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Top Gear will be doing a tribute to "over 50 years of Saab production"

15K views 61 replies 33 participants last post by  TunnanXWD 
#1 ·
The British program Top Gear is preparing a tribute to Saab covering “over 50 years of Saab production” . And the production has contacted the legendary Saab Owners Club for helping them by providing cars. “Following their approach to us a few weeks back we have now supplied almost all of the cars for 2 days of location filming."

http://saablog-in.blogspot.com/2012/01/saab-owners-club-of-great-britain-top.html
 
#34 ·
Great episode. You could see they were passionate and liked the brand but never knew why haha. Its like everyone on here, on paper it doesnt make sense but we are still there everyday trucking away. Either way Im glad they did the episode and hopefully they will have a few more features in the future.
 
#35 ·
ng "safety"

Yes, it was a death trap, period and end of story.

It was somewhere on this forum that I saw the frontal impact tests and coming from a former Corvair (great car) .... or Pinto owner (many great rallys), I tend not to panic over things.

But after seeing those early year crash tests for off-set frontal ... DEATH on wheels. And yes, they changed it some years later. It pains me to think my kid is out there in a 1996 with mods thinking he is ... "IN A SAAB".

BTW, some of the Euro data is "muddled" and gives a good overall rating but if you take note the front crash date disappeared.

We had them as family cars and it never hit me to question the integrity of SAAB. Later in the "9-3" ng era they improved it.

After listening to Clarkson, it sounds like it was not all GM madness.

I am waiting to see if the US Top Gear treats the Corvair fairly since that is on this week. What tire pressures will they use (or do they know?).. yep, the old Vair would swap ends like the 911 back then so the manual had you run hard rear tires .. to ease the break ... most didn't and if you got off the gas suddenly in a hard turn it would break traction.. like a 911.

Ralph Nader never has had, to this day ... a drivers license. :nono;

And the f'er killed the great American turbos ... Sypder and Corsa Corvairs. :evil:

rant off :cheesy:
 
#38 ·
I am waiting to see if the US Top Gear treats the Corvair fairly since that is on this week. What tire pressures will they use (or do they know?).. yep, the old Vair would swap ends like the 911 back then so the manual had you run hard rear tires .. to ease the break ... most didn't and if you got off the gas suddenly in a hard turn it would break traction.. like a 911.
. . . or any other rear-engine vehicle, such as the then-ubiquitous VW Bug (which the 911 was somewhat related to back then). Granted, with a measly 25-35hp it was a bit harder to accelerate enough to get into enough speed on a turn to get into trouble, but it's far from impossible.
 
#36 ·
I don't think it was great tbh. I'll admit to being biased towards the 9000, which is considered by some purists not to be a real saab, and everyone's entitled to their opinion of course. I do think some stuff of varying importance was missed, including:


1/ The design team of engineers back in 1947 consisted of 14 men, only one of whom had a driving license

2/ The Saab driving team

3/ The 9000 in general, not to mention the fact that my own (Carlsson) was (according to Autocar) faster through some gears than a Ferrari

4/ Erik 'On the roof' Carlsson and his legendary rally drives, not to mention the 1970's being the preserve of Finns in Saabs!

5/ That Erik Carlsson is married to the sister of Stirling Moss and lives in the UK (Despite his age he still partakes in meets)

6/ The Saab 600, which was a re-badged Lancia Delta

7/ I believe Saab used a design that was essentially a tweaked British motor for over 20 years?

Even when they did bother to show a 9000, it was the 1990's model. For the love of God, could they not find the '85-'90 model anywhere? When they looked at concept cars they left out most of the interesting stuff. For a proper tribute it needed to be twice as long.

I just felt that the whole thing was fairly slapstick and poorly researched. It seemed more theatre than anything. I miss the old Top Gear!
 
#39 ·
The fact that the top gear guys refer to SAAB as being dead, are they just speculating or are the ashes about already? I haven't been on this site for a while and have been checking now and then but still can't work out yet if there's any hope left to hang on to.
 
#40 ·
saab as the car entity we knew is dead. Thats it, no other way around it. The name, the chassis, the electrics/electronics, its all trademarked to other companies.

they dont owe anything anymore, thats what happens in ch11. its like new gm/old gm (although im not sure anything change, its still the same shiat politics with those jerkoffs)
 
#44 ·
I watched it again and yah i guess youre right. I guess i was so teary eyed i missed it lol. What was odd was they nade it sound like saab were a bunch of cookoos then flip the script and prause their brilliance...either way i enjoyed it. Just because it was about Saab

Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using AutoGuide.com App
 
#45 ·
I guess I didn't see it that critical. The brits typically have a certain style (I like better than the American version). They clearly outlined that the 99 turbo was a great car. I didn't get that any of the others were bad - but it hinted that Saab may have run out of money due to their focus on quality engineering and higher cost due to ignoring GM's wishes of designing on the current models.
 
#46 ·
I just watched the segment. I must say I am damn proud to be a saab owner. I know that we are small in number and that is not nearly as successful as BMW, Mercedes, audi. But that is exactly why I feel so special owning this little car. I know it's GM, but the heritage and the community of saab is truly magnificent. People now days dont value these type of believes, and they will just go main stream and buying a BMW, but the passion I have for this car gives me so much more joy in owning it. I couldn't agree more when they show the different type of people who own the different brand of cars.
 
#47 ·
Totally agree about the qualities of a saab owner and why those qualities drew us to Saab. Thats what really makes the whole death of saab painful. I found a car that was like me if that makes sense. Although there are cars that i like and very well may love, my saabs have been a part of me. Quirks and all. I just dont see another brand getting that much from me like Saab....

Sent from my VEGAn-TAB using AutoGuide.Com Free App
 
#50 ·
It's clear as day those guys are extremely critical of Saab (and love BMW, at least Jeremy does for sure) ... but to say they 'hate' Saab is a bit off if you ask me.

As much as it saddens me to see our brand fizzle out, I actually love the thought that Saab basically went kamikaze on the brand to ensure as much quality was preserved as possible after GM demanded them to cut corners. I didnt know that side of the story, and I am glad they highlighted that. There's a lot to be proud of there. Sticking it to a mega corporation like that proves ballsy and honorable.

I really hope Saab will make it out of the coma it is in, but I wont hold my breath.
 
#51 ·
It's clear as day those guys are extremely critical of Saab (and love BMW, at least Jeremy does for sure)
just very select models, hates the x6, m5, 1 series, etc...

I actually love the thought that Saab basically went kamikaze on the brand to ensure as much quality was preserved as possible after GM demanded them to cut corners.
agreed.......BUT....

Sticking it to a mega corporation like that proves ballsy and honorable.
Thats why they're brankrupt. Not following direction. Should they have, it might have been slim but probable thay they would have survived just like cadillac did...
 
#53 ·
Who are referring too? Clarkson drives among others a Ford GT and Benz C63 AMG and has a vintage Benz Grosser limo. The Hampster drives a 911 and Morgan while Captain slow has a Bently.
US Top Gear sucks. UK Top Gear is car themed entertainment and not a car review show. It's pretty silly much of the time, but sometimes they hit the nail on the head and damn the consequences.

I watched the episode last night. I thought it was pretty fair. Some of the stuff SAAB did was whacky. Designing cars that don't recover their build cost doesn't work in the long run. You would think that someone would take the total development cost and divide by the unit margin and workout that it would take double or triple the sales volume to break even.
Still it's nice to believe that the car is incredibly safe and can handle a direct hit from a moose or multiple rollovers.
 
#55 ·
They never included this "race" in their Saab segment :cry: I was dying to see the SS in action (I'm always inside mine so I don't get to admire it being driven at the limit from the outside).


I've been hoping they'd at least upload it to their youtube channel but still nothing.
 
#58 ·
Watched and enjoyed the UK show...thought the info about Saab drivers being better educated than most drivers was funny...the drivers of Saabs local to me are engineers, solicitors and dentists with a few craftsmen mixed in.

They did a test of the old 9-5 aero a few years back and Clarkson spent most of his time trying to figure out why he found the Saab was just a lovely car to be in when it wasn't the best at anything vs its rivals and couldn't believe the performance was almost the same in every gear.

They drove various models across the years and didn't have a bad thing to say but criticised GM like crazy for trying to hold Saab back.
 
#59 ·
Watched and enjoyed the UK show...thought the info about Saab drivers being better educated than most drivers was funny...the drivers of Saabs local to me are engineers, solicitors and dentists with a few craftsmen mixed in.

They did a test of the old 9-5 aero a few years back and Clarkson spent most of his time trying to figure out why he found the Saab was just a lovely car to be in when it wasn't the best at anything vs its rivals and couldn't believe the performance was almost the same in every gear.

They drove various models across the years and didn't have a bad thing to say but criticised GM like crazy for trying to hold Saab back.
Genman, So you are a dentist with a law/engineering degree LOL?
 
#62 ·
Thanks for twisting what I said. I did not compare the early ng to the Pinto or Corvair just I owned them and had one of the "Exploders" too and am not panic prone to things like that.

Fact: The first few years of the ng, they failed the Euro offset frontal crash data. Youtube it, I learned this from this site and got pissed because I was not aware of the failure.

I now understand why when I was given a loaner (a 1996), I asked the dealer to make whatever mods to my wife's car since the handling was much better ... "can't because it looks the same but the whole front has been redesigned" ... quote from the head mech at Sports & Specialist Saab. And yes, I am aware that my request was handling oriented not safety since I was not aware of that till two years ago and the car is long gone. Pissed at myself too for just plodding along and not paying attention to really looking at data and just buying based on the safety of the classic 900.

They failed and fixed it. After like 8 or 9 Saabs that is the only one I question the safety of. Most of us have been lucky in some horrible crash and that's all I can derive from your comment, the early ng failure was in "offset" crash tests not head on.
 
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