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I doubt the 9-7X will be continued in any form.... Posted by MI-Roger [Email]  (#882) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from MI-Roger) on Tue, 3 Jun 2008 11:06:25
In Reply to: 9-7X plant closing, samk, Tue, 3 Jun 2008 07:55:06 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
The 9-7X was a "Me too" vehicle. American consumers were in love with SUV's, and Saab was losing sales because the Dealerships did not offer a luxury SUV to counter the offerings of Volvo, Acura, Lexus, etc.
The quickest solution was to grab an exisiting vehicle in the GM stable and re-work it to become a Saab, or Saab-like. (There are a multitude of opinons regarding whether this transformation was successful or sufficiently extensive.)
Now the bloom is off the rose so to speak, and American consumers are avoiding medium sized SUV's like the plague. The mid-sized models always seemed to be more of an "image" vehicle than a "need" vehicle. Large SUV's are seeing declining sales too, but not like the decimation that has affected the mid-sized genre. The newest "image" vehicles seem to be the Prius and Smart For-Two.
No mention of any decrease in production of compact SUV's (now interestingly all called cross-over vehicles) so I guess we can assume the 9-4X is still on track.
The new rush in the North American market to compact cars may help guarantee the speedy introduction of the 9-1 model.
Another unanswered question is what will be the impact (if any) on the 9-5 by the cancellation of a new rear-wheel drive car platform? Rumors have been that the new 9-5 will be FWD and/or AWD, but is this long awaited vehicle even partially dependent on the platform GM announced last week they had cancelled?
posted by 198.208.25...
_______________________________________ Saabs owned: 2008 9-5 Aero Sedan, sold at 227K miles 2006 9-3SC 2.0T - Wife's daily driver 2000 Viggen Convertible - Sold May, 2022 1964 Quantum IV Formula Car - Retirement project 2000 9-5lpt Sedan, sold at 318K miles
, Tue, 3 Jun 2008 11:06:25 <-- Viewing This Message
, Wed, 4 Jun 2008 23:00:21
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