The Turbo X Spectacular! Part II: Lost (Briefly) In Beantown

By Gunnar Heinrich with Photos By Kevin Kusina

DRIVING off the lot from Herb Chambers in the new Turbo X with ADL shooter Kevin riding shotgun and Saab media rep. extraordinaire Jan-Willem Vester giving directions from the back seat, we embarked upon a preordained route that wound us northward to North Andover where in a more secure, open setting we would be able to beat the Turbo X like the redheaded stepchild it isn’t.

The trouble was getting there.

Not a problem you’d think, Jan-Willem had the directions. The route was charted. Tuesday morning traffic was light. We’d be as right as Swedish pork-filled potato dumplings with cabbage rolls.

Boston, bless it’s eighteenth century heart, had other ideas.

Missing the exit for I-93 North, we found ourselves dumped downtown. Again, no big deal in any average, grid-shaped American city, but let’s remember that Beantown like Trollhattan’s finest, features its own special design.

None of us being Bostonians, Jan-Willem gently suggested that it would be a good time to use Turbo X navigation.

Again, that’d be a swell idea, but our sedan’s GPS was talking about the weather conditions in "New York City." Somehow, following the car’s arrival in Port Newark, the little satellite angels that guide our Turbo X neglected to tell our misguided Swede that we weren’t in Gotham anymore.

Nor did the system (despite being part touch screen and miles ahead of iDrive’s setup) show any inclination of being told otherwise.

Scheming a monetary advantage in exacting a price for the return of the event’s leader, I asked Jan-Willem how valuable he thought he was to GM. He appealed that he had a wife and children.

Oh, alright.

Luckily, your ADL driver followed better signage that led our way back onto I-93, crossing the coolly moderne , if sesquipedelian, Leopard P. Zakim Bunker Hill (suspension) Bridge.

CRUISING SPEED

Once at a ginger, in-the-fast-lane-flow cruise, the Turbo X re-exhibited those 9-3 love/hate facets that I mentioned in previous posting.

The six speed automatic is a smooth operator but is less than intuitive in gaging the driver’s needs and wants. On gradual throttle inputs, it has the engine revving a second too long (gives off a we’re-going-no-where-fast sensation like slipping briefly into neutral) before finally switching up.

On low-speed foot to floor kick downs, there’s a delay coupled with turbo lag that just murders time (more on the thrashing later).

Chatting with Jalopnik’s Ben Wojdyla later in the afternoon, he posited that the Turbo X’s AT may have one gear too many.

Perhaps.

The Turbo X did sport a better ride than any previous generation 9-3, even when riding on 18’s with Pirelli performance wear. Gone are the signature old 900 unpleasantries of gripping on tight to a shaking steering wheel when riding over rough tarmac.

Better yet was cabin insulation from general wind and road noise. What used to be a concept as foreign to Saab as discretion is to Vette drivers is now as right with the Turbo X as those pork-filled dumplings are with cabbage rolls. Mmmm… bra, ja?

What spoiled the splendid isolation was the constant "bbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrr" from the exhaust pipes.

At easy-on-the-pedal cruise those pipes wouldn’t quit unless you took your foot entirely off the gas pedal at which point you’d have blessed with blessed quiet until the Boston driver behind told you to get-out-of-his-way-right-now-Goddammit!

True, the Turbo X is meant to be a sport tuned, special edition model exhibiting performance character. But that noise is like listening to a spent muffler on the everyday commute. Not so cool.

ARRIVED

After what felt like an hour on the road, we got there just in time to be staging grounds just in time for another talk on the marvels of XWD. Around town and on the highway, the system’s benefits remained pretty well muted. Track time would provide the enlightenment.