Forgotten Idea: Saab 9-X | The Every day Drive
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Saab’s final quirky transfer as an unbiased carmaker.
That is an installment in a collection of posts trying again on present vehicles that we really feel deserved just a little extra consideration than they acquired. When you’ve got a suggestion for a Forgotten Idea subject, please shoot us a line or depart a remark beneath.
Saab 9-X Idea
First Proven: 2001 Frankfurt Auto Present
Description: Sporty multi-purpose way of life car
Gross sales Pitch: “Defies automotive conference.”
Extra Forgotten Ideas
Particulars:
First seen on the 2001 Frankfurt Auto Present, the Saab 9-X Idea was a category-melding experiment that includes the qualities of a sporty coupe, a convertible, a station wagon, and a pickup truck. There have been some mumblings that the 9-X was additionally an off-road car, however the low trip peak and outsized wheels and tires counsel in any other case.
Eradicating the idea’s glass roof panels transformed the automotive right into a roadster of types, and increasing the load ground gave would-be house owners a lot of the utility of a pickup truck. The lengthy roof and roomy cargo bay supplied wagon-like flexibility, even when the cargo mattress was absolutely retracted into the physique.
Notice that each the rear seats and the entrance passenger seat folded fully flush with the ground to create a prolonged, unrestricted load space.
Technical highlights included a 300-horsepower turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 mated to a sequentially shifted 6-speed handbook transmission (try the shifter). Additionally included have been AWD and Brembo-brand efficiency brakes in any respect 4 corners.
The Saab 9-X was awarded Finest Idea Automobile in 2002 by the European Automotive Design Awards judging committee.
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CG Says:
With Common Motors now on the helm of Saab, the model’s then well-known character and quirkiness have been quickly to be squelched. Showing in 2001, the 9-X hit the auto-show circuit roughly one yr after GM’s acquisition of the model, and would have been in-development in the course of the takeover. We’re in all probability fortunate we even acquired to see the idea.
There’s a lot to counsel the 9-X—or a car impressed by it—was headed for manufacturing earlier than GM took the reigns at Saab. Seemingly, we’ll by no means know precisely how shut the 9-X got here to showing in showrooms, however think about this: As a substitute of the glossy, stealthy, Class-bending car seen right here, Saab’s first “X” car was the 9-7X, a thinly disguised model of the Chevrolet Trailblazer. Whereas the 9-7X was arguably an honest SUV, it’s dimension, heft, accessible V8, and common clunkiness weren’t within the conventional Saab idiom. Certainly, the 9-7X was not in anyway quirky, and that’s actually form of unhappy.
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Saab 9-X Idea Gallery
(Click on beneath for enlarged pictures)
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