Tree Tunnels

A wonderful scenic roads related link travelled to me via the Internet. Tree tunnels are always a one of the highlights of cruising on scenic roads. Someone has collected some of them, however in a bit different context - on a dating site. These places are magic, only some of them seems to be accessible by car.


My favorites from the link : 

Co. Antrim, Ireland :

image source

Hawaii :

image source

If you would like to see more of them click here.

Read More

James Bond numbers

I am at 77.000 km. Zeros and sevens. Reminds on 007. No other number on SID.

There is also a fine band called Zero 7. Triphop, downtempo also a bit pop. Fine stuff, if you don't listen too long or too often to it.

This number also means next intermediate control. SID showed 8%, so a little time, but I dont want to get the service warning in the middle of the Sweden trip, so now. Front break pads needed to be changed. So there are new ones as well as some other standard things.

Read More

Jeep Grand Cherokee impressions

Yes, it is strange to see a Jeep review on a Saab blog. But who likes Saab mostly likes cars in general and definitely would catch a possibility to test drive something else the same way as I did.

It's good to have friends in automotive industry, friends which trust you, that you dont wreck their test cars. I have such a friend, so I get from time to time a chance to drive something interesting. This time it was a really large car - a Jeep Grand Cherokee. A close to new one, with only 10.000 km driven.

My experience with SUVs is rather limited - i drove XC90 D5 for a couple of kilometers and a Chevrolet Trailblazer for around 5.000 km through the United States. So the impressions are good for people with similar experience maybe considering to buy an SUV.

The engine was the stronger version of 3.0 V6 CRD (diesel) performing 241 hp / 550Nm,  automatic transmission, edition Overland, which means nearly fully equipped car with leather everywhere and all the modern electronic toys incl. blind-angle alarm, adaptive cruise control, 5 chassis regimes, rear parking camera, intelligent lights, keyless entry  and so on. Tyres were 265/60 R18.



Like :
- robust impression both interior and exterior
- nice interior. After seeing some other Jeeps, which looked from inside like produced in Legoland, this was a very positive surprise.
- drive economy of the diesel - it had 10-11 litres of testing drives consumption on the computer. While driving on cruise-control 90kmh it was around 7 litres.
- sunroof, not loud at all even at 100kmh.
- adaptive cruise control which breaks as well as accelerates
- AUX, 2x USB inputs and Hard Disk for music. wow.
- it didn't had the typical diesel tractor sound

Neutral :
- the 3.0 V6 diesel engine drives the car fine and the drive economy is OK. But this car weights 2.3 tons so you dont have this feeling of push from the seats while accelerating. So if someone search for a bit more swiftness, better choice would be one of the petrol engines.
- rear camera - no need

Dislike :
- too many light - aluminium colored parts on the dashboard
- too hard chassis, I was expected a softer "boat", no problems with holes in the road but you feel them (in no sport mode)
- only one handle behind the steering wheel with everything on it, things like direction indicator, wiper regulation etc. Too many things on one handle.
- the envy of others, grumbling around, that SUV is useless
- list price of 56k €

In general i was very positive impressed. As a Saab fan I would rather go for the 9-4X, which is smaller, but imho with nicer shapes. If I wouldn't be a Saab fan, this would be one of the hottest options so far. Of course not for 56k€. But I started seriously to consider, that the "working" car, which should come to our family could be an SUV. When the situation allows that ...

Read More

The Court of Appeals in Gothenburg approved voluntary reorganisation of Saab

After the first disapproval, than an appeal, today the Court of Appeals in Gothenburg has approved voluntary reorganisation of Saab.

The press release continues : 

"The purpose of the voluntary reorganization process is to secure short-term stability while simultaneously attracting additional funding, pending the inflow of the equity contributions by Pang Da and Youngman.

The Swedish Company Reorganization Act says that an application shall not be approved unless there is reasonable cause to assume that the purpose of the reorganization will be achieved. In today’s decision, the Court of Appeal has found that such conditions exist, thereby overturning an earlier ruling by the District Court in Vänersborg, Sweden.

As a consequence of the Court of Appeal ruling, Saab Automobile will request for the bankruptcy filings by unions IF Metall, Unionen and Ledarna to be cancelled."

What does it mean for Saab ?

First of all Saab wins time he so desperately needs for 1) the reorganisation, 2) finding short-term funds for 3) restart of the production.

The time from the court is 3 months which can be possibly prolonged to 12 months. 

Saab has several bankruptcy filings by the unions and by some suppliers. As there will come a request, with high probability these will be cancelled. The filling by the unions were highly discussed because only a  part of the members voted for the filing.

The members of IF Metal (unions) also have met the chinese partners Pang Da and Youngman some days ago. Afterwards the unions waited until the last moment before submiting the filing.

There is a binding contract by the chinese partners Pang Da and Youngman in a size of 245M€ and an expressed wish to invest together around 870M€ into Saab. "Step by step", specified Rachel Pang for the newspaper DI.

So far so good. But the fight is still not over. All chinese investments are long-term and will be valid only if approved by NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission of China), the chinese authority approving foreign investment activities. This approval is expected in November 2011. Some days ago also the Swedish government tried to help by the negotiations in China. The visible result until now are several approvals below the NDRC level. The time until the expected November approval is now crucial for Saab to reconstruct.

Where the short-term money comes from is a big unknown for me. But Victor Muller (happy birthday!) is known as an extremely hard working man (sometimes magician) when it comes to search for investment funds. It will be tough, the worlds economical situation is far from to be good, but on the other hand Saab is a very perspective company. Swade, writing the official Inside Saab blog, has a great post explaining why is it so.

By the way, thank you Swade for linking our joint ride (and my gallery) of the austrian and slovakian saab clubs.

In other words, the time from now until the expected NDRC approval is the most critical time for Saabs survival. You may call it last chance. I call it space for a deep breath.

And wouldn't it be a pity to destroy a company producing this ? :

I will drive the black one 2500+ km and spend 2 nights on a ferry to Saabsunited Octoberfest 2011 in Trollhättan and back. Looking forward for the event.

And good luck Saab !

Read More

Luck, skill or discipline ?

Luck for the race drivers. Definitely not a skill of the driver who lost the tyre. But for sure a discipline of the tyre itself. It behaves better than many pedestrians.

Read More

Saabs roller coaster ride continues

As many of you knows, Saab is still struggling with the financial situation. It's like a roller coaster ride, many positive and negative informations and articles every day.

Yesterday Saab was asking the court for reconstruction. The courts decision to day was : no. According to the fresh press conference with Victor Muller the reasons are : 1) it wouldn't help to save Saab and that there is not enough in-depth information and 2) lack of goodwill to the brand.

Saab was very dissapointed and the answer of Saab will be an appeal the decision and provide much more informations proving, that the reconstruction will be a success.

Another stakeholder in this fight are the Unions, which are holding their demand for bankruptcy as long as they can. Imho they know, that a Saab survival would be much in favor of them than the bankruptcy. However for sure there is a very tense atmosphere.

Also CLEPA, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers showed support for Saab : “If Saab pays its debts, or at least some of them, we will help get production up and running again”.

Saab has appx 245M€ on the horizon coming in from the Chinese partners.

You can watch the video from todays press conference from today here (saabsunited.com).

Cross fingers Saab. It's not over yet.

update : Saab will submit the appeal on Monday 12.9.2011 and Unions will file for bankruptcy on Tuesday 13.9. OMG. Things are getting sharper.

Read More

Music for Cabriolets : Wayfaring Stranger by Jamie Woon (Burial Remix)

This one works in the cabrio rides through the night. A long lonely ride home.



It has a nostalgic flavor from the past as well ...

Read More

SAAB and the power of acronyms

Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget knows every Saab fan. But what else ? Many of them have actually sites :

SAAB    Student-Athlete Advisory Board (many of them, but the linked one has a logo)
SAAB    Student African American Brotherhood (serious stuff)
SAAB    South African Association of Botanists (every metal blooms after years...)
SAAB    Space: Above & Beyond (Saabs against aliens)
SAAB    Saudi Arabian Agricultural Bank (hey guys, what about help an another Saab ?)
SAAB    Substance Abuse Advisory Board (eh yes Saab makes addictive)
SAAB    Selected And Amplified Binding (a-ny hi-tek DNA-based anti-theft stuff available ?)
SAAB    State Archives of Assyria Bulletin (4758 AD, ancient finding, ritual use. symbols unknown)
SAAB    Sustainable Agriculture Advisory Board (yes, sustain is the important keyword here)
SAAB    Student Affairs Advisory Board (uuu advisors over advisors, hopely you drive a Saab)
SAAB    Student Academic Affairs Board (growing new customers, one by one)
SAAB    Students for Asian Awareness at Bucknell (yes, we hear the asian voice, crisp and clear)
SAAB    Salvation Army Advisory Board (ok, serious stuff)
SAAB    Student Alumni Association Board (Saab is too young to die !)
SAAB    Society for American Archaeology Bulletin (4832 AD, symbols decoded as ........)
SAAB    Separate Anti-Aircraft Battalion (this is BS)
SAAB    State Association Advisory Board (yes, they wear ties for sure)
SAAB    State Administrator Advisory Board (BS again)
SAAB    South Asian Association at Brooklyn (atmosphere ?)
SAAB    South African Association of Biokinetics (biofood, biofuel fine, but biokinetics?)
SAAB    Semi-automatic Altitude Assignment Board (BS)
SAAB    Scientific Advisor to the Air Board (Australia) (BS)

source : The free dictionary

Read More

Saab AUX for 900 NG and older 9-3 / 9-5

There are people searching for AUX solutions for their older Saabs, so as addition to the SaabAUX link I'd like to share two other solutions. One of them may be suitable for you.

The first one is a 900 NG line-in mounting guide from platonoff.com where you can find a lot of Saab DIY guides.

The second one is a CDconnect AUX solution from Stockholm-based company Skyddet. It is suitable for Saab 9-5 until model year 2005 and all 9-3 (1998-2003) except 9-3 SS. Besides all the necessary equipment you can find also a youtube video to it.

I hope this is useful for someone.

Read More

Amsterdam, the alternative Saab hive

On a recent trip I realised again, that Amsterdam is one of the places with huge amount of Saabs around. While walking on Herengracht, in probably 1 kilometer I've counted 10 Saabs parking on the street and 4 of them were convertibles. And not only that. While driving through residential areas to a visit of friends living on the edge of Amstelveen and Amsterdam I've seen many many Saabs around, very often the 9-3 I hatchbacks.

Here is the nicest Herengracht convertibles. A wet dream of many Saabists incl. myself - a 900 I convertible in top condition. Aaahhh ...

On the license plate it has the url saabcabrio.nl which leads to a dutch site where many of us will spend some time. Of course they are not the cheapest. But who knows, one day ....

The second one is from one of the Q Parks and it is a clean "generations" picture. 9-3 I and 9-3 II. As many times before I realised, that the yellow dutch license plates makes cars (not only Saabs) look much better than with the white ones. Again the dutch one looked in top condition.

Read More

Music for cabriolets : Fink - Perfect darkness

Another track that works very fine through a convertible ride is the latest album of Fink called Perfect Darkness. Fink is playing basically folk but far from the obvious folk-cliche. On the stage he plays with a small band. Currently on a tour. The label releasing Fink is Ninja Tune.

This is the title track Perfect Darkness, one of the best on the album.

Read More

Cabrio ride hint : Cuxhaven - Hamburg

On my recent trip Cuxhaven was an unplanned stop. I rather wanted to go to Bremerhaven, but hadn't reserved any hotel and everything was occupied. So booking.com in the PDA and after 5 minutes I had a reservation in 40km far Cuxhaven. At my day (Wednesday) it was an empty city. But the port was nice and the fisher restaurant was good.

The way to Hamburg, recommended by a local Saabist parking next to me his 9-3 I was the same as in the navigation under "other" road. It has ~120km leading through green parts, nice small towns, 1-2 boat locks, sometimes on a dam. It contains a ferry through Elbe river, which is a nice "stop". It was quite full, but waiting time wasn't longer than 20 minutes. Price ~10€.

Map :


Larger map


The whole way is rather slow, not empty, but not full. It's a 2 hours drive and if the weather plays with you, a very nice part of some trip. Somehow "peaceful".

From Cuxhaven to Hamburg

From Cuxhaven to Hamburg

I am not an eco-freak, but I really liked that lots of cows, sheeps and horses grazing around. Looks like the environment is fine. Something I am a bit missing at home. All the animals are somewhere closed in buildings :(

From Cuxhaven to Hamburg

Ferry over Elbe

It took at the end some kilometers on the highway. After seeing a Saab logo i turned there and found a dealer - Saab Etehad. Some new 9-5s outside, as well as a convertible. A very friendly approach. And a positive look into the future in spite of what is going on now with Saab. I bought color for scratches and a soft-top roof cleaning + impregnation set for the upcoming roof service in some weeks.

However they told, that to re-color the soft-top as shown here [youtube video] is not recommended at all. That the faded parts will look again fresh after the impregnation. Hmmm... I will try than the impregnation only and let's see. Btw. I've got Tunap Cabrio 152 & 153, it looks like this (picture stolen from ebay) :

It has disapeared from the Tunap site, what is a bit worrying, but I will try this out. Found it in some forums as recommended.

Read More

Forumula 1 interesting HD video

The days when I closely watched F1 are gone, now it's only occasionaly. I was a fan of the McLaren  Mercedes team, of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard.  My former employer was a co-sponsor of McLaren, I've seen once Ron Dennis at one of our global company events. Very fine appearance. And I didn't liked Michael Schumacher (driving for Ferrari at that time).

But sometimes appear nice videos or coverages which are worth watching. This is one of them. It's Schumacher, but the point here is the video by itself. So here we go :

Read More