XWD will come to the 9-3 range as soon as the Turbo X sells out. Production is starting in the next week or so according to my contact in Trollhattan.

The Kappa vehicle was never in the pipeline. Regarding the SportCombi, there will be a raised XWD version later this year a-la Subaru’s, Volvo’s and Audi’s (former) offerings that’s expected to wear the 9-3x badge. The regular SportCombi that you can buy now will continue to be offered as well, of course.

The next three years will be very exciting for Saab fans and the transition they’re making, whilst significant, won’t require anywhere near the revolution that the Volt will.

Cheers.

GARBAGE. They don’t even have independent rear suspension. If I was going to pay good money for a dolled up American economy car.. wait nevermind, I’d just buy a Japanese car.

What I mean is that they’ve shown 4 concept cars in the past 7 years, and zero have gone into production. What are the key elements of these concept cars?
-All wheel drive. It was available on the rebadges, the 9-7x and 9-2x, and on 600 $42,000 9-3 Turbo X models. But not on the mainstream 9-3 models and not on the 9-5.
-Sports coupes (i.e. Aero X) At present there is no sports car for Saab, and my understanding is that they will not be building a Kappa-platformed vehicle either.
-Raised 3 door vehicles – the closest is the SportCombi, which is a beautiful wagon but still a 5 door wagon, not a 3 door crossover.

I don’t blame Saab for GM cutting their funding, but the outcome is that the only thing in production from these stunning concept cars is a new nose for the 5-year old 9-3 and the even older 9-5.

You say (and rightly so, of course) that the 9-4x is going into production, as will the 9-1. But future plans don’t make for credibility – products on the market do. Otherwise GM’s Volt dreams would be much different.

The image is a Saab 9x with a sheet on it rather than the Saab 9-1 concept that’ll show at Geneva. That’s the not real part.

The real part is that the image is being used, presumably by Saab Switzerland, on invitations to the Geneva show being sent out to Saab clients etc in the region.

Justin – I’m not sure what you’re referring to when you say “Saab’s lack of credibility on concepts”.

The 9x and 9-3x concepts were cut due to GM’s budget restraints on Saab in the early 00’s. The SportHatch concept became the 9-3 SportCombi. The Aero X concept was a design study that’s influencing Saab cars right now. The 9-4x concept will be turned into a production vehicle next year and this 9-1 concept showing at Geneva will be a production vehicle most likely in 2010.

How is this less credible than concept vehicles that other manufacturers produce?