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All of SAAB's new offerings (ng 9-5 especially) are arriving too late fo compete or even sell at the volume that is required to keep the company in business much longer. You can fault GM all day long but the reality is that even the new 9-5 is still not competitive in today's cut throat market.
Here is why:
The new 9-5, although a vast improvement from the current 9-5 POS offering (a glorified SAABrlet Turbo with SAAB dressing I call it), it does not even come close to touching Audi, BMW, and even Infiniti in refinement, performance, handling, reliability, and cost of ownership. Who is going to spend 40+ K on a vehicle and then have it serviced by mediocre Chevy mechanics? Dont get me started about the laughable service advisors. My granny knows more about cars than some of these guys.
The new 9-5 is basically a Buick with SAAB seats, gimmicky altimeter speedo and HUD, gimmicky, pushbutton ignition between the seats, same cheap interior hollow plastic switches, and a few quirky SAAB design cues.
The new 9-5 is a GM Epsilon II platform (Buick) dressed up in SAAB interior appointments, SAAB gimmicks, and some SAAB so called safety features (night panel). The powerplants are all mediocre GM 4 and 6 cylinder mills. They suck. Believe me because I driven a couple of fleet vehicles similar to them.
The so called "Haldex" four wheel drive was not even developed by SAAB. The Audi Quattro system completely blows the Haldex system out of the water when it comes to reliability, road handling, etc.
You just cannot fool today's savvy and well informed car buyer and the ng 9-5 is not convincing enough to entice an educated wealthy consumer who has the money to spend 40+ k and then receive run of the mill Chevy service. The discerning wealthy consumer expects the same quality and performance as a BMW, Merc, Lexus, or AUDI.
LOL, I just love the cheap looking lcd monitors (see Escalade) and rear climate control system (Buick or Cadillac).
SAAB stop pulling the wool over us! IF SAAB is about heritage than give us a gussied up no frills retro-futuristic 99 turbo, or 900 SPG with 21st century safety.
But p---ll--e-a-s-e cut the bleeding hard crap and give us substance, not just another glorified GM product with SAAB mayonaisse.
We wont be fooled again!
posted by 72.194.21...
, Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:53:21
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