Saab Viggen even comes with driving lessons Options

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Saab Viggen even comes with driving lessons

Ben Miller

Saab owners are known to be a quirky bunch who travel the road less frequently taken and who enjoy marching to the beat of a totally different drummer.

Now they can be even more unique.

Saab plans to import only 1,000 models of the 9-3 Viggen into this country this year. It's an interesting car aimed at an interesting group of drivers.

The Viggen is a 9-3 on steroids. (Saab only makes two kinds of cars: the 9-3 and the bigger 9-5, with many variations of the pair -- like the Viggen -- available.)

Powering the Viggen is a souped-up turbocharged four-cylinder engine that produces a whopping 230 horsepower (that's a lot for four cylinders). The Viggen can push your head back into the head restraint real quick. Gas mileage for the Viggen is rated at 20 miles per gallon in the city and 31 on the highway but a recent test of both city and highway driving netted a combined total of only 21.2 miles per gallon.

The interior is uniquely Saab. Yes, the ignition key is mounted in the center console and you can't pull the key out of the ignition unless the manual transmission is shifted into reverse. But these are quirks that Saab owners revel in and if Saab's parent, General Motors, ever thought of changing these idiosyncrasies, you'd hear howls of protest from all over the globe.

One GM addition to the Saab that's welcome is the OnStar system, which is standard on the 9-3 Viggen. That's the system that can find a restaurant at 3 a.m. or get you back on the beaten track when you're lost.

In addition to the more powerful engine, Saab adds other performance capabilities to the 9-3 in creating the Viggen including upgraded suspension and brakes. The front seats are different as well, which Saab says are reinforced "to keep occupants firmly in place during the most spirited driving." One wonders where the occupants would travel to if the seats weren't upgraded.

If you're going to drive the 9-3 Viggen like a bat out of hell, you might as well upgrade your driving skills -- and that's also standard equipment on the car. Saab provides all Viggen buyers with two days of intensive driving instruction at the Viggen Flight Academy at Road Atlanta in Georgia. Professional driving instructors will teach Viggen buyers how to best utilize the car's performance to the highest level, which really should come in handy this fall when your Viggen is going 5 miles per hour during the I-25 reconstruction.

Having been behind the wheel recently of both the 9-5 and the 9-3 Viggen, I think the first thing you'll notice about the 9-3 Viggen is that the 9-5 is a much bigger car. The Viggen's gear shift knob, for example, is way too close to the emergency brake, and there's no center armrest in the 9-3.

Another annoying character flaw of the 9-3 Viggen is the low-flung front skirt, an addition to the Viggen that Saab says reduces drag on the car but which drivers will think is a real drag when it catches itself on every driveway incline and makes a horrific scratching sound.

If you're looking to impress the neighbors, there's not much that Saab does identificiation-wise to indicate that the Viggen is a different animal. There's a Viggen triangle on the front side panel and that's about it.

The Viggen comes very well equipped for its base price of $38,570. Traction control, front and side air bags, CD player, leather seats and on-board trip computer are all standard equipment. Heated front seats were the only option ($450) included on a test model, which had a final sticker price of $39,020.

The Viggen is a lot of fun to drive and, with the free driving school, Saab really wants drivers to take the Viggen to its limits. So a spirited drive up Highway 6 to Central City would be a good test of the car's limits, which makes all those stop-and-go trips on I-25 more palatable.

Ben Miller is the special sections editor of The Denver Business Journal