Saab Sans Wedge?

SAAB hasn’t always produced slick Svenska cars with the side-long geometry of a right triangle. It’s just that in the last twenty years or so, Saab has produced slick Svenska cars with the side-long geometry of a right triangle.

Yes, for nearly two decades, Saab had done old Euclid proud. As have the rest of the automotive industry, it must be said. That aside, no other manufacturer has tied themselves as stylistically to the wedge as has Saab.

Be it the current Opel-based 9-3 sedan and Magna Steyr-sourced convertible, the predecessor five-door 9-3 (née 900), the current, mummified 9-5 and the old 9000, all of these models bow obsequiously low to the elements while permitting their rumps to rise high into the air.

The leaked photos of the above 9-5 sedan expose a timely exception to the rule. CAR’s Tim Pollard noted (adroit as ever those crafty Brits) that the new sedan has hatch-like hindquarters; a rear windshield that descends smoothly into a low trunk culminating in a subtle design that resonates with that most iconic of Saabs – the original 900.

Importantly, the old Saab of Saabs only aspired to the wedge. The low bonnet line increases only subtly through the shoulder line and across the c-pillar to a high mounted, stubby spoiler. Without the spoiler, the car’s essentially a two-box fastback.

It was unorthodox. Its shape framed the concept of a car company so different from everything else on the road.

While we can’t assign the same description with the 2010 9-5, per se, the sedan’s nonetheless a design that has moved deftly on from Saab’s pat wedge theory.

Slick Svenska design never looked so promising. And, once again, different.

By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG via CAR - Automobilesdeluxe