Autoblog

General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner has confirmed that HUMMER is the only brand in the automaker's portfolio that's up for sale. Many believed that Saab's days were also numbered and the Swedish brand would be getting out from under the corporate umbrella as soon as a buyer could be found. Not so says the Ricker. Other brands thought to have been out on the lawn behind a For Sale sign included Opel-Vauxhall, GM of China and Holden. While HUMMER may be the only GM brand for sale, the automaker is certainly keen to sell other assets weighing it down. Wagoner didn't elaborate on which assets those might be, but his company's remaining 49% stock in GMAC doesn't seem to be doing it any good.

[Source: Autocar, Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty]

When car makers don't have anything truly new to offer, they often make special editions. Such is the case right now with Saab. General Motors' Swedish brand is putting out its second limited run version of the 9-3 convertible this year. Unlike the somewhat garish Yellow edition that came out during the summer, the new one is more subdued. The latest special edition 9-3 Convertible is meant to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the very first Saab convertible from 1983. The special part comes in a choice of Jet Black, Carbon Grey and the new Bright Champagne. Power comes from the standard Saab 2.0L turbo with 210 hp. The anniversary convertible will magically appear on the show floor at the LA Auto Show next week without a press conference before it goes on sale in January at the "bargain" price of $46,725. The 9-3 is a nice enough car, but with pricing like that it's no wonder the brand is struggling.


[Source: Saab]

If there's anything even more cool about the current crop of concept cars, it's that we can actually see a bridge to the technology in a lot of them. Not that we expect them to be on the roads soon, but the thought of something like the solar skin on Mark Kruse's Saab Blackbird concept making it to an actual production car doesn't sound as crazy as it did in 1990.

The Blackbird takes its cues from, surprise surprise, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird reconnaissance plane, yet looks even more to us like the head of a bird (as in woodpecker). The car's solar skin powers four electric motors in the wheels, with a battery array likely free to power the driver's LCD display and the passenger's wraparound communications panel.

The car can also go on a diet: the suspension can retreat into the body and trim the car down to just 52 inches (132 cm) wide. The seats are also width adjustable to fit the occupants. And while none of that sounds too outrageous, the rear seat placement could never work. With its backrest practically forming the rear bulkhead, you do not want to be the Blackbird's co-pilot in a rear-end collision. But if we're driving, we'll take it.


[Source: Diseno Art]

The Saab 9X Air BioHybrid said hello to the world on a pedestal full of disco lights at the Paris Motor Show. It did not, however, move. So for now, if you want to see what the 9X Air will be able to do when it finally does get rolling, we have this little video courtesy of GM. The 9X BioHybrid and its Air BioHybrid sibling are supposed to provide clues to a forthcoming Saab 9-1 small car, and the video is quite cool. But frankly, we also find it a bit saddening, since we can't quite believe that we'll see anything nearly this cool on an actual Saab, and the way things are going, we might not see the Saab 9-1.

[Source: GM FastLane Blog]

Looks like that Moraine, Ohio plant that was going to be shut down next year is actually going to be shuttered on December 23rd, just in time for Christmas. This is the plant responsible for production of the GMC Envoy, Chevy Trailblazer and Saab 9-7X. The General had already slowed the plant to just one shift as SUV sales, particularly sales of old SUVs like these, continue to tumble, but the plant was expected to remain open until at least early next year. On Friday the remaining 1,100 workers were gathered and told of the revised plan.

The closure isn't a total surprise, as General Motors had already announced that the Dayton-suburb plant would be closed so the company could focus more on production of small cars. That initial announcement seemed to indicate a 2010 closure, but the company has continually revised the closing date until this most recent word came. Moraine is one of four GM plants that are going to be shut down. When Janesville, Wis.; Oshawa, Ontario; and Toluca, Mexico join Moraine in closure, a total of 8,350 workers will be looking for new jobs.

[Source: Detroit News]

The Saab 9-4X has been caught in these new spy shots without the Keith Haring tape job it was wearing the last time we saw it. Features like the converging window lines on the side, the rear lights, and the Saab grille, give away its lineage. From the side, especially from the A-pillar back, you could be forgiven for confusing the Saab with a lot of other CUVs, while lines that are quite distinctive on the smaller 9-3 and 9-5 look to have been stretched into rather bland expanses on the 9-4X. It's still early, so we look forward to seeing the fully Saab-ified retail version. If Saab's managing director is to be believed, what won't be bland is one of the engine choices: a diesel with 250 hp and 406 lb-ft. That's the kind of quirky we can get behind.

[Source: Left Lane News]

Marketers have been known to make claims that test our good sense, our gullibility and our patience. But in a field in which it's often the best story -- not the best product -- that wins, some of the more unsightly details can get left out when making a pitch. Nevertheless, there is still, as Pinocchio's nose would tell you, a line between a tall tale and what's commonly referred to as a lie.

Saab Australia drove its entire model range over that line when it claimed in a campaign last year that "Every Saab is green, with carbon emissions neutral across the entire Saab range." The ads also said Saab would plant 17 native trees to offset the CO2 emissions for the lifespan of each car it sold. Turns out that 17 trees only offsets the carbon produced in the first year of a car's life. Saab left that part out when they lied added the small print.

Australia's competition watchdog took Saab's parent company, GM Holden, to court, and in a verdict for truth and the environment, Saab's claims were declared, ahem, "misleading". GM has pledged to "retrain its marketing staff in relation to making green claims," and plant a forest of 12,500 trees to cover the lifetime emissions of all the cars sold during the campaign.

[Source: Drive]

Saab unveiled the 9-X BioHybrid Concept hatchback last March at the Geneva Motor Show, and it will be joined next month at the Paris Motor Show by this: the 9-X Air BioHybrid Concept. Both vehicles are said to herald the coming of a production Saab 9-1 small car, but the 9-X Air goes a step further and replaces the original concept's closed roof with a flat-folding canopy top that's said to celebrate the brand's history in the convertible building business. Aside from that, the concepts appear to be almost identical right down to sharing the same turbocharged 1.4L Saab BioPower engine producing 197bhp. We'll bring you more pics and info of the Saab 9-X Air BioHybrid Concept straight from the show floor in Paris next month.

UPDATE: Many more high-res images added to gallery.


[Source: GM]

The LA Auto Show is still a couple months away, but images of vehicles set to be unveiled in the land of fruits and nuts are already leaking onto the web. GM's Chilean website had the above photo of the production Saab 9-4X available for all to see earlier today, so now we know the production model looks almost identical to the 9-4X Biopower concept from last year's Detroit Auto Show. We'd be interested to see if the concept's integrated tail pipes and large front/side air dams make it to production but, judging from spy photos we've seen, probably not. The 9-4X will be built on the same platform as the upcoming front- or all-wheel-drive Cadillac SRX, which will also be unveiled this auto show season.

We don't have many details on the 9-4X just yet, but it will have a turbocharged 2.0L engine with 245 hp and 265 lb-ft mated to a six-speed automatic. The concept also ran on ethanol, which is also likely for the production vehicle considering that two thirds of all vehicles in Sweden are of the flex fuel variety. Other engine choices could include GM's 3.6L V6, which is likely to be found under hood of the SRX at launch, and an upcoming 250-hp 2.9L diesel. Either way, European customers will likely have an engine lineup twice as large as what we'll be offered in the U.S.

UPDATE: Saab has confirmed that the image above is not the production 9-4X, but rather a creative photoshop of the 9-4X Concept from last year's Detroit Auto Show produced by third-party reps down in Chile.


[Source: Motor Authority]

During yesterday's press briefing, General Motors let its upcoming Saab 9X Air concept out of the bag ahead of its official debut at the Paris Motor Show, and today we finally have official pics and details of the new Swedish open air coupe. Based on last year's 9X BioHybrid concept from Geneva, the 9X Air loses its hard top in favor of a cloth piece and rear glass that pops up from the rear hatch. A concept-worthy interior features four black-and-white seats along with a digital dash.

Power flows to the front wheels via a turbocharged 1.4-liter E85 flex-fuel engine and six-speed dual clutch gearbox. along with an electric motor powered by lithium ion batteries. Acceleration to 60 comes up in around eight seconds and fuel mileage is theoretically in the 40 mpg range. Sounds good so far. We are expecting the Air, along with its 9X forebear, to spawn a production model likely called the 9-1. Just how many of the high-tech features will make it into production? We'll see, though we are pretty sure both the hatchback and convertible body styles will make the transition.


[Source: AutoblogGreen]