Saab “unlikely” to use GM platform for next-gen 9-3
Friday, October 30th, 2009
According to a Saab executive, the small Swedish automaker slowly emerging from under the General Motors umbrella will base its next-generation 9-3, the company’s volume model, on a non-GM platform.
The next-generation 9-3 is “more unlikely than likely” to be based on a GM-derived platform, Saab Global Brand and Sales Operations Director Knut Simonsson told Motor Trend.
The current 9-3 utilizes a highly modified version of GM’s Epsilon platform. Unlike its GM corporate cousins, the 9-3’s suspension and powertrains are largely unique to the low volume automaker – which is part of the reason GM wanted to unload the brand. It’s unclear just when the new 9-3 will arrive, especially since a Koenigsegg-owned Saab will mostly go it alone in a world of ever-consolidating automakers. The current 9-3 was facelifted for 2008 and given revised powertrains and optional all-wheel-drive, but the basic design dates back to 2003.
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