stevehayes01
03-14-2005, 12:26 PM
http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20825_200.jpg (http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20825_400.jpg)
http://www.jacksonville.com/images/ss/icons/fcnlogo.jpg (http://firstcoastnews.com/) Saab 9-3 2.0T Convertible video review on Fast Car Friday (http://www.jacksonville.com/embedded_video/videonews/2004/012304105605.html)
Lime-green drink determines color of 9-3 2.0T Convertible
By Dan Scanlan
Times-Union staff writer
The 2004 Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible looks cool with the top up or down.
DAN SCANLAN/The Times-Union
There is a Saab story to the color of this new 9-3 2.0T Convertible.
According to Saab U.S. President Debra Kelly-Ennis, it involves a high-octane lime-green drink called a Caipirinhia, the national drink of Brazil, at the 2002 9-5 launch in Copenhagen.
"One of the designers had the drink and said this is the perfect color for the new convertible, hence you have this wonderful color," she said.
Not since Volkswagen's Turbonium (yellow-green) color on its New Beetle has a car color been so polarizing. Wherever we went, people liked the sleek Saab 9-3 Convertible, but the color garnered comments like "Looks like electric Gatorade," "That's psychedelic guacamole" and "Oooh, I like that car, but not the color."
http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20829_200.jpg (http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20829_400.jpg) The Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible has a two-tone leather interior.
DAN SCANLAN/The Times-Union
But a little weird always has been part of Saab's heritage.
Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget started as an aircraft company in Sweden in 1937 -- its first car coming in 1939. Since that first 9-2, the company has designed aerodynamic cars with small engines and front-wheel-drive, adding turbocharging in the 1980s and becoming a favorite among drivers seeking funkier designs with power and room. In 1998, the 9-3 showed up. For '03, the 9-3 was totally redone on General Motor's Epsilon platform, which is also under the newest Opel Vectra and Chevrolet Malibu models. The Saab 9-3 Convertible was unveiled March 4, 2003, at the Geneva Motor Show, and is now built near Graz, Austria. It went on sale in August.
GM's smallest car company sold a record 40,000 units so far this year, and they have lots of new product coming including the compact 9-2X, to be built on the Subaru WRX platform. But a Swedish car on a Japanese platform? Kelly-Ennis said it will have "Swedish design, great driving dynamics, safety and surprising versatility."
http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20827_200.jpg (http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20827_400.jpg) The Saab's power top mechanism is automatic, and hides the black cloth top under a hard tonneau.
DAN SCANLAN/The Times-Union
"Going forward about two-and-a-half years, we will launch more new cars than Saab did in the previous decade," she said. "The 9-3 is on a shared platform with other GM products, so the fact that the 9-2 and other products we will be doing is a shared platform is nothing new. You can see the level of differentiation we have have achieved [with the 9-3.]"
2003 Saab 9-3 2.0t Aero Convertible
The new 9-3 convertible carries a more wedgy silhouette than the sedan, its body is shared with the sedan up to the A-pillars, while every panel aft is different.
"Why is that important? The No. 1 reason for purchasers of the 9-3 sedan is exterior styling," Kelly-Ennis said.
The front and rear fenders flare gently around P225/45R17-inch Pirelli PZero radials with faceted six-spoke alloy wheels. A gray side rub strip and gray streamlined door handles accent the wedge shape as the beltline rises to a rounded square-edged tail with expressive lights.
It's a wonderful shape, especially with the top hidden under the sleek aluminum tonneau. But our car was a pre-production hodge-podge, its exterior the simpler Arc model with 17-inch sport wheel package, the interior the sportier Aero with matte chrome trim and two-tone seats. The Aero's exterior normally gets a front chin spoiler, extended rocker panels, trunk lid spoiler and 10-spoke wheels.
Through the long doors, you find a black over tan interior with tan and brown leather bucket seats up front, very supportive and comfortable with eight-way power adjustments. A body-colored door cap circles the upper part of the passenger compartment. Under it, what Saab called "Surround Trim" -- a U-shaped line that runs from the base of each A-pillar and incorporates slim panels along the door tops, rear side trims and tonneau cover to integrate the front and rear passenger areas.
The leather-clad steering wheel is manually tilt and telescope adjustable, and gets alloy accents to frame its remote stereo controls. The wrap-around instrument panel centers on a green-lit, titanium metal-trimmed gauge package with 160-mph speedometer center-stage, 7,000-rpm tach on the left and combination gas, temperature and turbo boost gauge on the right. To the right, a superb-sounding AM-FM stereo with 26 buttons and an LCD screen that offers menus for AM, FM and CD, as well as telephone. OnStar buttons are next to a slide-out-and-rotate cup holder. The dual-zone climate control has 14 more buttons, and offers good heating or cooling power, although it sometimes resets to automatic when you turn the car off. The six-disc CD player resides at the bottom of the stack. For a cool factor, a button blacks out all instruments bar the speedometer at night.
A new addition is the Saab Information Display at the top of the dash center. Along with the clock, stereo info and warning signs for open doors and low washer fluid, the system displays trip computer information via knob and buttons to the right of the gauges, partially obscured by the steering wheel. It also displays the anti-theft alarm, rain-sensitive wipers, climate-control parameters and rear parking assistance sensor settings. Saab says the display is mounted high and close to the driver's natural field of vision. It seemed to work.
The dash flows into the center console, with a rubber-padded cargo tray and meaty leather six-speed manual gearshift. The electronic ignition key is also in the center console, a Saab safety feature that still seemed strange a week later. The adjustable center armrest hides a CD storage compartment. The glove box is huge, making up for slender door map pockets. The front seat belts are integrated into the seat backs, while you get active head restraints and head/thorax side air bags.
To get in back, grab the buff metal handle atop the seat back and pull. Saab says the front seats motor forward quickly to get into bigger rear seats, but they still seemed slow. Once there, we found usable room for adults if the front-seat passengers give an inch or so of leg room, plus more shoulder room. As for the hydraulically powered, automatic self-latching power top, it requires 20 seconds to drop under the tonneau. Top up, and the interior was quiet at highway speed bar slight wind noise. Top down, wind buffeting was pretty good up front. The top can be dropped via the remote key fob, but not raised -- lawyers, I am told. We did get an alert that the top wasn't fully shut while driving, but the dash display warning disappeared after I tapped the top button.
Raise the roof, and a CargoSET (Self-Expanding Trunk) retracts to open up the trunk's full 12.4-cubic-foot size. We fit a cooler and folding chairs in there, but it was just the chairs when the top was down (8.4 cubic feet). There are a set of DynaCage pop-up roll bars under the streamlined tonneau's twin fairings.
Our 4,200-mile-old test car's turbocharged 2-liter four-cylinder engine had 210 horsepower. The 3,285-pound Saab 9-3 sedan tested a year ago got to 60 mph in 7.9 seconds. The 3,500-pound convertible did it in 8 seconds with a touch of traction-controlled wheelspin, smooth gearshifts and a bit of turbo whistle. We averaged 20 mpg, and found torque for passing even in sixth gear.
Kelly-Ennis said the 9-3 convertible has a body structure three times stiffer than previous drop-top 9-3, with a new suspension layout and reinforced front, rear and side structures to compensate for the lack of a steel roof.
"There is a ring of steel around the car," she said.
On smooth roads, the 9-3 convertible felt solid. But top down and a few bumps in the road, and we felt some cowl shake. Toss it into a turn, and the 9-3 hangs in well with body roll and a dose of understeer easily handled by the ESP stability control. The ride was comfortable and well controlled on bumpy roads, with direct steering and a solid brake pedal feel, a bit of nose dive and minimal fade after repeated hard use. The sedan is sportier, while the convertible more comfortable.
The base price for the base 9-3 Arc convertible is $39,995, and $42,500 for the Aero version, which is what we we were driving. The Touring Package adds rear park assist and rain-sensing wipers, six-disc CD and auto-dim rear-view mirror for $1,195. The xenon headlights were $500; $500 for metallic paint and $300 for the color-matched tonneau cover, for a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $44,995.
Bottom line -- the new 9-3 convertible is a sexy drop-top that almost everyone loved bar the color, with more usable room and lots of features from a great stereo to the remote-drop top. The ride was more comfortable than sporty, so buy this as an open-top Florida tourer that can handle some twisties.
.
http://www.jacksonville.com/images/ss/icons/fcnlogo.jpg (http://firstcoastnews.com/) Saab 9-3 2.0T Convertible video review on Fast Car Friday (http://www.jacksonville.com/embedded_video/videonews/2004/012304105605.html)
Lime-green drink determines color of 9-3 2.0T Convertible
By Dan Scanlan
Times-Union staff writer
The 2004 Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible looks cool with the top up or down.
DAN SCANLAN/The Times-Union
There is a Saab story to the color of this new 9-3 2.0T Convertible.
According to Saab U.S. President Debra Kelly-Ennis, it involves a high-octane lime-green drink called a Caipirinhia, the national drink of Brazil, at the 2002 9-5 launch in Copenhagen.
"One of the designers had the drink and said this is the perfect color for the new convertible, hence you have this wonderful color," she said.
Not since Volkswagen's Turbonium (yellow-green) color on its New Beetle has a car color been so polarizing. Wherever we went, people liked the sleek Saab 9-3 Convertible, but the color garnered comments like "Looks like electric Gatorade," "That's psychedelic guacamole" and "Oooh, I like that car, but not the color."
http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20829_200.jpg (http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20829_400.jpg) The Saab 9-3 Aero Convertible has a two-tone leather interior.
DAN SCANLAN/The Times-Union
But a little weird always has been part of Saab's heritage.
Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget started as an aircraft company in Sweden in 1937 -- its first car coming in 1939. Since that first 9-2, the company has designed aerodynamic cars with small engines and front-wheel-drive, adding turbocharging in the 1980s and becoming a favorite among drivers seeking funkier designs with power and room. In 1998, the 9-3 showed up. For '03, the 9-3 was totally redone on General Motor's Epsilon platform, which is also under the newest Opel Vectra and Chevrolet Malibu models. The Saab 9-3 Convertible was unveiled March 4, 2003, at the Geneva Motor Show, and is now built near Graz, Austria. It went on sale in August.
GM's smallest car company sold a record 40,000 units so far this year, and they have lots of new product coming including the compact 9-2X, to be built on the Subaru WRX platform. But a Swedish car on a Japanese platform? Kelly-Ennis said it will have "Swedish design, great driving dynamics, safety and surprising versatility."
http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20827_200.jpg (http://jacksonville.com/images/012304/20827_400.jpg) The Saab's power top mechanism is automatic, and hides the black cloth top under a hard tonneau.
DAN SCANLAN/The Times-Union
"Going forward about two-and-a-half years, we will launch more new cars than Saab did in the previous decade," she said. "The 9-3 is on a shared platform with other GM products, so the fact that the 9-2 and other products we will be doing is a shared platform is nothing new. You can see the level of differentiation we have have achieved [with the 9-3.]"
2003 Saab 9-3 2.0t Aero Convertible
The new 9-3 convertible carries a more wedgy silhouette than the sedan, its body is shared with the sedan up to the A-pillars, while every panel aft is different.
"Why is that important? The No. 1 reason for purchasers of the 9-3 sedan is exterior styling," Kelly-Ennis said.
The front and rear fenders flare gently around P225/45R17-inch Pirelli PZero radials with faceted six-spoke alloy wheels. A gray side rub strip and gray streamlined door handles accent the wedge shape as the beltline rises to a rounded square-edged tail with expressive lights.
It's a wonderful shape, especially with the top hidden under the sleek aluminum tonneau. But our car was a pre-production hodge-podge, its exterior the simpler Arc model with 17-inch sport wheel package, the interior the sportier Aero with matte chrome trim and two-tone seats. The Aero's exterior normally gets a front chin spoiler, extended rocker panels, trunk lid spoiler and 10-spoke wheels.
Through the long doors, you find a black over tan interior with tan and brown leather bucket seats up front, very supportive and comfortable with eight-way power adjustments. A body-colored door cap circles the upper part of the passenger compartment. Under it, what Saab called "Surround Trim" -- a U-shaped line that runs from the base of each A-pillar and incorporates slim panels along the door tops, rear side trims and tonneau cover to integrate the front and rear passenger areas.
The leather-clad steering wheel is manually tilt and telescope adjustable, and gets alloy accents to frame its remote stereo controls. The wrap-around instrument panel centers on a green-lit, titanium metal-trimmed gauge package with 160-mph speedometer center-stage, 7,000-rpm tach on the left and combination gas, temperature and turbo boost gauge on the right. To the right, a superb-sounding AM-FM stereo with 26 buttons and an LCD screen that offers menus for AM, FM and CD, as well as telephone. OnStar buttons are next to a slide-out-and-rotate cup holder. The dual-zone climate control has 14 more buttons, and offers good heating or cooling power, although it sometimes resets to automatic when you turn the car off. The six-disc CD player resides at the bottom of the stack. For a cool factor, a button blacks out all instruments bar the speedometer at night.
A new addition is the Saab Information Display at the top of the dash center. Along with the clock, stereo info and warning signs for open doors and low washer fluid, the system displays trip computer information via knob and buttons to the right of the gauges, partially obscured by the steering wheel. It also displays the anti-theft alarm, rain-sensitive wipers, climate-control parameters and rear parking assistance sensor settings. Saab says the display is mounted high and close to the driver's natural field of vision. It seemed to work.
The dash flows into the center console, with a rubber-padded cargo tray and meaty leather six-speed manual gearshift. The electronic ignition key is also in the center console, a Saab safety feature that still seemed strange a week later. The adjustable center armrest hides a CD storage compartment. The glove box is huge, making up for slender door map pockets. The front seat belts are integrated into the seat backs, while you get active head restraints and head/thorax side air bags.
To get in back, grab the buff metal handle atop the seat back and pull. Saab says the front seats motor forward quickly to get into bigger rear seats, but they still seemed slow. Once there, we found usable room for adults if the front-seat passengers give an inch or so of leg room, plus more shoulder room. As for the hydraulically powered, automatic self-latching power top, it requires 20 seconds to drop under the tonneau. Top up, and the interior was quiet at highway speed bar slight wind noise. Top down, wind buffeting was pretty good up front. The top can be dropped via the remote key fob, but not raised -- lawyers, I am told. We did get an alert that the top wasn't fully shut while driving, but the dash display warning disappeared after I tapped the top button.
Raise the roof, and a CargoSET (Self-Expanding Trunk) retracts to open up the trunk's full 12.4-cubic-foot size. We fit a cooler and folding chairs in there, but it was just the chairs when the top was down (8.4 cubic feet). There are a set of DynaCage pop-up roll bars under the streamlined tonneau's twin fairings.
Our 4,200-mile-old test car's turbocharged 2-liter four-cylinder engine had 210 horsepower. The 3,285-pound Saab 9-3 sedan tested a year ago got to 60 mph in 7.9 seconds. The 3,500-pound convertible did it in 8 seconds with a touch of traction-controlled wheelspin, smooth gearshifts and a bit of turbo whistle. We averaged 20 mpg, and found torque for passing even in sixth gear.
Kelly-Ennis said the 9-3 convertible has a body structure three times stiffer than previous drop-top 9-3, with a new suspension layout and reinforced front, rear and side structures to compensate for the lack of a steel roof.
"There is a ring of steel around the car," she said.
On smooth roads, the 9-3 convertible felt solid. But top down and a few bumps in the road, and we felt some cowl shake. Toss it into a turn, and the 9-3 hangs in well with body roll and a dose of understeer easily handled by the ESP stability control. The ride was comfortable and well controlled on bumpy roads, with direct steering and a solid brake pedal feel, a bit of nose dive and minimal fade after repeated hard use. The sedan is sportier, while the convertible more comfortable.
The base price for the base 9-3 Arc convertible is $39,995, and $42,500 for the Aero version, which is what we we were driving. The Touring Package adds rear park assist and rain-sensing wipers, six-disc CD and auto-dim rear-view mirror for $1,195. The xenon headlights were $500; $500 for metallic paint and $300 for the color-matched tonneau cover, for a manufacturer's suggested retail price of $44,995.
Bottom line -- the new 9-3 convertible is a sexy drop-top that almost everyone loved bar the color, with more usable room and lots of features from a great stereo to the remote-drop top. The ride was more comfortable than sporty, so buy this as an open-top Florida tourer that can handle some twisties.
.