There are times when you think the people running GM's Saab division are hampered by the corporate handcuffs. And there are times when you say "someone's been hitting the Glögg a bit too hard." This is one of those occasions. At the New England Auto Show, Saab has just debuted the Turbo X, with its fancy new AWD system and 280 horses (that's an extra 30). Great! If any car has been screaming for all wheel-drive, it's the Saab 9-3. And why not Boston? Saab's remaining 11 new car customers are all Ivy League college professors seducing students deep in the snowy Northeast, and they need the AWD for their weekend ski trips. So far, so good. Now the bad news: it's $42,510. That's more money than an Audi A4 3.2 Quattro, Infiniti G35x, or BMW 335xi. At an insanely high price like that, it's no wonder they are only importing 600 of them. If you're one of the few, you can get it in any color you want, so long as it's black.
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This is a halo car of sorts for Saab.
The word is that the “X” option on the 9-3’s will be about $1,500 extra, so don’t sweat it too much.
Pete
(how many 9-7X Aeros at $45k+ do you think they’ll sell, even with an LS2! beast of a car… but it will make the Linear version seem like a bargain)
Halo is fine, but the truth is that this car is priced way, way too high.
In fact, I’d wager that this exact car should be on sale at about $34k if they really wanted to sell cars. Then again, it’s Saab and GM, so “selling cars” may not be their motivation.
To me these are no fun at all if you can’t run in rwd only and occasionally drive it like a USAC midget on dirt.
280 horses on a “halo car” WTF, indeed. I’m thinking that the new STI will go for how much less with how much more performance? Subaru even has the eastern winter sport dweeb cachet going for it.
Saabs sell at such deep discounts that buyers know by now to target a selling price of 70% of MSRP
How many regular 9-3 did they sell in the US in 2007, 600 seems like a high number for a car that doesn’t sell well in regular trim. These cars might be the deal of the century in about 6 months when they discount them like the rest of the cars. Then again maybe not compared to it’s competition.
I assume the value (or lack thereof) of the $US is partially to blame also.
Skid666 – Nah. I’m guessing it’ll be close to $60k Canadian, dollar at par not withstanding. (That’s if they even bring it here.)
They’re taking the premium pricing strategy and going for the people that think more money = more better.
You’re spot on with the Saab pricing. You’d have thought they would’ve learned with the 92x pricing debacle, but the clearest evidence to me that the X is horribly overpriced is none of the stuff that you mentioned – it’s the Infiniti EX35 AWD at $32,700. Considering that price includes 297 HP, and build quality way beyond anything Saab produces, the $10K difference is laughable.
http://jalopnik.com/cars/new-cars/2008-infiniti-ex35-pricing-announced-324339.php
Saab justifies the high price based on their claim that the XWD is an industry-first AWD system that can modulate torque to each individual rear wheel to help control cornering attitude. The problem is that will customers care enough to pay the extra premium?
WTF indeed. $42,510 for a well optioned 9-3? You must be kindding. Good luck finding 600 suckers for that deal Saab.
“Saab justifies the high price based on their claim that the XWD is an industry-first AWD system that can modulate torque to each individual rear wheel to help control cornering attitude.”
This sounds mighty similar to Acura’s “Super Handling All Wheel Drive” system as seen on the Acura RL. To quote from Popular Science:
“Acura’s is the first that also transfers power preferentially to the left- or right-side rear wheels during slipping and cornering, reducing the slow-to-follow back end’s understeer. When accelerating through a right turn, Acura’s system will divert up to 70 percent of the total torque to the left rear wheel, helping that corner whip around the turn.”
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/bown/2004/autotech/article/0,22221,750808,00.html
I believe Beretta GTZ nailed it right on the head.
the XWD system can split torque to each individual rear wheel, like the EVO’s active yaw control system, and accelerate the outside rear wheel to whip the car around a turn.
$7000 premium over an EVO . . . . I think its worth it so you don’t have to drive around looking like a 20 year old jerkass with a giant spoiler, gaping maw and nostrils in the hood.
Seriously, are there incentives at GM to make sure Saab dies a horrible death?
akatsuki I was thinking the same thing. With all they have done since they got hold of Saab you would think they were on a mission to stomp them out of existence. It’s been horrible to watch after all Saab’s I had fun in.
Hang on, can’t you get a 08 Cadillac CTS 4wd with 300hp for for 36K? according to Mike’s true delta.
oh GM the craziness of their one step forward, one step sideways, one hand in, one hand out, shuffle all around, bash your head against a wall sales strategy.
Lets get real, Saab does not need a halo car, they need an obituary. If GM was serious about turning Saab around, the Aero X would be the only 9-3 sold in the USA and it would be priced to start at $30,000. If GM could pull that off, Saab just might rise from the has-bin. Ponder however the chances overall when the rest of your lineup is the Tröllblazer, an almost decade old 9-5 and the soon to be Mexican 9-4 Saturn knock-off. If Sweden stopped their incentives for domestic alternate fuel vehicles I’m sure GM would be pondering closing the doors for good.
Hang on, can’t you get a 08 Cadillac CTS 4wd with 300hp for for 36K? according to Mike’s true delta
The 08 CTS that the salesman claimed were AWD all had stickers of $42,000 on them. I couldn’t find anywhere on the car or sticker that the car actually had AWD thou. And the guy told me none of his 08’s had the new 3.6 with direct injection, yet it said right on the sticker it did. Nice of him to know what he was selling.
Ironiclly this dealer was loaded to the gills with new Saab’s(and they weren’t a Saab dealer 18 months ago when I bought my Subaru there), so this Turbo X and the CTS will be sitting side by side soon. Why would any dealer buy into the Saab franchise when they are selling so poorly? And I really liked that dealership too, I got a smoken deal on my Legacy GT there.
$42,500 for a Saab with a first-generation AWD system? Sign me up!
-Matt
The Audi and BMW mentioned would have to be stripped to be less than $42K whereas the SAAB would be almost fully loaded. Still, I’d rather load up the Audi or BMW and pay $48K for a car that won’t fall apart around the 2 year mark like my 2004 SAAB did, particularly the interior. The BMW would also hold its value while the SAAB would be devalued by GM itself inducing massive end of year incentives. The TurboX may be exclusive enough to hold its value but somehow I doubt it – GM will find a way to knock its knees out. Having a 335i the 280HP is adequate – unless you regularly track the car you have to consistently break the law to use it.
I grew up in Brazil therefore, as a child, I saw Saab emblems attached to many Saab Scania LB and T series trucks trough my childhood.
As a very young kid I had no idea what a Gripen/Griffin was so…for many years I thought it was an overheating exotic eagle/dragon/bird thing overheating on the Brazilian tropical heat.
I only saw close details on these Griffin emblems when the LB and T Saab-Scania turbodiesels where left idling on gas stations and because of the massive heat generated by the behemoths it really meant to me an overheated, exhausted bird.
When I was 4 or 5 my dad told me Saab-Scanias were built in factory in a very, very cold and dark country…
AND they were built alongside cars AND JET FIGHTERS!
Boy, he knew he was playing with my imagination. Haha.
I had to have one.
Fast Forward 30+ years or so into a California SAAB/Volvo dealership. The Gripen Eagle/Dragon/Chicken hot-sauce spewing thing logo was still there, so were [posters of] jet fighters but no signs of black-soot spewing trucks going through their 14 gears in tight turns in a tropical forest. Maybe they should appeal to that next.
These GM cars felt plastiky, poorly put together and the engine bay had *major*, *major* signs of cost-cutting.
Oh well… *sigh*. I went to the BMW stealer next door and factory ordered a 328Ci one that is with me to this day.
I hope Saab does not go under. I would not mind paying a premium for something special, but not a premium for marketing gimmickry. Drive around on a glorified Vectra/Malibu? Spare me.
I guess I’ll have to join the mass confusion. I priced a 9-3 Aero with a V-6, XWD, navi and all the toys and got as high as $40,505. What else could this car have???
On the Saab site, they are cherry-picking it with the Audi S4, which retails for $48,610. I don’t know if that’s supposed to make this look like a better value, but it just makes me think that BOTH cars are overpriced.
I was hoping they’d keep this down to the $40,000 mark so was disappointed when they slotted over it. This is the intro vehicle for the XWD system and comes with the full XWD kit, including the whizz-bang electronic LSD that splits power between the rear wheels. Order an XWD Aero next year and the eLSD will be a $2,000 option. I’ve done a full, very full, article on the Turbo X, including some video in a full XWD-equipped car being driven by one of the Saab Performance Team guys. http://www.trollhattansaab.net/archives/2007/11/2008-saab-turbo-x-everything-you-need-to-know.html This is going to be a great car, but I fear the sub-300hp figure and the post-$40K price is going to scare off some of the people that it would have won over. And Justin, they’re only bringing 600 in because it’s a worldwide limited edition of 2,000. The US is getting the biggest allocation, followed by the UK with 500.
quote: Saab justifies the high price based on their claim that the XWD is an industry-first AWD system that can modulate torque to each individual rear wheel to help control cornering attitude.
Industry first??? 12 years ago in 1995 Nissan introduced the R33 Skyline GT-R with ATTESA-ETS Pro AWD system. Where ATTESA-E-TS (since 1989 R32 GT-R) controls the front to rear torque-split, the Pro is also capable of left-and-right torque split to the rear wheels. This is done via an active rear limited-slip differential.
A lot time passed, then came the Evo with similar system, then Acura and now Saab.
WOW! If “flaming” cars were as reprehensible as “flaming the site, its authors or fellow commentators”, at least half of these people would be permanently banned. Let me get this straight. For a sticker price of $42,510.00 (and who pays sticker?), 600 people in the U.S. (2000 people worldwide) will be able to acquire a limited edition version of the car which: A) has taken top honors in both the offset frontal and side impact collision tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) 3 years in a row (sorry, Volvo, but, being the 2nd safest car one can buy isn’t necessarily a bad thing), B) offers free scheduled maintenance for 3 years or 36,000 miles-whichever comes first (like Audi USED TO), C) has a 5-year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty (MB, BMW, anyone, anyone?), D) delivers 100 hp per litre, E) delivers 295 lbft. of torque at little more than 2000 RPM (and, please tell me I’m not the only one here who recognizes that low-end torque is at least as important as raw horsepower), AND, it out-slaloms a Porsche 911(?).
While this may be Saab’s first foray into AWD or XWD (if you don’t count the ill-fated 92X or the 97X–which is SO much more than a “Trailblazer with the ignition in the middle”, it isn’t funny), the system being used is actually a 4th-generation Haldex system. Oh, by the way, I’m STILL waiting for someone to tell me why the 97X is the ONLY GMT 360 platform “sibling” that isn’t required to carry the federally-mandated sticker that says it can roll over and kill you (if it is ONLY a “Trollblazer”). But, I digress. Still with only 60 years of FWD under their belts, I guess that’s why Aspen and Vail, Colorado have never used Saabs as police cars. Oops. My bad. They have.
As for the contributors who had a less than stellar experience with Saab, I ask you: #1) what car company hasn’t had at least 1 dissatisfied customer; and #2) what car company gave a brand new car to a guy who gave their museum a car he drove for ONE MILLION MILES? (Oh. I know the answer to that one. It’s Saab.)
I want to drive it!!! I think that the x drive system will be available on all 93 models very soon. The price is a little high, but the 280 hp in a Saab is big time power. Saab is a love/hate type car. I love my 93 and I am sure the Turbo x is something special. Price wise, I will wait until those features are available on the 93 Aero, then buy a used one (a year or 2 old with 30,000 miles or less) for less than half price. The only drawback to owning a Saab is that maintainence is very expensive (over $100 per oil change).