During my first six months in Germany I was without a car of my own and my good buddy Ingo was generous enough to lend me his “Old World” Impreza whenever I wanted to run an errand or take some other car-challenged co-workers out for lunch somewhere beyond walking distance. I thought of that mid-to-late-90s Impreza as I pulled out of the dealer’s lot with my new Saab because the clutch and shifter feel were exactly the same. Exactly.
The Saab 9-2X is no BMW. The shifter is notchy. About a third of the time it will reject a shift into reverse. The clutch releases after just a short amount of travel, which makes smooth shifting a challenge if you used to pushing the pedal nearly to the floor. I feel like a novice shifting the Saabaru. BMWs have always made me look like a pro.
On the drive back from Chicago I caught brief rain bands around Orlando and Port St. Lucie, then hit the mother-load just north of Boca Raton — the sort of rain that has made me pull over in rental Mustangs and had me frightened to death last year in a rental Impala back in Jersey (TCS on FWD cars is just pure frickin’ evil). In the Saab I felt invincible, and I’ve had that experience about every other evening since I arrived home (Hurricane Season sucks). I wouldn’t attribute the sure-footedness of the Saab to Subaru’s AWD system per se… The steering and suspension work together to minimize wheel-jerk from hitting puddles, while AWD elliminates the “need” for a fuel-starving TCS that would induce oversteer (FWD) or understeer (RWD) every time the tires hit a water trap.
My fuel economy so far sucks. I got about 22-23MPG during the 1,400 mile trip back to Fort Lauderdale, which is where my M3 came in doing mostly city driving (the M3 and my ‘86 Trans-Am both exceeded 30MPG on trips to Jersey with two passengers). Initially I was inclined to blame this on my tendancy to not keep the engine within it’s powerband. I’ve only owned two other manual transmission cars, both E36 BMWs with I-6 engines which allowed me to develop some bad habits. Part of what makes a BMW with a stick shift so fun is the awesome amount of torque available at low RPMs. I frequently short-shift into second if someone in front of me is pulling away from a light slowly. I rarely downshift to pass someone unless I need to pick up speed extra fast. I often use the cruise control to speed up and slow down. These are not good driving techniques in a car with a turbocharged engine that accelerates like a bicycle under 3,000RPM.
However, since I got the car home I’ve been making a concious effort to keep the car within the powerband. So far I’m in the 18-19MPG range for my daily commute. That’s about what I averaged commuting in the Trans-Am with it’s 5-liter V8, usually with 275+ lbs worth of roommate riding shotgun in worse traffic with fewer highway miles. My ‘89 Daytona ES Turbo averaged 22MPG when I was doing the 110-mile round-trip commute from hell through Philly on I-76 every day.
But gas in America is still relatively cheap, when it hits $5/gallon I’ll start looking to reduce my commute…
On to the interior. This is a small car, an E36 BMW seems downright spacious by comparison, but it’s not claustrophobic and while driving it feels like a bigger vehicle — I keep thinking back to a Crown Victoria I rented last year. I think it’s because a decent amount of hood is visible, a rarity in modern cars. There’s plenty of headroom for my 5′10″ frame. Paul Begley picked one up last weekend, he is 6′3″, and I’ve read elsewhere that 6′8″ buyers find the front headroom to be better than many larger cars. I imagine these taller folks are finding their comfort at the expense of leg-room for rear passengers. I have my driver’s seat positioned just at the point where I can keep my knees pointed straight in the rear seat, which required moving the seat and seat-back up one notch (I take a close-up “Italian” posture in manual cars, valets hate me when I tell them not to screw with my seat position). Despite the space being there, looking at the car from the outside the rear seats seem so cramped that I would attempt to kill whomever called “shotgun” before voluntarily riding there.
Storage space up front isn’t great. There are map pockets low on the doors, a center storage bin where an armrest should be (it’s way too low for arm duty, Subaru’s armrest extension is at the top of my shopping list), a tiny pull-out compartment near the driver’s left knee, and the glovebox on the passenger side. Nothing in the dash / center stack. Maybe it’ll seem better once I get my Sunpass mounted on the windshield…
I’ve always had a thing for lift-back style vehicles, such as my ‘86 Trans-Am and ‘89 Daytona ES Turbo, because they can swallow just about anything (and have great acoustics for sub-woofers ;-)). This is my first Wagon / Hatchback and I put it to the test last weekend with a few living room type chairs that my dad had put in my storage unit years ago, which the car swallowed with little fanfare. The seats don’t quite fold flat but it’s close enough. With the seats up there is still gobs of space, I could probably fit every piece of luggage I own under the sun shade.
I’m not terribly fond of the moonroof. I prefer a sunroof that isn’t made from glass — they don’t let heat from the sun into the car when they aren’t opened. Retracting the moonroof only seems to allow noise to enter the car, there is virtually no wind coming through it. Popping it up works OK for cigarette smoke ventilation, except when it’s raining. Which is precisely when I want to vent from the roof. Clearly I’ve been spoiled by BMWs with their fancy sunroofs that let some wind rush through your hair and allow you to pop them up under all but the most severe rain conditions without water entering the interior.
But these complaints are just minor nit-picking. I rack up 400-500 miles per week, anything significant — especially comfort issues — would have stopped me from buying this car in a heartbeat.
To heap on some praise… Everyone loves the styling of the car, especially WRX fans. It goes like stink once the turbo spools up. So far I’ve surprised the heck out of folks in E46 BMWs, several Hondas with annoying exhausts, and even pulled up on a 350Z Roadster during an on-ramp rush Friday. Nobody is happy about getting spanked by a station wagon and the Saab badging adds to the stealth factor. Cornering is flat-out amazing but I haven’t pushed the limits yet — I’m used to RWD performance cars (the Daytona was almost a decade ago) and I’m not sure what happens when an AWD car starts slipping outside of a video game. There’s an unsanctioned autocross event coming up at the Homestead track this month, I’m thinking about running so I can explore the limits in relative safety. Need to shop for an SCCA-approved helmet…
My one bit of remorse is that the BMW 1-Series could arrive in America next year. The 9-2X is a nice car, but it’s not really a Saab and is certainly no BMW. I’m a huge fan of the E36 BMW and to me the 1-Series feels like a modern rendition of the E36 Sport Wagon that we Americans were never blessed with. Oh well, perhaps I can shop for a 2009 130i model…
