2003 Saab 9-3 on 2040-cars

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Last Saab 9-3 built nets nearly $48,000 at auction

It was among the last Saabs to roll off the production line in Trollhattan, Sweden, is virtually new, and now it has a new owner. The Saab 9-3 Aero Turbo4 we told you about a month ago has sold in an auction for the equivalent of $47,789. As with anything related to the remnants of the legendary Swedish automotive brand, the backstory on this one is a little complicated, starting with the model year. Saab originally ground production to a halt in 2011. This model came about after National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS) acquired the brand out of bankruptcy, and was part of a run of 420 models built starting in late 2013 before NEVS lost the rights to use the Saab name and griffin logo. It was originally set aside for crash testing, but never actually used for that purpose, and mostly sat idle inside the plant, in case NEVS restarted production of combustion vehicles. The 41 miles on the odometer came from running the car on a test track near the Trollhattan plant for photography and video purposes. It features a 2.0-liter turbo-four engine that makes 217 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. It has a two-tone interior with cream leather seats and a dashboard and center console that looks like what you might expect to result from Saab's parts-sharing arrangement under the ownership of bankruptcy-era General Motors. Nowadays, NEVS has financial backing from Chinese investors and is making electric vehicles based on the 9-3 platform and body, just without any Saab badging. It continues to operate the Trollhattan plant and another in Tianjin, China, and it reportedly plans a new plant in Shanghai. NEVS also has partnered with Swedish supercar maker Koenigsegg in a venture to develop new EVs. The 9-3 buyer’s name is Claus Spaangaard. HeÂ’s a Danish car collector and car-repair shop owner who says he already owns two Saab cars. Proceeds from the auction will fund research into sustainable mobility in Sweden, NEVS says.

Meet the other Cadillac wagon. It's as American as ABBA

The Cadillac CTS Wagon became a cult classic the second it went on sale. We all knew that it was never going to sell in anything approaching significant numbers, and if that "we" didn't include those actually working at GM, one would have to wonder what they were smoking. Cadillac was still having a hard enough time trying to convince people that it was now a BMW-fighting sport luxury brand rather than the purveyor of Grandpa-piloted land yachts. To many, a sport sedan like the CTS seemed like a stretch. But a CTS sport wagon? It sure seemed like GM was just doing things for funzies, an impression only enhanced by the CTS-V Wagon. Forget cult classic. That thing was an instant legend.  And yet, the CTS wasn't the only Cadillac of that era offered as a wagon. It wasn't even the first. Before GM said "to hell with it, let's have some fun" on this side of the pond, over in Europe, it had already taken a page from its old badge-engineering playbook to create the 2006 Cadillac BLS Wagon. It was available as a sedan, too, but its awkward majesty is best enjoyed as the long-roof model.  There's just something off about the whole thing, right? That's probably because it also looks vaguely familiar, as if you've seen it before. So where the hell does this thing come from? Sweden! Behind that Cadillac Art and Science face is a Saab 9-3, and in the case of the BLS Wagon, the Saab 9-3 Sport Combi wagon. The roofline is the dead giveaway, as no other wagon has ever looked like that. In fact, the roof and windows were the only exterior elements to copy directly over from 9-3 to BLS. No kidding. With the Cadillac front end, doesn't the Saab-funky-boxiness make it look like a miniature hearse? The answer is yes. GM's design team, led by Ed Welburn, was quite pleased with his work. Perhaps it even egged him on to create a real Cadillac sport wagon? "The whole team was very excited to apply Cadillac's design language to a wagon for the first time," said Welburn in a press release from the time. "The V-shaped chrome-plated grille, a Cadillac hallmark, is picked up again by the shape of the rear window, and the body side character lines make it unmistakably a Cadillac." The interior is surprisingly different from the 9-3, including the ignition switch migrating from the center console up to the steering column. It also wasn't exactly in keeping with the Cadillac norm of the time.

Saab to hire 200 engineers, might build gas cars with Mahindra

The brand formerly known as Saab is still intent on teaching The Little Engine That Could a few ticks about persistence. We say "formerly known" because it turns out that National Electric Vehicle Swedent (NEVS), the Sino-Japanese investment consortium that just bought the majority of Saab's assets, minus Saab Automobile Parts AB, may not actually own the rights to the Saab brand name. According to a report in Di.se via Saabs United, NEVS will need to negotiate with Scania and the Swedish aerospace and defense group, Saab AB, for the right to name its forthcoming electric car the Saab 9-3.
NEVS is hiring 200 engineers now to work on its electric car program, and reports are that it will hire more as it gets closer to the 2014 launch. It will be based on the current (read: ancient) 9-3, and we hope NEVS is succeeds in getting the naming rights, because the NEVS 9-3 just doesn't have the same ring. NEVS will likely target China as the model's main market.
However, it's rumors of their second negotiating ploy that we're really rooting for: to work with Mahinda & Mahindra, the Indian company once in the running for Saab's assets, develop a petrol-powered 9-3 on the next-generation Phoenix platform, based on Jason Castriota's design.