The Stillborn SAAB — 9-6X

Swedish car maker SAAB took control of its own destiny when it was bought from GM by Spyker in 2010.  Now we get to see what could have been.

The images you see are of a model that never made production, although it got very close — the 9-6X SUV.  Based on the Subaru Tribeca/B9, the model would have occupied a space that SAAB ultimately filled with the GM based 9-4X instead, which is built by GM for SAAB and shares its underpinning with the Cadillac SRX.

The 9-6X would have slotted into SAABs SUV range above the 9-2X, another Subaru based model — that one was an Impreza estate with SAAB trademark nose grafted on and revised rear styling.  The 9-2X actually did make it on sale, but only in North America and only between 2004 – 2006.  The car was killed when a sinking GM sold of its stake in Subaru, cutting off access to the platforms for both the 9-2X and 9-6X.

And so GM started work on the 9-4X SUV which, because it was designed from scratch to be a SAAB, albeit one which shares platforms with a Caddy SUV, could be much more SAAB-like in nature, picking up styling cues unique to the Swedish brand both inside and out.  In spite of the GM/SAAB divorce, Spyker retained a contract with the US giant to manufactuer the 9-4X for them in Mexico for sale in the North American market, where deliveries started last week.

European sales are unlikely as there is no diesel model.

Image credit: Jokeforjoe.blogspot.com

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