the leg room for the rear passengers….unless those sitting in front are abt 5’6″ and below….the rear light setup is plain ugly (those white stretch) which reminds me of neon signs on a sleazy part of the town. anyway, the price of this little thing starts around 34,000euro……yeah i know its cheaper than malaysia…..but still…its not exactly the most affordable for its size and category..