What's Wrong With This Picture: The 9-3 That May Never Be Edition
According to svd.se, this is an image of the next-generation Saab 9-3, as revealed in a presentation to Sweden’s National Debt Office. Based on a new Phoenix platform that is supposedly under development (although with what money is unclear… new platforms typically cost around a billion dollars to develop), the new 9-3 will be the first Saab developed by the brand since gaining independence from GM. If, in fact, the company survives long enough to bring it to market in the 2013-2014 projected timeframe. And, based on all the news we’ve seen, the chances of Saab surviving, let alone developing a new car on a new platform, are extremely slim. But if you’re still holding out hope for The Industry’s Most Troubled Brand ®, this might inspire some more wholly unjustified optimism… as might the leaked image of Saab’s future product “plans.” Just don’t come crying to us when this all falls apart again in mid-November…
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See, this is what makes this so fun! The ongoing collapse. Now we are into the "what could have been" phase! Ahead of schedule I think.
Most of the cost of developing a car is in the tooling, and dependent on volume. Until they pay to tool up for the car, they're spending little above the salaries they pay their full-time engineering staff. Put another way, they can engineer the car all they want. But they will have to track down some serious cash if they actually want to produce it. Unless it's to be a low-volume affair, but then the price would have to be crazy high.
Looks modern and has all the SAAB styling cues. I hope it gets built.
Is that design allowing for the possibility of a hatchback? Please say it's so. Saab, if they ever do come back from the dead, would be well advised to start making hatches again, it's what made the 900s/old 9-3 models so useful.