18 Sep 08
Sadly, Saab has an unfortunate habit of teasing us with amazing, but largely irrelevant show cars, and if you consider the name of its latest concept, the 9-X Air, you might think little has changed.
The 9-X Air though is not just erm& a lot of hot air. At an exclusive preview, in advance of the concept's global debut at the Paris Motor Show in October, it became clear to us that the Swedish manufacturer is hell-bent on producing car very much like this in the near future.
In March Saab unveiled the 9-X BioHybrid concept shown at the Geneva Motor Show. It was a 200bhp, front-drive, hybrid petrol-electric, three-door hatchback touted as a rival to the 1-Series, Volvo C30 and Audi A3. The 9-X Air, though, is essentially a convertible version of that concept and it borrows the same Vauxhall Astra chassis architecture, powertrain and frontal styling used on the BioHybrid.
Viewed from the front the Air and BioHybrid appear identical: they boast the same wraparound, two-tone dashboard layout made up of a series of LCD displays, but behind the A-pillars they couldn't be more different.
