crsaablog

2012-02-03T08:55:00.005-05:00

Magic Happens

I like to recount stories in this space. I guess I like to tell stories, period. Mostly, I have stories to tell which are my own. That’s the advantage of getting old: you’ve got more stories to trot out when you need to write about something. This is a story which has nothing to do with me. Rather, it is the story of one of our long-time customers, Dan, who had such an amazing experience that I asked if I could retell the story here. I found myself so eager to present this because, I think, I wish that this had happened to me. Happily, he consented. I apologize to Dan if there are a few detail mistakes.

Dan has been a customer of mine for as long as I can remember, and a Saab owner/enthusiast for much longer than that. When I first knew Dan he had an SPG. Then another. At least one, perhaps both, were treated to a variety of performance up-grades. In those times, Abbott Racing was very de rigueur. But Dan did not order his AR parts from some catalogue. Rather, he went to Abbott Racing in Britain and filled his suitcase with such things as a water cooled intercooler, rising rate fuel pressure regulator and so on. Dan likes performance Saabs. After his SPG’s, Dan graduated to a Viggen. After that, his current car—a TurboX Sport Combi. I know that he also had, and may still have, a beater 911.

A couple of weeks ago, Dan found himself in Malmo, Sweden on a business assignment. His company in the US had acquired a Swedish concern, which is what had Dan there for a week. Having followed the travails of Saab, and at that time of the Saab Museum, it occurred to Dan that finding himself in Sweden during the museum auction process, with attorneys at his disposal, that perhaps he would throw his hat into the ring. He did. He submitted bids on ten of the cars in the collection. His bids included a proviso, probably standard, that the bids were conditional upon his inspection of the cars. While he would have loved to dash up to the Saab Museum right then and there, Trollhattan was not next door and he was consumed with his work. He did, though, send Peter Backstrom (my apologies for the missing umlauts) an email toward the end of the week to tell him about his bids and that he hoped to be able to view the cars.

He received an email from Backstrom which was, not surprisingly, terse. Dan was reminded that he was late to the party with his bids, and the inspection process was wrapping up. In a more conciliatory tone, Backstrom did advise Dan to call him at the museum when he would be available to have his viewing. Backstrom left his office and mobile phone numbers.

Dan’s work kept him occupied until 4:00 pm on Friday afternoon. He was willing to concede that it was likely impossible for him to see the cars. Nonetheless, perhaps Backstrom would be at the museum on Saturday, and Dan could try to change his return flight to the US to accommodate this. With some trepidation, he dialed the museum number. Dan wasn’t surprised that it went to voice mail. He hung up. He considered calling Backstrom’s cell phone for a moment, wondering if it might be too intrusive. Just then, the desk phone rang. Dan hesitated. He was in a borrowed office. Should he pick up? Dan did.

“Hello, you just called,” it was Peter Backstrom.
“Yes, this Dan, from Boston. I sent you an email about the cars I had bid on.”
“Well, you should come see them.”
“I could drive up tomorrow, would that work?”
“No, not tomorrow. Why don’t you come now?”
“I’d love to, but I’m in Malmo.”
“OK, so I’ll see you in four hours.”
“I don’t have a car. I’ll need to rent one.”
“OK, so I’ll see you in four and a half hours.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’ll see you at nine o’clock.”

With help from a Swedish co-worker, Dan got a rental car and started north to Trollhattan. He arrived at the Saab Museum at 9:15. It was dark. There was, though, a lone Saab parked out front. Dan knocked at the door. A moment later, Peter Backstrom was letting him in.

As soon as they were inside, Backstrom offered Dan coffee, and they went to his office where Backstrom brewed a fresh pot and the two started to converse. When the pleasantries were completed, it was time to find Dan’s bid cars. Dan had focused on early cars, mostly two stroke models. This is interesting. While Dan did have a 95 V4 as his first Saab, he had never owned a two stroke variant. There were a couple of anomalies in the group, but essentially he was looking at 93’s, 95’s and 96’s. Some were in the workshop. Some in the hall. Some in the barn, an unheated, unlit space where they had to rummage around with flashlights. When in the work shop, one of Dan’s cars was wedged too tightly among other cars to allow the doors to open, so Backstrom heaved it forward until Dan could open it and get inside. With each car there was a story, and of course Backstrom was all too willing to provide every intimacy one might ever want to know about these Saabs and their histories.

When the inspection process was over it was well past 11:00 pm. Dan was left alone in the hall of the museum while Backstrom set about closing up. When he returned, he asked Dan where he was staying. Dan hadn’t thought that far ahead. Not to worry, Backstrom called the hotel in Trollhattan where Saab guests always stayed and made an arrangement, and per his say-so was granted the Saab preferred rate. When Dan asked for directions, Backstrom insisted on leading him there personally. I don’t know how many times Dan pinched himself that night, but I hope he realizes that he was living an absolute Saab fairy tale on behalf of many of us.

Here’s what I find remarkable: all of it. Just think about how cool it would be to spend two hours with Peter Backstrom, alone, in his museum, not to mention going into the bowels of the workshop and barn. Then you do it at night. Nobody else is around. Could anything be more fantastic to a Saab fanatic? Then there is the whole aspect of Backstrom himself. I have always heard that he is the nicest and most gracious man alive. Now I’m pretty nice and fairly gracious, but I can assure you that if my life’s work was in peril and there were parties looking to snatch pieces of it away, I’m not sure I would have stayed at work until 11:00 pm on a Friday night to indulge anyone’s desire to see the collection. That he did this, and not for someone who might have been trying to buy the entire place and save it in situ, is remarkable in my eyes. Truly, Mr. Backstrom possesses a measure of heart and grace that we can all admire and use as an example for how we should all treat one another.

The next day, Dan headed south again in the teeth of a blizzard in his rented Nissan diesel (this was the same day it snowed here in Boston during our “We are many, we are Saab” event, and you might have even seen pictures Swade posted of the snow as he was in Trollhattan that week as well). While he told me that it was a white-knuckle journey back to Malmo, I am quite certain that Dan would not trade those twenty-four hours for anything.

In the end, of course—and this helps to make this story perfect—the Saab Museum was saved, intact. Dan was as happy as anyone about this. His only interest in bidding was to preserve what he could of the collection if indeed it was going to be scattered. In the end, Dan got something truly better than a piece of the collection: he got to spend a most memorable evening in a most magical place. Having heard this story, I can only say that as much as I ever wanted to visit Trollhattan and the Saab Museum, such a trip is on now on the “must do before I expire” list. And, as a fitting epilogue, Dan has now told me that he is actively seeking out, for the first time in his life, a vintage stroker Saab, such was the inspiration of that museum experience. This, I am sure, would make Peter Backstrom smile.

2012-01-10T16:10:00.000-05:00

Could a Saab driver be the next US President?

As today is primary day in my home state, I am reminded of the many politicians I have come to know over the years while working in the retail automobile business. Some I knew while they were in office, while others before or after their political careers. Most were lovely. Most.

Most forgettable was Thomas O’Neill, son of House Speaker Tip O’Neill. During his years as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts he drove a Honda Accord which I serviced. Mr. O’Neill was very low key, notable even, in his lack of charisma. He was very nice, but just nice. Thus it was not a surprise to me when he rather vanished from the political landscape.

Most obnoxious was Boston City Councilman Albert “Dapper” O’Neil. He was every bit the buffoon in real life as he appeared to be when in the political limelight. He had to make an enormous entrance every time he appeared at the dealership, and expected that the world would stop to tend to his whims. He was contemptuous of everyone in his path. Mr. O’Neil was indeed a living cartoon character. He drove a Chevy Caprice sedan, which was rather plain and, uncharacteristically, understated.

My favorite political figure and client was Massachusetts Governor William Weld. During his years as US attorney, prior to going to Beacon Hill, Mr. Weld and his (now ex) wife had a Suburban which he serviced with me in Cambridge. He was agreeable, self-effacing, patient, and polite. We didn’t really get to see the goofy side, but it never surprised me when that came out when he was governor.

Boston City Council President Bruce Bolling was a Saab driver. He had a Malachite Green 1989 9000T. Nice guy. Hope he never had to bear the indignity of serving with Dapper O’Neil.

Finally, Mitt and Ann Romney were customers of mine here at Charles River Saab (and one of their sons purchases and services his Saabs here). My recollection was of a 1987 9000T, but in our files I also see that they owned 1996 9000 CSE as well. I believe I saw Mrs. Romney more than Mr., but both were as exceedingly nice as they were good looking. It’s a shame to see what the political process does to people. I was occasionally disappointed in Romney the Governor, and certainly there are moments during this campaign where I wish he could just be more like the gentleman who would stand at my desk and discuss the repairs on his Saab. That guy I could vote for without hesitation. Then again, that guy probably couldn’t get elected president of anything.

The electorate has the power to do something unprecedented. While not endorsing anyone in this election cycle, I can assert that Mitt Romney, if elected President, would likely be the only US President who could also claim to have been a Saab owner. How cool is that? We may never have that opportunity again! Think of that as you go to the polls.

2012-01-04T16:15:00.005-05:00

Saying Good-Bye

We've had to say good-bye to some of our co-workers (all, fortunately, relocated to other Village Auto Group locations, except for Mike Clancy who had long ago planned to retire in December), and we are hearing of friends with Saab Cars NA and Saab in Trollhattan who are now departing. More than the possible loss of the brand, it is the toll that all of this takes on Saab's people which is most gut wrenching, at least for me.

When I'm not listening to Foo Fighters or Apocalyptica, I enjoy a bit of aural repose with Andrea Boccelli. I don't know Italian, but I know enough to understand that this song is about parting with someone, so for all you to whom we've said good-bye, this song's for you.

2011-12-23T13:43:00.000-05:00

On the apparent demise of Saab

Those few of you who kindly read this blog know that I don’t make many posts. It is simply a matter of priorities and time—I wear lots of hats here and writing this blog falls fairly low on the priority scale and high on the time scale. I do find that essays need to kick around in my head for a time before I get them out, and then, because of my pedantic nature it takes an inordinate amount of time to get things written and re-rewritten. As I sit here today, on the verge of a Christmas week which I will take as a thoroughly needed vacation, especially in light of the week’s events, writing this piece is probably the last thing I should be doing. However, I feel I have both a stake and a perspective in the seeming demise of Saab, and I can’t let the moment pass without adding my point of view.

I have just finished reading “Who Killed Saab Automobile” by Holweg and Oliver at the University of Cambridge. It is well researched, well written. Certainly, there will be many opinions about the subject, so here are mine.

Saabs troubles have been deep rooted for many years. Keith Hart, who worked for Saab for decades, once recounted a story to me that was ominously prescient. Back in the 1980’s, at Saab’s US headquarters in Orange, Connecticut, the end of each month would see a new sales record set for our favorite brand, and a celebration would ensue. Those were giddy times for Saab in the US. Concurrently, plans were being drawn for an omnibus Saab campus elsewhere in the state which would house not only a new headquarters, but also parts distribution, training, and even had a “hotel” on site for visitors including those there for training, or Saab employees in from Sweden. The story goes that Bob Sinclair, arguably one of the greatest visionaries ever with Saab, cancelled the plans for that campus seemingly at the height of Saab’s success. Why? He had gone to see the new offerings from Lexus and Infiniti, and knew that those companies were going to directly impact the segment in which Saab was playing. Indeed, not for that reason alone, sales did start to tumble in the late 1980’s.

Then there was the involvement of GM. One can’t forget that Saab Automobile was in a fairly dire condition coming into the 1990’s: sales were off, their portfolio was too small, and their cost of production too high. While much anticipated, to me the NG 900, the first collaboration with GM, was a failure. While we all have fond memories of the Classic 900, recall that it could barely compete in its segment by the 1990’s, and was extremely expensive to produce, so a replacement was imperative. I don’t agree that the use of the Vectra platform was such a bad idea as espoused by Holweg and Oliver for the NG900. I will say that the execution of that car was deplorable. The clutch was perhaps the most hideous I have ever felt, the seats were the only Saab seats which were awful (where virtually all other Saab seats are exceptional), and the early chassis problems which caused vibration issues such that we had to replace control arms and wheels were inexcusable. It remains the only Saab that I am quite certain I will never own or want to drive, but not because of its bones. In fact, the 9-3, which is so much alike, is a terrific car and I would gladly have one as my daily driver. As was noted at its introduction, however, was that the first 9-3 was what the NG900 should have been all along.

As GM’s involvement increased, and the 9-5 came to the fore, it seemed that perhaps there were synergies which were finally exploited for the good. Yes, there were tensions still between the Saab way and the GM way. We would hear that from Saab Cars USA staff, and I am certain that such friction was even worse at the manufacturing level. Many have pointed to GM’s failure to endow Saab with enough product to remain competitive. I agree. I believe that had Saab been given the opportunity to develop an SUV early on when they were hot products in the US, that this would have greatly enhanced the profitability of Saab and its dealers. Likewise, all-wheel drive should have been recognized and implemented years ago, and not after everyone else in the market already had it. Thus, we were relegated to the 9-7x and 9-2x, which beyond being questionable products, arrived far too late.

From the dealer’s point of view, it also struck me as odd that despite the long relationship with Saab, that it took GM forever to integrate Saab into their logistics portfolio. Often we had hybrid or completely separate systems for training, warranty, information dissemination, workshop material and so on. Why? In fact, we had never fully integrated, and the integration which did take place was not completed until around 2007. Why?

If we fast forward to 2010 and the sale of Saab the Spyker, one of the most exciting times to be a Saab dealer, it is clear now, with the benefit of retrospection, that too many fundamental mistakes were made. Yes, there was a tremendous upside to the state of Saab which to many of us almost assured success—the product portfolio was teeming with great new product, a small but superb group was assembled to run SCNA, Voctor Muller seemed a dynamic leader and with the entire industry and economy in a shambles, with vehicle scrapage rates far exceeding sales, it seemed an opportune moment to launch the new Saab. All things were true, with the exception of the jump in sales which had been anticipated in 2010-2011. However, I don’t think that this is where Saab failed.

I believe that the first failure in the re-launch was too much optimism. I believe that a more prudent business plan would have included lower initial projections, serious reductions in staff (which would have made Victor unpopular in Trollhattan for a time) commensurate with those lower projections and vastly more available capital to give the company time to grow, and allow for real and sustainable marketing campaigns. There were other mistakes. The 2010 9-5 should never have existed; all of the 9-5s should have been built as 2011 models to enhance their residual value. Pricing on the 9-5 did not meet market expectations. That was a colossal failure. Few would argue that the 9-5 wasn’t a fine car. However, too few found it to be a good value. Marketing was virtually non-existent. Sure, I saw a few ads on cable TV, and a billboard which I complained bitterly about because the Saab name was in such a light hue that it was illegible. It just wasn’t enough. Nobody knew the 9-5 existed, or even realized that Saab was still around. There were ways, ways that would have required imagination and creativity, to spread the word….but that didn’t happen, either. Instead, there was doubt from the outset, espoused from many, that Saab could survive at all, despite the plans for the Phoenix and the new partnerships which were developing, and that doubt also drove away many prospective buyers, even those who had been loyal to the brand.

To my thinking, we were done for at that point. Much has been said about GM’s villainous behavior in killing the Youngman-Pangda deal, or Guy Lofalk’s mishandling of receivership, but in reality, though I don’t disagree with either of those opinions, it should never have come to that. Saab was a hostage, and the question we should be asking isn’t why those who are holding Saab hostage are so cruel, but why Saab put itself in a position to be taken captive in the first place. I won’t cast aspersions at Victor Muller, but he was at the helm when the ship hit not one but many icebergs. Perhaps with a pilot at his side, and he was absent one with the departure of Jan-Ake Johnsson, he could have taken measures to avoid catastrophe, but he didn’t, and he has sadly borne the consequence of that, hard as he might have tried to keep the ship afloat.

So here we are. We have gotten used to being at the precipice, and peering over. Now it seems we have taken the next step, and the only question remaining seems to be how far we’ll fall before we touch bottom.

2011-11-29T15:33:00.001-05:00

Steve Jobs killed one of my favorite retailers

This post is not about bashing Steve Jobs. I am a Steve Jobs fan. I have owned Macs since 1989. There five Macbooks and an iMac at my home, along with innumerable iPods, so I am a credentialed Apple customer and enthusiast, too.

This story is about how technology set back the state of the art and ultimately fostered the demise of one of my favorite retailers: Tweeter, Etc., a Boston based audio retailer, which started as one store on Commonwealth Avenue in 1972, grew to over 100 in eighteen states and after one try at reorganization was forced into liquidation in 2008.

I can count the retailers I admire on one hand. How did a retailer, whose stores I actually visited perhaps only a dozen times, make such a short and prestigious list? First, they employed passionate, knowledgeable and loyal people who stayed at Tweeter for years and decades. Second, every time I shopped there, I spent more money, sometimes MUCH more money than I had planned, yet I always left the store with a big smile and never a regret. Third, their after-sales service was terrific. If any of this sounds like Charles River Saab, good, it’s not a coincidence.

I first encountered Tweeter in my teens, but did not enter one of their stores until I was a student at the Boston University School for the Arts, which was right across the street from their original store. I did not become a customer, though, until the 1990’s when I was working with Joe, a fellow musician and former Tweeter employee. To that point, we had used my wife’s stereo, purchased while in college (1980?), and exchanged/added a couple of components along the way. Finally, her large floor-speakers blew, and we knew it was time to make a wholesale change. Joe made some basic suggestions about systems and told us to bring our favorite CDs to Tweeter when it was time to make our purchase.

We had a fabulous experience. We listened to our music played through a variety of receivers and speakers, and finally opted for some Boston Acoustic main speakers, a killer Klipsch sub-woofer, and a Denon CD changer. Yes, we bought Monster Cable to connect it all. We spent much more than anticipated, but we enjoyed not only the buying experience but the equipment we had chosen as well. Not long after, we went back and bought a Yamaha surround-sound receiver, and some BA rear and center channel speakers. Then, deciding that we needed to see movies better, since they now sounded awesome, in the early 2000s we went to buy a flat-panel TV. Again, I walked in with a certain size in my head, but Sue was taken with a certain 16:9 42” HD projection TV, and we were set. There were some other smaller purchases, always with the same salesperson, and the experiences were always great.

Service after the sale was terrific, too. Tweeter was the first company I knew of that had an after-the-sale price match guarantee, and I did receive a check from them unsolicited because they found one of my purchases advertised at a lower price elsewhere. Then, they advised me that they were GIVING me an extended warranty on my Toshiba television because they were dropping the line and had had some trouble with the units. OK. Good thing, because we started to have problems with it. Lots of problems. Ultimately, they agreed to replace the unit with a similar Mitsubishi, but after delays due to Mitsubishi on a 42” unit, they replaced my television with a 50” set.

Around 2005 I had gone into “my” Tweeter and noticed how the store had changed. The audio sections were smaller. Much more of the space was devoted to television. The biggest change, though, came when I talked to my salesperson. Where he and the entire staff at Tweeter used to always be vibrant and excited, there was an air of resignation and gloom which hung around the store. We chatted for a bit. When I commented on the number of televisions, he sighed that they had become a bunch of glorified TV salespeople. I asked if people stopped really listening to music in the same way we once did with the advent of the iPod. That got him going. He practically ranted. Didn’t people realize how compressed iPod sound was? With the source sounding so bad, what was the point of listening to music through quality components? That’s when it really struck me. This new technology which was so wonderful in some respects had so thoroughly changed peoples listening habits, that high-fidelity, or even good-fidelity had become irrelevant, and thus, so had Tweeter.

I can’t lay the demise of better audio solely at the feet of the iPod. Its cousin, iTunes, has killed the CD, and with it, for most purchasers, CD quality sound. While Tweeter had always managed to hold its own against other brick-and-mortar retailers, the confluence of emerging internet sales and the decline in high-fidelity sales spelled doom. It was a perfect storm, and in the end there really wasn’t a place for a Tweeter. I knew it on that one fateful visit. It was going to be impossible for Tweeter to reinvent itself, because changes in technology and tastes had sucked the passion out of its people, and without those people—and their knowledge and enthusiasm—one might as well order their electronics on the web.

There are still a handful of retailers that I admire or can enjoy with a visit, whether a purchase is made or not. I am delighted that some small progressive retailers, like Newbury Comics, have successfully reinvented such that they are not only hanging in but thriving. While Saab is not a retailer, I do hope that once the current high-wire act is finished, that a thorough consideration of their vision takes place and that they too will enact a revolution which will keep them relevant and thriving in the automotive marketplace. I don’t want to see another company I like and admire disappear. Companies are a bit like people, and once lost, they never come back.

2011-11-18T11:32:00.003-05:00

Saab guy on spending a weekend in a Volvo S60

Were it not for the time I spend instructing for In Control, given that the six cars belonging to various members of my household are all Saabs, I might never have the opportunity to really get to know what any other cars are like. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to spend two full days in a 2012 S60, put it through its paces, and I thought it might be interesting for a Saab guy to review our most direct competition.

I’ve done crash prevention training in lots of different cars over the years. Surprisingly, when it comes to the student’s experience, the type of car really doesn’t matter much. Good techniques are good techniques, no matter where they are applied. Each different type of car used, though, has to be handled slightly differently from the instructors point of view. The first car I instructed in was the Volvo S40. Say what you will about its humble origins, other than the cramped quarters (not for my diminutive frame, but for larger students), the good seats and ergonomics made the S40 a nice place to spend your day. It did everything reasonably well, and handled very predictably. Later, a second fleet was added and they were Kia Spectra SX. While we, the instructors, initially sneered at these cars, we grew quite fond of them. They were simple and fun. They did everything better than you thought they would, often better than the S40’s. While not as nice a place to spend your day as the S40, the Spectra was an easy car to learn to drive and performed surprisingly well in handling and braking maneuvers. Most recently, at In Control, I have spent a couple of years in Toyota Camrys. Instinctively I do not like these cars or what they represent. However, I recognize that for many reasons, they are the perfect vehicles for crash prevention training. A Camry is spacious, reasonably comfortable, completely familiar to students, and the performance surprisingly good. In fact, I’ll say that with the slightest bit of tire pressure manipulation, I can hang the tail out on a Camry better than any other car I’ve ever driven. Now there is a new car in the stable, the Volvo S60.

The Volvos arrived last week and I was asked to instruct in them for two days and give an assessment to help management and other instructors. Asking a Saab guy to test a Volvo is like asking a Ford guy to spend a weekend in a Chevy. While those of us with an enlightened view of Swedish motoring might make fun of our cousins from Gothenburg, more than ever the two Swedish brands seem to of a similar mindset. Where a generation ago, other than being safe and from Sweden, there was nothing similar between a Saab and a Volvo—not shape, not configuration, not drive-train layout—today there are lots of similarities. Volvo has seen the light and produces front-wheel drive cars with turbos. Saab saw the light and produces all wheel drive and station wagons. Both make distinctive CUVs, the S60 and S80 certainly beg comparison to the 9-3 and 9-5, and Saab and Volvo both engage in performance variants.

Of course the first impression of the car is of its external appearance. In general I am a fan of the corporate body shape which Volvo has adopted over the last decade. It is distinctive, and sometimes handsome. From most angles, I like the new S60. From the rear there is a bit too much Honda Civic, but that’s OK. The real problem is the nose. Sorry, Volvo. You almost got this car looking right, even “naughty,” but the front fascia is just ugly. Then again, so am I, so I won’t dwell on appearances. Getting inside, I think the Volvo folks got this right. This was a basic car—textile seat covers, no sunroof….The black interior with metallic accents is very handsome. The flow of the dash and door panels works well. Most of the bits had visual and tactile appeal. Ergonomics were good: I appreciated the very long throw of the telescoping wheel and an excellent dead pedal. Gauges and displays were clear, and the center stack video display integrates nicely and is not distracting. Seats were supportive, probably tight for larger frames. The big surprise was how pinched the rear was, both laterally and longitudinally. Not unlike the 9-3 (though the 9-3 has the same front legroom and 1.5 inches more in the rear), put someone tall in a front seat, and you simply can’t seat anyone (with legs) behind them. So far, I give the exterior design a “B” and the interior an “A-.”

Then it was time to drive the car. In the course of our training, we do a full-on panic stop with ABS, slalom, emergency lane change (with and without brakes) and tailgating drill. At first there was concern about the braking in the S60, which didn’t make sense since its brakes are huge and it is not much heavier than the Camry, which seemed to out-stop the S60. However, after repeated hard braking, the pads seated and the S60 braking was quite good, perhaps a tad better than the Camry and the ABS function much more refined.

In the slalom, I had to relearn, for the first time in ANY car, how to steer. At first the S60 seemed cumbersome and the DSTC (ESP for Saab people) intervened far too often. This brings to light one complaint I have, that the DSTC, even when turned off, still functions, albeit at more extreme thresholds. I think that stability control is one of the greatest innovations of all time, but if you are going to have an “off” switch, let it be truly off. At first I had trouble negotiating the slalom at 35 mph, while in a Camry I didn’t experience any difficulty until 40 mph. Eventually I realized that the steering in the Volvo is just so much faster than in any other car I had used, so significantly less input was required. I couldn’t execute the slalom yet at 40, but 35 became much smoother with no DSTC interference. Overall, I really like the weight and feel of the steering, and the car seemed nicely balanced. I have felt that, with the exception of the NG 9-5, most newer Saabs have steering which is too light, and wish they felt more like this Volvo. In the slalom department I give the car a B+.

In the lane change, or moose test, we always try to give the students a harrowing ride through with no brakes at 45-50 mph. In a Camry, that means getting very sideways by the exit gate. In the Volvo, part way through the second turn, the turn to bring you back into your lane, the DSTC would intervene just as the rear of the car was starting to swing. It made it a bit too tidy, but just messy enough to unnerve the students and show them why this maneuver should only be done with brakes. [In order to get that swing, I did have to bias the tire pressure with 6 psi more in the rear than the front.] I found that making the lane-change with brakes, given speeds of 60-65, that DSTC on or off made no difference, and the car was easy to steer through, though it did take longer to bring to a stop than the Camry. Lane change grade is an A.

Some of the advantage the Camry enjoys may have to do with the tires. We run Goodyear Eagles and they have lots of grip. The S60, by contrast, wears a much sportier profile tire, but the standard Michelin MXM4 has a 500 tread-wear rating, so blistering grip is not a priority. I suspect that when the tires are switched out, the S60 will reveal even better results.

Lastly, the T5 engine in the S60 (given Saab’s history of using T3, T5, T7 etc designations, Volvo should have called this engine something else) was terrific. It has that “odd” sound that is uniquely 5-cylinder, and the intake growl and exhaust note are wonderful. The turbo boost comes on early and is rather subtle. I do like that from a stop there is no delay when the throttle is stomped. While it shares the same Aisin Warner 6-speed Saab uses, the throttle response is much more immediate. I do wish, despite the modest turbo assist, that the car had a vacuum/boost gauge. I give the power train an A-.

I think that Volvo has done an excellent job with this car, with the exception of rear seat legroom. The S60 feels very substantial, very tight and drives bigger than it actually is. That’s not a negative! While very sure-footed, it does not have the quick reflexes of the 9-3, which drives smaller and lighter than it really is. I prefer the elements of the S60 interior over the 9-3, except the seats, but the 9-3 has an airier cabin, likely due to the less swoopy roof line which diminishes the window area on the S60. In automatic trim, I much prefer the Volvo powertrain. Though slightly dated, I prefer the 9-3 exterior design.

I very much like the S60 and think it hits its mark quite well. I do, overall, like the complete package just a bit better than the 9-3. Then again, at list price it is almost $2000 more, and that does not account for the 9-3 having a standard leather interior. Mostly, the preference comes from a better executed interior, better steering and a much stronger engine. Which would I buy? Despite some of the deficiencies, I think I’d just have more fun in the 9-3, so that’s where my money would go.

2011-09-30T11:44:00.006-04:00

Road Trip Observations

Last week I took a road trip with wife and youngest son to see middle son participate in the Black River Stages Rally, west of the Adirondack Mountains in New York. It was a great time, and I came away with a few observations, some of them automotive.

Glorious roads. Part of our journey took us from Ticonderoga through Lake Placid and out NY 3 to the flat lands beyond the mountains. What a drive! It didn’t hurt that their foliage was ablaze. The gorges, the mountains, the forests and the waterfalls all made for a spectacular backdrop. For the purpose of this observation, though, the real treat was the driving experience itself. The road conditions were excellent, and the routes were a joy. Lots of curves, many properly cambered, helped to keep us focused and involved. Better yet, especially when compared to the ridiculously low speed limits of New Hampshire, was that the speed limits were such that I almost never needed or wanted to exceed them. As a rule, given the realistic nature of those limits, I saw no cars driving excessively fast. True, a 9-5 Linear SC is not a barn-burner, but it still enjoys a bit of up-tempo push. We were never hampered in our progress, and never felt like we were holding anyone else up (not that there that many on these two-lane highways), because at every mountain ascent there was an additional lane to allow everyone to find their appropriate place in the velocity hierarchy. I would like to return to those roads someday, perhaps in a convertible, top down in spring or early autumn.

Roadblocks. I had never seen roadblocks like we saw in New York. We saw three—two on I-87, and one on a two-lane highway. We were stopped in two of them. The first was manned by State Police. We didn’t think to ask what they were looking for, but they looked at us and waved us along. On our return, we were stopped by Homeland Security Border Patrol on I-87, and after waiting in a substantial queue, we had to inquire as to what they were looking for. Border and immigration violations, we were told. A noble cause…but wouldn’t you do that at the border, and not a few hours south of there? Besides, I never realized that we were suffering from an influx of undocumented Canadians.

Maps. Remember those? All messed up, impossible to refold and clogging your glove box and seat pockets? Then we got Map Quest, Google Maps and GPS. No more maps. Because I’ve learned not to trust GPS to get the big picture right on a long trip, I try to map a route on Google Maps first, and rely on GPS for the local navigation. On this trip we were doing fine with our paper turn-by-turn directions. Then Google made a mistake and caused us to miss an exit on I-87. Since the next exit was ten miles up, rather than double back, I pulled out the GPS unit (we call her Jill) and asked for assistance. As I expected, she put us on a course that was essentially westerly, which should eventually intersect our original route. My assumption was correct. However, because we did not have a map, we didn’t realize that Jill was making our route much more diverse and interesting than it needed to be. She would have us turn off the highway, onto barely paved by-ways with no markings, no center lines, and no civilization. Why? Was she retaliating for being neglected? Perhaps it was that the speed-limit reader in her was getting bad information. New York has a state speed limit of 55 mph unless otherwise posted. Jill indicated a speed limit on some of these back roads of 55, and I can assure that nobody except Sebastian Loeb would dare begin to approach those speeds, and in fact some of the roads were marked with 30 mph signs, contradicting Jill. While we found our destination, we did secure a map for the return trip and put Jill back in the glove box.

Panamera. On the return, we stopped in at Fort Ticonderoga at the heel of Lake Champlain to take the tour and eat a picnic. I noted the presence of, and took a moment to admire, a Porsche Panamera Turbo in the parking area. This is a car which elicits strong opinions. Mine is all affirmative. If Porsche was to build a sedan, it had to be the Panamera. It is the only current Porsche I have not driven. I would like to. More than anything, I like looking at it. Much like the Maserati Quattroporte, it eschews the styling norms that define other large sedans, and makes the A8L, the S-class and 7-series look dreary and dull. Upon my return to work, our GM stopped in and he was driving the same car—a black Panamera Turbo—for he was on his way to a Porsche event (Dan also manages a Porsche/Audi store and two Volvo stores). I had a chance to sit in the car, and it did not disappoint me at all. Though I would prefer a Saab seat (Porsche owners will feel right at home, though), I very much liked the rest of the interior. It felt rich and masculine. If not driving the car, it seemed like a nice place to enjoy a fine cigar and small batch bourbon. That sounds like an impossible dichotomy, but that was truly my first reaction.

Devastation. Much of Vermont is still out of order from the August floods. The state highway website did an excellent job in detailing which routes were opened, closed or opened with delays. Traveling east-west meant dealing with delays or not going at all. We chose US 4, which parallels the Ottauquechee River. The delays from ongoing road work were handled well, and frankly, we didn’t mind the stops because it gave us a chance to take in the destruction and the massive effort of the army of heavy equipment all along the river. In some stretches, aside from the total-loss damage to buildings along the banks, the river looked somewhat normal. However, to see houses, bridges and cars still in the river bed in other areas was unsettling. Vermonters are fierce bunch, and certainly they will put their beautiful state back in order. I would suggest the best way we can help them out is to “buy Vermont.” Perhaps cheese, Ben and Jerry’s, and at $40 a gallon, maple syrup is a relative bargain.

2011-09-09T14:38:00.012-04:00

A 9/11 Rememberance

September 11 changed everything. Its tentacles are so vast, think of the “butterfly effect” on steroids, as to have effected even the substantial business changes I had to make this past week, in the foreshadow of the tenth anniversary. September 11, as it is for many, one of those seminal moments in life when everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing. The only other memory I have of something so momentous was the assassination of JFK, when I was a child, though my recollection is more of the profound grief of my grandparents as they watched the news unfold, than of any understanding of the situation itself.

Because observance of this day means so much to me, I knew that I had to get a post in place, even at the dereliction of some other pressing matters before me. I had hoped to reprint, or borrow widely from an article that appeared about my September 11 story in Fort Worth Weekly magazine, but alas their archives only stretch back to 2002. Fort Worth? Yes, I’ll explain that one later.

Monday, September 10, 2001. Along with fellow travelers Cory Bumpus and Carl Pasquarosa from elsewhere in our dealer group, we boarded an AirTran plane at Logan Airport to fly to Dallas-Fort Worth for some information system training. The same Logan Airport from which the WTC bound American Airlines planes would embark the following morning. Funny how innocuous events take on greater meaning after seismic change occurs. When we boarded the plane, which was one of those no frills one-class carriers, Carl, who is a perpetual cut-up, immediately engaged the flight attendant in jocular banter. We were right at the front of the plane, and he joked of being in “fist class.” Then, he earnestly told the attendant that he was a close and personal friend of the captain. She played along with Carl, and went forward and got the captain to come out of the cockpit and say hello, and invited us forward to see the cockpit. Perhaps we were the last airline passengers ever afforded this courtesy.

That evening, after settling into our hotel, I drove to Fort Worth to see Paul, a university and conservatory roommate, and meet his new wife, Beth. She was, like me, a cellist, and also a freelance writer, often writing for the Fort Worth Weekly magazine. After a quiet evening I returned to the hotel and retired.

I was up every early on Tuesday, September 11. The time change hadn’t registered, and I have been waking at 4 something for years, so my day started early, with not much to do. At about 7:30am Dallas time (8:30 eastern), perhaps because of the reminiscing the evening before with Paul, I took out my phone book and called another friend from my university days who lived and worked in Manhattan. I recall that the news was on in the background, sound off: nothing of importance that I hadn’t already seen already that morning. At about 7:45 (perhaps a few minutes later) I finished my chat, and decided to head to the conference room off the lobby of the hotel since class started at 8:00. When I exited the elevator, I saw that the television in the lounge area had a news flash about a “small plane hitting the north tower of the World Trade Center.” It was compelling enough that a few, including me, stopped to watch. Looking back, while I don’t know the exact moment I hung up the phone with the friend in New York, it has occurred to me that I was talking with her at the moment that tower was hit.

Just before the class started, people in the lobby were shouting about the second tower being hit. The class emptied for a time, and then everyone came back. But not for long. As news of the Pentagon attack reached us, and the scope of the disaster widened, to the consternation of the instructor everyone left the classroom to join in the collective observation of the horror and chaos which were unfolding. I think that the numbness that took hold of me precludes any specific recollection of the events, but I’ll never forget the nauseating feeling, and the crippling impotence I felt being so far from my family. We all remember the excruciating helplessness and bewilderment that befell us that day.

Cory, Carl and I, having long put aside the notion of participating in training, eventually decided we had to make plans to get back to Boston. I believe that we were originally scheduled to fly on Thursday, but it was becoming clear that nobody was flying anywhere anytime soon. We investigated trains, not possible. Same with buses. Then we called Enterprise to see what the cost would be to drive the rental car we already had back to Boston. We were advised that if the car left the state it would be reported stolen. I will admit that as things got more desperate, I had devised a scheme whereby we would exchange the license plates with another rental car, report ours stolen and drive back on exchanged plates. It never got that far.

Fortunately, the folks in Boston were hard at work trying to get us home. Tony Bartolotti, then of Boston Volvo, arranged the purchase of a new S80 with a Dallas dealer. When the world started to right itself, money was wired and we were able to purchase the car on Thursday morning, and straight away we made our way toward home. Carl took the wheel first, and we had decided that we would make as few stops as possible. I was on the second leg, so I tried to sleep in the back seat and discovered that the rear headrests in an S80 were very uncomfortable.

Our first stop was in Arkansas. I don’t recall the town. We stopped at a family restaurant and had dinner. Carl, in his inimitable way, had the waitress laughing the entire time as he poked fun of her, and of us Yankees. After dinner, Carl continued on to the Tennessee border, where, well into the evening, I started to drive.

I wanted to get a cup of coffee. Nothing special, just a good cup of coffee. Even an OK cup of coffee. Where in the northeast we can’t go a mile without driving past a Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks (or two, or three), we had no such luck in Tennessee. Thus, at a roadside stop, in lieu of coffee, I tried my first Red Bull. I can attest that one can kept me up and alert all night!

In the pre-dawn hours of Friday morning, I handed the wheel off to Cory. I remember my apprehension as Cory tore through a thick fog in the mighty S80. She was determined to get us home as quickly as possible! Later that morning, as we were in New Jersey running parallel to Manhattan island, we could see the smoke still pouring from Ground Zero. The low resolution photo does no justice to what we witnessed.

North of New York, just before the Connecticut border on Interstate 95, we experienced a moment of levity. There were strange sounds coming from the chassis of the S80. I heard it. Carl heard it. Two service managers concurred that there was something wrong with the car, so we pulled off to investigate. We both poured over the tires, suspension and undercarriage. While doing so, an attendant from the gas station where we parked came over to check on us. When we told him what we were doing, he laughed and said the noise was from a weirdness in the pavement, that lots of cars made that noise and plenty of those stopped in his gas station to check on it. Slightly embarrassed, we left.

A few hours later, about 30 hours since we had embarked, we arrived in Boston. I dropped off Cory and Carl at Boston Volvo and then went to Charles River Saab. There, learned that among those who perished, a passenger on one of the planes that hit tower one, was Anna Allison, a long time customer of Charles River Saab. After spending a bit of time with our employees, I finally was able to finish my journey home, finally able to have a sense of relief in being with my family.

While you may see some smiles on the faces in these photos, I can assure you that none of us was happy. We were immensely relieved to have a way home, and perhaps a little giddy with the anticipation of seeing our families. I will always think of Cory and Carl on September 11. Their fellowship was invaluable in staying emotionally sustained during that trying time. It is my sincere hope that none of us, no matter how directly or indirectly affected by the events of that day, ever forgets what happened.

As a post script, in an effort to make some sense and feel of some assistance to the victims of September 11, I wanted to do a fund-raiser. Where it seemed the emergency response victims were well spoken for, I came across a group looking to assist the under-served survivors of those who perished in the Windows on the World restaurant: The Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund. Thus, with my wife and a few friends, supported by the Village Automotive Group, we performed A Concert of Hope where admission was a donation, and were able to offer a nice sum to that charity. Though I hadn’t performed publicly in years, it seemed the least I could do.

2011-07-27T10:57:00.000-04:00

Lord of the Trolls
By in large I try to stay away from commenting on news coming out of Saab Automobile. In general, it would be an impropriety, and besides, there are lots of other venues for such comment. I would prefer to spend the little time I have for composition writing about product or spinning yarns about the Saab experience.
In the past days there has been some troubling news—delayed salary payments to white-collar workers—from Saab which has been reported widely. I will state up front that I am still optimistic about where this will all end up. I do not believe that anybody at Swan or Saab is endeavoring to do anything other than to solve all the various challenges and get their ship righted. I also do not believe that Victor Muller intended for anything other than full on success for Saab, or he would not have embarked on what he knew would be an arduous journey.
Some time back I had decided to stop living and dying by the day to day, hour to hour news flashes coming out of Trollhattan. It was too distracting, too upsetting. I have a job to do, customers to be served, employees to be attended to and a family to support and love. There was a time, in 2009 and through the sale of the company when all we did was pay attention to daily machinations. I wasn’t going to put myself through all of that again. This is not to say that I have shuttered my eyes, blocked my hearing and stopped my internet perusal. I still have SaabsUnited and InsideSide as open tabs every day on my desktop, and I don’t at all mind having a notion of what is going on. I just read the news pieces differently, especially at SaabsUnited. I hit the headlines, scan some of the pieces, but I don’t bother trying to really understand and digest the minutiae—that’s where the nausea and heartache can come from. (This is also why InsideSaab is my favorite read, for Swade provides a relieving antidote for all those maladies.)
For reasons I don’t understand, there are many who still choose to mire themselves in the goo of every piece of bad news. In scanning the front page of SU yesterday, the top-of-the-page story was on the delay of salary payments to white-collar workers. There was the one paragraph press release, followed by a few sentences of commentary. I would have expected, in the context of all the recent Saab news, that said story might have generated a couple dozen comments. However, over the course of the day I saw the comment total kept escalating, fast. By the time it reached eighty-some, I had to have a look and what was so fascinating to so many SU readers. I read through the comments quickly, and I may have this a bit off, but my impression was this: the early comments were critical of Swan/Saab, then the mob turned its venomous comments toward SU and its caretakers, and finally the rock throwing got very personal among the users. Reminded me of Lord of the Flies. For a time, it only got worse (I’ll admit that at this point I was drawn by morbid curiosity) and I believe there were ultimately well over 200 comments. Finally, a moderator stepped in and banished one user, which seemed to have a cooling effect, and—far too late, in my opinion with the advantage of hindsight—comments were closed.
I believe that the challenging news from Saab over the past few months has had a very deleterious effect at SU. I feel for the new ownership, which tries to deliver lots of news posted there along with the Saab-interest stories. Someone I once worked with, noting rancor among employees during a slow period, told me that peace among the troops would return as soon as there was an up-tick in business. “Everything’s funny when you’re making money,” he would say. He was right. Likewise, I fear that as bad news remains the order of the day at an enthusiast site like SU, that hostility will keep fomenting among the users. I hope I am wrong. There are good people running that site doing a job that I’m sure feels very thankless at times. Still, if the caustic tone remains, many of the more civil users will simply stop showing up, which may make the barbarism even worse.
Then again, when production starts up next month, followed by the release of the 9-5 Combi and the anticipation of the 9-3 replacement, perhaps the good news will soothe the savages and civility will be restored. “Everything’s funny….” Let’s hope.

2011-07-21T14:17:00.009-04:00

First impression: 2011 9-4x

Because the world works the way it does, and because I cannot cloister myself from the written opinions of others, I know that when I have a first impression of a new model that it is somewhat sullied by everything that I have already read or heard about that model. I guess, barring a paradigm shift, it will always be that way. Thus, having read many accounts of the 9-4x already, and having seen it in New York in April, I took my first drive in our new model yesterday.

The 9-4x I drove was one of two Aeros we received last week. This one is silver with a gray interior. I am not yet versed enough to know which of the features are standard and which are optional, and I chuckled when I tried to read the Monroney sticker to find out that the window tint is so dark as to render the sticker illegible. First stop was at the trunk, which I had to open to hang the dealer plate. I really like the “U-Rail” divider in the trunk. Of course, never willing to let any concept be good enough as it is, my mind immediately saw that it would be extra cool if the fence extended not only horizontally but also vertically to accommodate parcels of varying heights. Still, it is a very Saab feature, and the attached pictograph instruction sheet looks like it was prepared by the folks at IKEA. When I opened the trunk floor, I was surprised at the size of the sub-floor storage, but that’s the upside to having no spare tire. I was a little disappointed, but not surprised, to see that the floor was a composite and not wood as is found in many of my favorite Saabs. I played with the remote release and power closing tailgate. While technicians in the shop did test and pass the “anti-crush” feature of the auto-closing, I can say that when I just grabbed the tailgate and tried to restrain it, it kept closing undeterred. I did find it odd that the auto-close button was on the bottom lip of the tailgate and was a reach for me. Being short, I am sensitive to height issues, and I could see that for those even shorter than me it might be difficult to reach that button when the tailgate is fully opened. However, there is a second control for this on the driver’s door panel.

Stepping into the car one is greeted by a dash and console that are, if one has driven the 9-5, very familiar. Overall, I like the execution and prefer some of the detail work over that of the 9-5. Truth to tell, I had to keep looking between the two to see the subtle differences. In all, despite any minor criticism I might have for the interior styling, I am relieved to see that Saab is staying with a uniform design strategy across the model range. Seats are great, and the ventilation was appreciated given the heat-wave we are enduring at the moment. The steering wheel, right out of the 9-5, is magnificent. I don’t actually like the look of it, but when I’m driving, I only know the wheel by its heft and tactile sensation, and in that regard it is beyond reproach. The dead pedal is perfectly positioned. While a carry-over from GM, I do still like the shift lever in this car.

For a vehicle which is fairly compact, there are some facets which are enormous. On the Aero, the 20” wheels look almost too large, but as such enhance the overall appearance. The sunroof is one of those panoramic wonders, again like the 9-5, and when seated in the rear, the view is glorious. What a way to give someone a tour or, say, Manhattan where they could actually see the skyscrapers from very comfortable confines. Lastly, the A-pillars bother me some. I’ve seen smaller tree trunks. This is where reading other reviews might compromise my objectivity. While I didn’t get into the 9-4x and look right at the pillars, I had just read Swade’s account and as soon as my eyes noted the A-pillars, they were all that I could see. Was I predisposed to this from my having read his account? Perhaps, but fat pillars have bothered me before. The B-C-D pillars do not bother me. I use mirrors exclusively for rearward and side views, and when properly positioned are far more reliable than looking directly out of a car. When driving the 9-4x, I did encounter a corner where the pillars really impeded my vision and I had to crane to the right so see where I was going. The last new model which left me feeling pillar-phobic was the 1994 900, whose pillars were a bit larger than the C-900, but more importantly were positioned such that they encroached the driver’s visibility, which was very disconcerting at first. If I could make a suggestion regarding these large pillars, and this does nothing to help visibility, only perceived visibility: make the pillar trim dark so it disappears against the backdrop.

Speaking of visibility, the backup camera arrangement is excellent. This is not a unique system, but a first for Saab. It has trajectory indicators which I find to be reassuring. I have seen these in other cars, and for those who are concerned about backing in a larger vehicle, I would highly recommend this system.

The driving experience offered no surprises. Again, though this car sits very high in comparison, it feels, as it should, like a sibling to the 9-5. For those who haven’t driven a modern CUV, the real surprise is in the handling. While higher, the handling is not only sedan-like, but sport-sedan-like. I instructed once at a Porsche event, and had the pleasure of thrashing lots Boxers, Caymans, 911s and a Cayenne GTS. Once I got over my initial apprehension, I found I could be virtually as aggressive in the Cayenne, which appears slightly taller and larger than the 9-4x, as I could in the sports cars. In my jaunt, I did challenge the handling prowess of the 9-4x in a few spots, and it was very sure footed and predictable, with lots of reassuring feedback and an overall sense of great stability. There was one bit of weirdness on one corner which surprised me. I was taking a hard left, accelerating moderately and ascending. I did not engage the ESP, but it almost felt like I did, and there was a bit of tug at the steering wheel. I don’t know if I was sensing some torque redistribution by the XWD, or maybe I just did something wrong. I could not reproduce the sensation, so maybe….

I have two disappointments with the 9-4x. One is weight. As with the 9-5, the weight seems disproportionate to the overall size. There is no positive that comes from more weight, whether it’s around my waist or in the chassis of an auto. Weight reduction in a car feeds on itself—lighter weight means smaller brakes means less unspung weight which means lighter control arms etcetera. Likewise, being overweight has the opposite effect. Now if the 9-4x came in at a weight more in line with the RX350 or the Q5, then instead of the 3.0 V6 perhaps Saab could have put the 2.0 T4 from the 9-5. Oh, and that would have saved more weight . More importantly, it would have kept the line more consistent with current offerings and Saab tradition. I long argued that despite its shortcomings, if the 9-7x had been offered with a turbocharged I5 version of the 4.2 I6, we might have warmed to it more. As it is, Audi does offer their 2.0 I4 in the Q5, so why not us!

The other disappointment is the absence of a head-up display. I have quickly grown fond of this, especially with navigation as the approaching directions are indicated in the display. On a positive note, the multi-color screen for the Driver Information Center is so much better to look at than the green-monochrome screen in the 2011 9-5 (the 2010 9-5 was multi-color) and as such is a very attractive and readable focal point for the instrumentation. [Note: the saabusa.com website picture of the 9-4x instruments shows a monochrome display.]

In all, I am very pleased with the results of the 9-4x. I only hope that there is enough in the coffers to promote it, as it deserves to be seen and considered.

[For MUCH more information on the 9-4x, and significantly better pictures than I could ever take read Swade's three recent posts about the 9-4x at InsideSaab .]

2011-07-12T10:24:00.003-04:00

Beware the light at the end of the tunnel

My youngest son, Marcel, though he won’t have his driver’s license until the end of the year, recently bought his first car, a 1995 900SE 2.0T from a former neighbor. Last Sunday, we took advantage of the glorious weather to return to Ipswich to go to the beach (where Marcel works) and afterword we stopped in the former neighborhood to see some friends. I had heard that the couple that sold the car to Marcel wanted something more fuel efficient, so I was curious to see what was in their driveway. Indeed, except for some repairs it needed, I was sure the couple hated to part with the car. I knew they liked it, and it was the first car they had purchased together.

High Street in Ipswich often looked like it might have the densest concentration of Saabs anywhere outside Trollhattan, even if one discounted the several Saabs parked in front of our former home. Sadly, that has changed over the years. The new car which replaced the 1995 900 was a surprise to me—I was guessing Prius. It was instead a Golf TDI. Not a bad choice. Further up the street, another neighbor who commutes to the Berkshires had likewise traded his NG 900 for a Jetta TDI. Hmmm…..a pattern, perhaps?

While at the beach, we encountered a friend with whom we spent some time. Her former husband had been a customer here, and he had logged, last I heard from him last year, about 150,000 miles on his 2005 9-3. He struck me as the perfect demographic for Saab: educated, active (runner, cyclist, hiker…) and well heeled. Our friend informed us that he had traded his Saab for a Lexus? Really? He seems way to hip to be driving a Lexus.

Through these adventurous times for Saab, there has to be great concern about where their customers are going, and someone smarter than me needs to figure out why Saab owners become Lexus or VW buyers. Certainly, the 9-4x will bring us some fresh customers, which in turn could help sales in the long run of our other models. However, given the passion that many Saab owners feel, or felt, if they are former owners, Saab needs to zero in on why the defections occur. In the case of the friend who left for a Lexus, I can say that his car was virtually trouble free. Outside of warranty, there was almost nothing required beyond brakes, tires, bulbs and maintenance. Plus, I noted when I took his car in for service that even with an automatic transmission that he averaged, per his SID, 32 mpg. What’s not to like?

In the case of the defections to the VW’s, it is clear to me that Saab simply did not have an offering that satisfied the High Streeters desire to achieve greater fuel efficiency. I know all the rational arguments against importing the TTDI engine. However, who is to say that if Saab didn’t make that the cornerstone of the brand in the US that Saab might not be surging in sales right now, both with former and conquest customers? It would be a risky gambit, but shouldn’t that be one of the beauties of being a flyweight company, that you can make bold moves?

As much as Saab needs to know where they are losing their customers, the conundrum they face is that in light of the difficult business climate, they can barely afford to manage daily logistics, and it is likely not in the budget to hire analysts and a cadre or researchers to query consumers, mine data and formulate a strategy. It’s the old chicken-egg conundrum. Without that research, perhaps they can’t sell the cars they need to; without selling more cars and making some money, Saab won’t have the money to do any research. Yet, if Saab doesn’t put its ear to the rail and listen, how can it gauge that light at the end of the tunnel?

2011-07-05T14:04:00.004-04:00

The View from Mount Washington

Last weekend saw the culmination of months of extraordinary work as my sons, Marcel and Pascal, put forth their 1985 900 SPG hill-climb car at the 2011 Mount Washington Climb to the Clouds. Pascal drove the car admirably on a circuit that, frankly, terrified me even at the posted speed limit. If you’ve ever driven up Mount Washington, you understand. Pascal completed the 7.6 miles in 8:20, averaging just under 55 mph, and kept the “shiny side up.” Just as impressive, the Saab, which was completely rebuilt by these young men, experienced no breakdown, which is even more impressive when you consider that the car was driven 100 miles each way to the event: I believe it was the only car of 70 not to arrive and depart on a trailer. How Saab.

Being the only Saab at the Climb, in a sea of Subaru Imprezas, Mitsubishi Evo’s and tube frame specialty contraptions, the car garnered lots of attention. Many fans and participants in the paddock area stopped by for a look and a chat. Some were current Saab owners; some former Saab owners who looked longingly at the four Saabs we had parked (besides the race car, there was my 1992 900T, André’s 2001 9-3 and the Charles River Saab 9-3X shuttle vehicle). There was one other Saab in the paddock. Parked next to the Team Libra service area and their Hyundai Tiburon rally monster was a new 9-3 Sport Combi Aero 6-speed. How odd, I thought. Later that day I would learn the story behind that car.

One of the joys of participating, even vicariously, in such an event is all the people one meets. After the Saturday practice, we happened upon Paul Choiniere, one of the most storied and credentialed American rally drivers from the 1980s and 1990s. He saw the Saab shirt I was wearing and that got the conversation started. Only a few minutes into the conversation I realized who he was—not for his rally exploits, but because he is the dealer principal of PJ’s Auto Village of South Burlington, Vermont, which is a Mazda and Saab dealership—the Sport Combi Aero was Paul’s daily driver. He was gracious, charming and self effacing. My wife, Susan, also noted he has great eyes. This self-effacement and general humility is something I’ve noted in lots of rally types. They don’t have the obnoxious swagger or condescending attitude I might have expected, and most seem very pleased to chat with us mere mortals. I first noted this at the New England Forest Rally last summer, when even such luminaries as Travis Pastrana and Ken Block were accessible and very much “regular guys.”

Another chance encounter was had with New England rally legend and instructor Tim O’Neil (who opines that now what he drives is a desk) of Team O’Neil and the O’Neil Rally School. Susan and I were looking at the cars in the paddock at the end of the day, and were scrutinizing the Ford Fiesta FWD rally car being raced by Chris Duplessis, whose brother, Forest (who is also a rally champion and head instructor at Dirt Fish Rally School), we met in one of the viewing areas. We were approached by Tim, who again saw the Saab shirt and that got him talking. Turns out that in his earlier days he was a Saab technician, his early rally car of choice was a Saab 99 (with lots of 900 pieces applied, he said). Again, he was completely friendly, chatted at length with us, and perhaps coincidentally, one of his employees phoned Pascal last night to see if Pascal would co-drive a Team O’Neil car in the NE Forest Rally in two weeks.

One of the headliners for this event was Mike Ryan and his 2000 hp Freightliner truck. Clearly a ringer and attention getter, I didn’t necessarily expect him to be a nice friendly guy. I expected a conceited prima-donna who hid from people except when he was putting on his very impressive show. Wrong. While he looked a bit like a vain over-the-hill Nascar driver, with poofy hair all nice and dyed, Pascal states that he was very friendly and talked to whomever came by. Nice surprise!

There were a number of others there who were completely gracious and just plain nice. Some more interesting than others, to be sure. Susan even got Warren Elliott, New England Region Rally Cross champion, who was a spectator, to help us understand the leader board, and then got him excited enough that when Pascal was staying atop the leader board for a time he was giving her high-fives. What a marvelous time….

At the end of it all, I came away from the event much as I have other rally type events, that is that I find these drivers to be friendlier and much more collegial than I would expect from a group which is by nature competitive. I can’t say I’ve hung around a race track much, but I’ve hung around lots of racers, and you hear things…stories….complaints. This guy cheated…that one ran someone off the track…they’re running illegal this and that. Not so with the rally guys and gals. They seem much more apt to root for one another, help each other and be appreciative of those who come out to cheer them on. Good for the rally drivers!

If you haven't yet seen it, here is the link to a onboard view of the Saab dashing up the mountain.

2011-06-22T16:03:00.002-04:00

Bare-Naked Driving
I am, by nature and training, a deconstructionist. I enjoy the intellectual rigor of
examining a situation, problem or thing and dissecting it into its component parts. This is helpful when one is not overly bright, for it affords me the ability to analyze situations I would otherwise find baffling. Much of my time at conservatory was spent doing this sort of analysis, on both music (I am one of those few freaks who actually enjoyed music theory and analysis and took every course I could) and performance at the instrument. People of immense talent and genius do not do this; they don’t have to.

When assessing the driving experience of a car, there is, of course, how said car feels in total. This is very important. I also like to look past that and gauge my reaction to the various systems. However, as cars have become more integrated, more digital, more “of a piece,” this has become increasingly challenging. Thus it was with great analytical interest that I approached my first drives in the newly unleashed 1985 Saab SPG Hillclimb car built by sons Marcel and Pascal for the Climb to the Clouds race at Mount Washington.

Construction of this car essentially involved stripping it to a shell, throwing away everything that doesn’t contribute to making the car go, stop or corner, and then putting it back together again. Sunroof? Gone. Power windows? Gone. Stereo, comfy seats, heater, AC, insulation, door panels and cruise control? All gone. After being taken to the car’s essence, there are some additions: this is a race car, not an exercise in automotive asceticism. Hence, better suspension, lots of go fast stuff on the engine, racing seats and a full roll cage are fitted. Is it like driving a 900? Unmistakably.

While the ignition key assembly between the seats is gone, the array of switches to
activate various circuits, and the pushbutton starter, are all on a custom console in its place. Nice touch. Once started, the exhaust note, amplified from the large exhaust and absence of sound deadening inside the car is unmistakably 900 turbo. Sitting in a racing seat is not. I adore Saab seats, and while the Sparco seat and 5 point harness aren’t bad, even after 90 minutes in the car, I missed my real Saab seat. Another thing I missed was the 900 smell (every C900 owner knows what I mean). Apparently that does reside in the fabrics, and not in the bones of the car. Once I pulled off, the driving experience was at once familiar.

I was immediately at home in this minimalist 900. Delicious clutch (even with upgraded bits), strong brakes, wonderful steering, and handling that was completely predictable and sure footed, even on modest street tires. When I think back to my parents’ first new car, I recall that it had no radio, a rubber floor mat, crank windows, and not much else. So it was with the SPG. It got me to thinking—do we really need all that junk in a car? I realize that this SPG is not a viable daily driver if only for the noise level, even with ear plugs, and I’m talking road-noise, not exhaust.. When you get rid of all the toys—the NAV, the audio system, the sunroof, the SID, the trip computer, the cruise control…..the only thing you’re left with is driving. Now there’s a novel thing to focus on in a car! It’s like removing all the sauce and stuff on a plate and having just the piece of meat and eating it unadorned. This may not be for everyone, but a real meat lover will like nothing better. Thus, I found myself, even when loafing along on the highway in the right lane in the SPG, very much enjoying the experience.

Could I drive a bare-naked car every day? Almost. A C900, which I drive now, isn’t that far removed when compared to a modern car, so I think I could. I would want to keep some insulation, normal seats, and a heater and defroster are a must. I do like a sunroof but could live without one Likewise I could also do without power windows, locks, cruise control, AC and carpeting. Yes, I would also like to have a radio and clock. But not much else. The realization in all this to me was that if you like a car, then reduce that car to its bones and still like it, then you know that your passion for the car is deep-rooted and goes to that car’s essence. Toys and luxuries are nice to have, but applied to an uninspiring set of bones is like (pardon me here) putting lipstick on a pig. I bet that a lot of Saab drivers would feel the same. Take a Lexus, say, and strip it down and ask Lexus owners what they think. I bet the reaction would be a bit different. I believe that many Saab drivers would love driving a Saab sans accoutrements—not that they’d give them up for good—and this may be why we are so passionate about these cars.

2011-05-26T09:05:00.010-04:00

A quandary for the ages

There are some age old debates which will never be resolved, and that’s a good thing, for it means we will always have fodder for verbal discourse. Bird or Magic? Mac or PC? Godfather or Godfather 2? Creation or Evolution? Bordeaux or Bourgogne? Thus, in the past week I’ve had to revisit that most important of automotive questions: front-wheel drive, or rear-wheel drive?

I grew up and learned to drive, as did most Americans of my generation, in rear wheel drive cars, though they tended to be smaller than the norm, with smaller engines and manual transmissions. The first cars I bought were also rear wheel drive, but starting with my first new car, a 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier, then through a couple of Hondas and more Saabs than I can recall, I’ve never owned anything but front drivers. Certainly, there was a time when in New England when the available grip and stability of FWD in wintery weather held enough logic to demand that one choose it over RWD. Now, with limited slip differentials, traction control and stability control, those arguments are moot. With a set of snow tires and all the nanny controls switched on, it’s hard to tell what you’re driving in the snow.

When you get a bunch a car nuts together, especially those who road race, there is an overbearing prejudice against FWD, even if they do admit to the efficiencies in packaging of FWD which makes the configuration sensible for everyday boring cars. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking real cars, fun cars. The RWD arguments are fairly sound. Are there any FWD cars in F1? NASCAR? Indy Car? Formula Anything? Does Ferrari or Porsche make a FWD vehicle? No. Not a one. Then the few FWD fans in that crowd will chime in about rally racing. While now dominated by AWD (which we will leave completely out of this discussion), there are still lots of FWD rally cars competing….and RWD, not so much. I’ve rather given up arguing the point. On the preponderance of evidence, one ought to prefer RWD if one is a car nut, yet I don’t. Hence I drive a Saab and not a BMW, yet another debate that can’t be decided rationally.

I had a chance, recently, to consider this question at In Control when I was teaching a class of police officers. Most of the class was done in our issue Camrys; but a few drills were done in Crown Victoria police cruisers. The final drill of the day was an auto-cross. It was a good set up—lots of hard acceleration, hard braking, hard turns, and sneaky stuff like decreasing radius turns and a diminishing slalom. It was quite difficult to manage the FWD Camry. In places I would have liked to shake the tail a bit, which I am accustomed to in that car, I didn’t have enough necessary inertia to break the rear free, thus the car understeered ponderously, forcing some turns into hand-over-hand maneuvers. Still, it was all predictable, if not easy.

Then it was time for me to take a turn in the Crown Vic. I can honestly say I’ve never been in a cruiser, let alone driven one. Did you know they have a secret switch to prevent them from coming out of Park? Anyway, the cruisers on loan from the Lowell PD are certainly not their best cars. Suffice to say that I felt like I should put on a black suit and tie, black sunglasses, handcuff a briefcase to my wrist, and have a partner that said, “Hit it.” I expected the Crown Vic to be a handful. In a sense, it was. It was vague and loose, but surprised me with the ease with which I could navigate it at speed, and not mow down cones. Then I entered my first sweeping decreasing radius turn. Where in the Camry I had to yield to the understeer and accept that more steering input would have no beneficial effect, I kept the wheel cranked 180 degrees and stomped on the accelerator. With the engine eliciting a muted roar, ok, more of a grumble, I got the rear of the car to make a rather elegant slide and just like that my turning radius diminished perfectly, and a quick correction to straight had me hurtling out of the final gate with the rear wheels still alight.

I was glad to see I still knew how to drive a RWD car. Yes, it was fun. No, I would not buy one. Not a Crown Vic, not a BMW, not a M-B. Well, maybe I’d have one if it came from Stuttgart and had a name like an emergency phone call. I still like the odd sensations of FWD. I like torque steer. Damn those who would exorcise that from all FWD hot rods. It’s FUN. I like the challenge of getting a FWD car to transition from understeer to oversteer. I like that FWD cars just aren’t supposed to be competitive with RWD cars, yet they are. I just like the way FWD feels, and that’s why you won’t see any RWD cars in my garage any time soon.

Just after my romp in the Crown Vic, a friend of mine posted this picture on his Facebook. Made me chuckle. Dave races Grand Am in a BMW which he built, so his assertion was predictable. [To his credit, Dave is the only person we know of who can perform an emergency lane-change, or moose test, maneuver in a FWD car, get it to rotate 180 degrees mid-stream and then go through the exit cones backwards.] A friend of his replied to the post with this article. I don’t know where this comes from or who the author is—despite the initials, it is not mine. The article recounts the authors experience in two identical Dodge Daytona race cars, one FWD, one RWD, and the contrast and comparison is fascinating. One of the conclusions thus read:

"Wait a minute. Control the radius with the throttle-that sounds like a good rear-drive characteristic. It is. Except with front drive, the front tires dictate radius, not the rears. In fact, this car doesn't much care what the rear tires are doing once the throttle is opened. And since the basic characteristic we experienced from the apex on was understeer, we found the front-drive Daytona exceptionally easy to drive quickly. It inspired confidence, never felt like it wanted to leap out from under us, and always went where we pointed it. What more could we ask for?"

Does the comparison resolve anything? Not at all.

"Which Daytona is faster? At this point in the ongoing development program, the rear-driver is still a bit quicker. But it depends on the racetrack. At Road Atlanta, the two cars were within a tenth or two. At tighter tracks, Mid-Ohio, for example, the gap was larger. But on faster circuits like Watkins Glen and Lime Rock, Showket believes the front-wheel drive may give him an edge. Which is better? Take your pick. Just remember to reprogram the driver to adapt his driving techniques to meet the car's requirements."

In fact, the observations only add rich perspective to one of those arguments which will never be settled. In the end, the French say it best: A chacun son gout.

************************************************************************************

Daytona article from http://home.comcast.net/~cvetters3/test1.htm

Lowell PD cruiser picture from http://www.crownvicsetc.com/PoliceMA.html

2011-05-06T13:16:00.002-04:00

Quick review of the 2011 9-5 Turbo4

I had promised this long ago but never had a chance to get a decent drive in one of these so that I could render an opinion. Well, this morning I went for a bit of a drive, and having spent a lot of time in a 9-5 recently, it was easier to focus on the difference between the Turbo4 and the Aero version.

This Turbo4 car had an automatic, 18” wheels and otherwise was pretty basic. The differences between the Turbo4 and Aero lie in the powerplant and the suspension, and both differences were very apparent. I love the engine in the Turbo4. It has a lot of low end grunt, much like the old 2.3 in the old 9-5, and launches much better that the 2.0T in the 9-3. Throttle response is excellent and there is terrific lunge from a dead-stop. The engine is exceptionally smooth and quiet, with a nice growl under heavy load. Gone from the old 9-5 is the shudder and vibration at idle, which I no longer notice in old 9-5’s, but whose absence was discernable in the new car. The engine and transmission work very nicely together, and the transmission shifts are very smooth and require only modest pedal application when a downshift is sought. Mid-range surge is very good, perhaps better than expected. Above 50 it starts to feel a little winded, but overall I find this combination delightful. Saab drivers of old will feel very much at home. I now want to find one with a manual transmission, which I’m sure I’ll like even more.

I can’t rave as much regarding the change in suspension. The difference is significant and I noted it immediately. I liked the Aero DriveSense in comfort mode, which is what I had hoped this car would feel like. I didn’t. It’s not bad, and compared with the previous 9-5, it still feels much more buttoned-down, though not nearly as tight, refined and precise as the Aero. Handling seemed fine, it’s more the way that Aero seemed to absorb road imperfections and recover much more quickly than Turbo4 which left me wanting, as other reviewers have mentioned, that Turbo4 be fitted with the same suspension as the Aero. Again, it’s not terrible. If I had never driven the Aero and was only comparing Turbo4 with the previous car, or other contemporary cars, I’d say it acquitted itself just fine.

I won’t get into other details. I’ve written that all before. Verdict? Thumbs up from me. Given that I still like to row my own gears (pending my roadtest of a manual transmission version), and love the engine in the Turbo4, and am not prone to feeling the need for AWD, I would likely choose the Turbo4 if I were to buy a 9-5 today. I am concerned with the low mileage estimate, with the EPA giving the four cylinder only a one mpg advantage over the Aero, which I find hard to believe. I got great highway mileage on my NY trek in the Aero—28.5 mpg. Am I to believe that with two fewer cylinders, less weight and half the driveline, that I’d otherwise only have averaged 29.5?

2011-05-03T15:46:00.003-04:00

It's 1989 all over again

When I started here in February of 1989, I soon learned that one of the staples at Charles River Saab was a newsletter, written quarterly, by then owner Felix Bosshard. They were simple fare—four pages of type, no pictures, elegantly written and with a recognizable format. There were always musings, information on employees, news about Saab product, service and parts specials, the announcement of drawing winners, and usually finished with a paragraph about Felix’s favorite diversions, professional tennis and the Boston Classical Orchestra.

I have kept as many of these as I could find. For a time, after Felix left, I was the publisher of the Charles River Saab newsletter, and the precedent issues were valuable to that endeavor. Over time, the simple, paper newsletter gave way to a glossy one with pictures and articles, and that gave way, well, to this blog.

This particular newsletter, dated March 15, 1989, will always be one of my favorites. First, it announced my arrival as the new Red Team ASM (Assistant Service Manager). Second, this is the newsletter that Felix handed me soon after I arrived to proof-read. As I have recounted on this blog before, I took to the task very seriously. I got a red pen and started marking up everything in sight. When I handed it back to Felix, seeing all the red markings (what was I thinking?!), he said, with his prominent Swiss-German accent, “Vat is all zis?” I told him that they were corrections, and explained that there were a lot a run on sentences, to which he replied, glaring at me, “I like run on zentences.”

There are other items of note in this newsletter. The only employee besides me who is mentioned who is still working here is Doug Bowles, and the “Cat” work mentioned has now migrated to me. Ricky Furlan, mentioned for his fifteen years of tenure, has since retired, but he has two sons, Rick Jr. and Jeff who have respectively been here a combined twenty seven years. Note that the lease program cited is a 66 month lease on a base 900 for $273! This newsletter also announced the start of our shuttle service—a suggestion from Jim Carfagno, who had started here in 1987.

I finally managed to find an OCR program to use on these, but on blogger I do have to sacrifice the formatting, so those who remember these newsletters may find that this doesn’t exactly look the same. It is also why I had to use such a small font—I’ll try to find a way around that for my next newsletter post.

CHARLES RIVER SAAB REVIEW
******************************
PUBLISHED ON A WHIM
Issue # 34; March 15th,1989
Telephone # 923-9230

Dear Friends,

Douglas Bowles, our resident operator of the big yellow Cat in the backyard, has
been visibly disappointed by the lack of snow this past winter. While I complain about the
cost of snow removal, the lack of space to operate with and the loss of customers during
snowstorms, Doug happily motors high on his favorite toy, scooping big buckets and
building snow castles. I almost feel guilty that this winter he had little chance to play; he
sat in the cab occasionally, revved the engine once or twice and sort of challenged the
elements!

For me, the best time of the year has arrived. I walk my backyard at home every
morning, I listen to the crocii pushing through the soil and I watch the leaves budding on
the trees. I then come to work and do the same thing here; I look around the showroom,
the shop and the parts department. I feel the tempo of the prospect traffic, the size of the
smiles on peoples faces and the number of cars in the yard. Then I sniff the air around
the place and decide that things look good. We are ready to blossom and to do great
things in ’89. Our goal, as always, is to be the best. We are getting mail (some good, some
bad) from our customers and we appreciate it when we have somebody take the time to
write; the feedback enters the loop and helps to improve the product.

For the past eight years, I have had a habit of describing the comings and goings
on the roster of our employees in somewhat graphic detail and I sometimes receive the
feedback through my readers that we have a fairly noticeable (!) turnover. This reminded
me to dig back into our books and it led to what will become an annual part of our
company Christmas dinner. The recognition, through a formal award ceremony, of our
longtime employees was in some instances much overdue and it now gives me great
pleasure to announce the recipients of this year’s Orrefors crystal vases. In the 10 year
category, we had three employees:

Alex McWilliam, Bill Gorman and Monica Bosshard

and for 15 years there are three more:
Douglas Bowles, Ricky Furlan and David Martin.

Some of these are well over the indicated threshold, some have left and returned, all are
much appreciated. There is another group of ten who are between three and ten years of
service, making up the core of our employees who moved with us from 20 Watertown St.
It is sometimes hard to remember that as little as 8 years ago, our total count was less
than 15 people.

Still in the personnel department we have to report with deep regret the passing
of two members of our extended family. Julie Aylaian, who had in a few short months
become a real part of us, was a victim of the freak ice storm just before Christmas and
Douglas’ wife, Mary, who lost a long battle with cancer at the end of January. With the
Aylaian family and all the Bowles’, we mourn their passing.

Donald Frazier, one of the above mentioned group of ten, also received an award
at our dinner, he is the first of our technicians to reach SAAB Master Mechanic status in
our new location. Several others are close on his heels. And finally there is the wonderful
news that Rose McWi1liam presented Alex with a daughter for Christmas. Gina McWilliam was born on December 23rd! Congratulations to all!

It is with regret that I have to report that Red Team ASM Mike Scott has left us.
His place has been filled by Pierre Belperron, a young man with considerable experience
as a service writer and substantial other qualifications. (i.e. Graduate of B.U. and Boston
Conservatory, Applied Music: Cello!)

So much for our personnel department; I will elaborate with more details in our
summer letter.

Sales has a whole bunch of items to report. First of all we have a couple of product
announcements. The promised "S" version of the 9000 CD is on its way, we will be able
to deliver the first CD-Ss somewhere around the middle of April and, while we are at it,
we will also start delivering the "Air-Bagged" versions of all 9000s. Now, clearly, is the time to take advantage of the remaining stock of non-bagged versions at their concomitantly lower prices. I would also like to remind you that SAAB-SCANIA Financial is very much alive and kicking and that the current lease programs are still extremely favorable; the present entry level 66 months lease on a 3-door, manual shift 900 is only $273.- plus tax (fees, insurance, excise and maintenance not incl.). Since this is a closed-end lease, it in effect establishes the resale value of the car and thus insulates you from the vagaries of the marketplace. It is, lastly, fair to say that the winter selling season was at very best lackadaisical and that Alex will do his level best to bring the numbers up to a more respectable level; it might well be that prices in the very near future could be substantially more competitive than later in the year. All things considered, early spring should be a very interesting period for buyers.

In order to make it easier for you to drop off your car in the morning, we have in
January instituted our new shuttle service. Between 7:30 and 9:00 A.M. we will drive you
to either Harvard Square to pick up the Red Line or to Watertown Square to the Express
Bus on a first come, first served basis. We cannot think of any reasonable way to organize
an evening pick-up, the bus (#70) from either Watertown Square or Central Square will
do a better job.

David would like to remind owners of ’86 and ’87 SAAB 9000’s to make sure they
don’t overlook the letter from Mr. Robert Sinclair, President of SAAB-Scania of America,
Inc., outlining the "SAAB 9000 Value Retention Program". The program addresses a
number of early teething problems in the 9000’s and is available for all ’86 and ’87 9000’s
regardless of current owner. If you are not familiar with the program, please check with
our Service Department.

To make doubly sure that spring really arrives and that we think flowers instead of
snow, David is offering the following

Spring Special:
Visual check of cooling system, tires, suspension and
undercarriage, oil and filter change plus re-installing your summer wheels.

(Don ’t forget to put your mounted summerwheels into your trunk! )
$34.95

(For just another $10.95, we will even hand-wash the car.)
(Offer good ’til 4/30/89)

Over the last few years, many of you have met Ralph Skinder, our SAAB district
representative. Ralph, a true professional and also a good friend of ours, has decided to
accept a promotion to Sales Training Manager for the Eastern Region. We will miss
Ralph. His replacement, Larry Nay, comes to us from that other Swedish car; as he has
clearly seen the light, we won’t hold it against him. Welcome aboard, Larry! The other two members of the SAAB team in our district are Steve Olesnevich in Service and George
Kaniwec in Parts, both good mentors, both good friends.

It now gives me pleasure to announce the winners of our Christmas drawing. The
following people have received their vouchers:
lst Place $250.- Ms. Paula Del Orfano, Woburn
2nd Place $l00.- Ms. Ellen Tormey, Tyngsboro
3rd Place $ 50.- Mr. Michael Siegell, Cambridge
4th Place $ 50.- Mr. Richard Forrester, Wellesley
Congratulations!

The next drawing will be announced in our Fall newsletter and will be known as the
"Half-Way" drawing as that date will be halfway between our 30th and our 35th
anniversary.

The only thing exciting out of the Parts Department is a set of wood veneer panels
Bill found in England. The "Winchester" is a trim set of burled elm that now graces the
dash and doors of my SPG and at the moment we are waiting to see what will happen
when the sun beats down on it. While the set with installation is not cheap, I think it is
absolutely gorgeous. Next time you are in, why don’t you take a look and give me your
judgment!

The last concert of the Boston Classical Orchestra for the current season will be
given on Wednesday, March 29th and Friday March 31st, The season will come to an end
with a particularly nice all Mozart program featuring Tamara Smirnova-Sajfar, Associate
Concertmaster of the BSO and Concertmaster of the Boston Pops, performing the Violin
Concerto #5, Kécherlisting 219 under the baton of Harry Ellis Dickson. The concert, being
given as always in historic Faneuil Hall, will be rounded out with the Symphony #38 in D,
K. 504 ("Prague") and the Overture to "Cosi fan Tutte" K.588. Tickets can be ordered by
calling Ms. Quindara Dodge at 426-2387. (It would help if you mentioned this newsletter
as your inspiration?) As usual, we also have some free teaser tickets for first time
concertgoers, call Monica or our Sales Department for information.

Have a happy spring!

Yours as always,

Felix Bosshard

2011-04-28T16:43:00.014-04:00

New York Auto Show 2011, part 3

On Friday, April 22 I returned to the Auto Show. My day started early. I had to remove the Saab from its spot by 7am—not a problem for someone used to getting up at 4:15, though I did sleep in until about 6:00. While alternate-side parking rules were suspended that week for Passover, finding anyplace to park that was legal was a bit of a challenge. Forty minutes of doing haphazard laps through the cross streets finally yielded a legal spot, and I decided to leave the car there for the duration of my stay.

After a leisurely breakfast, I borrowed a Metro card and took the #6 train downtown to 33rd Street, then walked across town to the Jacob Javits Center. This was opening day for the show, and as made my way closer toward the Hudson I became part of the throng that was heading, en masse, to the JJC. After the relative quiet of the JJC on Thursday, Friday was different—more New York: it was crowded, bustling and noisy. After securing my ticket I went straight to the Saab display.

The Saab display was teeming with people. The Phoenix was on a turntable, as it was on Thursday. This day, though, it was rotating and there was a fence to keep gawkers at a safe distance. That’s when I realized that I had never availed myself the opportunity to sit in it. Perhaps another time. Swade was there. He recounted his morning, and how he had been doing a filming of the Saab display with his tiny Hero Cam, with the intent to show it in high-speed, condensed form—thirty minutes of recording replayed in four as seen here. After hanging around some, listening to the attendees, and staying rather incognito, we retired to the food court to grab some lunch. Afterward, Swade retrieved his bags from the coatroom and bade the NY Auto Show goodbye as he headed off to Kennedy Airport.

Since my hosts would not be back until late day, I went back into the show. I did spend more time at the Saab display. Again, I was looking more for peoples reactions than looking at anything in particular myself. While the Phoenix, Ice Block, massive video screen and Independence Day Convertible were all draws to the stand, the 9-5 Combi seemed to have the most people lingering over it and giving it real, thoughtful attention, as though they were picturing themselves in it, or it in their driveway. I can see why. Say what you will about the treatment of the rear door windows and the awkward line they create moving to the rear. I was not terribly bothered by this when seeing the car in person. I was happy to see the European hatch, with its lower portion deflecting rearward to be flush with the rear bumper. While adding visual appeal and being unique, I think this would present a nightmare in our real world. It wouldn’t take much of a bumper tap to stove that hatch in, and likely leave it incapable of being opened. Overall, the balance of the design is aggressive, cool, and much striking than the sedan’s.

While there were inquiries about the 9-4x, there wasn’t much fuss about it. This is unfortunate, since this vehicle comes to market quite soon. The 9-4x was off to the side and locked. I did not understand this. Sure, that 9-4x was likely not a production car and there may be some subtle differences compared to an actual production version. Who cares? The presenters did speak about the car, but that didn’t bring too many around. There should have been a bright light on the 9-4x, and it should have been open. The other misstep on Saab’s part was the absence of iQon. After all the buzz that came out of Geneva, there should have been a mock-up, or even just something on the display screen. This omission seems very odd to me.

Eventually, I tired of the Saab display and decided to take my tour of the show. I started on the lower level, which touted trucks from every manufacturer, and a few automobiles from manufacturers who must not have wanted to pay the upstairs rent. I’m not a big truck or SUV guy, so I skipped most of those displays. I did spend a few minutes at the Mercedes display. I’ve always fancied the old G-wagon, though not all tarted out the way MB sells them now, and the Sprinter vans were presented in a variety of configurations. I did go and see the Subaru stand, to see the new Imperezza…..yawn. I had hoped there would be rally car, but I couldn’t find one. The most entertaining display was from Suzuki. They were spending a lot of time proclaiming the Kizashi as the greatest car since the invention of the Otto-cycle engine. I’m sure it’s fine…What I liked there, though, was that they included everything Suzuki. There was a big outboard engine (I loved the Suzuki built outboard we once had) and a trio of motorcycles. The one that made me stop and stare, as it always does, was the Hayabusa. I am not a speed freak. Rather the opposite. Yet I revere that machine and all that it is capable of. I appreciate its unorthodox style, its fundamental simplicity and ordinary architecture, and admire Suzuki for building such a no-holds-barred contraption. It is a beast like no other.

I took a peek at the electric car indoor test-drive, also in the lower level, and concluded that it was just stupid. I also wondered about the people queued up for this test drive. Conversely, on my way back to the upper level, I went outside to see what the Jeep contingent was up to. They had a large installation outdoors, that consisted of a test-track to demonstrate the off-road prowess of a Jeep. It was a great amusement park ride! Attendees rode along as passengers, and Jeep provided the driver. First, the Jeeps, many different models, drove up, over and down a huge metal arch at such steep angles, you’d swear the Jeep should just slide off, especially coming down. Then it was through some sloppy stuff (deep mulch), big bumps, off-set bumps to lift individual wheels off the ground, and over an obstacle to prove its ground clearance. Jeep had enthusiastic hawkers with bull-horns encouraging onlookers to go for a ride, and they were packed all day. Good for Jeep!

Next, it was back to the upper level. I saw a bit of everything. Besides the cars that ought to take your breath away, like the Aston Martin, Bentley, Lotus and Spyker, there were two displays I did not tire of looking at: Jaguar and Fiat. I am Jaguar ignorant. I know the difference between an XKE and an XJ6, but not much more than that, especially regarding the new offerings. I can tell you that based on pure automotive sex appeal, these were the class of the show, both individually, and especially when seen as a group. It was just hard for me not to stare, and then stare again. The Fiat 500 was loads of fun. The sardine-can retractable cloth roof, reminiscent of the 2CV, is wonderful. I wanted to get inside one for pictures but it was just impossible with so many people trying to do the same. I love diminutive cars. An original Mini is on my bucket list. [I might like the current Mini, but an acquaintance whom I loathe drove one and now I can’t look at a Mini without being reminded of them, so new Minis I do not like.] So is a 2CV. I never craved the original 500, and they did have a lovely one there. The new 500 shows well, and I am sure, especially with gas prices doing what they’re doing, that these will sell well. Good for Fiat!

Some honorable mentions need to go out: Audi, for building the A7 (Take a look Saab. The 9-5 could have been such a hatchback.); Mazda, for getting rid of the Joker-face on the 3; Mercedes, for showing an A-class sized car, albeit some alternate power version; Infiniti, for displaying the Renault F1 car; Scion, for showing that Japanese car makers can have an interesting display; all the European brands, except Volkswagen, for having attractive presentations. Boos and hisses go out to Volkswagen, who seems to bask in the glory of indifferent blandness in both its cars and its display; to Lexus-Toyota-Acura-Honda for being uninspired in their presentations (except for Lexus having really cushy carpeting at their display—how appropriate!); Mercedes, for presenting a concept car so fake, it had painted cardboard behind the wheels to look like brake components.

At the end of the day I had museum legs and I was tired. Still, I had a fabulous time at the Show. It was great to meet up with old Saab friends, especially Swade, meet new ones, like Jason Castriotta, and see all the exciting product in the pipeline. Thank you, Dan Leahy and Charles River Saab, for permitting me to go on this junket. I hear that Frankfurt is going to be something this year…..

2011-04-26T16:23:00.002-04:00

2011 New York Auto Show, Part 2

Once secure in knowing that I could leave the 9-5 in parking without having to take out a mortgage, I decided to enjoy the nice—if windy—weather with a walk through mid-town. I am no stranger to New York, having grown up in its shadows. I am also not ignorant of cities. I’ve visited a number of them and lived in Boston for several years. Still, the New York experience is like no other. No, I have not been to Hong Kong, Shanghai or Tokyo. But from my limited urban experience, New York takes everything to a degree not found elsewhere. The most immediate attack on my senses was not the smell (New York still smells worse than other cities), not the visual intimidation of its scale; it was the noise. While I might live in a remote setting, and Watertown isn’t a metropolis, I am compelled to listen to traffic and air-impact guns sounding all day long. Those are but a whisper when compared to the relentless din of New York City streets. I found I never got used to it.

The energy of mid-town, with its masses of people and vehicles, creates an excitement which is hard to ignore. Not only were sidewalks and roadways crowded, but every store was packed with people. I wandered into Macy’s, the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Store.” From the look inside, you would have thought it was Christmas Eve. Say what we want about the state of economy. I can tell you that in that part of Manhattan, it is nothing if not a boom time.

I stopped for a time in the vicinity of Herald Square to watch the passers-by, both pedestrian and vehicular. With respect to the vehicles, I noted that the Lincoln Town Car is passé, and that black Mercedes, BMW, Land Rover and Audi vehicles are ubiquitous. There were no exotic cars to be seen that day, though our fanciful cars like one Aston and a few Porsches. Of note was the fleet of the NYPD. Unlike most police departments, which drive only Crown Vics, or only Dodge Magnums, or a combination, it seems that when the NYPD requisitioned their fleet, they just asked for one of everything. I can recall: Ford Explorer, Ford Escape, Ford Fusion (hybrid?), Chevy Impala, Crown Vic, Dodge Magnum, a Pullman (three-wheel contraption) and several Toyota Prius. Yes, Prius. I guess if you sign on to do police duty in NYC, you have to check your machismo at the door. Given that the weather was fairly nice, I was surprised to see few two wheelers: a few couriers on single speed bikes, a few Vespa and only one motorcycle, a V-twin Suzuki sport bike. There was one cantankerous dude on a long board, a huge long board, who got frustrated when turning cars would not let him proceed through the intersection. Exasperated, me picked up the board and walked across, like the rest of us.

When retrieving the car, I had to help the lot attendant locate the Start/Stop switch. After his moment of embarrassment, he raved about the car and how beautiful it was. While he is a lot attendant, he is also in a lot of very pricey cars all day long. I accepted the complement. After picking up Swade in the 9-5 and shuttling him to his hotel later in the day, we parked and did a bit of shopping on foot. Even as the early evening came, the crowds seemed not to abate at all. I fancied that perhaps we’d go up the Empire State Building to show my Aussie friend a rarified view of Manhattan; that was, until we got close enough and saw that the queue counted into the hundreds. So much for that. Afterward, we dined at Ben and Jack’s Steakhouse. It was superb. I think Swade was caught off guard when the waiter, in my absence, asked if he’d prefer flat or sparkling mineral water, only to see a $10 charge for mineral water appear on the bill later, and again when he asked what the very pricey steaks came with. You guessed it—nothing. So we each had a simple dinner—steak and fries. Simple. Fabulous. Yes, expensive.

After leaving Swade at his hotel, I headed up-town where I was staying with friends. Driving through the Upper East Side, I came upon a display window for a small shop, whose name was too high up to be seen. In the window were white T-shirts with the KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON poster imprinted on the front, the very same one which Saabsunited and Swade posted so often during the trying times prior to the Spyker sale. How a propos, I thought. When I parked the 9-5, between Park and Lexington Avenues, I admired its presence in that tony neighborhood. It looked distinctive among all the other fancy cars, in large part because of its Glacier Silver color which contrasted not only with the other cars, but the grayness of the New York background. Then, too, it's just a fine looking car, no matter where it's parked.

Coming next—Part 3, the rest of the Auto Show.

2011-04-25T16:12:00.004-04:00

2011 New York Auto Show, Part 1

When it comes to auto shows, I’m a bit of a neophyte. I’ve attended and worked at the Boston show a number of times, but that’s it. On the heels of Saab’s wild success at Geneva, I got an invite from Steven Wade, founder of Saabsunited.com, and newly appointed social media director at Saab, to join him at the New York Auto Show. I couldn’t resist. New York is so close, I knew I could see the Phoenix and 9-5 Combi, and I could spend some time with our friend Steven whom we had just seen at Swedish Car Day 2010.

While the official opening of the show was April 22, there was a dealer meeting and press conference going on there on the 21st so I made my way down that day to see if I could muster my way—having no valid credentials—into the proceedings. I left early Thursday morning from New Hampshire, stopping briefly in Acton to pick up some goods from Ralph Bockoven for Steven to take back to Trollhattan, and then made a leisurely drive to Manhattan. My steed was a 2010 9-5 Aero. While I had driven these before, this was my first long drive. I took time to set up the car for my use, including making the Bluetooth connection for my phone, and hooking up my iPod via USB. What I hadn’t previously realized was that when the iPod is thus connected, the car recognizes the device as an iPod, and suddenly the radio controls, including those on the steering wheel, and manipulate the iPod and display on the radio screen what otherwise is on the iPod screen. I know this is nothing really, but I’m glad to see the interface is so complete.

I did hit a delay in Hartford, where what appeared to be a construction site was in fact a clean-up operation for a rolled tractor trailer whose contents were spilled all over an entrance ramp to I84. There was another, on the West Side Highway in New York, but that was it. I turned onto 34th Street at about 10:30. I located a few parking locations a few blocks from the Jacob Javits Center, and all seemed to have the same “$8.32” out front, for the first 30 minutes. I chose a smaller, outdoor lot, left the car, and walked to the JJC. I entered and surveyed the area. Yes, there was security at all the entrances to the halls. Undeterred, I sent a text to someone already inside (not an employee of Saab, but he shall remain nameless to protect his integrity) to see if there was any way of surreptitious entry on my part. I was told to wait in the lobby.

My accomplice met me a few minutes later and whisked me around the corner to a blind corner out of sight of all the security types. There, he produced the requisite lanyard and wrist band. I was now “Chris” and he headed into the main hall. Through the guard station—no problem. We reunited with Chris, whom I did not know, and I returned the credentials. I was now running around naked, with no lanyard and no bright wrist band. I had no idea if I would be thus spotted and thrown out, so I knew that I should stay in groups at the Saab stand and not venture too far off—there would be time for that tomorrow. Before long, I was attacked from behind, a massive bear hug thrown on me. No, it wasn’t security—it was Steven Wade!

We chatted at bit, and he filled me in on the goings-on in New York. Then as he went about his business, I started catching up with friends and acquaintances at the stand. First off, the stand itself was spectacular. If you saw the Boston show, picture the same basic layout, but with the addition of the Independence Day convertible, the 9-5 Combi, the Phoenix, and graphics on the video screen specific to the Phoenix. It was all spectacular. So was the company. Working clockwise around the Saab display were Porsche, Audi, Spyker, Lotus, Volvo and Jaguar. At the stand were Saab reps John Longo and Roger Marlowe, dealers Tom Backes and Kurt Schirm, our very own Dan Leahy (who kindly authorized my attendance), and SCD attendee and Saab salesperson Meg Haviland. I was introduced to Jason Castriotta. I’m a diminutive guy, so almost everyone looks like a giant to me. When I saw pictures of Jason from the Geneva show, he looked sort of small—must have been all the giant Dutch and Swedish standing around him. He is anything but small. He’s not tall—just taller than me (who isn’t?). But even in a suit, in person, he has a physique which is quite imposing! He was very gracious, and displayed his Saab knowledge by knowing very much who we are at Charles River Saab.

After a time, Swade signaled it was time for lunch, and we, joined by Curvin O’Reilly, retired to the food court for a sandwich. At this point, I had traversed the security check point and was not able to reenter the show—that would have to wait until the next day.

I walked back to the parking lot, unsure if I should retrieve the car. My math isn’t that good, but I know that at $16+ per hour things would ring up fast. When I got to the lot and inquired about the cost if I took the car out then or later in the afternoon, I was pleased and stunned to learn that the $20 I had left that morning was enough to park all the way until 10pm! When I pointed to the rates on the sign, I was informed that those rates only applied to cars left from 7-10 am. There’s a lesson there—just go to NYC a little late, and park in mid-town for less than you could in Boston.

2011-04-15T08:33:00.003-04:00

When distraction meets impatience

I’m a commuter. I have never lived closer than 25 miles from work. This never seemed abnormal to me, having grown up with a father who commuted great distances to New York city every day, albeit by bus or train. Having recently moved, I have a new set of roadways to consider—I had done the old commute from Ipswich for so long that I knew every permutation and possibility for getting to Watertown, and I also knew which stretches of road required extra attention.

My new commute requires that I drive a ten mile stretch on Interstate 495. It had previously occurred to me, from traffic reports and first hand accounts by veterans of that roadway, that 495 is a dangerous place. More bizarre things seem to happen there than on all the other superhighways in greater Boston combined. [Do a Google image search for route 495 and see what I mean.] This has been borne out in my months of driving that short section of 495. I have witnessed: a flipped horse trailer; stalled tractor trailers on the same bridge crossing the Merrimack on consecutive days; a wheel fall off a BMW directly in front of me; a mobile home, a great BIG mobile home, come off its trailer hitch producing a shower of sparks as the front of the trailer hit the ground and I wondered if the safety chains really could hold—they did long enough for me to build some boost and rocket away.

Last night, 495 was uneventful. They next leg on my journey as I head north is a few miles on a divided, four lane road with lots of stop lights and commercial activity. It’s tedious, but only lasts a few minutes, and until last night was never exciting. Right at the state line, a ratty looking Mitsubishi sport coupe (lots of primer and dents) zoomed up behind me and then cut hard into the left lane and passed me. She certainly was in a hurry. Over the next mile she made so many lane changes trying to get ahead that I lost count. Not surprisingly, despite her haste and irresponsible maneuvering (never a directional), she actually lost ground and ended up behind me again. At this point, we were at a light, one of the last in this stretch, and I was in the left lane and she in the right, a car or two back. The light turned green and we pulled away.

Ms. “I’m in a Hurry” cut into the left lane (eliciting a horn blow from the driver she cut off) and after passing the cars on the right then dropped back into the right lane and started to pass me, again. We approached another intersection; the light was green. As we arrived at the intersection, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, driven by “Ms. I’m talking on my Cellphone” ran her red light, cutting directly in front of “Ms. I’m in a Hurry.” Ms Hurry slammed on her brakes and her horn. Actually, Ms. Hurry was OK, because while Ms. Cellphone was trying to turn right, into Ms. Hurry’s lane, since she had only one had on the wheel, she couldn’t cut the wheel enough and ended up in my lane. Now I was the one on the horn and brakes.

We all pulled up to the next traffic light together and stopped. I looked over at Ms. Cellphone. She had never stopped talking. Her distraction caused her to blow a red light, and her holding that phone in her right hand caused her to have such diminished control that she almost crashed into me. That made me mad. Really mad. I think Ms. Hurry was frightened by Ms. Cellphone because she stayed put in that right lane thereafter.

I can’t preach about cellphone use behind the wheel because I am guilty of it. It is wrong. It is always wrong, even with a hand’s free device. Had Ms. Cellphone had a hands free device, she still would have run the red light, only she would have negotiated her turn better and left me out of harm’s way. I’m a good driver with many skills at my disposal behind the wheel, but I know that I am diminished when on the phone. We have to find a way, everyone, to look at driving for what it is. It is not a void that needs to be filled with other activities. Driving is about driving. Leave the other junk aside, including your phones. As to Ms. Cellphone and Ms. Hurry—perhaps you would feel more at home if you confined your driving to Interstate 495. At least there, we’d be expecting you.

2011-04-06T08:38:00.002-04:00

DMS = Dealer Management System

Every auto dealer has, as its information backbone, a DMS. The two big players in the United States are ADP and Reynolds and Reynolds. Not a penny moves around inside a dealership without being tracked somehow on the DMS. Want a part? Need to generate a parts invoice or service repair order. Want to pay a technician? Need to do that on an opened repair order. Want to calculate payments on a used car? You’ve got it, you do that in the DMS. All said data from the three departments are then funneled into the accounting department for scrutiny and application to a P&L statement. That all makes sense.

At Charles River Saab, we use the Reynolds and Reynolds system. I have used it for so long that it seems rather normal to me. However, I bet that if I were to hire a new employee who was young and had never worked with this system before they would be dumbfounded by it. Nothing about it is intuitive. Nothing about it is consistent. Want to close a function? Sometime you press S, Enter. Sometimes E, Enter. Sometimes END. Want to go to the next page? Sometimes you press N. Other times F. Want to go back a page? Sometimes it’s B, other times, its P, Enter, [page number], Enter. Who wrote this stuff? Obviously, lots of different people who never used the system and didn’t talk to one another. Mouse? What’s that for?

This came to mind today when I sat with a nice representative from R&R who came in to show us some new functionality on the system. Sounded good to me. After going through a few new shortcuts—again, if you don’t know they are there, there’s know way of knowing they exist—I got down to asking questions. I have had two that have bugged me since I first encountered R&R in 1988: what about word wrap; what about spell checking?

You probably think that I can’t be serious. Here we are, in 2011, and in thousands of dealerships across the country, auto dealer employees are struggling with a system that requires that they hit “return” at the end of a typed line, like they were typing on a Selectric. Remember those? Worse, especially in this business, is the lack of spell checking. Words and language matter to me, and while I have no particular gift for the written word, and am largely ignorant of grammar and usage (other than the ability to know when something sounds incorrect), I always tried, in my days as a service advisor, to prepare service invoices with clean, concise, correct English. I would like to have advisors everywhere do this, but some of us just have better spelling than others. Oh, and if you make a mistake in R&R, you can’t glide your mouse over it and fix it. Remember, no mice allowed. Have to go back and re-write the entire entry. At the end of some long days, I know that I let pass “ajdusted” or “isntalled” as entries.

In 1988, I went to R&R headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, for training. The system we were using at that store in those days was pretty crude. Essentially, the computer was used in service to create a repair order header (name, address, phone, VIN, plate etc) and then the complaints were all hand written. Once the customer was in the system, at least you could bypass all that header writing in the future. More important, some amount of crude vehicle history was stored, and all the parts and service information could be entered into accounting, but this was done manually. It was 1988, and that was a start. The system was capable of much more, but that dealership hadn’t bought-in to such a degree. The training was excruciatingly boring. Most of the people in the class had never touched a computer before. Hard to imagine now there ever was such a time. I had a leg up on the others. I had been using a Macintosh SE30 at home for a time. It even had MS Word loaded on it. During the class, I asked why the R&R system didn’t word wrap. I was met with a blank stare by the instructor, and he provided some lame excuse. Nobody else in the room knew what I was talking about. I wasn’t completely sure the instructor did.

When I came to CRS in 1989 we were running an ADP system that was fully implemented—no hand writing required. A year later we switched to R&R. Still no word wrap. It must be coming soon, I thought. As years have become decades, R&R still does not word wrap, and as a reflex, I always ask anyone from R&R when it is coming. At this point, I don’t care what they say….I won’t believe them. The R&R system is a very powerful accounting and data management tool, but everything else about it is hideous. I can’t believe that someone out there, even Microsoft (I thought they had floated the idea to try?), hasn’t jumped in to give us better product and break this duopoly.

2011-03-23T08:44:00.003-04:00

Saab 340 coming to Northern Ontario

In the 1980’s when I started with Saab, there was that unique and current connection between Saab automobiles, Saab aircraft and Scania trucks and busses. Then things got broken up and only the Saab name and country of origin were shared. Still, beyond the Saab fighter jets with sexy names, the airplane I most identify with Saab is the 340. They were somewhat distinctive, and their turbo-prop engines seemed anachronistic for our time in planes of that size, 30-36 seats.

I noted, whenever flying, that when reading the airline magazines, which all listed the planes they had in service in the last pages, that the 340 had disappeared from view, at least areas that I traveled. Having gone out of production in the late 1990s, and where I had read that 340s were starting to pile up in aviation grave yards, I was surprised to see an article today in netnewsledger.com , which services Thunder Bay and Northern Ontario, that Bearskin Airlines is adding a 34 seat 340 to their fleet, and plans a second for the fall. Nice to see the 340 again!

See the full article here

2011-03-22T14:29:00.002-04:00

If we don’t want automobiles which are just appliances, what do we want our appliances to be?

appliance b. an instrument or device designed for a particular use; specif: a household or office device. (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, c. 1977)

Those who have a passion for cars and driving will often cast aspersions on certain cars as being “appliances” and nothing more. For some drivers, there could be nothing better than such a car. They want to get in their car, turn the key (or push a button) and then arrive at their destination with as little fuss or contemplative input as possible. I was reminded of such a car this past weekend when I was teaching at In Control, where I had to pick up one of their Camrys and drive it to Otis AFB on Cape Cod where we had a full schedule of teaching Saturday and Sunday, and then drive it back to North Andover on Sunday night. That’s a lot of time spent in a Camry.

The Camry has to be the poster child for the appliance automobile. The ones we use at In Control are basic CE models. They are well equipped—six speed automatic, traction and stability control, OK sound system, reasonably good seats and so on. They function well for our class—acceleration is brisk enough, braking is strong, ride and handling are balanced, and while prone to under-steer, we’ve all learned how get the tail end rather loose on demand. In the end, these cars are so forgettable because they don’t offend you in any way, nor do they elicit any sort of aesthetic or visceral joy. None. Again, for some people, that’s perfect. For me, it will never do.

So if we don’t want to have cars to be just appliances, what do we expect our appliances to be?

We moved to a new house, hopefully the last stop of our lifetime, last year. While I wish I was substantial enough to have specified Viking this and Sub-Zero that when outfitting our kitchen, since we all love to cook (and eat), those units weren’t quite in the budget. Still, I did not want to take the “contractor package” that the house came with. So we went out and had some fun looking for appliances. There were only a few restrictions—refrigerator had to be cabinet depth, and the stove had to be gas and convection. Here’s what we should have done—gone to Sears and said, “Give us some appliances.”

But no, that wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted some cool factor in my appliances. In the end, we decided to get all one brand—stove, fridge, dishwasher, micro/hood, washer and drier. Being a new house, we liked the idea that everything in the kitchen would match. We had had a few better quality brands in previous homes, and especially liked our washer and drier. So we went to that brand, which shall go nameless, but let’s just say that said brand might also produce lots of parts found in a Saab. The specs were all great, they looked cool, they matched and we were very excited to have them. At least at first.

Our first problem came when the microwave could not be installed with our stylish staggered cabinets because the venting could not be adapted. So, we had to switch brands. So much for everything matching. At least it was a swell new micro, and included a convection oven. Then in October, a catastrophic failure in the refrigerator flooded our kitchen and basement and required the complete removal and replacement of floors, walls and cabinets (and the granite counters which could not be removed in one piece). We got our kitchen refit, finally, just before Christmas. Then the stove started getting funny. Occasionally, the flames were out of control on the stove top. Then the convection oven stopped convecting. Two service visits later, no improvement. While the manufacturer would not authorize replacement, the retailer, Appliance Warehouse of Seabrook, NH, stepped up and replaced the stove. The owner encouraged us to take another brand, if we would like. We did. I now have a lovely Electrolux stove and it is fine. It doesn’t match the dishwasher or refrigerator, but it doesn’t scorch my pans, drop its oven temperature or fail to engage the convection fan. It’s not as sexy as my previous stove, but it’s still sort of cool. Looking back, I should have stuck with really boring appliances. I’ve cooked plenty of great meals with unremarkable appliances, so why did I feel the need to do anything more?

That brings us back to cars. If we are committed to no appliance cars, how much “character flaw” are we willing to tolerate in the cars we love? There was a time when one had to forego reliability to get character, but that was long ago. Today’s Saabs are extremely reliable and as robust as ever. In fact, we’ve yet to see a NG 9-5 in for any sort of service problems. Remember the old tag line? “We don’t make compromises. We make Saabs.” Today, that is truer than ever.

2011-03-18T12:35:00.004-04:00

If a Tree Falls in the Woods and Nobody Hears it……

In the past week, Steven Wade, aka Swade, of SaabsUnited.com passed the baton to new ownership of his venerable blog as he has moved on to work in interactive media for Saab. The new group has carried on his tradition of providing interesting insights, and all the latest and greatest news from Saab. Recent weeks, at least since the start of the Geneva Autoshow, have been chock full of news from Saab. Today’s big announcements included a good showing by Saab in the US JD Power quality survey, and premium auto component builder ZF (pronounced zed-eff) has entered into a contract with Saab to build subframe and axle assemblies near Trollhattan.

While this may not all be earth-shattering, it is news worthy, and if the Saab cognoscenti are interested in this, so should those who work at Saab dealerships. I am. That’s why I am in the habit of reading Saabsunited and refreshing the page several times a day. However, not every employee here or at other dealers has the time to do this. The one site we do visit and stay on all day is SCNA site called IRIS, where we transact all our business with Saab, and where we derive all our information on service, sales, parts and training. Beyond that, there is a “What’s New” page which will often give news about comings and goings at the company, relay information that’s been in the news about Saab and so on.

I’ve been astounded since the Geneva show that there hasn’t been a single post except to announce the Saab Banner Builder and Story of Saab on Facebook. No mention of the Geneva show and its PhoeniX, 9-5 Combi debut or iQon infotainment system. No mention of Swade leaving Saabsunited to work for Saab. Maybe we all don’t need to be conversant in the ZF deal, but could you imagine a customer coming in and striking up a conversation about Jason Castriota’s PhoeniX being met with a blank stare?

Beyond providing knowledge for the sake of maintaining an educated dealer network, Saab dealers need to maintain their optimism as the brand is being rebuilt. What better way for Saab to trumpet their progress than to post it on the site that all dealerships and almost all their personnel look at daily?! Building our excitement is key in building excitement for Saab owners and prospective buyers. In fact, wouldn’t it be cool if as part of the greater Saab family we heard these things BEFORE the public did.

I’ll get my information, whether Saab puts it on IRIS or not. I just think that Saab needs to recognize what their omission of communication symbolizes to those of us working the trenches. It’s not endearing.

2011-03-11T08:25:00.004-05:00

Monster Fiesta a FrankenSaab

There was a time, especially in Detroit, when you could almost imagine that cars were manufactured in their entirety on location, that raw material went in one end of a giant factory, and complete vehicles popped out the other end. As Saab owners, I think that we understand that automobiles are amalgams of parts made from a variety of sources. We’ve had Saabs with Triumph engines, Ford engines, gearboxes from ZF and Aisin Warner, audio from Clarion and Panasonic and so on.

These days, shared components among manufacturers and partnering in component development is no big news, which brings us to a car driven by Ken Block. Ken Block, founder of DC Shoes, skateboarder / snow boarder / moto-cross racer and now rally driver and gymkhana guru, switched his ride in the last few years from Subaru to a Ford Fiesta. He can been seen racing stateside in Rally America events, including the New England Forest Rally, as well as in some stages of the World Rally Championship series in locales around the globe.

MotoIQ.com did a pictorial piece on Block’s gymkhana Fiesta. The build is amazing, as one might expect. Of course, beyond the Ford Duratec engine and Fiesta chassis, there’s not much Ford about this car. The biggest surprise is the engine management—it comes from Saab! The article doesn’t specify which Trionic version, but it wasn’t too surprising since the car was built in Sweden (probably by a bunch who drive Saabs). Good to see a bit of Saab DNA find its way into such a great car. And it's not just any old DNA--this is a brain transplant!

2011-03-08T11:34:00.003-05:00

Ten Years

I started working in the automobile business in February, 1984 at Porter Chevrolet-Honda-Saab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Initially I sold Chevrolets. By May, I was also permitted to sell Saabs after tutoring by Saab’s Ralph Skinder. My first Saab sale came later that month when I sold my first, a four door 900T automatic in Cherry Red. I would go on be the best Saab salesperson that year at Porter, often selling more than our monthly allotment of cars (and, I would add, at full sticker price plus accessories and options).

I was a victim of my own success. Because of the numbers I had put up, I believe, management changed the pay plan on Saabs, and I promptly quit my position. I had been offered a job selling Toyotas, right here in Watertown after a rather brutal negotiation on a Corolla GT I was trying to buy—we ended up buying a CRX at Porter Honda, where my wife worked. Still, I had impressed the folks at Toyota enough that they offered me a position. When the pay plan change was announced, I gave my notice. When the service manager at Porter, Paul Carter (now a technician here at CRS) heard I was leaving, he convinced me to stay at Porter and to become a service advisor. Second best move I ever made. I was an OK salesperson. I turned out to be a really good service advisor.

In 1989, with Porter having sold its Saab franchise in 1988, I was recruited to work at Charles River Saab and took the position as service advisor. That was the best move I ever made. It’s hard to believe now that it took me more than a week to accept the offer. I continued my work here at Charles River Saab as service advisor until about 2000, when service manager, Tim Martino, pulled me off the service desk and had me functioning as his assistant.

I was happy with the change, and it was a pleasure to be relieved of the daily pressure of working a service desk. I will contend that being a service advisor is far and away the hardest job at any dealership, and the most important. Tim set me up doing a lot of the routine clerical work which any manager must perform. Then he set me to working on various projects, including the very first Swedish Car Day. I think that what he was really doing was grooming me for succession, as he was likely looking to make a change himself, having spent twelve years at CRS, eight of them as the manager. (When Tim was hired as manager in 1993, I was the other finalist for the position. In retrospect, I am so happy that Tim got the position rather than me at that time. I learned a lot from Tim, both from his time as an advisor and as a manager—the guy is brilliant.)

In early 2001, Tim gave his notice. He was going to work at a BMW-Mercedes-Bentley dealer, and he lobbied hard to have me be the next service manager. Thus, on March 1, 2001, ten years ago, this cellist became the service manager at Charles River Saab. As is often the case with such reflection, there are times when it does seem I started yesterday, and at other times it seems a hundred years ago, not ten. My, how the world, Saab and this store have changed.

We still live in the wake of September 11. That event carries its own set of stories which I’ll recount later in the year. The wars, changes in travel, the economy et cetera have all been affected by the fallout of that morning. The effects certainly reverberated throughout the industry and this store.

For Saab, this has been a decade of slow decline. Part of this is clearly as a result of GM’s stewardship, misguided and indifferent as it often was. Our business model was also affected by the fact that cars broke down less and required less maintenance. That, however, coupled with ever declining sales, meant that we had to rethink our paradigm. Thus, on the brink of the pan-economic collapse of 2008, we had already reconsidered our business strategy and started reconstituting this store and my department. Much of this has been painful. We have had to part company with lots of great people, and to their credit, to a person they were gracious as I relieved them of their duties here. Fortunately, we are left with a lean crew which is outstanding in every facet. I am truly blessed to have outstanding management at the helm to guide me, and a tremendously gifted and loyal staff to do my bidding.

It has been holding together this team which has meant the most to me during these years. I have much to be proud of with respect to the events we have pulled off over the years: eleven Swedish Car Days; innumerable Advanced Driver Training dates; clinics galore; celebrations; rallies; a harbor cruise! All of that pales, though, next to the notion of maintaining such a dedicated and talented group of employees, without whom I am nothing.

So here’s to the first ten years. My thanks to Tim Martino for having been my mentor during his tenure and beyond. Thanks also go out to General Manager Dan Leahy, who showed me how to manage effectively in difficult times. I look forward to the next ten, and hope to enjoy the challenge of an ascending Saab.

2011-01-19T15:13:00.008-05:00

Why does a Saab Dealer need a Honda, a Chevrolet and a Caterpillar?

Because Saab doesn’t make snow-throwers, snow plow trucks or bucket loaders. Life in New England means dealing with snow, and over time we have amassed a perfect combination of machines for dealing with keeping our lot cleared. Per square foot, I bet there is no more challenging pavement to plow, and good equipment is vital.

The challenge is less in the snow removal than in the preparation and clean up. Shopping malls? They wait for everyone to go home and push the snow to big piles. Streets? Cars can be a hassle, but otherwise, you just keep pushing with a tipped blade. Our lot? First, we have to remove every car we can. We load the shop to the rafters…literally. Then our roof deck gets filled. And right now, with lots of inventory, our rear lot has dozens of cars which get huddled together. All of this preparation takes place over the course of a few hours with all hands on deck. Then the snow falls, and all that empty asphalt gets plowed clean. Of course, you can only push snow so far, so we end up with large piles in a few locations, and once the plowing is done, the loader comes out and relocates the piles to the main pile in the rear lot. Along the way, we also go out and clear the sidewalks on our block, including our neighbors’. Then the cars come back outside, the cars left outdoors are cleaned and relocated so their lot can be plowed. There is much to do with each storm! To do all this well, we rely on really good machines.

When I took over as Service Manager in 2001, I also assumed the responsibility for snow removal. In those days, the equipment was miserable. We had the same loader, but the plow vehicle was a bent Jeep Cherokee (really bad idea for plowing) and a small John Deere tractor with a snow thrower attachment, which worked only marginally and was never right, no matter how much money we threw at it.

After muddling through with these and other patchwork solutions, we got a real plow vehicle in 2007, a new Chevy Silverado 2500 with a Fisher Minute-Mount plow. This joined the Honda 928 snow blower which we purchased the year before, and of course, we’ve had the 1963 Caterpillar 922B loader ever since we moved to this location in 1987.

While the Chevy and Honda were purchased new, the Caterpillar was inherited. This location, before it was a Saab dealership, was a heavy equipment dealer. I’m not exactly sure how this factored the bargain, but I know that after the blizzard of 1978, many businesses wanted to be sure they could deal with the most dire snow emergency, so I’m sure the owner wanted a big machine for his new, big parking area. Here’s what I know about the loader. Sometime before my tenure, the engine failed and was replaced with a Continental I6 gasoline engine. In the early years of my snow removal career, we did little more than change the oil and add air to the tires. In recent years, we’ve done much more. First, we gave it a paint job with Eastwood rust remediator in silver. The bosses here always complained about how ugly this machine was, and silver really does make it disappear, no mean feat! Then we had the leaking tire replaced. We paid more for that tire than I’ve paid for some of my cars. Then we set about getting it running right. In the last year it has had new plugs, wires, condenser, points, air filter (this stuff was all new-old-stock AC Delco), the heater box rebuilt, plumbing to the heater added with assist from a 9-5 electric coolant pump, the manifolds repaired and gaskets replaced, rebuilt the carburetor, the giant twin 6 volt batteries replaced (took six weeks to get these!), the generator rebuilt…..The extra special amenity we added last year was a 9-5 power seat, complete with power adjustment.

The 922B now runs great. Thanks, Mike Clancy, for all your hard work! There are still issues, like the brakes which have never worked. I am not concerned—the lot is flat and toggling between forward and reverse is quick, and dropping the bucket means a quick stop. I fixed the water that used to pour in on me with lots of RTV, plus an old Born from Jets banner glued to the roof. The Caterpillar is a transport tool for snow. After snow is plowed into piles, the loader comes along and, one bucket full at a time, takes the snow from the smaller piles and puts it in one massive pile in our rear parking lot. There, we stack it as high as possible. The 922B is perfect for this task. I try to be gentle with the old beast, appreciating that it is already living on borrowed time. I let it warm well before setting it to work; I try to limit the abruptness of my maneuvers, and to have a gentle hand on the hydraulics.

There are five levers, three pedals and a steering wheel. The steering is very light, with a large, thin rimmed three spoke wheel, reminiscent of what a bus might have. On the left side of the steering column is the forward-neutral-reverse lever. Next to the seat on the left are two levers, one for 2wd/4wd, and the other for high and low range. On the right side are the levers for the bucket. The pedals? I only use the accelerator since the brakes are inoperative. While I am sure that modern machines with their joysticks are far easier to control for the professional, I like having these large, separated, heavily weighted mechanical controls. It requires that every move I make with this machine is deliberate. If I make a goof with a snow plow, it could cause damage or injury. In the loader, that becomes demolition or death. I’ve only frightened myself once. In my early days of running the 922B, I tried to get my snow pile higher by driving up into the pile itself a bit, then lifting my bucket as high as it would go before dumping. One time, with the bucket fully extended, the snow under the right front wheel gave way, and I thought for sure we were going over, especially with all that weight lifted high and now swinging right! We didn’t go over, and in all likelihood an experienced operator would have thought this was all normal and routine, but it scared me. Now, all four wheels stay on the ground, and the pile is a little lower.

The loader has seen some alternative uses over the years. I have used it to straighten some mighty fence posts and to rescue a beached snow plow. Aside from that, it sleeps all summer and only sees use in winter. For every foot (30 cm) of snow we get, it requires four hours of loader time to transport the snow. So you see, even in years where we get lots of snow, the loader gets very dear use indeed.

The Honda 928 (9 horsepower, 28” swath) has given us good service. We purchased it looking for a machine that would take hard use, clearing sidewalks which are always deep in snow/slush plowed onto the walk from the road. It has hydrostatic drive, and a very robust mechanism to rotate the chute. The engine is a joy, always starts on the second pull, thus obviating the electric start. I have two complaints about the Honda. First, it is tiring to use, requiring lots of effort and body English to wrestle it along walkway. Second complaint is the price. I wanted something here that was reliable and a good performer, so I didn’t mind that this machine was so much more expensive than other machines in its size class. But after living with it several years, I’m not sure if the cost difference, which was nearly 100%, was worth it, mostly because it just works me too hard.

The Silverado is an unqualified success for us at Charles River Saab. A full sized pick-up with an 8’ (2.4 m) plow blade, it is much better suited to wholesale plowing we need as compared to the Cherokee and Jeep Wrangler which preceded it. It is a basic work truck—5.3 liter, automatic, manual windows, rubber floor mats….but the cloth seats are comfortable, the HVAC works perfectly, and radio sounds fine and is manageable while wearing gloves. We’ve had no mechanical faults with the truck or the plow. I noted today that there are 4000 miles on the odometer. This must mean that in reverse, the odometer does not remove miles. If it did, we’d be much closer to zero. Other than the occasional run for building materials or welding supplies, the truck stays parked here except for snow duty. The 4-wheel drive system provides excellent power delivery, and we’ve only gotten it stuck a couple of times.

In all, we are lucky to have these machines. True, if I had to by a snow thrower again, I’d likely consider something else as the premium price for the Honda may not have elicited the value I expected. Then again, if we’re still using the 928 in ten years, I may rethink that point of view. As much as I am not a fan of the General, based on our experience, I would re-up for another Silverado if need be. And the Cat? She’s priceless. Consider this. We just had half of our 25,000 cubic foot (700,000 liter) snow pile removed for $2500. Most years we don’t cart it off at all, we just let melting occur and then reshape the pile until the next storm. Without the loader, every storm would mean having equipment come in. Cost to replace our aged Cat? About $7500. That loader is invaluable, and once you get beyond the fatigue from the exhaust gases and the noise, even with hearing protection, it’s sort of fun to operate….like playing in a big sandbox!

2011-01-07T14:12:00.000-05:00

And to work from Pierre's excellent post, may I add the following bit of praise: Charles River Saab sold the most SAABs of any dealer in the ENTIRE USA for 2010! Granted we are used to platitudes at CRS given our rich history, but selling more than anyone else in America is impressive. Congrats to Armen, David, Doug, Paul and the rest of the sales team. We'll do our part to keep the rebirth of Saab going in 2011...

2011-01-06T08:58:00.001-05:00

My wish for Saab in 2011

2010 saw the rebirth of Saab, and in the infancy of the newly formed company there were many struggles and many fine accomplishments.

For 2011, I have a single wish for Saab. It is borne out of my affection for the brand, and for purely selfish reasons, since I have “skin in the game:” the better Saab performs this year, the better my service department and its employees (including me) will do in years to come. My biggest concern is the declining numbers of Saabs on the road, which has already led to diminution of our department’s size. While cars sold in 2011 won’t have an immediate impact on service business, they certainly help our sales department now, plus these sales sow the seeds of tomorrow’s parts and service business.

My wish for 2011 for Saab? In the US, I would like to see 100,000 test drives. I believe in the current line-up and the new models coming later this year, and am confident that they stack up very well against the competition. I have no doubt that a substantial number of potential buyers would buy the product if they a.) knew about it; b.) were offered a proper walk around; c.) went for a good test drive. Remember the “People who test drive a Saab….” campaign. It was true then and I believe it is true today. There are many obstacles to Saab sales, and I know that we as a brand and as dealers have gotten addicted to the cycle of rebates and dealer incentives to move products. I would rather see (remember, I’m not in sales but I have a stake in all this) those incentives reduced or eliminated, except for certain times of year, and the monies saved applied to getting prospects into showrooms and getting their back-sides into the driver’s seat. Advertise. Incent. Promote. There are folks who do that for a living—give them the money to get prospects behind the wheel.

At that point, it all rests with the dealer and the salesperson. There will be winners and losers, but that’s how markets work. I would think that a 40 percent closing ratio on customers who actually test drive is conservative. That would translate into 40,000 units sold in the US if we could achieve 100,000 test drives. 100,000 sounds like a lot, but is it? I don’t know the exact number of Saab dealers in the US, but lets say it is about 220. That would mean each US dealer would have to get 455 test drives done this year. That’s 9 test drives per week. For dealers open six days a week, that 1.5 road-tests per day. All of a sudden, 100,000 doesn’t sound so large.

There’s my 2011 wish for Saab. For the rest, I wish you all a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!

2010-12-22T14:35:00.005-05:00

Rubbish!

Steven Wade has made the point recently in saabsunited.com that fuel economy numbers are “of the devil.” I took some exception to his contention, because fuel consumption matters to me, especially since I drive 35,000 miles a year. I have given this some more thought, though. Would I drive a Prius? God no, not because it’s a hybrid—it’s the rest of the car which is putrid. I drove a friend’s 2003 9-3 Linear (2.0 175 hp) to work today and noted on the fuel economy readout on SID that I had averaged 36+ mpg, which is about 8 mpg better than I average in my 1992 900T. That’s a healthy 30% increase in mileage, in a car which I like. Would I rather drive the 2003 Sport Sedan over my 900T? No, I like my car better. So while I may not agree with Swade on consumption being of the devil, it is certainly not, in real life terms, as high a personal priority as I might have otherwise contended.

That got me to thinking about other facts and figures. 1985 cc displacement. 160 horsepower. 188 lb ft torque. 16 valves. 9.0 compression ratio. 80 amp alternator. 3.67 final drive. 15” wheels. 99” wheel base. 3.65 turns lock to lock. 2861 lbs. 14.9 cu. ft. trunk capacity. 16.6 gallon fuel tank. Is all this important? No. It is rubbish. The reason I want to drive my car and enjoy it every day has nothing to do with any facts and figures.

The reason I bought this car, and, I suppose, most every Saab I’ve owned, is that I loved the experiences of owning and driving them. I derive some semblance of pleasure or satisfaction, and if I didn’t, I wouldn’t keep on driving these cars. Note that though I’ve owned lots of Saabs, I’ve kept most of them until they were used up, like the 1988 9000T we had, because I enjoyed them to the end. If I had stopped enjoying them, stopped deriving some satisfaction or pleasure from the experience of driving and owning the cars, I would have sold them and moved on.

What does any of that have to do with any of the tangible specifications of the car? Nothing. Specifications are rubbish.

I like looking at all the Saabs in my driveway. Not every Saab is beautiful, but I think we have a handsome collection, from André’s Laser Red 2002 9-3 (even with its bare steel wheels/studded snow tires), to Pascal’s menacing 9000 Aero, to the guys’ SPG project in the garage, to Sue’s quietly understated 9-5, to my flat-out good-looking 900T, replete with 1996 Super CS wheels. Then there are the interiors. Some are better than others, but I enjoy all the interior spaces in a Saab, even with their splendid eccentricities. What does this visual appreciation of a Saab have to do with facts.? Nothing. Facts are rubbish.

All Saabs have a different sort of appeal to them when you drive them. Some are long-legged and prefect on super-highways. Some, like my 900T, are happiest charging the roads less taken. In all Saabs, though, there is something that compels me to stay engaged as a driver. That makes me smile. That experience actually makes me happy. What do happiness and pleasure have to do with weights and measures? Nothing. Weights and measures are rubbish.

I was nearly killed once by a fool in a bald-tired 4Runner who crossed into my lane after hitting black ice. My driver training gave me the instinct to brake and turn away, so an offset head-on crash was turned into a severe glancing blow. Though the glass and airbag turned my face to hamburger (and there is no greater joy than having glass picked out of your eyes), I was essentially unharmed and literally walked away. Do I care that Saabs are equipped with passive and active safety features which I could innumerate which helped save my life? No. Enumeration is rubbish. I’m just happy knowing a Saab is safe and hope I never have to prove it to myself again.

Let the BMW guys talk about 0-60 times. Let the Audi guys talk about RS horsepower. Let the Porsche guys brag about the G-s their 911 or Cayman can pull. I might suggest that Saab try something new. Get rid of all mention of numbers. Number of cylinders? Who cares. Displacement? Ditto. Horsepower and torque figures? Not relevant. Valves? Boost pressure? Brake disc diameter? Rubbish. All you need to know is on the hood: it’s a Saab. Saab should simply invite people to drive the cars, customers should pick the Saab they like and forget all that irrelevant minutiae. Minutiae is rubbish!

Apply this notion elsewhere. When I drink a wine, I want to enjoy it. I care not a wit what Parker score it has, the year, or frankly, the appellation or varietal. If I like the wine, I like the wine. If I don’t, off it goes into the cooking pot. Do I care that in my favorite recording of Lohengrin, that 40 trumpets were employed? No. But I am stirred when Roger Voisin puts the horn to his lips and vanquishes every other musician in Symphony Hall. Do I judge a chocolate by the cocoa’s country of origin, or the cocoa content percentage? No. Just take me to the Maison du Chocolat and let me eat it all because it’s that good.

At the end of the day, in my Saab, I smile when I step on the accelerator. I smile when I carve a corner. I rejoice in knowing that a Saab saved my life. I’ve long stopped thinking in quantifiable ways about the total experience of a car. Either I relish that experience, or I don’t. Every other consideration is…..rubbish.

2010-12-09T12:14:00.005-05:00

Musings on the 2010 Boston Auto Show

I had long ago become bored with the Boston Auto Show. There was rarely anything compelling to see, and the production value of this show has always been a bit meager. I did attend last year, with my only motivation being that I wanted to see the 9-5. I feared that if the Saab sale collapsed, and there was plenty of concern at that time, that it might be my only chance to ever see the car we had heard so much about. I was impressed not only with the car but the entire Saab display, as it was clearly the only bright spot in an otherwise depressing show.

I believe that prior to 2009, the last Boston Auto Show I attended was in 1998 or 1999 at the Bayside Expo Center, when Saab had the area closest to the main entrance, and the focal point of their display was the pair of offset-crashed 9-5 sedans, with a loop of the video running behind the cars. That was an attention-getter.

While I had some curiosity about the 9-4x, I didn’t feel all that compelled to attend the show. However, with a 14 year old car nut at home, I thought it would make a nice outing to take him and my wife, Susan, and we arranged to attend on Saturday. As Saturday approached, we got a calls from sons André and Pascal, who informed us they would drive in from Amherst to see the Auto show, so we had a rare outing where the entire family participated.

First Things First
I made a bee-line to the Saab display. It wasn’t hard to find. The SAAB sign was hanging high enough to be seen from almost everywhere in the convention center. My reactions to the display, which I had heard much about:
It was visually compelling and the most engaging and attractive display, again, at the BAS.
The goofy leaf blower and video wall were good additions to the display.
The illuminated white floor totally transforms the display.
The cars looked fabulous. I’ve always liked white Saabs. Owned several. In this setting, they were brilliant.

The 9-4X in black sounded like a good idea to offset it from the current cars….but I just didn’t like it. I did not like the wheels. They will be fine for a production car, but I think at a show you want to dress your cars in their Sunday-best. I was put off that of all the cars, this one was locked. I know that Luke and others got inside, so I don’t know what the deal was.

The rest of the time in the Saab display was spent eavesdropping. There were a lot of people at the display, crawling in and out of cars. I heard many positive comments, few negatives. People couldn’t help themselves around the white Aero convertible. That car is just plain sexy; we had one in the show room and I never tired of looking at it. I tried taking a rest in one of the poofy swivel chairs they had in front of the video wall. Uncharacteristically, they were miserable to sit in, as squishy comfortable as they looked. It was while I was sitting there, though, that I heard something that gave me more hope than anything else at the show. A child walked up to his parents and proclaimed, “Saabs are REALLY cool.” Kids know when an emperor has no clothes, and are not fooled by masquerade. I agree with that kid. When you stopped and looked at the product, relative to all the other mass production cars at the show, the Saabs did come off as being quite cool.

Back Seats
Youngest son Marcel, though soon to be of driving age, turned his attention to passenger accommodations and managed to climb into the rear seat of seemingly every car at the show. With the peak crowd, it was hard to get seat time at the wheel, so his plan made some sense, and he started to formulate rankings of cars’ rear seats. Marcel’s criteria included the comfort of the seat (he is 5’8”), the comfort of the armrest, the appearance of the door panel, and the equipment provided. I think his choices are surprising, but knowing him and his deliberate and contemplative methodology, I am sure he would easily defend his choices.

The Marcel Awards for Rear Seating are:
Best Overall Rear Seat: Cadillac CTS-V Wagon (9-5 was second—he cared not for the armrest or styling of the door panel)
Most Comfortable Rear Seat: Subaru STi Sedan
Best Rear Seat for a Long Trip: Hyundai Equus

Biggest Gaff
Speaking of the Equus, I was interested to see this car. I have no interest in that sort of car, but along with many others I have been impressed with the meteoric rise of Hyundai and the quality of their portfolio. [Impressed, but not surprised. A few years ago, one of the companies where I do crash prevention training supplemented their fleet of Volvo S40s with four Kia Spectra Sports. The instructors all looked askance at these cars. However, we grew to like these cars a lot. While not quite as nice a place to spend the day as the S40, they were easy fun to drive, and stayed together nicely. That’s when I knew that the Koreans were verging on a break-out, which has now arrived.] As we walked through the Hyundai display, we did not spot the car. How could you miss a car like that, right? I thought I spotted the car, but then noted it was under a large Nissan sign, so that couldn’t be it. Or could it? When we finally walked across the display, in fact, there was the Equus, right under a Nissan sign. Nisaan had set up a wall around their exhibit with pictures and logos all over the exterior. The Hyundai display abutted this wall, and the Hyundai flagship happened to be right under a Nissan logo. Shame on them! That car should have been in the forefront of the display, not stuffed into a corner!

Sexy Cars
I commend the dealerships who brought their exotics to the show. The most gasp-inducing car there was the Aston Martin Rapide. It was across the isle from the Maserati Quattroporte, another of my favorites. The Rapide, though, takes the same concept and cranks it over the top. I did like the R8 convertible. A lot. With so many manufacturers making really boring (if competent) cars these days, it’s nice to see one making the effort to stretch and make interesting and exciting cars, even if they are a dreaded competitor.

Single Best Idea I Wish Saab had Thought of
In the Subaru display, there was a placard announcing their “Badge of Ownership” program. Subaru will provide owners with the badge, which in the center displays how many Subbies you’ve owned, and on the wing displays the lifestyle message you want to share—100k miles, 200k miles, Rally, cycling, etc…and this badge affixes to the rear of the car. Good stuff. Good enough to copy!

Most Over the Top
The Cadillac Escalade, with its folding running boards and FIVE video screens screamed excess like nothing else at the show.

Most Disappointing Manufacturer
Honda. I used to really like Hondas. Last new car I bought was a Honda Wagon in 1987. Then I had kids….Honda never had attractive cars, but there was always something good about the design, and the interiors were intrinsically easy to acclimate too, even if the seats were horrid. But now? Honda, including Acura, seems to have two styling modes: dreadfully boring, and ghastly. Most of the Honda cars fit into the boring category. Civic? Yuk. Accord? Yawn. The Acuras are most ghastly. I thought that perhaps the visual insult would stop if I got inside one of them, so I got behind the wheel of a ZDX. The interior was laughably ugly.

Worst Steering Wheel
I don’t go around grading steering wheels. In fact, most steering wheels, even in boring cars, are rather good, so you usually only notice the exceptionally good ones. The base Chevy Camaro has the single worst steering wheel I have put my hands on in years, especially in light of the car it was in. The wheel is off centered or bulbous on top, so the radius at 12:00 is much greater than at 6:00. The rim of the wheel is thick front to back, but really thin from the inner edge to the outer, almost like grabbing a bicycle rim. The cross bar is too low. The material is of the worst plastic. By contrast, the 6-speed shift knob was wrapped in leather and had a nice tight throw. I hate the whole car anyway, but there is no excuse for such a lousy steering wheel.

Overall the Boston Auto Show is a bit of a snooze. Many of the cars on display were boring—manufacturers could have done a better job in bringing better wares. The show itself lacked any overall charisma, and the Convention Authority was remiss in allowing for such long queues to buy tickets while not having the staff to open all the available ticket windows. Still, our family had an enjoyable outing, and I saw enough to make me think I’ll want to go again next year.

2010-12-08T07:17:00.003-05:00

Breaking and Entering at Saab Headquarters

I am a member of the Saab Cars North America Aftersales Vision Team, which is a group of service managers, general mangers, dealers and SCNA employees who meets once a month on a teleconference to exchange ideas and concerns regarding Saab service and parts. At our November meeting, it was decided that we would have an in-person meeting in January in Detroit. I just got through contacting Gary Dagesse, who is in charge of the group, asking him to try to move the location of the meeting from the Westin hotel at the airport to the SCNA headquarters in Royal Oak. I want to see the Mother Ship!

I had been to the Saab Cars USA (as it was then known) headquarters in Norcross, Georgia a few times. The last time was as part of the same Vision Team in 2001. In those days, many of the meetings were held in person, and only a few by phone (teleconferences weren’t quite as easy then) and this worked well until 9/11, when non-essential travel everywhere came to a stop.

The most fun I ever had at the Norcross location was my first visit there. In the mid-1990’s Saab initiated a program called “Saab Way.” The first year was the most intense. Every manager and service advisor was required to attend, and the session was four or five days long (in later years the program was truncated). Beyond indoctrination into the pillars of the brand and its history, there was a lot of time spent on team building. Anyone out there remember the “trust fall?” Saab Way was presented in the Saab training facility not far from the corporate office. However, we were never invited to see the Mother Ship, and our hotel was some distance away and we were carted from hotel to training facility in a shuttle bus.

The second year, I attended with Einar Fjeldallen, a former technician at Charles River Saab who was the newly appointed Service Manager at our Framingham Saab location (later to become Saab City Framingham, which closed in 2007). We both felt that we wanted to take the opportunity to see the corporate offices. While the Saab Way schedule was tight during the day, once 5:00 came we were on our own. That year we had rented a car, so we drove ourselves to the International Way to find Saab Cars USA (SCUSA, to insiders). When we arrived, the front door was locked and there was no receptionist, but we could see lights on in the building. We wandered to the back and found a loading dock door open and went inside. There we found a very nicely appointed repair facility, and we could see three gentlemen hovering over a convertible. We then found our way into the offices where we were greeted by those working the phones in the Customer Assistance Center—it was still business hours on the west coast. They were very cordial and showed us around the place. We were both taken at how small it was!

Einar and I went back to the shop and introduced ourselves to the men looking at the convertible. They were engineers from Sweden. Rather young, and looking perturbed; not by our presence, but at trouble they were having with the car. Einar chimed in, with his heavy Norwegian accented English.
“Do you need some help?”
“How to remove DICE (dashboard integrated central electronic module)?” one of the engineers responded with a very thick Swedish accent.
“Give me the screw driver,” Einar responded, not wanting to give them any actual information.
Einar reached under the dash, a few quick turns, and DICE was in his hands. He handed it to the Swedes with a smile that reeked of disdain.

I know that Norwegians are not always fond of Swedes, and Einar had told me lots of stories about his time working for Saab as a field engineer in Norway, and I think he had had issues over the years with various engineering types from Trollhattan. He absolutely delighted in the belittling of these guys. Afterward, we all chatted and had a lovely time, and if memory serves me well I think they joined us at the hotel bar that night..

Hopefully, seeing the SCNA headquarters in Royal Oaks will not require such surreptitious maneuvers on my part this time around. If I am able get there, I will be reporting on my visit!
(photo courtesy of saabhistory.com)

2010-12-01T09:36:00.002-05:00

Commuting in a 2010 9-5 = Joy!

Now that we have some 9-5 Aeros in loaner service (special conditions apply to these loaners—see our service advisors for details), I have had the opportunity to do a real life evaluation over the course of my substantial commute.

My initial impressions have held up. The power train is first rate. The V6 engine always feels strong, and automatic gearbox, other than some slightly odd feeling downshifts, works very well in tandem with the engine, and together they really feel "of a piece.” Steering is fabulous. Same for the Aero seats. I did experiment with the thigh extensions. As short as I am, I still benefitted from the extended support. Audio sounds great. Chassis solidity and quiet are still impressive, and I love the bias of the suspension.

I will admit that I did prefer the “Comfort” setting in Drive Sense as it diminished the thwap from expansion joints on I-93 and the banging from the potholes around Boston's suburbs. I can’t say that I ever felt any deterioration of handling in this mode, and would likely have to be driving in a really spirited (stupid?) way to realize any difference. Once in New Hampshire, where the pavement is just plain better (someone will have to explain this to me), I did switch out to “Sport,” and when I got on a twisty back road for the last ten miles of my commute, I kept switching modes and couldn’t tell any difference in the handling. Again, I wasn’t driving anywhere near the limit of the car or my sensibility.

After 120 miles in the car, I do have a few more thoughts. I do like that when the climate control is managed, that the display on the infotainment system displays the change, helping to keep your eyes high. I am not completely keen on the array of switches. Night Panel was hidden from view (a Saab tradition to hide some switches from view), and the HVAC controls were just too small. I like the HUD more than I thought I would. Steerable headlamps, on twisty, dark roads are wonderful. I like controls on the steering wheel, so that hands can be kept at 9 and 3 at all times. However, I don’t like that the information display in the center of the speedometer requires a twist on the end of the directional stalk to change screens. That said, the display is terrific. It reminds me of the display on the 9000, only better. I could do without the third speedometer, though that one will please fans of the early Toronado. I do like having a volt meter, and especially like the fuel consumption screen with both instant and average consumption displayed together.

My only ergonomic complaint is with the dead pedal. It is just too small. I have smallish, if wide, feet. Yet, I always felt like my left foot was falling off the pedal. There is plenty of room between it and the brake pedal, so I wonder why it was left so narrow. In an emergency or evasive maneuver, I wonder if I would be able to plant my left foot hard on that pedal. Perhaps Hirsch will have a fitment that will resolve this.

Lastly, my fuel consumption was reasonable. This was a complete mix of driving. Getting to and from the interstate from Charles River Saab involves heavy, slow traffic. Then thirty five miles on the interstate, followed by seventeen miles of state highway and back roads driven at moderate speeds with few stops. I averaged 25.3 miles per gallon. By comparison, the other cars in our household, all four cylinder Saabs, most with manual transmission, will average around 28 miles per gallon. Given the heft of this car, the larger engine, automatic transmission and XWD, it’s a surprisingly small penalty.

The final test was to have Mrs. Belperron sample the car. She was instantly complimentary of the seats. This is no mean feat. Having previously owned a 9000 Aero (which will spoil you—if you’ve owned one you know what I mean), she doesn’t usually get enthusiastic about seats in the cars I bring home. She’s also driven Saabs for so long that she doesn’t realize that compared to other cars, all Saab seats are wonderful. But the 2010 seat was a standout—well done. She also liked the steering wheel feel. She generally liked the car and the substance it conveyed. Having the opportunity to be a passenger at night, I noted that the door handles and foot-wells have a faint glow of green light—nice and unexpected touch. Youngest son Marcel, who has spent much time in the back seat of many Saabs, said he was very comfortable and that the size difference between our 9-5 and the 2010 was noticeable. I did try sitting there, and can state that with the exception of the outboard rear seats in a 9000 Aero, that this is the most comfortable rear seat I’ve experienced in a Saab.

Next, I must sample the 2.0 version of this car!

2010-11-17T15:05:00.002-05:00

This Saab Lover's Favorite Road Tunes

I spend a lot of time in the car, and most of that time the radio is on. I’m a bit old-fashioned, and drive an old-fashioned car with an original radio, so it is broadcast radio. I will confess that most of the listening is to talk and news programs. Usually, the news programs get me depressed and the talk shows get me irritated after too much of either. I do like the Saturday fare on the local NPR station—Car Talk, This American Life, Wait-Wait Don’t Tell Me—but that doesn’t help with the 125 miles a day of commuting Monday through Friday. So at some point during my ride, I will resort to music. Ah, but what music?

Some might be surprised that in the car I don’t listen to much classical music, despite my being a cellist. There is a preset on my radio and I will occasionally check what’s on, but rarely will stop and listen (though I was treated last week when I happened upon Arensky’s Variations on a Theme by Tchaikovsky which I adore). I do have a nifty iPod set up for the 900, and Marcel has been kind enough load it up for tunes he thinks his dad wants to hear. He did a great job, and there is little I would cull. Mostly, I just set the shuffle and let the tunes spin out, occasionally hitting the skip button.

Sometimes, though, there is a craving for a particular song/artist to compliment the driving you are doing or want to do, not unlike deciding that you want a particular wine for a particular meal. All driving is not the same, so my favorite road tunes come down to two categories: tunes for spirited driving, and tunes for “sensuous” driving. By spirited driving, I don’t mean fast or stupid. I do mean, though, that you are focused, full of positive energy, and really engaged in the drive. By sensuous driving, I am referring to those occasional drives when things are more relaxed, you open the windows, open the sunroof or lower the top, take note of the scenery, the smells, the sounds….warm summer nights with starry skies are perfect for this. Different drives. Different music.

Picking favorite anything is hard, because you know you’ll leave something out. With apologies to those artists and songs I have forgotten, here are the bizarre selections that I enjoy when driving my Saabs.

For spirited driving:
Artists—
Foo Fighters
Cake
Weezer
Green Day
Apocalyptica
Offspring
Korn

Songs—
Own Worst Enemy, Lit
Flagpole Sitta, Harvey Danger
Octet for Strings, Felix Mendelssohn
Souvenir de Florence, Peter I. Tchaikovsky
Honey White, Morphine
Demain le Monde, Patrick Bruel
Amsterdam, Guster
Tubthumper, Chumbawumba
Politically Correct, SR-71

For sensuous driving:

Artists—
Portishead
Cesaria Evora
Patricia Kaas
Simon and Garfunkel
Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto

Songs—
Elsa’s Procession [Lohengrin], Richard Wagner
Stewball, Hugues Aufray
Untouchable Face, Ani deFranco
Rouge, Fredericks, Goldman and Jones
Good Vibrations, Beach Boys
Blurry, Puddle of Mudd
Les Berceaux, Yves Montand
Holberg Suite, Edvard Grieg

2010-11-15T10:30:00.005-05:00

Wood

I like wood. I like it a lot. I appreciate the various wood in my life, from the stands of hemlock, oaks and maples in my yard, to the wood inside my home, to the instruments I play, to the wood inside a car. I don’t want to see it everywhere, but I want to see it.

While there is much wood in my home, I am not the sort who would want to see every floor, wall, door, window casing and stick of furniture in wood with the grain revealed. Too much for me. I do enjoy, though, my oak floors (though my favorites were fir floors in a former home), maple cabinets, and even the birch-veneered IKEA furniture. I like wooden baseball bats, and I swear a preferred (when I played tennis) a wooden tennis racket to any composite or metal. There are places I don’t want to see wood, however, like a bathroom, and wooden cutting boards give me the creeps.

Playing an instrument like the cello gives you a different perspective on wood. To spend so much time with so much of your body connected to all that wood really makes you rather intimate with it. I love all the wood on those instruments, from the rosewood used on pegs and tailpieces, to the ebony fingerboards, the spruce of the top, and most of all the maple used for the back, ribs, neck and scroll. Here is the back of a cello made by a friend of mine, luthier Gary Davis. Even if the exquisite shape doesn’t turn you on, how can anyone resist the beauty of that flaming maple?

In the previous post I complained about the “wood” in the 2011 9-5. Saab could have and should have done better. Consider a 1990’s 9000 with a wood dash. To my eyes, this wood compliments the colors and textures found in the rest of the interior, and amplifies the luxury and beauty of the interior. The particular hue and grain are a favorite of mine, but this is not to say that Saab couldn’t find a different look for the 9-5 that would be just as complimentary and attractive.

2010-11-10T13:39:00.014-05:00

Aesthetics Matter
Cars can be viewed and judged from many perspectives: performance; comfort; safety; economy; reliability; utility; and appearance. Our first 2011 9-5’s arrived today, and the first one which I came across made some “first impressions” on me. Since I didn’t drive the car, I gauged my reactions purely on how I perceived the car through visual and tactile experience.

Since I had spent some time in a 2010 9-5, I was eager to focus on the differences. When I first saw the car, technicians had the hood opened, and I went to join them to check out the business end of the 9-5. This was the “Turbo-4” variant. First impression under the hood: this looks AWFUL. The top of the engine has a completely goofy looking plastic bonnet adorning it. It looks especially ridiculous because the ribs in the center are lateral, as if to mimic the intake runners in a longitudinal engine. Perhaps worse is the front face of the engine, which is unadorned has an appearance that makes me think the engineers were expecting it to be covered; it ought to be. Once the cover is

lifted off the engine, things actually improve. I like a purposeful look, and even the ungainly, messy frontal area recedes a bit once all that nice cast aluminum is exposed. It is clear that there is a purpose to the engine hat—there is a fair amount of insulation inside, ostensibly to diminish unwanted engine noise. By comparison, the 9-3 2.0 has a cover, but only to hide those ugly bits on the front of the engine. The cam cover blends right into this, and again, all that cast aluminum looks lovely. Thumbs down on the Turbo-4 engine bay!

Upon entering the 2011 9-5, my eyes were first drawn to the console and the shifter for the six-speed transmission. It is beautiful, and feels great. High marks for tactile heft and shape. (I did note, and this was echoed by a technician, that the reverse lockout knob on the front side of the shifter does have a rather sharp edge to it which is not pleasant to the touch.) Then I got to looking around. This car has the pale beige-taupe-parchment-butter cream color which I do not like. To make matters worse, that color is carried to the carpeting. Nightmare. I can’t imagine living with an interior where I felt I had to remove my shoes (though driving barefoot is a guilty pleasure) lest I stain the flooring. This car is brand new, and from just the transport personnel, look at the condition of the foot-well.

Another change for 2011 is the addition of wood-grained material on the dash, console and doors. I like wood. I’m a cellist; I appreciate beautiful wood handled in an artistic way. I like wood in a car. I don’t like fake wood. Saabs of old, say, 2001 and earlier, used a beautiful wood sealed in epoxy. More recent cars have had fake wood, albeit pretty good. The material in the 2011 9-5, especially in the shapes to which it is modeled, is so clearly plastic as to verge on the offensive. If this were a Rolls or Bentley, I might believe that hunks of wood were carved into exotic shapes for the application on the console. Not only does the shaping of this plastic convince one that the material is not wood, but the seams in the console pieces have gaps which amplify the tawdry result. Even the Lacrosse handles the fake wood thing better.

This interior had a cocoa brown color to compliment the butter-cream of the doors, carpets and seats. My only complaint here is that the application of the brown goes too far. I rather like it on the dash top, and maybe even on parts of the console. I’m not so sure about the steering wheel. I know, though, that when you start to bathe everything in a color, down to the dash vents, their toggles, the clamshell on the steering column, and even the wiper/directional switches, that this is too much. I can only think that as the years go by, between the brown and cream colors, that the interior will look dreadful much before its time.

Lastly, I discovered a nifty storage container on the left knee pad of the dash. This was a disappointment, not because it looks cheap--it looks fine. But when unlatched it swings down with a thud, with no dampening at all. That makes it feel cheap in a way that would barely acceeptable in a Camry, let alone a Saab.

The next step for me will be to drive one of these front wheel drive, Turbo-4 9-5s. There, I’m sure, I’ll have much less carping to do. While I have done nothing but complain here, I should mention that the overall effect of the interior is still handsome and the cockpit would be a lovely place to spend time. These quibbles are with details, and while the details aren’t everything, they do matter. A lot.

2010-11-03T12:30:00.001-04:00

Ralph Bockoven adds to his Saab stable

At Swedish Car Day in 2008, our own intrepid Ralph Bockoven was approached by Andy Pickett, who admired Ralph’s Sonett and invited Ralph to check out his Saab, a beautiful 1971 96. Ralph was smitten. The car was identical to Ralph’s first Saab, right down to the mink silver color, though Ralph’s hand-me-down 96 was nowhere near as beautiful as this example. As they spoke, they came to realize that they had gone to high school together in Lincoln, where Andy still lives. When Andy learned that Ralph was a technician and well versed in vintage Saabs, he asked Ralph if he’d be willing to do some work for him in the future.

The call came one day. The clutch hydraulics had lost their integrity, and the 96 was delivered to Ralph’s home for inspection and repair. As Ralph spent time repairing the clutch and a few other miscellaneous problems, and came to appreciate this car’s condition. It was flawless. The car had 32,000 miles on it. Andy had owned it since 2002, and drove it almost not at all. There were two previous owners, including, it is believed, the original dealer (who we have not yet been able to identify) who apparently kept the in his showroom for many years, and subsequent owner who cared for the car well and used it as a daily driver.

Ralph commented to Andy that should the day come when he wanted to part with the car, Ralph would entertain its purchase. That day came just recently. Andy had decided to sell the car to purchase another toy. He had received an offer from someone who intended to cut the car up for its many fine parts. When Ralph was offered the car, he couldn’t match the lofty price offered by the other bidder, but convinced Andy that rather than see that car destroyed, it would be preferable for it to have a good steward. None could be better than Ralph.

Ralph is now the proud and happy owner of this 96.

2010-11-03T09:59:00.003-04:00

Two of my favorite films, both set in my favorite city

Trying to pick a favorite movie is like trying to pick a favorite food: there are just too many favorites from which to choose. But if you narrow the field to movies with great automobile presence, it starts to be easier to pare one’s selections. There are lots of great movies which showcase cars and have great chase scenes, but two of my favorite are C’était un Rendezvous by Claude Lelouche, and John Frankenheimer’s Ronin.

I discovered Ronin in the late 1990s. Our family had been making due with a 20” television, and with the advent of larger, flat and 16:9 screens, we decided it might be time to update a bit. I went into the Tweeter store (Tweeter, before its demise, had long been on my list of favorite retailers) in Harvard Square (or HV2, as the Tweeter insiders referred to the location) to explore what was new in television. As I went from screen to screen, some conventional tube, some projection, I came to a widescreen television that caught my attention; not because of the quality of the picture, but because there was a BMW tearing through Paris, being chased by a Peugeot driven by Robert DeNiro with Jean Reno at his side. I was transfixed. A salesman came by, saw my interest, and offered to start the scene again. I think we watched it another time or two, and finally I asked him what it was. I left Tweeter knowing two things: I was going to buy a widescreen television, and I was going to buy Ronin. Within weeks I had both.

Watching the entire movie brought additional surprises. More cool chase scenes, and lots of views of Paris and Nice. That would have done it for me right there. But there was more. In fact, this movie had everything going for it: directed by John Frankenheimer, screenplay by David Mamet, starring Robert DeNiro, Jean Reno (my favorite French tough-guy actor), Natascha McElhone and automotive stars including a BMW M5, Audi S8, a Mercedes 6.9, and a Citroën XM. Intrigue, fire-fights, deception, betrayal, and yes, the fabulous chase scenes, all make for a delightful cinematic escape.

If one knows Paris, there is some humor in watching the BMW chase scene. While the scenes flow nicely together, when one studies the locations of various scenes, which as sewn together look contiguous, they create a path through Paris which would be impossible to navigate without the aid of worm holes. This was pointed out to me by my cousin, Jean-Philippe, who grew up in the 8th Arrondissement and knows Paris even better than I do. Of course, once I realized this, I spent too much time figuring out the hopscotch, when I should have just enjoyed the show. Some things you just shouldn’t over think!

Here’s a teaser, the scene that first got my attention. Watch it here if you’d like. But do yourself a favor—go find Ronin and watch it on a big screen with a great sound system.

C’était un Rendezvous (1976) is a different sort of film. Nine minutes long. No actors. No dialogue. Even the car which is the star never appears on screen. The premise is simple: a car is driven through Paris from the Boulevard Périphérique / Porte Dauphine to the steps of Sacré Coeur, in under nine minutes. One take. No edits. One camera, mounted on the front bumper of the unseen car. The opening has a statement which declares that no tricks or acceleration of the action were used in creating the film.

If you’ve never scene C’était un Rendezvous, hang on. I have not seen it in DVD, but even on the small screen it is breath-taking. If you don’t know about the movie, don’t read about it first. You’ll have lots of curiosity, as I did, and if you research too hard and long, you may walk away a bit disappointed when you discover the “man behind the curtain.” There is great legend and debate surrounding this film. What was the car? Who was the driver? Was Lelouche really arrested after the first screening? Who cares? Just watch the film! If you’ve ever driven in Paris, you’ll be especially impressed. The making of C’était un Rendezvous was perhaps the most egregiously irresponsible and sociopathic act (try counting the red lights which are blown through) ever taken by a film maker. Even knowing now that nobody was hurt or killed, can we imagine that anyone would ever have the insane creative courage to do something like this again?

2010-10-15T13:39:00.002-04:00

The Forgotten Saab

I noted at the most recent Swedish car Day that there was one car absent from Saab’s recent history—the first generation 9000. While the occasional heavily modified one might show up at some Saab events, these cars have largely disappeared from the landscape. Many in this area would have suffered rust problems, especially in the rear quarter panels and the doors. The 9000 was also just complicated and expensive enough to repair to scare some off. Perhaps the biggest reason these cars are forgotten is that they are overshadowed by the 1993-1998 9000, especially in Aero trim, which has become a darling of enthusiasts.

I recall that when the 9000 debuted, there was a hew and cry that it was not a “real” Saab. It had a transverse engine, a transmission mounted off the end of the engine instead of underneath it, MacPherson struts, and—horror of horrors—the ignition cylinder on the steering column cover. Still, there was plenty which did look familiar. The engine was the same 2.0 liter engine found in the 900, the solid rear axle with 4 links and a Panhard rod was similar, many of the switches, the steering wheel and the basic design of the seats were also carried over.

What carried over most of all was the way the car embodied the Saab brand pillars. It was safe. It was fun to drive. It was fuel efficient. It was comfortable. It was practical. In every respect, the 9000 carried out those traits better than any Saab which preceded it. Plus, it was enormous inside, while still shorter overall than the 900. It got better mileage than the 900. The 9000 had electronic gadgets never before seen in a Saab. It was just plain better in every measureable way, and in many subjective ways as well.

Not only was the 9000 the best Saab of its day; it might have been the very best all around car on the road. This was 1986. Manufacturers were just starting to figure out how to take all the restrictions created by emissions laws and turn them into performance features. Saab already had that one figured out. Have a modern Bosch fuel management system, install an APC managed turbo, and all of a sudden you have a car that will outrun not only every BMW and Mercedes, but most Porsches as well. Fold that rear seat down, and your BMW killer suddenly swallowed things like couches and refrigerators. All the while, you enjoy mixed driving fuel economy in the 20’s and get 30 or more mpg on the highway. The seats were the quintessential iteration of Saab seat design. Having just a bit more thigh support than the 900, these seats allowed one to travel endlessly in comfort.

One of my favorite stories regarding the 1986 9000 came from a customer. He recounted how he was on his way to New York, and was travelling on I84 between Massachusetts and Hartford. For those who don’t know the route, it is wide, has some curves, and long straights over rolling hills. And lots of sneaky enforcement. Our intrepid customer, tempted by power and stability of his new 9000 and lots of endless pavement, opened it up over the rolling hills. As he crested a hill, with the speedometer needle long past the final marking (135mph), there was a Connecticut state trooper with his radar gun. Knowing he’d been had, our customer let off the throttle, slowed down and pulled off into the breakdown lane to await his doom. Eventually, the police car pulled in behind him. As the trooper approached the car, he bellowed, but not what you’re thinking. “What the hell kind of car is this?” he wanted to know. “Do you know how fast you were going?” Yes officer, about 140. The trooper was more interested in the car than he was about writing a citation. Our customer gave the trooper a walk-around of the car, opened the hood, etc. The officer was duly impressed. At the end of their encounter, he advised our Saab driver that he really had to slow down, thanked him for the information on the car, and let him drive away without so much as a warning! There’s a lesson there, I’m just not sure what it is.

2010-10-07T13:23:00.004-04:00

The (not so) Good Old Days
At times on various blogs and Saab fan sites, there is a wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth over the lack of distinction in the current Saab line-up. The cars look ordinary (if handsome) compared to Saabs of old, there is too much GM in current cars, Saabs need to be hatchbacks…..the complaints are bountiful.

Let us not forget, though, the price we paid for having such “distinction” in our old Saabs. No one can question my adoration of the Classic 900. I’ve lost count of how many I’ve owned, and a 1992 900T is my current ride, so I know of what I speak. As much as I love the 900, one of its distinctions was the litany of common problems those cars had, many of which we are inured to when looking back at those cars through rose-colored glass.

I’ve compiled a list of favorite complaints for the Classic 900. I experienced these not just as a service advisor, but as an owner:

· Heater control valves. They liked to fail in two ways. In the summer, they wouldn’t shut off so you always had heat. At any time, they might decide to leak coolant all over your feet and pedals.
· Ignition lock cylinders. Real Saabs have to have them between the seats, right? In the 900, with its funnel down to the cylinder, it meant that every bit of dust, dirt and moisture found its way into the cylinder, and eventually they would stick or seize. The best failures were the ones where the key stuck in the start position—if this ever happened to you, you might recall that your radio, wipers and other electrical devices wouldn’t work, there would be an odd noise, then a cloud of smoke and the car would stop and not be able to start because the starter motor had stayed engaged and spun along until it fried.
· Exciter wires to the alternator broken. You’d be driving along, and slowly you’d lose all electrical power and the car would die. Your only clue might have been that the battery light on the dash didn’t illuminate when you started the car. Even better, if the battery light bulb was out, you got the same result: stuck on the side of the road.
· Water pumps. Saw lots of these fail at 40,000 mile intervals.
· Noisy engine drive belts.
· Steering rack failures. These got better over time, but the early ones all suffered from “morning sickness.”
· Parking brakes that stick. This was on the 1979-1987 900, which had the parking brake on the front wheels. The pivot in the caliper would eventually stick, and the parking brake would not release, thus causing damage to the pads and discs.
· Those early brakes also liked to clunk during parking maneuvers, especially in reverse.
-If the brake calipers didn't clunk, then the front wheel bearings would from shifting.
· Cruise control. Disengagement switches on the pedals were always out of adjustment or just failed.
· Speaking of pedals, was there ever another car where the linkage pivot on the clutch pedal wore so severely that the clutch wouldn’t disengage, thus forcing replacement of the pedal and linkage?
· Oil leaks. They leaked from everywhere.
· Headgaskets. Some variants were worse than others, with the 2.1 l being the worst for leaking coolant.
· Wiper racks. The cable would break and render the left wiper dead.
· Power window switches. These accumulated lots of dirt, and eventually the points in them would burn up, or the switches would just stick in one position or the other.
· The universal joint on the steering column would seize and make steering heavy and eventually impossible.
· Horn buttons. I don’t know how many hundreds of these we replaced.
· Taillamp circuit boards. On sedans, these would overheat from poor grounding and melt, thus causing comical combinations of lighting.
· Rattles. Some of the later cars weren’t too bad, but in the 1980s? There were hatch rattles, rear seat-back rattles, the support rod on the rear parcel shelf in the sedan, creaking door seals…..
· Pinion bearings. These failed at an alarming rate until a redesign made them more robust, and required rebuilding the transmission.
· Antenna masts. Always broken. On the power antennas, the masts would break internally, they wouldn’t retract, and then they’d get broken. Does anybody even notice that cars don’t have antennas any more?
· Bent wheels. I don’t know what alloy was used in those days, but it was soft as butter, and more cars than not had bent wheels, and this was before the days of low profile tires.
· Bumper extensions and bumper trim strips that came off during routine contact.

This isn’t to say that modern Saabs don’t suffer failures, but they occur far less frequently. We can see it in our data, that each Saab in service comes in for repair and maintenance fewer times per year. So why did we love the classic 900, with all its warts? Because it was, and is, one of the most visceral of driving experiences, and always engaged the driver’s senses. From the unique smell of the interior (if you owned one, you know what I mean), to the mechanical sounds of the power-train, to the feel of the steering, brakes, clutch and shifter, the 900 was like nothing else. Some sports cars may achieve this, but I cannot think of any sedans or coupes in the past generation which felt so….analogue!

2010-09-28T17:20:00.002-04:00

2010 9-5: A Fresh Look

The following was submitted by Mike Bugda, a regular at CRS for many years, after spending some time with me in a 2010 9-5.

First, everyone who reads this should understand that Pierre and I go back to at least 1990, when I had a 900 Black turbo (may it rest in peace), where we extolled the virtues of this car from its exhaust note, to its wonderful utilitarianism, to its total embracement of what Pierre has been known to refer to as “Swedishness,” which includes practicality, only adding what you need and little more, safety, innovation and driving fun. Who else had turbos in 4-cylider hatchback cars with FULL fold-down seats back in 1981?

On to the car:

My original concern was focused around a fear that the new 9-5 was somehow a “saabified” version of a Buick Lacrosse, as SAAB/GM had done with the 9-7x, which I do not care for at all, as I am decidedly NOT an SUV type person. Furthermore it seems to me that an SUV is somehow the antithesis of what SAAB is about.

Okay, so that’s where I initially started from.

Today, I met with Pierre to go for a test ride and engage in some form of a Point-Counterpoint discussion on the whole SAAB 9-5 from every aspect we could come up with, in the hour or so we had time to share driving around with one and chat about it all. Here’ s what I recall thus far from what we did today.

1. Sleek. This 9-5 has to be the sleekest model they’ve ever come up with period. The roofline is lower than I expected, I do like the overall shape although both Pierre and I have previously likened it to a Camry. Once up close, I could also see some of the Aero-X design elements, such as the side window treatment. It really does look much nicer up close than in any pictures I’ve seen.
2. Engine. Yuk. Why would they start with a six cylinder when a true SAAB would begin with a turbocharged four? Isn’t that what makes a Saab a Saab after all? Pierre suggested a couple of possible reasons, which were acceptable, but I still want my four banger! [PB—I don’t think I’d have started with “Yuk.” I’m a four cylinder kind of guy, too, but there is certainly a market which demands this level of performance, and besides, it’s nice to see Saab start with the haut de gamme, and have the more pedestrian version come later.]
3. Sitting in the damn thing. Well, I had to admit I liked sitting in it, but challenged my good friend as to what makes this whole interior deal “SAABish”. We looked around and could agree that the cockpit wraparound thing for the driver was SAAB inspired as was the start button on the console – which is essentially unimportant now except for being a legacy type of thing, which Pierre had to demonstrate had a “no accidental shutoff” feature when the car is running and in drive. Pierre later noted the black plastic of the console wasn’t so good, but aftermarket choices could fix this easily. [PB—I don’t want the aftermarket or Hirsch to fix this. Saab should, and I believe I’ve read that there is a change coming.]
4. Driving (Mike). I liked the HUD, but we discovered later that this was not a uniquely “Saab thing”. I did however like the ride, “the cockpit feel”, and the seats. Pierre however posed the question that if everything was covered up, could you tell it was a SAAB by just sitting in it – something we both recognized we used to be able to knowingly expect to say yes to categorically. The only thing I could for sure say, was that giving the seating I could tell it was probably European, but not necessarily “SAABish”. Acceleration was decidedly smooth, but doesn’t give a good sense of how fast you’ve gotten up to high speeds like previous SAAB’s. No “grunt” factor, which may not be bad. Excellent “SAAB Like” steering response as well.
5. Driving PB--There more I drive the car, the more I like the balance in the suspension. I like the Drive Sense, but need more time in the car to really understand the differentiation in a visceral way . Next, I noticed how quiet it was internally. Not very Saab like—but a welcome improvement! I like the feel of some of the controls, irrespective of their origins. I decided I didn’t like the placement of the “SID” (or whatever it’s now called) control on the turn lever stalk. I much preferred these controls on the steering wheel. The steering wheel is great, and I love the heft and feel of the gear selector, though Mike thought it was way too erotic…..but that’s Mike.
6. Gizmos. No real unique Saab gadget per se as we also later learned that many of the stalks on the steering wheel column and such are pretty much standard GM now as well. However I did notice later the logical layout of the controls on the console, which IS a SAAB thing, but I’ll be damned if we could find an “AUX” input for an iPod or such. [Ed—I did locate it later—both the jack and USB ports are in the rearward center console. I would have preferred to see them in the more forward covered console along with the power port.]
7. Surprise Visit: As we were returning, I swung into a Buick dealership to do a quick “comparo” with a Buick Lacrosse. You’da thought I dropped Pierre into Nazi Germany in broad daylight during the war the way he slunked down in his seat and carefully slithered around the place. Geez. Well he was wearing SAAB emblems everywhere that day, but the guys, all retired and overweight linebackers from some second string college team didn’t care a hoot anyway. So we sat in the Buick, and there’s the HUD, the same steering wheel stalks, but crappy seats for overweight 60 somethings, and a lot of plastic in what I thought was a crappy rendition of a console. It felt like I would be driving my living room and not a contemporary “world car” like the 9-5. Pierre of course was kinder about the whole thing, being French and all I guess, or maybe he was afraid they’d take him prisoner or something.
8. Driving Back. So after Pierre bee-lined it back to the 9-5 to launch outta’ the Buick lot, we talked about the higher belt line which kind of bothered him as can suffer claustrophobia here and there. I thought sitting in the back seat would have more of that effect due to the diminishing window size form the Aero-X window treatment. I didn’t mind the belt line as I felt more secure and safe with this configuration, and saw it as a plus, but not a “SAABish” thing. Trunk Space is huge, but both Pierre and I felt that making this thing into a hatch looks like it’s almost already done now with the way the tail slants back. THAT would be “SAABish” – and we both felt that would make us happier with the car overall. A Hatch is SAAB legacy if you ask me. [PB—Nobody’s asking you, Mike.] What I want then, is what I would describe as a SAAB designed version of the BMW Series 5 Gran Tourismo, which I would NOT pay $75k for.

Summary: Is it “SAABish” enough? The answer is yes. But here’s the thing; some of the things we’ve become accustomed to in these cars have evolved into something better, leaving behind some things we loved so much in these cars. Pierre tells me the four-banger is coming, so that would be important to me, and 220 HP would be enough for me even for a car of this weight. God is it heavy! The innovative things we admired in the car, like the HUD, although also shown in the Buick would seem to me to be inspired by SAAB, so I think they’re SAABish enough in the gadget side. Logical controls layout – check, Saab put them in there. Turbo charging – check, just like downtown! Good drivability and road feel, check! Front wheel drive. Check! (Although the Buick has that too now!) So yes, there’s enough in this car for me to recognize it as a SAAB, some things I’ll have to adjust to, as the product has evolved well (meaning improved) from what it was, even if I loved those things, including the exhaust note!

I, of course, will want to drive a four-banger and manual shift version before I’m willing to consider writing a check, and if it came with a hatch, then I’m sure I’d be sold on the car, but yes, I liked more than I thought I would thanks to my friend Pierre, but I would need to drive it more to become better acquainted with what it is now, and adjust my thoughts some. [PB—In my first few weeks at CRS in 1989, Felix Bosshard, the owner, gave me a draft of his quarterly newsletter to proofread. I took a red pen and marked it all up, noting that he had written a number of run-on sentences. He then gave me one of “those” looks over the top of his glasses and said, in a deliberate and perturbed tone, “I LIKE run on sentences.” Ergo, I will not comment on Mike’s refusal to use more than one period in the last paragraph.]

SAAB could also use a better ad agency as the “Time is now” thing they have going. Pierre and I both laughed at how his son thought it was an IKEA ad. [PB—I’m not sure being mistaken for IKEA is such a bad thing. It just can’t be the only thing.] I can’t make the connection with the moose and the pine tree the engineer pulls out of the paper sheet – how does that translate to the car I drove today?

PB—I had great fun tooling around with Mike in the 9-5. Mike has all the requisite traits of a good and loyal Saab customer, and has become a real friend of ours over the years. We enjoy seeing him come in, even if his jokes aren’t what they used to be. Whatever I think about the 2010 9-5 doesn’t matter in the least. Saab’s first challenge is to convince customers like Mike that the 2010- 9-5 is worthy of their consideration (which I think we’ve accomplished) and then Saab needs to deliver that vehicle in a configuration which satisfies those customers not just as a Saab loyalists, but as automobile purchasers. Then Saab needs to find a way to attract all those who once were proud Saab owners, but who have wandered away for one reason or another, and there are many of them out there. Finally, there is the dream of conquest, of finding customers among those who have never owned a Saab. If asked, I would counsel Saab to concentrate wholly on its current and former client bodies until a new cadre of Saabs is on the street to attract attention of the uninitiated. Then again, like Mike, nobody’s asking me.

2010-09-15T12:26:00.002-04:00

Better Late than Never

With all that has happened here in the past month, one of the casualties has been that I have not had time to drive the 2010 9-5. I was all amped up to drive the very first one, but it was sold so quickly that I lost that opportunity, and by the time a larger batch arrived I was still coping with post-Swedish Car Day catch up on a number of fronts.

After a few aborted attempts in recent days, this morning, I had the keys and a plate on my desk, and I got a chance to drive the car with longtime customer and friend Jon Chomitz. We didn’t stay out very long in the car, as I still have much to keep me otherwise occupied, but long enough to get some firsthand gut reactions to this much anticipated car.

While I had learned how to operate all the gadgets back at a training session in the spring, I felt a bit lost when I got in the car. I dismissed trying to re-familiarize myself, and focused instead on just driving the car and getting an initial impression. I wanted to know what the tactile, visual, auditory and visceral reactions would be to driving the 9-5.

First strong impression—the seats are really firm, almost hard. Not uncomfortable in any way, but as someone who has spent a lot of time in a lot of Saab seats over the years, these felt different, and I would not have recognized them as being Saab seats. Second impression—the suspension is marvelously firm. I did have the selector in the “I” position (for “intelligent,” meaning adaptive). Third impression—I felt small inside the car. I am diminutive, and enjoyed how I could sit fairly high and enjoy a low belt line in older Saabs. In the 9-3 Sport Sedan, one does sit low, but the greenhouse is very airy. Not so in the 9-5. It is very large so there is no claustrophobia, but the side windows are so short, the belt line is so high, that by the time I lifted the seat high enough that I felt I could see well and be comfortable (Saab has always accommodated us short folk with plenty of vertical seat travel), I found myself with my head almost to the ceiling.

On the roadtest, I found the car to be exceptionally quiet and refined. On smooth or rough pavement, the 9-5 felt very substantial. The engine note, while not my cup of tea (I have never heard any V6, even the TurboX, which I enjoyed listening to) is properly masculine in timbre. The steering felt properly weighted, and not overly assisted at low speeds. The brakes were predictable and easy to modulate, and while I did not do any severe braking, given the massive size of the brakes, I am certain that they will be very powerful. Acceleration was reasonably brisk and completely linear. This is one of those cars where you need to watch the speedometer to really gauge your acceleration, because it is carried out so smoothly and progressively that there is little sensation of acceleration compared to the actual acceleration.

One let-down was in using the shift paddles to manually shift the automatic transmission. While I often find that such inputs are often ignored by a car’s computers, today I found the “upshift” command completely ignored. 500 rpm before redline on hard acceleration I started calling for an upshift, and after three clicks of the paddle, and a few bumps off the rev limiter (actually seemed to hover at the limit), then the belated upshift finally occurred. Put the shifter back into drive. I should mention the shifter. It’s one of those pieces you always touch in a car, and this one feels terrific. Like the rest of the car, it feels of quality and substance. The “key,” or fob, is much the same. Less bulky than Saab fobs of old, it is nonetheless heavy and substantial, not plastic or cheap feeling.

Last disappointment is the parking brake. It is a pushbutton affair on the console. I am sure that as a parking brake, it is fine, though I wonder what happens if the car needs to be towed with a dead battery and the brake is set. My complaint is that a parking brake is a very good tool to use when driving in snow to initiate oversteer in tight corners. This may seem adolescent to some, but I rather like drifting in the snow, and between safety systems and this parking brake, I fear the only way to do it in this car is to drive way too fast.

My overall observation is that I was surprised, much as I was surprised by the 1999 9-5. Then, I was comparing that car to the 9000, and it took me quite some time to appreciate the chassis dynamics in a car that otherwise felt way too soft. In fact, I believe that it might be less of a stretch to come out of a 9000 and go directly into the new generation 9-5, much as our first 9-5 purchaser did. I will learn to forgive some of the minor irritations, as one does with any car, as I learn to appreciate subtle refinements which I have yet to realize. The most fundamental impression the 9-5 made with me is that it is grand and substantial. I can’t wait to spend more time in one!

2010-09-09T16:58:00.006-04:00

Reflections on Swedish Car Day 2010

Swedish Car Day 2010 has come and gone. It is strange to look up at the wall calendar and realize that it is September and that I don’t have to do anything for Swedish Car Day, when for the past ten years, September was the month of anticipation and get-ready. Of course, that all changed after SCD 2009, when we were treated to horrific weather—rain, snow, gale—such that I lobbied the Larz Anderson Museum incessantly until they bequeathed us an earlier date. Thus, 2010, while the eleventh SCD, was the first one in August.

Besides the change in date, we knew long ago that this was going to be an extra special SCD. The Saab ownership change was finalized months ago, and this was the first SCD to take place with a future devoid of the uncertainty that cast a pall in past years. Then there was our special guest, Steven Wade, aka Swade of www.saabsunited .com , a key player in the saving of Saab, not to mention the many-times-daily news updates he reported as the melodrama played out during 2009 and early 2010. His presence certainly added a lot of luster and excitement, and brought Saab fans to SCD who likely would not have attended otherwise.

I recall that in 2000, I was given the task of putting this event together by my predecessor, Tim Martino, whom I must credit with birthing this event. I had no idea of what I was doing, or even where the museum (then known as the Museum of Transportation) was. I was given a date. I went to the museum and a lawn events director and I sent about arranging it as best as I could. October 15 arrived. It was a cool, sunny day. The foliage had started to turn. The setting was perfect. The lawn events director had recently departed, and a newbie replacement, Elln Hagney, did her best, though there were certainly logistical issues. [This played out again this year, where the lawn events director left a few weeks before our event, and his replacement didn’t quite have all the protocols and procedures ironed out.] Best of all, people showed up! There were forty-two Saabs and twenty-two Volvos, and while that may seem paltry, the museum told us it was the best attended first-time event they had had. The only difference in my roll in 2000 was that I didn’t have to MC the event that year—Tim Martino did. In later years, I would not only produce behind the scenes, but be the guy at the microphone as well.

So what of Swedish Car Day XI? Certainly, it was a success. Some will say that it was too hot, but in the shade, and even in the museum, it was pleasant. While a small minority pines for a return to an autumn date (including me), it will not happen. There was a LOT of anxiety leading up to SCD XI, mostly for me. There were the logistical concerns regarding Steven Wade, his flights and his accommodations. Ray Ciccolo asked me to put on a rally, as I often had done in the past, and I knew that I just didn’t have it in me to organize one. They are easily as much work if not more than SCD itself, and to the benefit of a couple dozen people.

Instead, we linked a date of advanced driver training with In Control www.driveincontrol.com for Saab and Volvo drivers and held that instead. That wasn’t without its own anxiety. After an initial strong booking, we took a number of cancellations. Then, we never got ANY Volvo participants, so I cancelled out the Volvos and made this an all-Saab event, but was still short on participants. In the last days, we took a few more registrants, including a Volvo-driving couple whom we informed would be converted by the end of the class since we had no provision at that point to have a Volvo at the school. That said, the class was a smashing success. The weather was superb. Steven Wade mingled with class and had a great time learning and exploring the Saabs’ capabilities. All the participants left with big smiles. Good.

Next on the agenda, on the early evening of August 28, was the reception and cookout which I had advertised as a reunion point for those arriving early for SCD, and for anyone wanting to meet Mr. Wade in a more intimate environment. We had a good turnout—about forty people, I believe. Peter Vincent did yeoman’s duty at the grill to keep everyone fed, and other than spreading out a few chairs and having some soft-drinks and popsicles, those in attendance largely entertained themselves. Barbara, a Saab newbie from Ohio, arrived in her Viggen. A contingent from New Hampshire, including Carl Levine, were on hand. Blogger Gunnar Heinrich was there, along with “Eggs ‘n Grits” from saabsunited (aka Mike Hickman), vintage Saab aficionado Chip Lamb and a number of Charles River Saab employees. One highlight that evening was to watch Ralph Bockoven take Steve Wade for a ride and drive in Ralph’s 1968 Sonett II. Mr. Wade returned so impressed that he seemed rather intent on finding one for himself, even threatening to take a detour on his way back to Australia if an opportunity arose to do some scouting on one for sale in California. Though this event was scheduled only until 7pm, it ran well past 8:00, and I was tired. I hated to do it, but we had to gently nudge everyone to move along in one of those “you don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here” situations. By the time I was done cleaning up and locking up the building, there were still some stragglers hanging around. Again, everyone who was at this reception was smiling. Two down, one to go.

Swedish Car Day on Sunday got off to a rocky start. I was thrilled to see my helpers, including a number of volunteers, here bright and early. Same for Boston Volvo and Volvo Village of Norwell. I was a bit anxious when the museum coordinator did not show at 7am as promised, nor did the Volvo club members who had promised to stake out their portion of the upper and lower lawns. Alas, we were largely unprepared when the first cars arrived. We then set to doing what we do best—improvise! We directed everyone to park first, then come back to register. This, as it turned out, was much more efficient than the plan I had, which was to have a number of registration volunteers with clipboards going up to the cars as they entered the approach to the lawn. In fact, this may have been the smoothest registration process we’ve pulled off.

I had been frightened that we would be overrun with cars. We had over 120 preregistrations, and I was estimating 250-300 cars which would have been unmanageable. In the end, we registered 202 cars (133 Saabs, 69 Volvos), and there were 225 cars on the lawns. This may have been the most cars (memory tells me that we did have slightly more registrations on one previous occasion). The mix of cars was excellent, and what the Volvo group lacked in numbers it made up for with brilliant quality and condition.

Our guest speakers were David Burnham and Steven Wade. Mr. Burnham was apparently not apprised of that fact, thinking he was only displaying his car in the museum. This is not his fault—this had been arranged through the Volvo club and somewhere along the way this was not communicated to him. He did his best, and his 1971 140 GT was indeed wonderful. Steven Wade delivered a terrific speech. While not divulging too much new information, he summarized his involvement with efforts to sell and save Saab in a cohesive way that tied the entire drawn out affair together quite nicely. He did reveal that Victor Muller was one of his secret sources, which is why he knew that things were not quite as dire as the rest of us thought in those late December days. He should have trusted him more and panicked less!
After completing the rituals of counting ballots on the People’s Choice balloting, handing out awards, and distributing raffle prizes, I finally had a chance to run around and look for friends, old and new. It was wonderful to see former Saab employees Paul Hartman, Jorgen Weikert and Bill Wolf. I was buttressed all day long by so many terrific volunteers and employees who worked so hard, including Linnea, Stephanie, Scott, Seth, Marcel, Kyle, Alfredo, Ben and Rudy. Thanks to John delRosario for his picture taking. My apologies to anyone I left out! Everywhere I looked, people were smiling! By 3:00 the lawn had emptied and it was time to leave, but not quite for home. Attendee Curvin O’Reilly, who was involved with Saab advertising with McCann-Erickson back in Saab’s heyday, wanted to review some advertising history and concepts with Mr. Wade, and since it was so hot, I suggested we all go back to Charles River Saab to take advantage of the air-conditioning.

Until nearly 6:00, Mr. O’Reilly made his presentation to me, Chip Lamb, Mr. Wade and Mike Hickman. At that point, Mike headed for the airport, Chip aimed his SPG toward Virginia, Mr. O’Reilly headed to New York, and Mr. Wade and I jumped in a car and headed north where my wife had assembled a feast for us, a few employees and Saab friends. Finally, I could relax!

I must say that this was the most exhausting Swedish Car Day. The preparation, general level of anxiety, the effort required at the events themselves, all conspired to really drain me, and I am still not quite recovered. But I am happy. All the smiles I saw during that weekend even got me to smile, and I am not prone to such things! In near proximity retrospect, this Swedish Car Day was as close to perfect as I could have hoped for. Great, right? Here’s the problem: how do I follow this up next year? I will confess that if I had my druthers, I’d never do this event again and go out on top. However, we all know that won’t happen. There will be a SCD XII, I contacted the museum the next morning to reserve next year’s date, and we’ll have to work really hard to make the day compelling. For now, I will relax, and put this great day behind me!

2010-08-17T14:34:00.003-04:00

Simpler Times
Last week CRS service advisor Seth Wonkka flew to Portland, Oregon and bought a 1977 Saab 99GL which he then drove back to Boston over the course of four days. This past weekend, he came up to my place, where he got to look around the new house, and I got to take his new car for a ride.

In 1977, I was in high school, and I can’t say that I had much knowledge about Saab, other than what I read in car magazines, and certainly no passion for them. I lived in southern Connecticut at the time, and while there were some Saabs around, my automotive aspirations lay elsewhere. Porsches, BMWs, Mini Coopers, Fiats, and even some muscle cars from the late 60s to early 70s were my cup of tea. Despite the differences in all these cars, the one thing they share, and share with the 1977 99 is that they were quality automobiles, yet they were simple.

Sure, there were cars available in those days with lots of extraneous stuff, but you could also buy a bare bones high quality car, like a Mercedes-Benz with roll up windows (remember them?), a four speed manual transmission and no radio. I know—a friend had one. It was so nice to get into the 99, which is not that different from my 1992 900T daily driver, and marvel in its simplicity. The 99 has those clever roll up windows, multi-adjustable manual seats, no air conditioning, no sunroof, steel wheels, and not even power steering. Can you even buy a car now without power steering? Having owned a number of cars with manual steering, it can attest that it is delightful to have so much unadulterated steering feel.

I recall that when I started working with Saab that the 900 “base model” retailed for $11,400, or just a little more than a fully equipped Honda Accord or Chevy Celebrity. That was in 1984. The car did have power steering, but no power windows, power locks, alarm, radio, air conditioning, antenna, or floor mats. These were analog cars at the dawn of the digital age. Would anyone buy a stripped down version of a Saab today, if it was available, in order to save a few thousand dollars? I’m just not sure. While the simplicity and mechanical nature of the 900 and 99 were endearing in their nakedness, more modern cars would fail to impress in that condition. Even the 9000, a car I love dearly, was just a dullard in its “base” form (which was still rather richly appointed). I can’t even begin to imagine a 9-3 or 9-5 in “light” form. Perhaps we are destined to drive ever more sophisticated and clever cars. While certainly better than the cars of yore, they do lack that mechanical transparency that made the old cars, like the 99 and 900, so endearing.

2010-08-09T15:54:00.004-04:00

Swedish Car Day is only Three Weeks Away!

This sounds so strange to say given that we just flipped the calendar over to August. For the uninitiated, Swedish Car Day is a lawn event at the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, which was created by Charles River Saab and Boston Volvo in 2000. At that time, it was the best attended new lawn event ever, with sixty some cars in attendance. SCD has grown over the years and has pulled in over 200 cars at times.

2009 was a bit of a disaster. The weather was horrendous. It was bound to happen. October can have the best weather of the year, and it can also produce perfectly miserable conditions. In the ten years of SCD, last year’s weather was the worst. It was so bad that many wanted to cancel the event. I refused, given that so many people come from far away from this event. Besides, I stated, SCD is like Christmas—you can declare it cancelled, but it comes just the same. So there we were, in ankle deep mud on the Larz Anderson lawn. It was pouring and about 38 degrees. Some areas around Boston were getting snow. The wind was at full gale. Still, sixty hearty souls showed up. The caterer donated all his sandwiches left. We did the only reasonable thing we could do: we moved the entire show into the museum.

If you’ve never seen the Larz Anderson, both the park and museum are worth the effort. In the dry, warm comfort of the museum, our few remaining vendors set up their wares, our guest speakers had an intimate audience, and the Saab and Volvo crazies rejoiced in the close proximity of their Swedish car loving compatriots on the museum floor as awards were given. While the smallest SCD since 2000, this may have been the most fun!

Alas, the powers at be tried to remedy the bad weather situation and the Larz Anderson came up with a late August date. August 29, 2010 will see SCD XI kicking off at 10am. What remains to be seen is how well Volvo and Saab owners adjust to this shift in the automotive calendar.

For more information, see the SCD facebook page, and to register for the Lawn Event, Click here for Swedish Car Day Registration

2010-07-28T10:10:00.002-04:00

The Rumors of my Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

This famous quote by Mark Twain might well apply to Saab today. As I passed through life in the past year, people I knew would always inquire about the state of Saab, and somehow the only news that would stick in peoples ears was the bad. It stuns me that months after the Spyker deal that I am still getting questions about what we are going to do now that Saab is out of business. Huh?

We hear this multiple times a day from customers at the service desk. How did people miss all the good news about the sale to Spyker? The general population with no connection to Saab might get some understanding from me, but I always take notice of the status of companies I like doing business with, and presumably if you drive a Saab, you’ve got a reason to pay attention to at least some of the news surrounding the company. Another example: I was at the dentist last week. The hygienist said how sad she was that Saab was going out of business, because the 1986 900T that she previously owned was one of her favorite cars of all time. These are always odd conversations, when one person talks, and the other has a mouth full of suction tubes and dental devices and is left grunting. I held my thoughts, because I had to make sure that when I could speak again that she knew that Saab was not dead, and in fact had a promising if not brilliant future. She was surprised!

Some of this fault lies with the dealer body. We could have done more to tell our constituents about the new Saab ownership situation. In fairness, we had planned to do a large campaign to inform our clients, but decided to tie it to the launch of the 9-5. That was a mistake. Now the 9-5 is still not here and we have lost several months of opportunity to declare the great news, which now hardly seems like news, but clearly would be to some.

Most of the blame has to fall with Saab Cars North America. I understand that they had to preserve the miniscule capital they had to launch the new car, but there should have been something out there that simply stated that they were still in business, and that the future of Saab would be something for all to behold. This especially frustrates me, because an outstanding video/ad has been circulating since last year and it would have gotten the message out and touched a lot of present and former Saab enthusiasts.

2010-07-19T14:32:00.008-04:00

New England Forest Rally Newbie

In an earlier post I had carried on about rally racing, then had to come back to that post because my son, Pascal, had “gotten the call” to step in at the last moment as a replacement co-driver/navigator for rally driver Kevin Hans of Team O’Neil Rally School for the vaunted New England Forest Rally in the Western Mountains of Maine. Such a coincidence that was!

Pascal got together a fire-suit, head restraint system, helmet, etcetera and headed north last Wednesday to start preparing the car with Kevin. They showed me a picture of the work shop at Team O’Neil. Kevin and Pascal were working on the Audi Quattro in one bay. In the next bay was the Ford Fiesta of Ken Block being serviced. You may not know Ken Block, but I bet your kids do. Block is an absolute rock-star. Understand, this whole scenario would be like having a ticket to a Red Sox game, then getting a call from the Red Sox asking if you could play right field that day (since you were already going to be there anyway) and then going into the locker room and seeing your locker next to David Ortiz’. With the car prepared, Kevin drove it across New Hampshire to Bethel, Maine; no trailer-queen, that Quattro. On Thursday, the teams were permitted to drive all the stages. These stages are spread throughout that corner of Maine and New Hampshire, and bring to mind all the books of Louise Rich, with her vivid descriptions of C-Pond this and Middle Dam that. While driving the stages, an all day affair, Pascal had to familiarize himself with all the course “notes” which are written in hieroglyphs for his narration to driver Kevin. The book was an inch and a half thick!

Friday was the first day of racing. My wife, youngest son Marcel (aspiring rally racer) and I headed to Bethel. We found Kevin and Pascal with their car in the parking lot of Sunday River Ski Resort, which in rally-speak had been designated the “Parc Exposé.” All the teams had converged, cars were inspected by the race organizers and tensions mounted. World renowned Travis Pastrana was there, along with Ken Block, and they mingled freely with all the other drivers and the hoard of rally fans. Right next to team Hans-Belperron was one of the two Saabs entered in the event, a 1975 Saab 99 with a 900 turbo engine. I noted that the car, which hailed from Pennsylvania, garnered lots of fan attention. A great majority of the cars were Subarus and Mitsubishi Evo’s. But there were plenty of curiosities, too: a Volvo 240, a Datsun 280Z, a BMW 3-series and a vegetable oil burning VW Golf diesel. The “sweep” vehicle, which checked each stage prior to the racers, was also a Saab—a 9-7X.

The first few stages were short sprints, and were designed with spectators in mind. One of the beauties of the event was that there was no expense, and spectators could freely mingle with participants. Though some might deem the exuberance of some of the spectators as unruly, it was truly an egalitarian crowd just out for fun, with fun defined in many ways. What you didn’t see was spectators becoming a danger to themselves or drivers. Rally America, the sanctioning body, did an excellent job in designating spectator areas which were close enough to be exhilarating while still maintaining order and safety. That said, my wife did get pelted with stones on one corner, including a good sized rock to the throat. Not to worry, she’s sturdy and shrugged it off.

By the end of the first day, the red Audi of Hans-Belperron was in 21st position out of 65 cars, and given that it was one of the least powerful cars there, this was quite a feat. Things didn’t go well on day two, however. During the fourth stage of the day, near Richardson Pond, the red Audi started losing its punch. It seemed the fuel pump was delivering less and less pressure, and Kevin eventually pulled the car off and dropped out of the race. An ignominious end to be sure. But not as impressive as the ending to Ken Block’s, as his suspension failed at full speed and his car cart-wheeled into the woods, coming to rest on its side.

The Block connections abounded this weekend. Ken Block’s wife also ran a car in this rally, a Mazda Speed-3, which she rented from Team O’Neil; she also finished, unlike her famous husband. The Mazda she piloted was originally going to be the ride for team Hans-Belperron. Very much a different animal, being front-wheel drive and very powerful, it would have been interesting to see how they might have faired in that car. Most likely they would have finished. As it was, they were with plenty of company, as a total of twenty-four cars did not.

In the end, it was a very satisfying experience. Even if I divorce myself from being the father of a participant, I can attest that this was about as much fun as you can have for almost no money. The festival atmosphere, the goodwill of the spectators, and the bringing together of friends and strangers to cheer EVERYBODY was wonderful. Who won? Who cares!

2010-07-13T15:36:00.000-04:00

Excellent Automotive Television

I spend enough time with cars in my life, between working at Charles River Saab and In Control and following my son’s racing pursuits, that I don’t need to seek out car related pastimes for recreational purposes. But my sons, especially Marcel, are huge fans of the BBC’s Top Gear television program. While I never sit down expressly to watch the program, there have been enough times that my sons have commandeered to clicker and switched to BBC America to tune in that I have come to appreciate Top Gear, and perhaps it is the best piece of entertainment on television—especially if you love British humor as I do.

Essentially, Top Gear is a variety show. It is part travelogue, part guest interview, and many parts silly fun, with motorized vehicles either directly or tangentially factored into their schtick. The three hosts—Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May—are delightful in their interaction with one another at times, and merciless in completely hysterical ways at others. Each show features at least one car (whose performance is gauged on the Top Gear track by the Top Gear mystery driver—The Stig), one celebrity guest who gets to take a timed lap in the Top Gear Affordable Car, and some sort of automotive challenge for the hosts, often in exotic cars or in exotic places. I cannot even guess at the sort of budget this show must have. There is not a continent which has not been the backdrop for one of their escapades. Indeed, some of these sorties are rich eye-candy, such as a tour they did of Viet Nam on motor bikes. Others are just ridiculous and make you laugh until it hurts, as was the case of their foray in the American South in $500 jalopies. It is truly brilliant television.

Top Gear has had the occasional Saab grace its stage. One episode a few years back poked fun at the “Born from Jets” campaign, in which The Stig piloted a 9-5 Aero on the track and raced an RAF Harrier Jet. The jet won. But it was still great fun, and while not completely enamored with the 9-5, there was certainly some affection for it.

2010-07-08T15:57:00.006-04:00

In Praise of Rally

In a recent interview on Swedish television, Saab-Spyker CEO Victor Muller indicated a desire to reclaim more of Saab’s past by getting Saab involved with rally racing, expressing a desire to see Saab in the World Rally Championship as early as 2014. Those familiar with Saab’s history of course know of the legend of Erik “on the roof” Carlsson, who piloted Saab 96’s to three victories in the RAC Rally and two wins at Monte Carlo, among others. Those cars were severely underpowered compared to their peers. Yet, with his breathless driving style, Carlsson was able to best the competition. Later Saab rally champions included Stig Blomqvist and Per Eklund.

I’m not much a fan of motor sport. I ought to be. I’ve worked in the car business my entire adult life, and have been teaching crash prevention training for several years with a cohort that is comprised almost completely of active automobile racers. I’ve done track days (written about elsewhere in this blog) which I find thoroughly enjoyable, and have had silly fun participating in autocross and rally cross events. Wheel to wheel racing, though, just hasn’t appealed much to me as a participant. Even my sons are more in tuned with racing. Son Pascal started racing rally cross when he was sixteen and placed second in the front wheel drive class in New England. He’s moved on to hill-climb racing, which he finds more thrilling, and gives me more gray hairs. All three sons have invested in building a heavily modified 1985 SPG that will see some sort of racing, at least once a proper roll cage is installed. Marcel, only fourteen, is slated to be co-driver for Pascal as they take on some TSD rallies later this year, including the Winter Challenge Rally in Vermont.

Yet here I am, somewhat uninterested in all of it as both participant and spectator. With one exception: WRC. World Rally Championship came to my attention when summary broadcasts were aired weekly on one of the new HD television stations. I watched once. I was hooked. No monstrous cars endlessly turning left. No shrieking, darting formula cars that look like alien insects. No, these were cars, driven by fearless pilots in breathtaking and fearsome places, all around the globe, at the most ridiculous speeds. It didn’t hurt that the perennial champion was a compatriot, Sebastien Loeb.

It was sad to see that so few manufacturers are involved in WRC. Only Citroen and Ford remain. Long gone are Mitsubishi, Subaru, Hyundai, Peugeot, Audi and a host of others. Hopefully, Saab returns to this world stage soon.

I would urge anyone to take a look at WRC. It’s entertaining, the drivers are full of character, and the scenery is beautiful. There’s a wonderful clip of Sebastien Loeb racing in Finland in 2008. His co-driver, Spaniard Daniel Elena, has the most adorable lilting counter-tenor (sounding more French than most Frenchmen) as he guides the champion through the forest. Can you imagine keeping your eyes on a clipboard while traveling along like this. Yikes! Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this, consider heading north later this month to be one of the crazy rally spectators at the New England Forest Rally. Big name drivers like Ken Block and Travis Pastrana will be participating. See newenglandforestrally.com for details.

Update: After writing this post yesterday, by the purest of coincidences, son Pascal got a call from Kevin Hans of Team O'Neil Rally School inviting Pascal to replace his co-driver at the aforementioned NE Forest Rally! Pascal is racing at Okemo mountain this weekend, but heads up to Maine on Thursday with his helmet and fire-suit ready to dictate the rally notes to Kevin. Alas, they'll be piloting an Audi...

2010-07-01T12:14:00.002-04:00

Thoughts on a Favorite Car

There has been much discussion about a new small Saab which will pay homage to the 92. I owned a very small car once myself, and that car has been re-conceived by Honda. I just read a review of forthcoming Honda CR-Z, a sports-hybrid two-seater which takes its styling cues from the iconic CRX of the 1980’s. The CR-Z takes that styling and general concept, and wraps it around a more powerful engine and regenerative hybrid electric powerplant, with a unique (for a hybrid) six-speed manual transmission.

In the 1980’s, I was not a huge fan of Japanese cars. I liked them; I even owned them, including my first car. I just preferred European cars. My wife and I were both working in the car business in the mid 1985, and she was selling Hondas. She loved small cars, much like her mom, who was driving an MGB-GT when I first met her, and who would later be tooling around in a BMW Z3. Susan wanted to buy a CRX, which was no mean feat in those days, when one had to wait months in line for any Honda, and pay well over sticker price. Even Susan had to pay the “overage,” on a CRX, though it was reduced from $1500 to $1000. I wasn’t convinced. Still, Susan ordered it, and we waited.

During the wait, the New England Auto Show took place, and we both had to work the show. In those days it was at the old Hynes Convention Center on Boylston Street in Boston. At the end of the show, all the cars on display were taken away to local dealerships. Susan and I were each charged with bringing home a Honda. I don’t remember what she drove out of the Hynes, but I remember that I was annoyed that my ride was a 1985 Honda CRX automatic. Could there be a stupider car? My expectation was that I was going to be miserable driving home the 15 miles to Nahant that night. I crawled into the car, adjusted the seat and was resigned to the fact I could not be comfortable, and after a ride in a freight elevator, drove off.

Yes, the lack of a third pedal made the car stupid. Yet, I found myself completely intoxicated by the car. It was just plain silly FUN. No power anything. Awful seats and awful driving position. But it was FUN. The engine had no torque and only 75 horsepower. But it was FUN. There was a sense of glee I simply hadn’t experienced before. Certainly, the simplicity of the car was a factor. It only weighed 1800 lbs, was tiny, you sat on the floor, the steering was not assisted, and the car just begged to be tossed around.

Finally, ours arrived. It was blue with gray cladding, and had a proper transmission. It was Susan’s car, but became my daily driver when first son came along. I drove the car to 100,000 miles. Every one was uncomfortable, but utterly entertaining. The single most trouble free car I’ve owned, I sold it to my sister, who drove it a bunch more, and liked it so much she bought a newer one.

I’m not sure, at 2800 pounds, that the CR-Z can really capture the real essence of the CRX. But I applaud Honda for trying. Likewise, I hope that the Saab 92 project really does connect the past with present technology. Here’s to fun cars!

2010-06-29T17:28:00.000-04:00

End of an Era

I have worked with Saab for almost all of my adult life. That’s a rare thing these days, to stay with one company. So is living in one place for a long time, which I also did, until last week when we sold our home on High Street in Ipswich, Massachusetts. We moved to Ipswich just after our first son was born in 1988, and for my wife it was a coming home, for she had grown up there. In 2007 we abandoned the remote and quiet Labor in Vain Road and settled into a town-house built out of a Victorian home in the heart of the “historic district.” Built in 1900, ours was the new house on the street, with most of the other homes dating from the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

Long before we moved there I had always noted a number of Saabs in the driveways up and down High Street. The density was quite astonishing. Then we moved in, and it went off the charts. Not only were there my 900’s and my wife’s 9000 aero (later her 9-5), but each of the older sons had a car. Then all three sons went in on a 1985 SPG racecar project, but that had to move off-site to Ipswich Outboard, where son Pascal works during the summer. Still, with the townhouse affording only two parking places, lots of Saabs ended up parked on the street in front of our house.

Lots became lots more. As friends and co-workers of ours, and our boys (especially) came to appreciate Saabs from knowing us, they started to own them. André started dating Muriel, who drives a Sport Sedan, her dad drives a 2005 convertible and brother a 2002 9-3. Have to work on her Volvo-driving mom! Then there was Kevin, Zach, Alex, Kevin’s dad, Ed, Henry, other Ed, Paul, Yvonne, Dan and probably others I’m forgetting who would come by our place and park their Saabs. High Street is a well travelled thoroughfare, and on one day where there were a few friends over, our driveway and the street were packed with Saabs. We were in the backyard doing something not at all Saab related. A gentleman came down the driveway on his bicycle and stopped, asking if there was a Saab club meeting going on!

It used to be easy telling people where we lived. “Oh, the house with all the Saabs.” Then there were the Saab spectacles. One year the boys wanted to decorate the front door of the house but the scrooges in the condo association said no. Not to be denied, Pascal and Andre mounted a 1970s Thule roof load carrier on his 1992 900S rally-x car, which was already festooned with rally stuff, and proceeded to decorate the roof rack. All manner of bauble and bangle was secured to the rack, it was finished off with a bedding of fake snow, and then adorned with blinking battery powered Christmas lights. It was so wonderfully tacky! He then parked the car right in front of the front door. Who knew that a Saab could be that palette for an act of civil disobedience?

The Saab density on High Street in Ipswich, while still strong, took a hit last week. We’ll see how things go when we get into our new digs next month. What will the folks think of their new neighbors with all the Saabs?!

2010-06-25T07:52:00.011-04:00

Shuttle Shuffle Part Two

Back from its gift-wrapping, our 2010 9-3X courtesy shuttle awaits only a registration transfer to be pressed into service. Going from our 9-7X to this car is emblematic of where Saab has moved in the past few years. The 9-7X was all GM and looked back…the 9-3X looks ahead and is the current embodiment of the new Saab. Adieu 9-7X….

With a dearth of Saab advertising, we are really hoping, in the least subtle way possible, to get some exposure for this car. It has been suggested that with a few sponsorship decals and some more aggressive wheels and tires it might be a candidate for participation in a rally. I should be careful….I’m giving myself ideas here. Until then, the 9-3X will be our trusty steed, ferrying our clients in comfort and safety.

2010-06-21T09:31:00.002-04:00

Italian Connection

Last week Saab announced the appointment of Jason Castriota as Design Director at Saab, and apparently his first duty will be the design of the 2012 9-3. I'm not sure about this. Part of me is so eager to see new thinking coming out of Trollhattan that a young designer who learned his craft in Turin penning Ferrari/Maserati supercars would seem to be a fantastic choice. I guess, though, that I really wanted to see that new thinking literally coming out of Trollhattan. Can a guy who grew up in Greenwich, went to Emerson College in Boston, moved to Turin and studied there, be a great designer? Sure! But can that background give us a modern Saab? Not so sure....

However, I very much liked the work of Michael Mauer, and he was no more a Scandinavian than I am. Perhaps this will work, perhaps not. Time will tell. I would have almost preferred a Scandinavian from outside the automotive realm. All that said, I don't get to chose and we must wish Jason well and hope for the very best to come out of his studio, because the 2012 9-3 really will be the bell-weather for the future of the new Saab.

2010-06-18T08:07:00.002-04:00

Diesel, Anyone?
I was reading some comments made by a reader of SaabsUnited this morning and he disparaged "stinking euro-diesels" and said we didn't need them here, and I assume that "here" means the US since Saab diesels seem to be available everywhere but the US. I had to respond.

I've been a diesel fan for a long time. It must be a Yankee thing. I love the idea of getting something for nothing. Who wouldn't want a 44% increase in fuel economy? More significantly, you could drive a real, safe, substantial car like the Saab 9-5 and get better mileage than a Mini Cooper, and on the highway you could likely best most hybrids. I've met a number of people who have rented Saab diesels in Europe and to a person they were all enamored with them. If you haven't tried a modern diesel, the next time you are in Europe, request one for your rental car. Not only will you be treated to a much cheaper trip at the filling station, but you will find the diesel experience seamless and virtually invisible, save the first minute of running after a cold start when there is a touch of diesel clatter.

If efficiency and frugality aren't reasons enough, consider what is happening with diesels and motor sport. Who vies to win the 24 Heures Du Mans? Audi and Peugeot! Diesel race cars! I give credit to Audi, too, for introducing diesel engines into their performance street cars because they can deliver what Saab turbo drivers have always craved. Torque. Lots and lots of torque.

I had hoped that Saab could leap-frog the competition, rather than trying to catch it, by developing a turbo-diesel regenerative hybrid. Too late, Honda apparently has this on the drawing board. I don't know if we will ever see a Saab diesel in the US given that the cost to certify the engine is so high, and to amortize that cost over a relatively few cars may be prohibitive. Then again, if gasoline heads north of $4 per gallon, it might just be the ticket.

2010-06-16T10:33:00.002-04:00

News Flash
Charles River Saab is thrilled to announce our very special guest for Swedish Car Day 2010. While we've been graced with terrific guests from Saab in the past, including past Saab presidents Jay Spenchian and Steve Shannon, technical gurus John Moss and Peter Maitland. This year, we have the extreme privilege of welcoming, all the way from Tasmania, Steven Wade of SaabsUnited.com . If you've never visited SaabsUnited, take the time to check it out. Steven was way out in front last year as we tracked the repeated deaths and resurrections of Saab. His "deep-throats" were so reliable, that even employees of Saab kept track on his site. for more information on Swedish car Day XI see our facebook page.

2010-06-09T10:59:00.002-04:00

New 9-5, take one

On June 8, 2010 I attended the first training session on the forthcoming 2010 9-5. I had seen the car in person at the NE Autoshow last fall, but this was the first time I was able to crawl around the car and play with it. Alas, these were European models and not available for test drives. Still, we gleaned a fair amount about the car.

As has been thoroughly reported elsewhere, the 2010 9-5 will be available in one iteration: Aero, 2.8l V-6, 6-speed AT, XWD....The price tag, for a Saab guy, seems steep at $50,000-$57,000. However, the front wheel drive, 2.0l variant will arrive with a base price below $40,000, so the overall price structure of the car seems appropriate vis-a-vis the competition. The car does have a lot of presence, though in a subdued, understated manner. The optional 19" wheels, which look very much like those from the AeroX concept, are stunning. The nose of the car is a bit bland, but with the advent of European pedestrian crash safety requirements, many cars will have similar bulbous noses in the future. The rear fascia is striking. The lighting is cool without being gratuitous. The flank of the car is rather dull; the shape, overall, is too--dare I say it--Camry. The hockey-stick trim on the rear windows are a poor attempt, in my opinion, to recreate a theme. If you want to emulate the shape of the c-pillar in the 99/900, then do it. Otherwise, and including the "Nesbit Notch" (a name as yet to be explained to me) in the front lower fender, the side view leaves me wanting.

The interior is lovely. The Aero seats seem quite good. The dash has some personality and retains functionality. The overall interior effect is handsome. Some of the elements seem of decidedly better substance and quality than we found before in the 9-5. The shifter and console area come to mind. No more whiz-bang but too-delicate cup holder in the dash. A more sensible arrangement is tucked into the center console. Three-zone climate control is now available, as is a rear seat entertainment package with screens in the front seat-backs......you see, you start with cupholders, and one day you wake up and there are DVD players in a Saab. The rear seat itself is thankfully large again, close in size to what we had in the 9000 and much more generous than in the current 9-5. The trunk is large, still has a wood floor, and has an optional U-track organization gizmo. An expandable aluminum fence is affixed to sliding mounts in the track, and the fence can be moved around to achieve the desired segmenting of the trunk, presumably to keeps parcels or grocery bags from rolling around. There is no spare tire or jack, just a can of flat-fix and a phone number for road-side assistance. We were told that a spare tire package would be offered as an accessory.

The available electronics were overwhelming. Nothing is new to the industry, I think. First, keys are now gone for good, with a remote fob which can stay in your pocket, and an on-off switch on the console to ignite the engine. Even the parking brake has become an electric switch on the console. There is adaptable and programmable DriveSense feature, which will tune the engine, steering and suspension to either comfort, sport or adaptive modes, or, it will allow you to personalize the mix of settings and save this to the remote fob you keep in your pocket or gain entry into the car. This way, every driver of the car can have their own settings stored. Do customers really want to make these sorts of adjustments? I'm not sure. The Head-Up display seemed a bit gimmicky to me, but I'd need to try it on real roads to say for certain. The multi-mode headlamps seem like fabulous. A mix of xenon and halogen lamps, they cast different light patterns based on speed and weather: short throw with coverage across both lanes and shoulders at low speed, at mid-range the beam goes further out further (only in your own lane) and the lighting to the side drops, at high speeds the lamp focus is far and narrow, and when the wipers are on, there is a rain mode, which I can't recall at the moment. All that, and they turn, too as do the current xenon lamps.

We didn't sample the audio system, but were pleased to see that it includes 10 gigs of hard drive space for downloading music, with the rest of the hard-drive reserved for the navigation system: no more DVD required. There is an input for usb for downloads, plus a plug for an iPod.

While the V6 will essentially be a carry-over from the one in the 9-3, albeit with more power, the 2.0l four cylinder will feature direct injection and have 220 hp and 258 lb/ft torque. This engine should provide excellent mileage and enough oomph to be very satisfying to drive, and I've read that the manual transmission switch-gear is the best ever in a Saab. Unfortunately, we will not enjoy the availability of the twin-turbo diesel, which recent reports out of Europe rate at 42 mpg!

I'll post again when we have the car. In the mean time, do a search for road tests on this car as the press-corp is in Sweden this week for the first bonafide road tests of the car. Opinion can also be found at www.saabsunited.com .

2010-06-04T12:21:00.001-04:00

Personally, I always liked the "State of Independence" campaign, which ran for about 40 seconds a few years ago, before some advertising guru decided that we needed the eminently forgettable and lame "Born from Jets" interlude. I thought it did a nice job of exhibiting the spirit and the uniqueness of Saab, compared against the ubiquity of automotive design these days. Take a look:

2010-06-04T07:46:00.008-04:00

I made some T-shirts for the store this spring with the new Saab logo/slogan. I've heard there is some question as to whether Saab can continue to use the "Griffin" symbol on the logo we've come to know. Personally, I'd like to see that old logo go away and a new one enter to mark the new beginning at Saab. The Griffin, with Saab/Scania in its periphery, goes back to 1985, and in the early 2000's the Scania name and rings were deleted from the logo, finally reflecting that the two companies had nothing to do with one another, and hadn't for some time.

While the new logo with the "move your mind" slogan is new in the US, it has been used in Europe for a while. When we had "Born from Jets," Europeans had "move your mind." I was never a fan of "Born from Jets." I'm not sure it's even true. While Saab went on to make jets, when WWII ended and the Saab automobile was being birthed, I'm pretty sure the Saab planes had propellers. "Born from Props," though, isn't too sexy. "We Don't Make Compromises. We Make Saabs" was pretty good back in the 1980's, but it doesn't exactly roll off your tongue. To me the best slogan is "Ultimate Driving Machine." It is timeless. It's reasonably accurate. It's decidedly arrogant, which makes it perfect for BMW. Everyone knows it, too.

So are we to live with "move your mind" ? Unless someone comes up with something newer and better, I would suggest we go back just a bit and resurrect "Find Your Own Road." It's catchy, has a nice double-entendre, and goes to the aspiration of uniqueness that Saab and its owners have always strived for. If you don't remember this marketing, it ran for several years in the mid 1990's. The accompanying advertising was done in artsy-cartoon form, which was not universally admired. I liked it, but the only thing I'd like to take away is the slogan itself. For me, it just plain works. Here's a TV spot featuring Find Your Own Road.

2010-06-03T09:20:00.003-04:00

Anticipation
We are within weeks of the official arrival of the new 9-5. This car has been so anticipated yet so delayed by the events of the past year that at times it seems as if it is only a myth or legend. Still, we have seen the car at the NE Autoshow when I made a point of attending out of the real concern that that it might be the only time I'd ever get to see the 9-5 that we had been hearing so much about. All of those concerns are behind us, and in a slow trickle we've been getting information on the 9-5 to whet our appetites. That will ramp up next week when I get to attend our first training sessions on the new car. We will have two service advisors and three technicians also take part in this first round of training. My biggest hope is that there is an opportunity to drive the 9-5.

Generally, I am underwhelmed by specifications. You can pass me all the documentation you want about a car, but until I know what it is like to drive, I cannot render an opinion about a it. that said, there has been much written about the car, a vast majority of which is positive. I just read a review in the British publication AutoExpress, and they were impressed and thought it was the best Saab they had ever driven. They tested the twin-turbo diesel version, and reported 53 imperial miles per gallon in mixed driving. My math tells me that's 42 US mpg. Can you imagine the hay we could make offering a large car that got that kind of mileage?
This ad for the 2010 9-5 appeared on YouTube. Like many of the European Saab ads in recent months, I think it captures the essence and aesthetic of Saab very nicely.

2010-06-01T10:33:00.001-04:00

Saab = Safety
There has been a lot of conversation about the new Saab and what attributes Saab enthusiasts want to see (back) in the Saab product line. Hatchbacks, turbos, ignition switches between the seats, etcetera have been championed in various forums. As much as I have enjoyed all those attributes (my daily driver is a hatchback, turbo, with the ignition between the seats…), to me, the one non-negotiable trait that I would demand from the new Saab is safety. Saab never branded safety as, say, Volvo, or even Mercedes-Benz. Yet, when one looks at the rich history of innovation from Saab, plus their willingness to forgo patent protection of many of their safety innovations so that the entire automotive community could share their advances, there is no doubt about Saab being a serious pioneer in this field.

My first Saab, a 1984 900T, was purchased to keep my kids safe. Until I had kids, automotive safety was barely a consideration when purchasing a car. Now, it remains one of my utmost priorities. Thus I was very happy to find this video of the offset crash test of the new 9-5. Having suffered an offset crash myself (at the hands of a dope in a Toyota 4-Runner on bald tires who hit black ice and crossed into my path), I can certainly appreciate that it is vital to see the load paths in the front of the car disintegrate as the impact is absorbed, as well as the passenger compartment cell staying intact Bravo!

See the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmiWTCidbL8&feature=player_embedded

2010-06-01T10:30:00.000-04:00

Shuttle Shuffle
Charles River Saab has long run a shuttle service for its customers. Back in the days before the notion of loaner cars existed, we had many customers taking the shuttle each day to Harvard Square where they either worked or picked up the “T” to get to other points in Cambridge or Boston. Because so many were in the shuttle at once, mini-vans were the vehicle of choice. As loaner cars started to proliferate, we needed fewer seats in our shuttle.

Last time we put a new shuttle into service was 2005 when we inducted the then-new 97X to the position. It was reasonably roomy and comfortable, and though the cognoscenti aren’t fooled by the placement of the ignition switch any style of the dash vents, it wasn’t a bad vehicle for our needs. I did have the opportunity to spend some time in a 9-7X. Those that know me understand that I would never own any SUV, Saab or otherwise. I found myself surprised in many ways, though, by the 9-7X. The tuning of the steering and suspension worked reasonably well, and in fact better than in some SUVs that weren’t built on truck chassis. Still, you’d find that the well mannered 9-7X would lose its composure unexpectedly with just the right combination of steering input, speed and certain irregular road surfaces. I’m sure the engineers at Saab who did the tuning were aware of the limitations, and if this had been a clean-slate build, they would have made more fundamental alterations to the chassis when faced with these abrupt changes in attitude. That said, the vehicle does have its fans and we have seen clients come back and buy a second one.Now, it’s time has come. The 9-7X is history, and so is our shuttle.

The new recruit, more befitting of our time and the Saab brand, is a 9-3X. Customers will be a bit more cramped, but they will be comfortable and safe as we bring them to and fro. We’ve enjoyed images of other Combis from around the world with bold graphics telling all passers-by what they are. While our 9-7X, in lingonberry red, was subdued and innocuous, we will be having graphics added to our carbon black 9-3X. We want everyone in Harvard Square to know what this great car is. And of course, where they can get theirs! Pictures to follow when the project is complete.

2010-05-25T11:29:00.002-04:00

I'm Back!
I will admit that blogging is something of an anathema to me. I am very consistent and reliable at lots of things, but this isn't one of them. It has been two years since my last post. Some of this was driven by the depression and malaise which accompanied it when Saab seemed at death's door. By the time there was good news to be had, we were all riveted elsewhere, especially to the fabulous saabsunited.com . Then we stayed glued to that site as it chronicled the repeated near death situations Saab found itself in, until at last a deal was inked earlier this year between GM and Spyker's Victor Muller. Had I continued to blog/vent through all of that, my comments would have been irrelevant. So much was already being said that I preferred to devour and digest the news and rumors that were running around the web.
Now, I am back. Charles River Saab is still here. Saab is still here. Saab Cars North America has been launched. Shiny new cars are coming off the line in Trollhattan. The long awaited new 9-5 will arrive in July. The 9-4X and 9-5 Combi will arrive next year. The 2012 9-3, while still based on an Epsilon chassis, is purported to be a big departure from the current offering. The Saab world is poised to get really exciting.
The world economy, though, seems to be teetering again after a nice long positive run. Goldman Sachs et al must be breathing a sigh of relief now that the engines of economic collapse are not on Wall Street, but rather in Pyongyang, Athens and the Gulf of Mexico. The implications for the automobile business in general and Saab in particular cannot be overstated. Markets go up, customers spend. Markets tank, customers vanish. We can't afford to have too many more customers vanish, especially as we, along with Saab Cars North America, try to get the word out that Saab isn't gone and it has all this great product ready to go!

2008-05-30T09:49:00.007-04:00

TurboX Preview

This post is long overdue, but then again, so is the TurboX. We've been hearing about this car for some time. For the uniniated, this iteration of the 9-3 features our first Swedish built AWD (dubbed XWD--Cross Wheel Drive) system, an increase in engine power, and is a limited edition vehicle designed to pay homage to the Black Turbos of the 1980's.

I did get a bit of an insiders peek at the car before it was released, and had a chance to put the TurboX through its paces prior to its introduction. An aquaintance in GM marketing called me earlier this spring to inquire about a venue to run a ride/drive presentation for New England media, and knowing my involvement with Skid School thought I might be able to help. In fact, Skid School leased their site in North Andover to GM for that purpose, and I was an invited guest.

The site was festooned with Saab tents, a small collection of GM Heritage Collection Saabs, and a technical presentation tent. After an introduction to the car by US and Swedish Saab officials, the journalists were given the opportunity to drive the heritage cars on a small closed course, and flog the TurboX on an autocross, complete with a hairpin turn doused with sand. Being just a guest, mostly I observed. My first thoughts in watching the journalists at the wheel was that I hoped that their writing was better than their driving. Recently retired Royal Ford was in attendance, and to his credit he can drive, though he did punch a cone (which is OK--if you don't tip a cone, you're not finding the edge, and you're just not trying hard enough).

Finally it was my turn. I saddled up with fellow Skid School instructor Sean along for the ride. We were in a Combi TurboX 6-speed. The course started with a full throttle 3 cone slalom, followed by hard throttle sweeping left hand turn, down a straight, hard on the brakes, into at 135 degree left (covered with sand), quick jog to the right, full throttle straight, hard brake into the final left turn and then into the "pit". My consternation came in two places. First, in the sandy turn I wanted to induce some oversteer with the throttle, but could not. TurboX understeered severely, as though it were a front driver. Then in the straights, it did leave me slightly wanting for more torque. I otherwise thoroughly enjoyed the car. Any Saab driver will be right at home and will be able to drive this car very hard with little surprise; that is, unless, like me, they expected a significantly different attitude than that of front drive Saabs. My comrade also shared the observation of the understeer in the sand, and he also felt the car could have been sprung a bit firmer. I'd agree. TurboX is not for everyone, and it ought to be very edgy, including a really stiff suspension, like the early 9000 Aero. We did manage a ride with a Swedish engineer at the helm, wanting to see if he drove any differently with any better result in the sandy corner. He, in fact, could induce some really nice oversteer which was perfect in that corner, but he did it with trail braking (in other words, keep driving this car just like a front wheel drive car), not just a poke of the throttle. Note to self.The best part of TurboX that day? The sound! This is the best sounding Saab at full throttle, period. The idle isn't as sexy as the Classic 900, but this isn't a car you idle.

I was happy to also help out the crew with the Heritage cars. First, I was offered a chance to drive several to fill them with gas. I was fortunate to be there, since upon arrival two of the cars couldn't release their gas fill doors, and I was able to put my experience to work. Later in the day, the 1978 99 turbo failed to start, and I was summonsed and located a corroded terminal on the ignition lock relay and all was well again. The most entertaining part of the Heritage car fun was driving the 1997 Pike's Peak racer (roll cage, racing seat, fire extinguisher system, and lots of power) on the road. In every gear, without even trying, I induced wheel spin and gobs of torque steer. Love it!

This week, I had a chance to attend the ride and drive presentation for dealer personnel. After the technical presentation, we were afforded the chance to drive the TurboX and Aero XWD (only significant differences are the electronic limited slip differential and larger wheels/tires in the TurboX) on two closed courses against some competition: the FWD 9-3 Aero, the BMW 335xi and the Audi A4 3.2 Quattro. One course was set up with rubber mats covered in soapy water to demonstrate the differences in the AWD systems. I was impressed at how different each car felt. The XWD performance was substantially better with almost no wheel slip at all. The Audi was good, the BMW rather lacking with lots of wheel spin, clutching and grabbing, and the FWD Aero put its ESC to good use and was surprisingly easy to maneuver despite its handicap. On the dry course (this was very tight and small, not wide open like the North Andover experience), the tight suspension and heavy steering of the BMW felt great, the Audi felt vague and uninspired, the TurboX and Aero XWD were sure-footed though heavy feeling, and the FWD Aero felt easiest of all the cars to push hard. This is undoubtedly because of all my years driving FWD cars, and though riddled with some torque steer and understeer, this is the car I had the most fun with and dollar for dollar was the winner in my book.

2007-12-20T10:05:00.000-05:00

For an entertaining - and certainly opinionated! - look at the year 2007 in the Automotive world, click over to the AutoExtremist's blog:

http://www.autoextremist.com/index.shtml

2007-06-20T08:47:00.000-04:00

Just when you think you've seen it all in a Saab....
Boating came late in life for me. My wife grew up boating, and my kids all learned to sail at an early age, and living in Ipswich, boating was an inevitability. We very quickly went from having no boats to having five, of all manner of size and propulsion. Fortunately, my son Pascal, spends his summers and weekends working at Ipswich Outboards, so the boats are all tended to expertly. When his Whaler needed some preseason repair, he volunteered to get my wife's boat, a 17' skiff in the water and to install its mooring.
On the day that Pascal and his friends were launching the boat, I received a message that there had been a bit of a problem with the boat half-way between home and the boat launch ramp in the Ipswich River. When I arrived at the scene and made my way through the crowd of friends, supporters and gawkers, the problem was obvious: the axle had broken and the right wheel had fallen off the trailer. Unlike a broken down car, or even a stranded boat, there is no one to help on a Sunday afternoon with a problem like this. Realizing this, Pascal had gone home and devised a mechanism to continue the trip--about 1/2 mile--to the ramp. In place of the missing wheel, he had installed a section of 8x8, in which he had drilled holes and lashed rope to affix it to the axle and trailer chassis.
I offered to drive since no one knew how this would work. Indeed, his 1992 900 was not happy trying to launch the 2000 lb boat on one wheel and one chunk of pine. I had to burn the clutch a fair amount before I had enough momentum to release the clutch fully, and then hoped I could make it to the ramp without stopping. We almost made it. In fact, we only stopped because a boat at the ramp was having trouble and we had to wait while it was coaxed out of the water. While waiting, we inspected the skid. The roping had held perfectly. The only problem was that the 8X8 had been worn down to an 8X4, and the ropes were now almost exposed on the bottom side. When the boat traffic cleared, I suggested that to alleviate some of the friction on the skid, that some of the assembled stand on on the left side of the trailer, grab the gunnel, and "hike out" to leverage some weight to the left wheel. It worked well, so well that all that weight broke the axle on the other side, and we now had a trailer with no wheels.
Look, in a world where boats are hauled by SUVs and burly pickup trucks, it always looks strange to see a little Saab 900 pulling a boat trailer. Seeing that Saab pulling a boat trailer with no wheels, no that's something you don't see every day. So, we fashioned another skid from timber, this time held in place with Thule nylon straps attached with nails, and with 8 young men pushing, and the might 900 pulling we got the boat to the water. Being fearful of trying to back the trailer, we took the car to the bottom of the ramp nose first, disconnected the trailer and then pushed the boat and trailer into the river until the boat floated off. This was no mean feat, and only my the willingness of my son, Andre, to go neck deep in the cold river allowed us to get the trailer back.
A new axle and leaf springs have been installed by Pascal, and when we haul the boat out in the fall, with our Saab 900, we are surely hoping for a less eventful one mile journey.

2007-05-23T09:30:00.000-04:00

SaabUSA confirms an AWD option for the 'new' 9-3.

September will bring about a host of changes for the 9-3, including the long-needed AWD option. You'll also see some new design tweaks on the exterior, borrowing from the acclaimed Aero X concept car. Click over to Left Lane News for more info and some pix...

2007-04-27T12:35:00.000-04:00

A Day (or two) at the Track with My Saab

Being the Service Manager at Charles river Saab, cello teacher at the Ipswich Public Schools, an instructor for Stevens Advanced Driver Training on weekends, a husband and father of three sons, you would be correct to assume that I don’t have much time for recreation. Nevertheless, I recently carved out some time to participate in “motorsport” endeavors, and I just returned from my first two forays.
Last year, my son Pascal participated in the Swedish Car Day Rally and had the distinction of finishing dead last. But from that experience, he got interested in trying off road rallies. When I asked friends who race with SCCA (Sport Car Club of America—New England Region, www.ner.org ) they suggested Rally Cross (or RallyX); think of auto-cross, only in the dirt. So I got Pascal an SCCA junior membership for Christmas, signed a parental waiver, and he signed himself up for his first event in March. When he came home after his first day of racing, he was wide eyed with glee and had a camera full of great pictures and movies of him blasting through dirt and mud as he powered his 1991 900S to second place in the stock front wheel drive category! It looked so fun, I thought I had to try.
So last Saturday, Pascal, his older brother André and I piled into the 900S and headed to the Rochester (NH) Fairgrounds, site of the most recent SCCA RallyX. We ran in the FWD stock division. The only modifications to this old car (with 175,000 miles) were the installation of Gislaved snow tires, and a single-muffler exhaust from a 900T. We had a great time. Of course the boys had more fun because they finished ahead of and earned bragging rights. The car did very well, and the only casualty was a cracked exhaust pipe. This is racing on the cheap ($55 entry), and it is great fun. I would recommend it to anyone. You need only have a car that is sound and a helmet (and they’ll lend you a helmet if you don’t have one), and snow tires or rally tires are suggested. I must confess that not only did my sons beat me, but I came in last place in our division! Alas, I was not the slowest car of the day, and did beat out some of the modified and all-wheel drive entries, though not many. I will try this again and hope for better results!
On Monday, I tried a much different venture. I am a rare bird in the advanced driver training world—I have no racing experience. I do, though, have a very good pedagogic sense and the ability to communicate with students, mostly honed from my years of cello teaching. Still, I thought enhancing my own driving skills was an important self-improvement I should undertake. Charles River Saab assisted me in this endeavor and sponsored my participation in SCDA (Sport Car Driving Association, www.scda1.com ) at New Hampshire International Speedway, host to, among other events, NASCAR racing.
I am no racer, and am completely ignorant of all motor sports. But I do know cars and understand car control. I am not competitive by nature, but enjoy testing and pushing myself. This seemed like the perfect sort of event. I would get to drive my own car (OK, my wife’s) on a real race track with an instructor to show me how to best handle myself, my car and the track. I was not racing against anyone, or even a clock. I must say that SCDA puts on a wonderful event. It was well organized, and when we weren’t on the track, we were in the classroom, and otherwise barely had time to grab a bottle of water or make it to the lavatory.
I was in the Novice class, with about ten others. I realized what a serious affair this was when I first got to NHIS and saw all the spectacular cars there: Porsches, BMWs, a Ferrari, Corvettes, Lotuses and so on. I wasn’t expecting that so many fine cars would be driven by the Novice students. As I recall, the other students drove a Honda S2000, BMW M3, BMW M5 (old), Mini Cooper S, Porsche 911 (three of them), a Noble, a race SPEC Miata and a Lotus Elise. Yikes. I was in my wife’s thoroughly stock and original 1993 9000 Aero 5-speed on Pirelli Sport Veloce touring tires and 167,000 miles. After a terrific classroom session to get the lay of the land and an explanation of the ground-rules by instructor Luka Sedrar of the BMW Car Club of America, we took our cars to the track to meet our instructors.
My instructor for the day was Larry Barbieri, an instructor for the BMW CCA, and he drives a BMW M3. I wondered if instructors would see my car and run away, hoping to get into one of the more swish cars. But Larry was completely cordial and didn’t roll his eyes at the front-drive Saab. I was relieved! He started off by offering to drive the Saab a couple of laps while I observed from the passenger seat, no doubt to gauge its response on the course and to allow me to see the line he would try to teach me. We put on our helmets (thank you Toby Teller for donating your helmet to me) and communication devices and were on our way.
It took me about three seconds to realize that a). Larry was an excellent driver b). I was going to have a lot of fun that day. After those laps, I had a pretty good mental image of the track and where I wanted to be in each corner, where I wanted to brake and how much, and where to accelerate. At least I thought so until we switched places and I had to drive. It is tough work to drive hard and accurately. Timing is critical, as is planning and anticipation. It is as mentally stressful as it is physically demanding. Larry did a great job in “narrating” my laps around the track. He would position me, advise on when to brake, shift, accelerate, roll out the steering, where to apex on a turn and so on. And just like that, our first twenty minutes was up. I was reassured by that time that not only was Larry a good driver, he was also a very good instructor.
During the next session, I became aware of the cars that needed to overtake me (and there is a system of etiquette to allow safe passing by invitation of the leading car), but also found that my old Saab could run around the track with some of these cars, and even pass them. OK, I know this isn’t racing, and that not everyone was necessarily going as hard as they could. But even Mr. Non-Competitive Me got a little thrill the first time I exited the chicane on the heels of the M3 and got the signal to overtake, thus opening the throttle and pouring on all 258 lb/ft of torque to achieve the pass before the braking for the next turn. There was one turn, Turn 3 to Turn 4, which is very sharp and executed in second gear and immediately ascends a steep grade. I thought all that torque would rocket me up that hill. It might have, but the dreaded Traction Control rained on my parade. As I would try to accelerate up the hill while unwinding the steering, the inside front tire would lose grip, the TCS would engage, and all my lovely turbo boost and power would evaporate—boost is just so ephemeral—leaving me in the middle of the hill with no power. Ugh!
Late in the day, Larry gave me a ride in his BMW. As good as he was in my car, he was so smooth and fast in his car. I don’t know what modifications the BMW had, but it did have purposeful tires, massive looking brakes and 5-point harnesses. The suspension looked a bit lowered, and I wondered what engine modifications it may have been running. I admired the surefootedness of the car, and at no time did it ever feel as though it misbehaved. The expert interface of man/woman and machine, be it an automobile or a pipe-organ or a bicycle, is a sublime and wondrous thing to observe. In this case, it was also exhilarating to the point of exhausting. I couldn’t believe how tired I got just being Larry’s passenger!
At the end of the day, the old Saab did start to overheat a bit, for reasons I do not yet know, though she is running perfectly now. She averaged almost 11 mpg during the track sessions, and I did almost run out of gas even though I started the day there with 13 gallons in the tank. The tires were not nearly up to the task, having had the outer edge of the front tires torn off and will have to be upgraded before I do this again. Other than the tires, the car performed as well as I had hoped, and perhaps even better in some respects. Even the brakes, which seem rather smallish by today’s standards, worked well and never faded, though they turned a really neat shade of blue! Beyond the tires and the need for a TCS-off switch, how could I have asked for more from that car? She got me there and back. She was not pampered by being trailered to the track. I did no preparation other than changing filters, fluids and plugs and setting the tire pressures and lug torque. So the trusty 9000 Aero, capable of lugging massive purchases from IKEA and 17 foot Christmas trees (see stories below) shows us that she has so many capabilities. I wonder, though, how I would fare in, say, a 9-3 Aero…..I think Larry was right: the needle is now in my arm!

2007-04-17T13:02:00.000-04:00

Le Roi est Mort, Vie le Roi!
Yesterday, GM announced that Jay Spenchian, Saab North America General Manager, had been replaced by Steve Shannon, a career exec at GM who has experience in GM Europe, and most recently was the General Manager at Buick. I must say that I will miss Jay. He was the most accessible Saab chief in a long, long time, and one of the very few who sincerely understood the brand. Before Jay worked at Saab, and when he first joined GM, he requested a Saab 9-5 as his company car, to the astonishment of his co-workers. His reason? It was the best car in the GM portfolio. Jay's affinity for the Saab and his understanding of its history and clients was a welcome relief from the idiocy that emanated from the office of the last chief executive, Debra Kelly Ennis.
We don't know much about Steve Shannon, but we certainly hope for the best from him, and I would like to wish him the best. Steve did his undergrad work at Harvard (MBA from Columbia) so perhaps we can lure him to his old stomping grounds for a visit to Charles River Saab!

2007-02-12T14:26:00.000-05:00

Sad Ending for a Saab. Happy Ending for Me.
January 2 I was on my way to work. My family had left in the wee hours for Maryland, and of course I was worrying about their travels. Little did I know that I was the one in motoring peril, not them. At 6:10am, as I rounded a bend on a two-lane road, I was greeted by a pair of headlights--on my side of the road. My next recollection was wonder what the big gray thing was sitting in my lap, and the realization that it was my airbag! I blacked out again, and next I knew I was standing outside my car, speaking to an EMT who wondered how I had gotten out of my car. I still can't say, given that my door wouldn't open. I finally regained a clear head as I was being neck-braced and body boarded in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. I spent the morning there as the fine folks picked all the glass out of my face and eye. I was left with a scratched cornea, a left cheek that looked like hamburger, and a bruised bicep. I was also left with a ruined car.
The great news is that I am OK. The eye healed in three days. Glass came out of my face for a while but that seems done, and I should have only a few small scars. When looking at the crash, it could have been much worse. Much worse. When released from the hospital, my desire to understand the accident overcame my good sense and I spent the day doing detective work. My father-in-law drove me around as we inspected the crash scene, my car and the offending car. What I deduced from the physical evidence, is that the other vehicle, a Toyota SUV, crossed into my path probably as a result of hitting black ice. My Stevens Advanced Driver Training instruction influenced my actions: I had braked and turned right, JUST avoiding a head-on crash and taking the blow down the entire side of the car. Because I was braking, after the impact turned me to the left, I stopped just off the pavement. The Toyota suffered some damage from hitting me, but was destroyed as it careened off of the Saab and then drove into and onto a stone wall. From the police report I later learned that he was speeding, probably in excess of 55 mph. That, coupled with my 45 mph, means there was a lot of kinetic energy happening, and to have walked away with a foggy memory and a few scars--I am lucky!!!
As it was meant to do, the Saab--a 1993 900T--was forgiving where needed, and strong where it had to be. It also responded with quick reflexes--active safety--to ameliorate the crash impact. I owned this car for only a year and a half, but was very fond of it. I may never own another Classic 900T, but I will never forget this one and the way it saved my life.

2006-11-28T16:08:00.000-05:00

You Do That in a Saab?
Just as all automobiles are vastly better than they once were, most automobiles are far more versatile than they once were. Folding seats, integrated roof racks and the like are now common. Saabs, though, have been versatile forever! Who needs a pickup truck or a Jeep when you have a Saab, right? OK, so you can't plow snow with a Saab, but there really isn't anything else that's stumped me in all my years of Saab ownership. Appliances and furniture--load 'em up in a Saab hatchback. Time to tow the boat? Throw the tow-ball on the Saab. This weekend, my wife, my sons and I visited the Heliotrope tree farm and cut down two trees--15 and 17 fee tall. Two trees, two Saabs, Thule roof racks and a total of 5 Thule straps, and these beauties were homeward bound. Sure, you could do that with a pickup truck, but you sure wouldn't get the stares we enjoyed!

2006-10-24T15:54:00.000-04:00

A Swedish Car Day to Remember
I did not create Swedish Car Day, but I have organized and run all seven, so I feel a bit possessive of the event, and am very proud of its iteration in 2006. This show did not quite match the attendance we had in 2002, but it was close, and it offered such a nice balance. The weather was great (the lawn, though, was pretty cold and dark at 6am), we had a good showing by the Volvo owners, there were some interesting vendors, lots of terrific private cars, a nice little display from VNA, and of course, the spectacular showing from GM Heritage. I even got Royal Ford of the Boston Globe to make an appearance to write a story (I won't say how) in which he deftly left out the sponsorship of Boston Volvo and Charles River Saab; maybe we don't advertise enough in his paper? There was also a festiveness in the air, and the attendees seemed to be having a really good time.
The highlight of my day came when the lawn was reduced to my 900T and Peter Maitland's Sonett II. We headed up the hill and asked Dick Balsey of GM Heritage if help was needed to get the 15 wonderfully restored Saabs in his care to the three car carriers. He was delighted to have us help, and I couldn't believe it when he told us to fetch certain keys....start the cars....drive them to the car carriers...and then....Well, then I thought our job would be done and we'd turn the cars over to the haulers. At least, I thought so until I felt the elevated platform start to rise and...well, the picture tells the rest of the story. Funny how ten feet off the ground, you start to question things like, "First gear is over and down in a 3-speed...I hope."

2006-09-27T11:58:00.000-04:00

In Praise of "Swedishness"
The most ridiculous chief executive ever to preside over Saab in the US was Debra Kelly-Ennis. She did, at some point, make a speach where asserted that she was going to see to it that Saab retained its Swedishness. Boy, did we have fun with that remark.

In any event, the term came to mind as I was having an experience that was just ripe with Swedishness this past weekend. With my oldest son off to college, there was a bedroom shift and my 10 year old wanted to redecorate his room to his liking and remove much of his oldest brother's grungy style. With that, we piled into the Saab 9000 and headed off to IKEA.
At the end of our shopping day, we were replete with bedding, a mattress, pillows, lamps, a chair, Swedish cookies, and loads of all that neat IKEA miscellaneous stuff you just can't find elsewhere--in all we had two shopping carts and one flat cart loaded. To the unititiated, it would have seemed impossible to get all this home. But there in the Swedish IKEA parking garage, standing in my Swedish clogs before my Swedish Aero and its huge trunk, plus a Swedish Thule roof carrier, the goods were all swallowed with room to spare and the four of us rode home in Swedish comfort.

I am always so impressed that a country of less than nine million inhabitants (about the same as North Carolina) can give us so much neat stuff. Not just Saab, Thule and IKEA. But also Volvo, Scania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Hasselblad, Husquavarna, Sandvik and many more. They don't just produce stuff--they produce the stuff you want because it's infused with that je ne sais quoi. Must be that....Swedishness.

2006-09-08T09:55:00.000-04:00

Insider's view of the 9-7x
Charles River Saab was in need of replacing its venerable 2001 9-5 Aero Wagon customer shuttle. In looking at the incentives offered from GM, there was no question but to go with the 9-7x. The deal was amazing, it made a nice vehicle to ferry customers, and will give us the opportunity to showcase the vehicle. I just came back from a drive in our new shuttle. I also took a college visit trip to Philadelphia earlier this summer in a 9-7x, so now that I have logged some serious miles on the 9-7x, I can present my view.
Disclaimer--I generally abhor the notion of an SUV or SAV (sorry, my Bavarian friends--they are all SUVs to me). Whether Porsche Cayenne or Ford Explorer, I never understood the point. Most have less room inside than a good sized wagon or van (vans I understand), most have serious safety issues which have started to be mitigated with better mechanical and electronic stability systems, all are inefficient with respect to consumption vs. interior space, and most really can't be taken off-road (except of course Land Rovers). The only SUV I ever fancied was the MB G-Wagen in its early iteration--diesel engine, manual transmission, no carpeting. I also understand Jeeps. There is one in my driveway that plows the drive (can't do that with my Saabs) and tows my in-laws boat. I tow my boats with my 900, thank you. The all-wheel drive argument for SUVs never washed with me; when there is a blizzard and I have to get from Ipswich to Watertown to plow the lot in the wee hours, I never take the Jeep. My snow-tire clad Saab never fails to get me through.
So here I am reviewing the 9-7x, which is part of a genre I have little use for. Add to that its somewhat dubious DNA as a Saab, and you're likely to think that a Saab nut like me will hate this thing, right? Wrong! I really do like this truck. I will never ever own one. But I like it. Much of the motoring press has, too. So here are the particulars.
What Pierre Likes:
I like, no, I love the suspension set-up. The balance between firmness and comfort is perfect. In fact, it is batter balanced in that regard than any Saab, ever. It reminds me very much of the ride quality and quiet of a Mercedes, which is not a bad thing.
I like the handling, but not completely. In most situations, the handling and steering seem terrific. In my long journey, though, I discovered, as I am sure Saab's engineers realized, that in some handling situations the suspension, no matter how well tuned and modified, can't cope. this is very uncharacteristic of a Saab. Every other Saab I have driven is very predictable no matter the road surface. The 9-7x can go from feeling brilliant to having moments where it handles like, well, a truck. This, to me, is the problem with a derivative design. If there are limits in the fundamental design, you are stuck with those limits.
I like the look of the 9-7x from the front view.
I like the equipment--the gadgets. This car is so well equipped, and the radio/XM is terrific in sound and ease of use.
I love the quiet of this vehicle. It motors with aplomb, without the roar and bang I am used to from other Saabs.
I like the front seats. Not quite as good as real Saab seats, but still good.
Brakes seem fine, and appropriately brawny for the weight of the vehicle.
I like the I6 engine. It doesn't belong in any Saab, but it is a terrific modern engine.
The air compressor in the trunk to inflate tires, balls etc...Cool!

Here's What Pierre Dislikes about the 9-7x:
Side and rear exterior styling, or lack thereof. You can't peel off some mouldings, add some others and fool people. From 3 of 4 angles this looks like an Envoy/Trailblazer. Not acceptable. Booooooo.
Side directional indicators are in the mirrors, not the fenders. While not uniquely Saab, this would add a good euro-detail to the too-American flanks.
The V8 engine. I don't care if it's made of aluminum and has displacement on demand. It doesn't belong anywhere near a Saab. Why couldn't GM have taken, say, the 5-cylinder engine from the H3 Hummer (based on the 6 cylinder engine in the 9-7x linear) and turbo-charged it. The consumption improvement, turbocharger and uniqueness of that arrangement would be much more "Saab."
The transmission. It sucks.
The dashboard. Most of the interior is OK, and some high quality materials were used in the dash, but everywhere you look you see Trailblazer stuff and it looks like junk: cheap plastic, cheap (if complete) gauges, probably look extra bad next to the Saab bits and swathes of better materials. The interior should have been built from scratch, not modified.
The steering wheel is awful. You can't take a cheap steering wheel and glue a Saab badge on it and think it's ok. It's not. It is the one part of a vehicle we touch most. The 9-7x deserves a proper steering wheel.
THERE WERE NO SAFETY UPGRADES MADE when this truck was derived. If it's not extra safe, it's not a Saab. It doesn't even have active head restraint! Not forgivable! Boooooooo.
Rear seat is very uncomfortable and not adjustable.
Stops for the rear hatch encroach on hatch opening and are at least inconvenient, if not dangerous. This seems like a patch for some sloppy initial engineering.
Cheesy Chevrolet styled Munroney sticker. Why?
Fuel mileage. I got 18.5 on my 800 mile trip. Maybe that's ok next to other SUVs, but it doesn't do much for me.
My overall impression is positive. If someone liked driving an SUV or had something over 2000 pounds to tow, I'd highly recommend the vehicle. It is handsome, agile, strong and exceedingly comfortable. Could it have been better--yes, much better. Still, I give it thumbs-up.

2006-06-22T09:37:00.000-04:00

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Or on 128. This is a lot of fun - check out this video of the Saab Perfomance Team.

2006-05-17T16:35:00.000-04:00

A Tale of Four Aeros
There are those moments of inadvertent genius in one's life. Such was the case at our most recent day of Skid School at Stevens Advanced Driver Training. When selecting cars to use at the event, I try to arrange a good assortment of cars that would represent the vehicles driven by the cohort attending the class, as well as picking Saabs that are most likely to be entertaining. When the fleet was finalized, a couple of days before the school, I realized that I had three versions of Aero going--a 2006 9-3 V6 Aero, 2002 9-5 Aero and a 2005 92x Aero. Hmmm.....
On the day of the event, I had my sons (who were attending the school) drive up in my wife's 1993 9000 Aero. So there we were at Concord NH Municipal Airport with the newest version of Aero, the original (at least in the US) Aero, and Aero versions of the 9-5 and 92x--we had the Aero heritage fleshed out nicely. As the day moved along, I asked Sandy Stevens if his drivers might be interested, when the class was done, to do some drag racing in the Aero's. He chuckled--since all his instructors race cars, they don't need to be asked twice to go out and drive hard and fast and compete with one another. So, when the day of Skid School was done, the cones were cleared from the runway, and it was time for the Aero Challenge.
I'd put the length of the runway at about a quarter mile, so the race would be just short of that (allowing enough time to stop so as not to traverse an active runway!). All the cars were automatic (6-speed for the 9-3, 5-speed for the 9-5 and 4-speed for the 92x), except the 9000 Aero, which was fair since the other cars all had more horsepower (250 for the 9-5 and 9-3, 227 for the 92x and 225 for the 9000), and the 9000 was hampered by Traction Control which is not switchable, and makes launching somewhat tricky. They raced four times. The winner every time was the 9-3. Second was always the 9-5. It was always very close. The lesser weight and extra gear ratio probably made the difference for the 9-3. Third and fourth was a duel between the 92x and 9000. They traded places at every race. Clearly, the driver had a lot to do with the outcome in the 9000; to shift at right time and to push the car hard but without inducing wheel spin and engaging the traction control was a challenge. But even between first and fourth, there was not much difference, maybe a couple of car lengths. In the end, all of the cars acquitted themselves nicely. Just makes you wonder, though....if we had a 1994 Aero without Traction control, and manual transmission versions of the other cars....
Not only did the 9-3 Aero win in the drag race, but I think it won everyone's heart during the Skid School. Not only is the engine a gem, but the tuning of the rest of the car, including a switch in tire brand and size for 2006, make this a really easy car to drive very hard and fast. I was concerned about the extra weight of the V6, but the handling remains precise, the passive rear steering works brilliantly, and the feedback through the steering seems slightly better. Overall, it is a very impressive performer!

2006-04-12T14:54:00.000-04:00

First, it was front-wheel drive Volvos....
Now BMW, in an article in Automotive News, is reporting that it is leaving the dark side of engine performance:
"The German maker of high-performance vehicles will stop making engines bigger to boost performance. Instead, BMW will use turbochargers, more efficient valvetrains and advanced electronics to boost performance while increasing fuel economy.
'The time to increase horsepower by increasing displacement is over,' said Klaus Borgmann, senior vice-president of powertrain development for BMW...."
What's next, a Mercedes with the ignition switch on the console?
I hope Saab is paying attention, though. Just because you're right all along about things, doesn't mean you can rest on your laurels!

2006-04-04T11:28:00.000-04:00

Recent Automotive/Saab News on the Future Fuels debate:

Some articles on where Saab is moving on this issue:
The 9-3 Hybrid Concept.
The 9-5 BioPower Concept.

E85 Editorial
I Can't Drive E85.

Hybrid Energy Study
Let the debate begin!

2006-03-31T12:59:00.000-05:00

Future Fuels
In the wake of Katrina we experienced some over $3 per gallon gasoline and boy did that jolt revive the energy debate. Seems we can't convince ourselves of the necessity of reducing our oil consumption and stemming the creation of CO2 to diminish the advance of global warming. I hear customers cry for more hybrid cars. Frankly, I am not convinced that this is a long term solution but it certainly has some merits and these cars are a good proving ground for future solutions. Saab and GM have a great next-generation hybrid, which will, I understand, use a methanol engine or E85 engine in conjunction with electric motors and regenerative technology. However, none of this will have enough impact until people turn their backs on every aspect of our inefficient and wasteful lifestyles.
Surprisingly little is known in the States about French culture outside of its food and politics. One overlooked aspect of the French is that they are about the stingiest people on the planet. They even have a TV series (Gaspillage!) about waste that is uncovered in everyday life. So, take a Frenchman and dress him as a Yankee and what do you get? Me, the stingiest, most frugal guy there is. When it comes to energy, all my environmental friends would be impressed (if I had any friends) by the way I conserve energy. I drive cars with small, efficient engines--because I hate paying for gasoline. I live in a modest sized dwelling, which is heavily insulated, and every window has an insulated shade, covering an extra layer of plastic that I put on my windows every year. Why? I hate paying for heating oil at any price. I purchased fancy appliances (German and American) for their reduced water consumption and electrical efficiency, and all the bulbs in my house are compact fluorescent. Why, because I think of the hole in the ozone? No, it's because I hate sending money to the utilities.
The point is, I will conserve because it is in my nature to be cheap, not because I am morally motivated. Want to see a push towards energy revolution and a reduction in greenhouse gases? Then make it so financially unpalatable to continue the status quo that normal people (people not as cheap as me) will chose efficiency. This can only be accomplished by a heavy tax on all fossil fuels. I think we'd be amazed at the results. We would reinvent our infrastructure based on demand and the market would respond. We could tell OPEC where to stuff their useless crude. We could do our part as the primary energy consumers of the planet to curtail the emission of greenhouse gases.
For the sake of our children, I hope that we soon see leaders in Washington with the testicular fortitude (no matter their gender) to provide acute energy vision and leadership. When a libertarian miser like me starts calling for new taxes, you know the situation must be dire!

2006-03-03T10:10:00.000-05:00

Saab Press Clippings
Just a few recent articles on our beloved brand. With all the negativity surrounding GM these days, it is nice to see some quality articles trumpeting the positives at Saab.

Recent Boston Globe article on the 9-7X.

Recent Boston Globe article on the 9-3 Sport Sedan.
Hint: after you read this, then read Pierre's posting (see below) on his review of the Review.

Great images of the new Saab Aero X Concept Car.

Review of the 9-7X versus the Volvo XC90.

2006-02-18T08:49:00.000-05:00

Royal Ford: Give Credit, and Blame where it is due
In his review, "So close to being a fine car" By Royal Ford on February 11, 2006 in the Boston Globe, Ford gives a fairly reasoned appraisal of the 9-3 Sport Sedan. I like this car a lot, but have gripes about it, too, as did Mr. Ford. Mr. Ford stated: "But GM, you need to go the next step. Build this car with the interior quality of, say, a Volvo (or Kia or Hyundai) -- the entire interior. If you don't want to do that, then let somebody else buy Saab so it can be returned to the cutting edge." Thus he insinuates that some of the crummy interior materials are there because of GM. Is it his contention that nobody in Trollhattan had anything to do with interior? That interior was designed by Michael Mauer's team, not some good ol' boys from Detroit. The interior is sub-par for the car, but that is not a GM problem. How about the Saabs of old and their interiors? Mr. Ford views Saab's past through rose colored glasses. The interior of a classic 900 is filled with bits and pieces that looked like they were spec'd from an army surplus manual. There is nothing cohesive about the mix of parts and materials in those old cars. It is pure funk.

Mr. Ford also failed to point out the really good stuff GM has given Saab as exemplified in the 9-3. How about the terrific engines? Both are heavily modified for Saab use but are derived from GM global products. So is the fine chassis. We also can't forget gadgets. Saabs have always had them, and boy were they a pain! Cruise control, climate control, security systems and more are so much more reliable now than in the good old days. Is there a Classic 900 that didn't have a failed heater valve, broken cruise control (perpetually), window switches that failed, ignition switches that bound or froze, and ball joints that didn't disintegrate in 30,000 miles? Still, we loved those cars. And despite its foibles, we can love the Sport Sedan, albeit for different reasons.

Basta Mr. Ford! The past wasn't so perfect. The present isn't far from it.