If you’re anything like me, then you’ll have admired one from afar, showing off outside the Conran Shop or at rest in Costa Coffee’s car park, all sleek, sophisticated and Swedish. You don’t even need to handle it internally, feel it’s super accomodating multi-adjustable seating or know it’s unbridled naked aggression, to realise you’d love every minute of it.
Yes, the Saab Aero 9-3 is just one of those cars you’re just itching to have a go in. An uncompromising looker, in an ugly/beautiful kind of way, it’s powerful Bi-Xenon headlamps invite you down to it’s trademark rotund front bumper, flanked by gently aerodynamic contours and 16” sport alloys.
Inside there’s a familiarity that soon has you completely at ease, no quirky positioning or out of reach buttons to deal with - it’s been designed with ease and accessibilty as a priority and everything needed to maintain control of the car lies within easy reach of the steering wheel.
It’s roomy too, this four door sport saloon interior offers ample space for a 4-ball. It also has a boot capacity for two bags with drivers, yet once seated in its soft ruched bucket seats there’s no dobuting that you’ve entered the cockpit of a sports car. Soon you’re opening up the belly of it’s 210 hp turbocharged powerhouse and letting rip with a rousing 0-60mph in 7.4 seonds with supreme handling and poise on the A267 to the south coast.
There’s no unnecessary gizmos here, the Sat Nav does what it needs to do, getting me from a A to Bexhill-On-Sea with the minimum of fuss. The park assist is annoyingly useful and the oh-so polite ‘ding ding’ of the speeding warning indicator as I reach the happier side of 90 mph in third gear, may one day, come in handy.
I could be driving an A4 or perhaps a 3 Series, to be fair both great cars but it’s the Saab’s generous minimalism that sets it apart - no fuss, no fanfare just everything in it’s righful place. That coupled with an acute attention to detail - the indicators tick like Ray Charles clicking his fingers; the jet wash streams dance from eight individual outlets perfectly placed to eliminate any unwanted windscreen residue. Reminders of its designer heritage are everywhere, this after all from a country that brought you the functionism of IKEA and slickness of the J.Lindeberg white belt.
In all, a rewarding driving experience though at times, I felt like I might be driving through an ad man’s wet dream in search of a man bag and a Brita Water Filter.
On arrival at our destination I order refreshments, one cup of Super Mocha double skinny wheat germ latte please!