Is it me or the whole facelift looks awkward to me?;oops: The front and back don't seem to match the rest of the profile well. I much prefer the 1st facelift. Hopefully they don't mess with the nearly perfect interior.
All the shots, including the JUST RELEASED INTERIOR shots as well as a Saab Australia press release are here on the blog.
UPDATE: My apologies, but the link from GM media was dodgy. They'd dumped some 9-3 SportCombi interior photos into the 2006 9-5 file. And here I was getting quite excited about them retaining the interior design.
Oh well.
Extra Exterior shots are still available at the blog. See link above.
The interior is the same as the 9-3's... almost. I don't think the front's too bad other than the slats at the lower portion of the grill. The back however.... let's just say that I hope it'll grow on me.
Overall. I like the new nose, but the 3 slot grill under the bumper is too busy.
The detail in the grill and lights looks good.
I like the dark gray color.
The rear end is ok - looks like any other german car. Probably for a reason.
Overall I don't see how this car shows any real design character beyond than what it already shares with European brands.
Too me, they could have also taken time to reduce weight, offer a wider variety of engines in the US, improve safety, better handling, etc.
Instead, I see a facelift and big expensive wheels.
I will be interested to read a road test and see if it performs on par with the BMW 5, Mercedes E-class or Audi A6.
Although, looking again... it is more bad-***. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Ok I know that couple be argued with many points, but this is just my initial reaction. Although, I'm still not impressed with the redesign. SAAB has just made themselves a "Corolla Aero S" heh.
Wagon looks very last-gen 5-series Touring, especially the 3/4 rear view. Overall I actually like it (at least in photos) with a more aggressive stance.
Sedan looks better from the front than the back (still an odd combination of Lincoln LS/last-gen 3-series/Civic) but I'll have to see in person to decide how "Saab" the headlights/grille treatment looks. Again, overall it's not ugly but not totally inspiring.
Seems the design trend is more German than Scandinavian. With Mauer's departure who is the current design chief ?
PLEASE fix those tailights GM.....SAAB........GM...............SAAB..........ANYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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