REPORT: Outgoing Saab 9-5 to live on... as Chinese BAIC
If Billy Joel is right that only the good die young, the outgoing Saab 9-5 has been very, very bad. In automotive terms, the 9-5 is positively ancient, having first seen the light of day in 1997 and getting very little in the way of meaningful changes since that time.
If, though, you happen to like cars that feature a design that's... shall we say, "proven," we have some good news to report. According to Autocar, the old 9-5 will get a new lease on life from China's Beijing Automotive Industry Corporation (BAIC). It's not clear what changes (if any) will be made to the car in its new incarnation, or if BAIC will also purchase the rights to Saab's turbocharged four-cylinder engines.
Last month, BAIC made a $400 million investment into the Swedish automaker, becoming a minority shareholder in Koenigsegg, Saab's new parent company. As for the 9-5 in America, well... let's just say we're happy to be getting the completely reengineered 2010 model.
[Source: Autocar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Avinash machado 9:35AM (10/02/2009)
I hope the Saab sale does not end up like the Saturn sale.
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Azael 10:00AM (10/02/2009)
Its uglier and more grotesque than that Honda Crossover!!!
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joe23521 10:46AM (10/02/2009)
No, NOTHING is uglier and more grotesque than that Honda Crossover.
Azael 11:25AM (10/02/2009)
Upon further review, that Honda Crossover is a lot uglier, god damn, what was Honda thinking?!
Azael 11:29AM (10/02/2009)
For those of you who want to relive the horror...
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/02/official-honda-crosstour-facebook-page-all-lit-up-with-early-neg/
Aeromax 10:29AM (10/02/2009)
Good riddance, they can have that hideous bespectacled thing. The 9-5 wasn't half bad looking until they ruined it with this last facelift. The new one will be welcomed with open arms.
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Rev Junkie 11:35AM (10/02/2009)
Oh God, so the Chinese will be assembling the turbo engines for the car. The Chinese can't even build a bicycle right, what makes them think that 5-year old orphaned girls motivated by whips and flamethrowers, paid in twigs and gravel, can manufacture a turbocharged engine? I bet half of those engines blow up before they hit 10K miles.
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Epsilon-Not 12:24PM (10/02/2009)
"I bet half of those engines blow up before they hit 10K miles."
This would still be better performance than the average Chinese car. :)
(I'm joking, I'm joking, don't kill me...)
joe23521 1:55PM (10/02/2009)
Something tells me if they can send men into space, their chances of making automobile engines should not be overlooked.
the4thheat 3:06PM (10/02/2009)
Hahaha you're so hilarious and original with your Chinese manufacturing joke. I'm sure in 20 years when their economy has eclipsed all the other ones on the planet people will still find it hilarious and totally believable because seriously it's not things can ever change. Which is why I simply assume that the Germans are all still Nazis, that all Japanese people are Samurai, and that jokes from 1999 must still be funny.
I'm not even entirely sure China still has twigs and gravel anymore what with all the trees and gravel being replaced by steel skyscrapers and concrete.
the4thheat 3:21PM (10/02/2009)
Hahahaha your joke about Chinese manufacturing is so original and hilarious. None of us have ever heard a joke like that before-what a revelation! Even if the joke is from 1999, I am certain that the Chinese will certainly also enjoy this joke, perhaps when you still think it's funny 20 years from now when they have the largest economy in the world because while you were sitting around laughing because you apparently believe that the world can never change they were actually out there trying to figure out how to build better stuff by buying up the needed tools and technology.
But yeah that's so hilarious man, totally hilarious. And oh man the Japanese, who would ever want to buy a camera that was made in Japan? Those cameras are so crappy compared to Polaroid and Kodak cameras. What's this SONY garbage? Everyone knows that Emerson televisions are the best. I mean surely the Japanese will never figure out how to make a decent camera or television while I sit here making fun of them as they continually improve their products. Haha and with cars, nobody will ever outsell GM in the entire world, ever! And of course the US will always be the world's largest car market even if there are 5.8 billion other people on the planet there can't ever possibly come the day when other people would ever have enough money to buy cars too.
Yep, you keep making those hilarious jokes man, I'm sure the Japanese still find those jokes about how Japanese products are all garbage compared to Westinghouse/Emerson/Kodak/Xerox/Polaroid/RCA/Zenith totally hilarious. Except I'm pretty sure they find it hilarious for an entirely different reason.
Epsilon-Not 5:00PM (10/02/2009)
I would totally have made jokes about Japan back then. Why not? And yeah, of course Chinese quality is going to improve, and given that economics tends to mean (in a free trade situation, anyway) that things are produced where they're cheapest, more things being produced in China is probably the way of the future. And after the Chinese improvements mean that the cost of living starts going up, industry will grow somewhere else where things are cheaper (maybe Africa?). It's the way of the world... You're getting rather worked up over very little.
the4thheat 11:26PM (10/02/2009)
@Epsilon-Not
I'm not really worked up, the stupid comment system went nuts so the first comment didn't show up for like 20 minutes so I didn't think it went through.
And I was replying to Rev Junkie's unfunny attempt at a joke. Joking about the reliability of Chinese cars can still be funny since it's true and actually contemporary (i.e. Chinese cars are still unreliable crap). But his retarded attempt at a joke would only be funny if you not only think it's still 1970 but have recently had a lobotomy done. Actually no, that's mean to the people who got lobotomized since even they can't be that retarded.
I was pointing out the idiocy of making fun of things that haven't been true for decades since it makes for very unfunny and/or idiotic jokes. Not only that, but his joke just contains random mind-vomit that he apparently believes is funny. Flamethrowers? Since when have the Chinese been associated with flamethrowers at all? A funnier joke would have been firecrackers or something since at least it'd have something to do with China, and it'd also be funnier since the idea of forcing someone to work with firecrackers is much more humorous than randomly inserting the word flamethrower because your ADD addled brain has been playing too many video games.
Judy Zik 11:38AM (10/02/2009)
Maybe Honda should have bought Saab and used this design instead of the new Crosswhore. I can't believe that fugly thing is up for Truck of the year.
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Kevin 2:05PM (10/02/2009)
Well, it'll be one chinese car that doesn't disintegrate in a crash test... unless they build 'em out of balsa wood...
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Ying 3:35PM (10/02/2009)
I think if BAIC do not badge it as a Saab, and give it a facelift so as not to dilute the core brand, and build them at the same qulity/ safety standard and sell them at a reasonable price it would be a hit.
Let me ask you this - if the OG9-5 is on sale for new in the USA for $15000 would you buy one? I would jump at it and take it over any Camry or Accord. It's still an amazing car for the right money.
On the other hand, if they do what SAIC did to Roewe 7/ rover 75, ie, try to fool the consumers it's a 'pure breed aristocrat British that competes witht eh BMW 5 and Audi A6' and launch it with a stupid all English spoken TV ad (in China), then they will have a dodo on their hand - Consumers are NOT stupid, insult their intelligence or patronise them then better watch out.
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