Posted on Tuesday 19 June 2007
Saab will cease production of its 9-7X next year with just three years of sales under its belt because of the model’s lackluster sales performance. The 9-7X shares its underpinnings with the Chevrolet TrailBlazer and is currently manufactured at a GM plant in Moraine, Ohio. The TrailBlazer is also being cut from GM’s lineup, and is expected to be replaced with a brand new crossover model based on the existing Saturn Outlook.
Meanwhile, the 9-7X will be replaced in Saab’s lineup with the upcoming 9-4X in 2009, which will be based on GM’s global Theta architecture.
An insider, who spoke with AutoTelegraaf, revealed that Saab was pleased with the 9-7X’s performance in North America but wass disappointed that no diesel version was ever developed for European markets. In fact, the SUV is only sold in Europe through third-party importers but with the approval of Saab, as the vehicle was never originally planned to be sold outside North America.
Another web page described the 9-7x as a Chevy Blazer with the ignition between the seats. Boy are they right…
According to AutoTelegraaf the production of the Saab 9-7x will stop.The car had a career of three years and acording to Saab the sales of saab cars and saab parts were satisfying,but only in America because the car was designed for the American market.The car is also available in Europe,but Saab did not intend to sell the car on the European market and officialy it doesn’t.The car is imported by dealers and sold of course with approval from Saab.
saab has always preferrd clean uncluttered interiors. considering that the current ‘in malaysia, cbu’ 150bhp model already costs rm215k, the new car would prpbably be around rm225k to rm230k just for the entry level linear spec car. that is too close to the local assembled 320i price of rm232k and rm249k for the se model. curse of being cbu imho. i don’t think there’ll be enough ppl preferring the saab over the beemer for the importer to bring it in. afterall in malaysia, european only means 2 brands. merc and bmw. right? of course there will be those who buy the odd volvo, alfa, audi and the third tier europeans like renault, skoda, peugeot, citroen etc. but it is still not enough without a decent price advantage.