FirstDrive/the Saab 9-3 SportsEstate: Wooing the customers can take many forms. One is to let the cars do the talking, and that's what happened at Mondello Park the other day.
A performing troupe of three Swedes driving very hot Saabs wowed an audience of over 500, doing seemingly impossible tricks like high-speed criss-cross driving and a fast forward and fast reverse manoeuvre with one car locked against another. It was like the Red Arrows on tarmac.
The 25-minute show was the digestif to a hearty lunch, a digestif of cooking rubber and tyre smoke, and of course much screeching and screaming.
The three Swedes, all everyday employees of the Saab plant in Trollhattan, had as their steeds 9-3 Sports saloons with 210bhp. "These are normal road going cars apart from some adjustment to the tyres to take account of extra punishment" explained Kenneth Backlund, one of the trio.
That punishment is expensive. After four shows, the cars have to have a complete set of new tyres.
The Irish importer of Saab, Scanveco clearly saw it all as a love affair with their customers. The real purpose in getting them to Mondello was to show off Saab's car range especially the latest arrival, the new 9-3 Sports Estate that aims to give a message of fun with functionality.
"It resolves the conflict between the fun-to-drive sports car your heart desires and the practical car your head says you should buy," declared Scanveco's Irish boss Doug McCoy.
Sporty accoutrements include new 17- and 18-inch wheels, spoilers and body kits. The rear area is characterised by a steeply raked tailgate and high-mounted frosted lenses in the lighting area.
Irish prices for the 9-3 Sports Estate start at €35,995, a premium of €1,500 over the Sports Saloon. That's for the entry-level 1.8i with 122bhp. The flagship version is the 250bhp 2.8 litre V6 in Aero form at €55,495.
In all, there's a choice of five petrol and two diesel units along with five specification levels.
Saab may have been a bit troublesome for its General Motors parent, particularly because of its inability to get profitable, but it seems to be good news for Scanveco here. The company claims sales are up 33 per cent on last year.
Gay Hogan, chairman of the OHM Group which includes Scanveco, told the Mondello faithful that 1,500 cars would be sold this year: "In relative volume terms that makes us among the first 10 countries in the world for Saab."
The Mondello event clearly was image enhancing, what with around 400 of the 500 attendance enjoying high speed drives around the circuit with the Swedish Saab visitors and with other racing drivers.
Guests could take cars for testing, but only on the public roads that adjoin Mondello. "That was the really important bit, and we hope a lot of minds were made up about what the next car is going to be," added Gay Hogan.