Taken from Saabsunited website

February 27, 2014 in Fan Stuff, NEVS

<*** class=" wp-image-53205 alignright" src="http://www.saabsunited.com/wp-content/uploads/FH-355-820x546.jpg" alt="FH-355" width="410" height="273" />This week three Swedish car-magazines has visited Trollhätttan for a test-drive of the 2014 9-3 Aero. As we all already know it’s basically a 2012 9-3 Griffin Aero with the two-litre Turbo4 220hp petrol-engine, but with some changes by NEVS. All the three magazines had put a little sneak peek from the test-drive on their websites, and I will here sum up the most important from the sneak peeks.

First out was the magazine “Vi Bilägare“, one of Sweden’s biggest car-magazine. Their tester Calle Carlquist drove a car with the automatic transmission, and he thinks the driving experience is completely modern and he also think NEVS has succeed with their idea that the car should feel sporty but still be comfortable. So he has a positive first impression and think it’s a good car that don’t feel ready for retirement, but the drawback is that it’s missing some of the latest techology.

Next up is “Teknikens Värld“, maybe most known for their “moose test”. I don’t know if they set the 9-3 up for a moose test, but their testers Hans Hedberg and Glenn Lindberg think it’s noticeable that the 2014 9-3 is older than the competitors, but it’s cope pretty well anyway. The chassis is comfortable and resilient, but not “Aero-resilient”, and the 220hp engine is pleasant to drive as always (Täknikens Värld tested a car with manual transmission). They also think the long-distance comfort feels as good as in the old seats, and a tip from them if you don’t want to wait for the new infotainment-system from NEVS you can simply change the headunit to a more fancy aftermarked headunit at your nearest SAAB-garage.

Left is “Auto Motor & Sport“, a magazine well known over all Europe. They sent Thomas Berggren and Pär Brandt, and they think “it feels very much SAAB”. As Teknikens Värld they think the chassis is convenient and comfortable rather sporty. It don’t feels bumpy, it eats bumps in the road very nice and the the chassis will get a high score. It’s is great for Swedish roads! The engine is strong at low revs and have a nice torque, but it’s not the most fuel-efficient car on the market. AMS think the car have a old infotainment system, and it’s missing the latest safety systems as brake-assist, sleep-warning, lane-warning and so on.

So if we sum up what the Swedish car-magazines think about the 2014 9-3;
The 9-3 still have a great chassis and a very nice engine. The stuff that is not so good is the lack of a better infotainment (rumors says a new one is on it’s way), and the fact it’s not a new car so it’s missing some of the latest safety systems.

If you want to read the original articles and see a few images, click on the links under. (sorry, Swedish text only)