RJ has come up with a fun idea for you harcore GoogleMappers out there.


How many Saabs can we spot on streetview? Maybe we need to refine it a little and look for rare Saabs. Any suggestions?


Here’s a 900/9-3 I found on Chapel Street, in Melbourne. Took about 5 minutes, though I imagine it’d take a Swede looking around Stockholm about 15 seconds.





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I read Eggs’ post about Fritz Henderson’s comments regarding Saab with interest this morning. Eggs ended up playing it down a little and I understand the perspective he took considering initial thoughts that maybe they were going to put Saab under the hammer.


But as I read through Henderson’s comments at Just Auto, it got me a bit angry. Yes, we all know that Saab has to perform and make a profit, but when are one of those top line GM execs going to come out and acknowledge that they’ve given Saab very little opportunity to do that.


Consider the following, which are just a few of the things Saab do:


* Saab Sweden have cut the costs of operating the Trollhattan plant by about 33%
* Saab have been tapped by GM to provide E85 expertise to the rest of the GM portfolio
* Saab have been tapped by GM to provide turbocharging expertise
* Saab have been tapped by GM to lead the application of XWD to front-wheel-drive models.


Those last three endeavours are going to pay much bigger dividends for GM’s other European and eventully, US brands.


They’ve extracted plenty out of Saab and their commitment to Saab, supposedly made 2.5 years ago, is still a year or so away from bearing any fruit whatsoever. Meanwhile they’ve invested tens of millions of dollars into Cadillac in Europe for an absolute zero return.


If Saab are struggling, the first place the GM board need to look for answers is in a room full of mirrors.


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Saab Germany have just dropped 50 Saab cars, mainly SportCombis and Convertibles, into Avis’ rental fleet.


The cars will feature a mixture of petrol and diesel engines with the jewel being the TTiD.


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Various bits of 9-X Air coverage:


MSN Autos covers their Top 10 concept cars of the Paris show. The 9-X Air is listed there.


Jalopnik cover the best concept dashboards of the Paris show. The 9-X Air is there.


And some spammy phone blog covers something I didn’t give enough attention to while I was away on holidays, the SonyEricsson integrated entertainment stuff:


<blockquote>Making the most of the Bluetooth technology, Sony Ericsson and Saab also work on future development for advanced communications between mobile phones and cars. For its world premiere at the Paris Motor Show, the Saab 9-X Air will be showcased with highly developed connectivity. Some of the car features will be remotely controlled by the Sony Ericsson Xperia™ X1, providing a premium mobile user experience through its unique customisable touchscreen panels:


Control ambient lightning
Control front and rear seat settings
Lock the car
Open the rear compartment
Switch on and off the lights (blinkers, main lights…)

</blockquote>
All that raises the question…..how much connectivity do you need/want between your phone and your car?


I could see how some of this would be quite handy as long as they had the security issues sorted out.


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