Saab sales and image taking off

Saab 9-7x (Photo: General Motors)

There's also the new Saab 9-7X, which is an American SUV with the kind of accent the Swedish chef had in The Muppet Show. It's still an excellent SUV and the Saab-esque touches make it different, and that can appeal to lots of folks regardless of their age.

The core models for Saab continue to be the 9-3 and recently upgraded 9-5, which offer turbocharged iterations of the sedans and wagons themes, offering comfort and performance for more reasonable operating costs than is traditional in this segment.

But if there was a lodestar for the entire brand it would be the convertible version of the smaller 9-3 line. There's just something about the 9-3 droptop that makes it special.

I can tell you from vast experience that it is THE single best car on the road for touring someplace beautiful and/or cool. Being in a Saab convertible has raised the enjoyment level for visits to San Francisco, St. Petersburg, the northern most point of Europe, the Pacific Coast Highway, New England, and the Riviera several times. It can also do wonders toward making your home town more appealing.

Saab 9-3 line-up (Photo: General Motors)

The Saab 9-3 ragtop works better than competitive models from BMW, Mercedes and Volvo because it doesn't have the heavy emotional baggage of those brands, and that helps you chill out and relax, dude, which is the primary directive of a convertible.

By far the biggest noise for Saab right now can only be heard in Sweden, where the BioPower version of the 9-5 is at the top of the environmental cars list, outselling everything on the market, including the Toyota Prius hybrid by about five to one. GM has plans to extend the use of E85 (85 percent ethanol) models like this around the world, but at present Canada has only two (2) stations that provide this fuel, so we shouldn't hold our breath.

As for that futuristic Aero X concept car, we're not likely to see it on the road any time soon, but we should see elements of its design on future real-world Saabs.

In general, things are working out fairly well for the folks from Trollhattan, which, in case you were wondering, translates pretty much directly into English.

Saab sales are taking off around the world, going up 17 percent in the first quarter of 2006 versus 2005. In Canada, the increase is even greater -- 29 percent. And if there's anything to that survey charting the buying habits of North American youths, future growth levels could be even greater.
photo:Susan Winlaw