First drive: Saab lifts lid on new 9-3 drop-top

SAAB Automobile AB has launched its most important vehicle since the 9-3 sedan - the all new 9-3 Convertible.

A four-seater ragtop, replacing the previous 9-3 Convertible, it offers buyers the wide range of engineering advances that came with the new range of 9-3 sedans and gets some additional enhancements specifically to add value to Saab convertible ownership.

It will go on sale in the Northern Hemisphere in September and in Australia in early October.

The price has yet to be set for Australia but expect the starting point to be between $70,000 and $75,000. The current Convertible costs $67,900. The Aero Convertible will be priced between $85,000 and $89,000.

The new convertible is important to this minnow of the motoring world because it contributes such a large percentage to the company's total business. And any increase in sales from any quarter in the financially challenged organisation is important to its recovery and future.

Saab has found a decent niche in these four-seater, open-air motoring machines which it got into about 20 years ago with the Saab 900 Convertible which ran to about 14 per cent of the 900's sales.

The now superseded 9-3 convertible was even more important and contributed to 25 per cent of the 9-3 sales worldwide.

The segment is also growing. Four-seater convertible sales have increased 50 per cent worldwide since 1998. In the UK, Sweden and Holland, the Saab 9-3 Convertible accounts for 50 per cent of sales in the premium convertible segment.

In Australia the Convertible bobs along at about 80 a month, although as the new model approaches that is more like 65 a month right now.

Saab Australia hopes to sell 200 convertibles from October until the end of this year and 1000 next year.

It is for these reasons that Saab appears to have pulled out all stops to get this car right.

Great attention has been devoted to the body structure that is so fundamental to convertibles, which lose the benefit of body stiffening flowing from the roof structure and the rear window.

This results in shaking dash panels and creaking and groaning trim panels. They get old before their time.

This time around Saab engineers worked on the new Convertible in parallel with the 9-3 sedan so, from the first, they could get their requirements into the design which features, among other things, underfloor beams that look like they have been pinched from a riveted steel road bridge.

Indeed, such has been the determination to eliminate scuttle-shake and strengthen the torsional rigidity, the convertible body-in-white weighs 69kg more than the sedan.

The torsional rigidity is said to be three times greater than on the previous model.

It is being built in a special new production area at the contract manufacturer, Magna Steyr Fahrzeugtechnik, near Graz in Austria.

New to the Convertible is a high-speed hydraulic power roof that deploys in just 20 seconds (fastest in class claims Saab) and automatically latches to the windscreen. It can be operated at speeds of up to 30 km/h. The automatic climate control adjusts to heat levels when the top is down.

Cloth seats are treated so that the material will not absorb water if left exposed to rain and the boot area returns to its full capacity when the roof is raised and the roof storage area is no longer required.

Seatbelts are now integrated into the front seats. This eliminates the old humps needed to house the belts at the correct height and means passengers do not get tangled in webbing when getting in and out of the back seat.

The seats move forward electrically to allow access to the back.

The Convertible includes side head/thorax air bags, front airbags that adjust to the size and weight of the driver and passenger and a self-activating roll bar which deploys in 150 milliseconds.

Much of the crash safety program was based on data gathered from more than 6000 real-life road accidents.

Maintenance costs have been reduced 30 per cent due to an increase in the service interval to two years or 30,000 km (shorter depending on engine usage) and reduced workshop times.

The new 9-3 Convertible comes in Linear, Vector and Aero models and is powered by Saab's two top engines, the 129kW 2.0-litre and the 155kW 2.0-litre with extra boost from the turbo. Gearboxes are five and six-speed manual or five-speed automatic.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Engine: 1998cc. Four cylinders. In-line. Aluminium cylinder head and block. Turbocharged, intercooled. DOHC, 16-valve. Balancer shafts. Dual-mass flywheel.
Max power: 129kW@5500rpm or 155kW@5300rpm
Max torque: 265Nm@4000rpm or 300Nm@4000rpm
0-100km/h (man 5-speed): 9.0 sec or 8.0 sec
Top speed (man 5-speed): 220km/h or 230km/h Transmission: 5/6 speed manual gearbox. Five-speed automatic transmission, Saab Sentronic manual selection. Steering wheel buttons selection, (automatic option).

Steering: Rack and pinion, hydraulic power assistance.

Suspension: Front - MacPherson struts and gas shock absorbers. Anti-roll bar. Mounted on hyrdoformed sub-frame. Rear - Independent, four link, including toe-link. Coil springs. Gas shock absorbers. Anti-roll bar. Mounted on sub-frame.

Brakes: Discs all-round with ABS, Mechanical Brake Assist (MBA) and Electronic Brake force Distribution (EBD) Kerb weight: 1580-1680 kg

DRIVING IMPRESSIONS:

NOT a lot can be learned from driving a new model car in evening peak period traffic in the centre of Copenhagen, other than experiencing the virtues of a satellite navigation system we cannot have in Australia for a few years because the mapping is not ready and being thankful that the tens of thousands of people on bicycles were not clogging up the road system with cars.

We also learned that the reason they are riding bikes is because all cars are imported and there is an import duty of 183 per cent, topped by an additional 20 per cent GST.

Nonetheless there were sufficient people in cars to hinder steady progress. Stage one of the driving experience was therefore of limited importance, if only to demonstrate the delights of viewing a city of five-storey buildings from a Saab with the roof down and enjoying a balmy Danish evening at close to Midsummer.

Stage two of the driving experience was a tunnel and a road bridge of some 17km to Sweden, some tame country roads where speed limits were mostly 50 and 70km/h and some freeway and highway at higher velocity.

The first thing you learn about a convertible is that you cannot hear the voice giving sat-nav instructions when you are surrounded by heavy trucks and city traffic - and very little conversation is at all possible with the top down in a road tunnel under the Baltic Sea.

That said, top down really is a top way to view open farmland on back roads on an almost fine day.

"Almost fine" because the fastest soft top in all Christendom was successfully put to the test in a sudden heavy shower. Even so, 20 seconds can still seem a long time when the ink on the route notes starts running.

But the 9-3 Convertible story is all about life on the move. Claims of body stiffness were substantiated to the extent of the roads we were on. More challenging roads in Australia may expose weak links in the structural integrity of the body, but the indications are that Saab has done an excellent job in eliminating one of the most annoying features of open-top car ownership.

In terms of handling and agility on the road, it was again a case of waiting until we get the car on our home turf but the vital signs are good and it seems to have inherited all the verve, stability and precision of the sedan 9-3.

It is a good car - better than the model it replaces and a credit to the team that put the project together.