This is an installment in a series of posts looking back on show cars that we feel deserved a little more attention than they got. If you have a suggestion for a Forgotten Concept topic, please shoot us a line or leave a comment below.
Saab 9-X Concept
First Shown: 2001 Frankfurt Auto Show
Description: Sporty multi-purpose lifestyle vehicle
Sales Pitch: “Defies automotive convention.”
Details:
First seen at the 2001 Frankfurt Auto Show, the Saab 9-X Concept was a category-melding experiment featuring the qualities of a sporty coupe, a convertible, a station wagon, and a pickup truck. There were some mumblings that the 9-X was also an off-road vehicle, but the low ride height and oversized wheels and tires suggest otherwise.
Removing the concept’s glass roof panels converted the car into a roadster of sorts, and extending the load floor gave would-be owners much of the utility of a pickup truck. The long roof and roomy cargo bay provided wagon-like flexibility, even when the cargo bed was fully retracted into the body.
Note that both the rear seats and the front passenger seat folded completely flush with the floor to create a lengthy, unrestricted load area.
Technical highlights included a 300-horsepower turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 mated to a sequentially shifted 6-speed manual transmission (check out the shifter). Also included were AWD and Brembo-brand performance brakes at all four corners.
The Saab 9-X was awarded Best Concept Car in 2002 by the European Automotive Design Awards judging committee.
Forgotten Concept: Ford Probe III
CG Says:
With General Motors now at the helm of Saab, the brand’s then famous character and quirkiness were soon to be squelched. Appearing in 2001, the 9-X hit the auto-show circuit roughly one year after GM’s acquisition of the brand, and would have been in-development during the takeover. We’re probably lucky we even got to see the concept.
There is much to suggest the 9-X—or a vehicle inspired by it—was headed for production before GM took the reigns at Saab. Likely, we’ll never know exactly how close the 9-X came to appearing in showrooms, but consider this: Instead of the sleek, stealthy, Category-bending vehicle seen here, Saab’s first “X” vehicle was the 9-7X, a thinly disguised version of the Chevrolet Trailblazer. While the 9-7X was arguably a decent SUV, it’s size, heft, available V8, and general clunkiness were not in the traditional Saab idiom. Indeed, the 9-7X was not in anyway quirky, and that’s really kind of sad.
Saab 9-X Concept Gallery
(Click below for enlarged images)
Sans the extendable bed, this car could have been built at a reasonable cost.