THE SAAB 9X CONCEPT CAR AND DRIVER - YouTube GO OTOMOTIF 2

It's a sports coupe. It's a station wagon. It's a roadster. A pickup truck, a floor wax, a dessert topping. Saab uses the term "multidynamic" to describe its 9X concept vehicle, and sure enough, compared with this thing, a Swiss Army knife seems positively single-minded. But you know what's really weird? It's a done deal.At a concept-car preview in Florida in March, it was clear that the 9X, which won Best Concept Car in the European Automotive Design Awards, has developed an air of inevitability. Project leader Ola Granlund frequently slipped out of cautionary subjunctive mood—"If we build it, we would rework the wheel wells, but not too much"—to simple future passive—"The tailgate will likely be operated on damping struts." Saab's first concept car in 17 years ain't no foolin'.Saab's cycloptic vision of the future—at first it seems pretty implausible, to say nothing of ugly—turns out to be a fairly rational design. But it takes some getting used to. For starters, the car's high shoulder line, narrow glass, low-profile seats, and gigantic drive tunnel leave the driver feeling a little as if he's looking out of the mouth of an anaconda that has just swallowed him. It takes a few minutes for that claustrophobic feeling to fade into one of glove-fit security.Meanwhile, the car's gorgeous interior, with cantilevered dash surfaces seeming to float on pools of pale green ambient lighting, has more sharp edges than a William Safire column, and it remains to be seen how it will pass DOT muster. "It's no problem," says Granlund. "We can make it all out of soft rubber." Which makes us wonder if anyone at Saab has ever been hit with a rubber hammer. Also, Saab will have to steal a couple of inches from the stylists to make room for occupants' elbows.As for the exterior, which by turns recalls the Intimidator's sunglasses, the Gee Bee racing plane of the 1930s, or the robot Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still, that too grows on you until . . . yeah, okay, I like it. "We did not want a design that people would instantly love," says Granlund. "Cars that people easily like they grow tired of too quickly."Even so, the 9X interior is a tour de force of future-think ergonomics. The central console holds a vertical display with readouts for audio, climate, car, and "office" functions, each accessed through a rotary knob situated to the right of the sequential gearshifter, which fits in the mitt like a PlayStation joystick. The front bucket seats are spare and sculptural—think Berlin dentist's chair—with the seatback hinged on lateral supports that allow the seats to be folded flat. The jump seats in the back, with the same folding design, extend the usable cargo floor so that the car can accommodate surfboards, kayaks, and other accouterments of the "young active lifestyle."A cute detail on the tailgate is the running lights built into the top so that when the gate is lowered they serve as taillights. The car's claim to "pickup" status is based on the removable roof glass aft of the sunroof and the extendable cargo bed, complete with CargoTracks lock-down channels and water-repellent felt. The surprise? This bit of concept-car frippery appears actually to work. Think of it as a Swedish Avalanche. Our test drive was limited to 40 mph and second gear on straight roads, so driving impressions will have to wait. Even so, Saab's heart is in the right place, with firm plans for a transverse-mounted, turbocharged V-6 putting 300 horses through a six-speed sequential gearbox and all-wheel drive in a car weighing less than 3000 pounds. Saab's number crunchers foresee naught to 62 mph in 5.9 seconds.

THE SAAB 9X CONCEPT CAR AND DRIVER - YouTube
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