With Turbos, New All-Wheel Drive, Saab Sitting Better
May 27, 2008
By Bill Visnic
BOSTON -- Buyers in Saab's single largest market suddenly are very concerned about the price of gasoline, and there's maybe no premium brand in the industry better positioned to give 'em what they want, said Roger McCormack, Saab Automobile USA's new marketing director.
The big players such as Ford Motor Co. and even Saab's ever-patient owner, General Motors Corp., are all starting to talk about what it's going to take to improve fuel economy, and a big chip on the table is smaller "downsized" engines strapped with turbochargers to help mimic the performance of the big V8s and V6s from which Americans are starting to wean themselves.
That's a tune Saab's been playing for 30 years, says McCormack, who believes it may help give the niche Swedish maker a leg up in the coming fuel-economy wars -- a leg only a tiny number of buyers cared about during the horsepower wars that dominated the U.S. market for nearly the last two decades.
Small, powerful -- yet comparatively fuel-efficient -- turbocharged engines have been Saab's forte since the first turbocharged 99 hit the streets in 1977, and McCormack says Saab is going to start playing that card with fuel-economy-focused customers, readjusting its advertising and marketing to highlight the fact its turbocharged four-cylinder engines deliver satisfying performance without sucking the fuel tank dry.
"We're going to make a more conscious effort to do a better job of talking about our (turbocharging) heritage -- and what makes us a smart choice in this market," McCormack told AutoObserver at a media event here to launch the '08 Turbo X, a special run of 600 sinister-black 9-3 sedans and SportCombi (wagon) models fitted with a high-output turbocharged V6. The car also showcases XWD ("cross-wheel drive") Saab's first-ever all-wheel drive, a uniquely designed and entertainingly tuned system developed in cooperation with Sweden driveline specialist Haldex AB.
Saab buyers certainly understand the convincing combination of power and economy the company's signature engines offer: currently, no less than 85 percent of all Saabs sold in the U.S. are fitted with turbocharged 4-cylinder engines.
"It does position us well in a market that's trying to find a way to have fuel economy and the fun-to-drive quotient," McCormack said. And the best part: "It's technology that's here today," he adds.
He also says Saab's introduction of the XWD system will help Saab, which has for years managed to do little more than tread water under budget-minded GM management strategies and a market that has gravitated to established German (and increasingly, Japanese) luxury-performance marques.
"There's a certain segment [of buyers] that won't consider a vehicle unless it's all-wheel drive," McCormack said. "We see it in the data -- people considered a 9-3 but didn't buy it because it didn't have all-wheel drive."
Despite its now-convenient powertain orientation and the availability of the new XWD, McCormack is not projecting heady sales increases. He's well aware Saab's product portfolio is aged and the U.S. market is slumping. Saab is, refreshingly, not talking about ambitious sales growth -- the concentration, right now, is reinvigorating a brand just about everybody who knows something about cars wants to like.
"For us, it's not about that [increasing sales volume]," McCormack said. "It's the right products in the right segments for who Saab is. Right now, there's not a specific growth target we're shooting for -- we want to manage the health of the brand."
Instead, Saab hopes to hold its ground in a tough U.S. market with the halo-oriented Turbo X and XWD, which soon will roll out in rest of the 9-3 lineup, including the base Sport Sedan and SportCombi.
Holding that ground will take Saab into this time next year, when two-thirds of its product portfolio turns over: 2009 sees a long-overdue, all-new 9-5 flagship, as well as the 9-4X, a midsize crossover vehicle -- based on GM's Lambda architecture that underpins the successful Buick Enclave, GMC Acadia and Saturn Outlook.
McCormack said the crossover 9-4 is crucial, even if it strays from Saab's heritage of smartly
sized cars with four-cylinder power.
"It's a growing segment," he said. "The crossover is not going away." And he said the brand loyalists "are OK with it."
Of more than tertiary importance for the 9-4, he said, is the fact it will be built in the U.S., shielding Saab somewhat from the currency exchange-rate battering many European automakers are enduring. A just released study, the 2008 AlixPartners Global Automotive Review, says European automakers are losing as much as $20,000 in per-vehicle profit on certain models exported to the U.S.
Photos from GM
1 - 2008 9-3 Turbo X, a celebration of Saab's 30 years of turbocharging heritage.
2 - Saab 9-4X BioPower concept, a thinly veiled look at the Saab crossover coming next year as the effective replacement for the truck-based 9-7X.
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