SHARE
COPY LINK

MODEL

Saab unveils new Saab 9-5 to journalists

After many months of waiting, 250 foreign journalists visited Trollhättan on Monday to test Saab Automobile's new flagship vehicle, the new second-generation Saab 9-5.

Saab unveils new Saab 9-5 to journalists

The verdicts of the journalists will be a crucial test of Saab’s efforts to convince the world that it has a future. Since the 9-5 was first unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show last September, the company has been fighting for its survival.

During its darkest days in early January, it looked as if the fully developed car would never reach the market. It was only after the last minute success of Spyker Cars’ bid to buy the company from General Motors that the future of the model – and the brand as a whole – were secured.

The first cars are expected to reach dealers the week before Midsummer in mid-June. On Monday, Saab started the big launch, inviting 250 journalists from different countries to visit Trollhättan to test drive the car.

For Saab’s future, it is crucial that the car does not flop. The smaller Saab 9-3 model continues to sell the most units for the brand.

The price of the new 9-5 is deliberately set higher than its 13-year-old predecessor. Prices start at 311,000 kronor ($40,000) and rise up to about 600,000 kronor depending on engine and equipment.

“The price means that the sales volume is expected to be slightly lower,” said Peter Hallberg, CEO of Saab’s dealer network.

Saab’s turbulent times are not yet over. There are still companies that do not allow their employees to buy Saabs as company cars simply because of the lingering uncertainty surrounding the company.

Finance and leasing companies have set very low residual values, or how much the cars are estimated to be worth in three years, on Saab vehicles. However, Saab dealers have agreed to provide a guaranteed residual value for the vehicles.

“We guarantee a value on par with our competitors,” said Hallberg. “This means around 50 percent for volume models. We hope that will eliminate the worries of fleet car buyers.”

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

MODEL

L’Oreal drops trans model over controversial comments

French cosmetics giant L'Oreal on Friday confirmed it had dropped a British transgender model over comments the company deemed "at odds with our values," after she was hired as part of a diversity campaign.

L'Oreal drops trans model over controversial comments
File photo: AFP

“L'Oreal champions diversity,” the beauty brand said on Twitter. “Comments by Munroe Bergdorf are at odds with our values and so we have decided to end our partnership with her”.

L'Oreal had tapped Bergdorf — a 29-year-old model, DJ and trans activist whose father is Jamaican — as one of the five newest faces of its #allworthit campaign to introduce the five new shades of its True Match face makeup.

The foundation make-up boasts 28 unique shades ranging from very light to dark brown in a bid to match the myriad different skin tones and textures of people worldwide.

According to British Vogue, Bergdorf was the first transgender woman to be featured in a L'Oreal Paris UK campaign.

But controversy erupted when Bergdorf took to Facebook in a now-deleted post to react to events in the US city of Charlottesville, where a woman was killed on August 12th after an avowed white supremacist rammed his car into a group of anti-racism counter-protesters.

“Honestly I don't have energy to talk about the racial violence of white people any more. Yes ALL white people,” Bergdorf wrote, according to copies posted in British media.

“Once white people begin to admit that their race is the most violent and oppressive force of nature on Earth… then we can talk,” the model reportedly wrote.

L'Oreal told British media it “remains committed to celebrating diversity and breaking down barriers in beauty”.

READ ALSO: Charlie Hebdo shocks (once again) with cover portraying Hurricane Harvey victims as neo-Nazis