{"id":307456,"date":"2010-02-11T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-11T15:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/2010\/02\/11\/rumormill-next-gen-saab-9-3-to-see-return-of-five-door-bodystyl\/"},"modified":"2010-02-11T10:29:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-11T15:29:00","slug":"rumormill-next-gen-saab-9-3-to-see-return-of-five-door-bodystyle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/307456","title":{"rendered":"Rumormill: Next-gen Saab 9-3 to see return of five-door bodystyle?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filed under: Performance<\/a>, Europe<\/a>, Hatchback<\/a>, Saab<\/a>, Spyker<\/a>, Rumormill<\/a>, Luxury<\/a><\/p>\n

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Saab 9-3 Sedan – Click above for high-res image gallery<\/small><\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n

\nHopefully, and while Spyker’s at it they’ll bring back the 900 name. Don’t count on that last bit, but according to a report by the Dutch site Auto Internationaal, Saab will be bringing back a five-door (as in hatchback) 9-3. To even the most casual Saab fan, this makes a ton of sense. In fact, Saab’s decision (even though it was really General Motors’ decision) to end production of the 9-3 hatch in favor of the 9-3 sedan is still both baffling and painful, all these many years later. <\/p>\n

The thing is, Saab has always been, and will probably always remain a niche brand. The notion that by dropping the odd five-door (and three-door) body style in favor of a more conventional sedan body, stay a high-dollar front-dollar and<\/em> poach sales away from BMW is as laughable now as it was back in 2002 when Saab\/GM made the switch. Bringing back a five-door is most likely the brand’s best shot at salvation.<\/p>\n

Besides, five-door, luxury\/performance niche vehicles seem to be all the rage. Look no further than the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo and upcoming Audi A5 Sportback. Let’s not forget about the Caddy CTS Sportwagon, either. Not only that, you have a lot of people getting older and richer who spent their formative years in Subaru WRXs, Volkswagen GTIs and MazdaSpeed3s now looking for something a little more grown up and sophisticated. We really can’t see any downside to hatch’d 9-3. Now if Saab would only bring back the longitudinal, backwards engine… though probably not, as the next 9-3 will likely be Opel Astra-based.<\/p>\n

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Gallery: First Drive: Saab Turbo X<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\n[Source: Euro Car Blog<\/a> via Auto Internationnal<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Rumormill: Next-gen Saab 9-3 to see return of five-door bodystyle?<\/a> originally appeared on Autoblog<\/a> on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Permalink<\/a> | Email this<\/a> | Comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Filed under: Performance, Europe, Hatchback, Saab, Spyker, Rumormill, Luxury Saab 9-3 Sedan – Click above for high-res image gallery Hopefully, and while Spyker’s at it they’ll bring back the 900 name. Don’t count on that last bit, but according to a report by the Dutch site Auto Internationaal, Saab will be bringing back a five-door […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-307456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}