Could the Saab 9-4X be the new Antara?
With Saab now in receivership, what’s going to happen to the Saab 9-4X. Could it become the new Vauxhall / Opel Antara?
Saab is now in receivership despite the best efforts of Victor Muller, and mainly because GM won’t let their technology fall in to the hands of the Chinese. But what’s to become of the Saab that is ready to roll but never got in to showrooms – the Saab 9-4X?
The Saab 9-4X is, to all intents and purposes, a Cadillac SRX and built – or planned to be built – by GM in Mexico along with the SRX. In fact, GM has built a whole heap of 9-4Xs for crash testing and such like, and the very first Saab 9-4X due for a customer came off the line in Mexico almost exactly a year ago.
Are we to believe that GM are simply going to dump all the work they’ve done on the Saab 9-4X with Saab having very little chance of rising from the ashes? Or are they looking at a way to rescue the 9-4X and find a different way to market it? The boys at Saab Blog certainly seem to think so.
They’ve caught a Saab 9-4X out on the roads in Rüsselsheim and they’re convinced – as Rüsselsheim is the home of Opel, GM’s European arm – that GM are planning to take the Saab 9-4X and re-badge it as an Opel and Vauxhall. That could mean a new Vauxhall and Opel Antara, or maybe it would be a kind of ‘Grand’ Antara, sitting above the current model?
Sensibly, with the Antara now six years old, it would probably make sense for GM to simply modify the Saab 9-4X to become an all new Opel Antara to replace the current model. There would be almost no development costs, just the necessity to take away the Saab-ness and inject a bit of Vauxhall and Opel. And a few badges changed.
We have no idea where the intellectual rights belong on the Saab 9-4X, but we wouldn’t mind betting GM has that covered.
Source: Saabblog
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