Men Free Blog

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.

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.

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.

Hooray – the Saab 9-3 2.0T Sport is getting XWD, the Swedish automaker’s cross-wheel-drive system. Boo – you’re going to pay more for your Saab whether or not you get XWD. The rear-wheel-driving traction-enhancer was previously available only on upper crust models like the Aero and SportCombi, but Saab has announced it will hobnob with the hoi polloi on the 2.0T for 2009.

Any XWD models will also come with a moonroof, the Winter Package and an automatic transmission, though a 6-speed manual is also available. The Convertible will not be offered with XWD, since its platform can’t accommodate the necessary mechanicals.

As we mentioned, the Saab range also gets price bumps. A new 9-3 2.0T Sport Sedan (without XWD) goes up $420, to $29,610, while the 9-3 SportCombi adds $680 to hit $31,040. General Motors did not list a price for the XWD option alone, but it appears to add a hefty $5,000 surcharge – the 9-3 2.0T XWD Sport Sedan will run you $34,870, and the 9-3 Aero V6T XWD Sport Sedan will list for $41,885.

A Saab owner attending the 2008 Saab Owner’s Convention requested a recap of the happenings at Trollhattan Saab (which we thinking was defunct, but if not, we are glad it is back). One of the many noteworthy happenings was somewhat on that he barely commented: a sketch of the new 9-5. Saab has continued threatening for a additonally to embark on incorporating Aero X cues to its vehicles, and such a would be it.

The text close to the car argues it plans to suffer “aircraft heritage,” “fuselage bodysides,” a “wraparound winshield,” and a “grille inspired by a J21.” We come to find the J21 bit and the fuselage sides a stretch, but it is nonetheless a great appearing place to start. The sketch moreover guidelines who the tech in the new 9-5 is currently making expended in the Turbo X.

While further Saabs are projected to be downsizing, the 9-5 would so much substantiate from the time of it is rooted on the Epsilon II platform along providing the Opel Insignia and next-gen versions of the Saturn Aura and Chevy Malibu. The car’s engine ought to be shrinking, though, lower to a 1.6-liter turbocharged unit. And were able to that be the Saab too Wagoner claimed may be constructed in North America?

Vägverket, the Swedish Road Administration, is reporting that General Motors used ten human cadavers for crash research. While it isn’t clear which GM vehicle hosted the corpses on their one-way trip into a wall, a spokesman for Vägverket said it was most likely the Saab brand. The spokesman was also quick to point out that all of the cadavers were people “who had donated their own bodies.” (Well, that is comforting to know!)

While cadavers were used in the earliest crash tests (first started in the late 1930s), most of us were under the assumption that fully-instrumented million-dollar synthetic crash test dummies, or computer simulations, had replaced human remains in current testing. Apparently, some folks at GM may have been thinking otherwise. As of today, neither General Motors or Saab have acknowledged any tests involving dead bodies, but our hunch says this issue hasn’t been laid to rest. Thanks for the tip, Will!