The story of the testdrive, in "short":

On saturday morning at 09:14 the Saabists from the french area met outside CERN to make a SAAB formation while driving to Garage Luc Tecon. Why the "funny time"? Well, the dials of your wrist watch form the "wing" part of an old SAAB logo at that time, so why not... :-)
At 09:29 the (small) group left for "GLT". The weather was not the best possible, but at least it was not raining...!

Arriving at "GLT" we immediately noticed that there was one new 9-5 missing from the lineup.
The Aero had already been sold. (No wonder!) ...So we go to test drive the previous yearmodel
9-5 Aero instead. Ok. That is also a VERY nice car... And we still had two new 9-5's to drive.
So, the test drive lineup was the following;

2000 SAAB 9-5 Aero STW Manual
2002 SAAB 9-5 "Diesel" STW Manual
2002 SAAB 9-5 "2.3t" STW Automatic

After a little while Lennart arrived in one of his Sonett III's, and shortly thereafter Mike and
his son Kai arrived using a non-SAAB vehicle since Mike's NG900 badly needed a clutch wire.
(He got this spare part later after the testdrive, and also "his first 9000 part" - a T-valve for
the windshield washer nozzle...! (Remember that he is getting a US-spec. 9000 2.3T soon?))

After some looking at the cars, the happy crew was off for the testdrive!

Michael took the lead with the new 9-5 2.3t, followed by Lennart, Mike and Kai in the
last year's 9-5 Aero. Oleg and myself & Mikaela were the third of the row with the new 9-5 diesel.

The first thing to notice in the diesel 9-5 is the engine sound. It is quite different indeed!
It has more of a rumble:ing smooth-ish turbine sound compared to the slightly more "harsh
but powerful growl" with a classic turbo four exhaust whine of the other Turbo SAABs.
Different, but anyway nice. As for the power and performance of the 9-5 Diesel, it is truly
an engine with a huge amount of torque, but not that much top-end power. Surely an engine
for quick and safe overtakings, but not that exiting for really inspired driving... (IMHO, YMMV)
(=In My Humble Opinion, Your Milage May Vary)

Exiting from the highway to try the cars on some twisting back roads, we made the first pit-stop
for switching drivers. Myself driving the new 9-5 2.3t with automatic transmission, I once
more got the same feeling. Driving a car with automatic must be truly great in city traffic, but
for slightly inspired driving and overall "direct" feeling it is just not my way to go. I am sure
that many people will love the new and very refined automatic transmission, but for me I would
take a manual any day. But sure, if you get used to the feeling of the automatic, and if you do
a lot of city driving... Great car. No doubt. As for the chassis, it works just fine. There were
not all that many opportunities to really strech out, and thinking about the wet roads, the price
of the car, etc.etc. at least I only tried some minor quick twists. And of course, the 9-5 passed
these minor tests with flying colours. To be tested again later, when the conditions are better.
And preferrably with a manual shift car. (Hopefully with the Aero...!) :-) A little bit later, we did
another driver switch, and continued the tests.

We got a "little" surprise while driving these small back roads. Cows! There was the annual
"cow-transfer-show" when the dairy farmers take their cows down from the mountains.
In some places the traffic was, eh, slow. On the second "lap" of our test-drive-route I managed
to snap some pictures of the decorated cows. (Cheese fondue anyone? I suddenly got hungry!) ;-)

Driving "the second lap" of the test round, Mikaela tried the automatic 2.3t, and she also
thought that the manual would feel more "correct". Still, she enjoyed the new 9-5 very much.

A few driver switches later we lined up the SAABs side by side to get a picture of "the fleet".
Just before that Michael found a good lenght of empty road, and stretched the long legs of
the previous model 9-5 Aero. He really liked the performance and so did Lennart, looking
a little bit white like the car. That was about the only good blast the group had during the
whole testdrive. Hope we all get our chance next time! :-)

So, with myself driving the same white 9-5 Aero (in a semi-relaxed fashion) back to "GLT",
we were about 3 minutes past our "end time" of the testdrive. (Blame the cows, not the cars!)
This minimal delay was however quickly forgotten when we looked around in the shop of "GLT",
and some GASE members picked up some brochures, spare parts (Mike) etc.

To thank the manager of "GLT" for the GASE-members-only-testdrive we presented a little
gift that Michael had bought earlier with GASE funds. (More on this a little further down.)
This gift was a little box of hand-made chocolate. It must have been good! :-)

Once more; Thank you "Garage Luc Tecon" for the nice testdrive!

Outside of "GLT" we also attended a "meeting" detail. When asking for GASE to come
over to "GLT" I called myself the president/chairman of the GASE club. This felt a bit
strange when I had not officially raised the question earlier, so to all the members present
and (a bit late) I asked if there are any other suggestions for a suitable president/chairman
of the GASE club. Everyone seemed happy with appointing myself the "President/Chairman"
title, and appointing the "Vice President/Treasurer" title to Michael Karlsson.
If, however, any member has better candidates and suggestions, we will have a "re-election",
if not, then the 2-member board consists of;

President / Chairman; Magnus Björk
Vice President / Treasurer; Michael Karlsson

That concluded our "official" part of the testdrive/mini meeting.

After looking a bit at Lennart's Nice Sonett III, Mike and Kai had to leave for home and so the
amount of members present was a bit smaller. We planned to go down to Nyon for a cup
of coffee, and so we did.

After the coffee Oleg had to leave to go back and work. He had a really tight schedule
this weekend, but he anyway found the time to attend the GASE testdrive! Well done!

After looking at the Sonett III of Lennart, I just had to ask for another "testdrive", and
so Mikaela & I took the lowest SAAB of the day for a little spin. Great fun!
Thank you Lennart for a nice testdrive!

And that is more or less all that happened during the GASE testdrive. There seems to
be some interest in re-arranging test drive days, so we might do it again. Perhaps in
some other SAAB garage as well. But the testdrive at "GLT" was anyway a success!

So, on behalf of the organizing committé, Magnus & Michael, THANK YOU for
attending the testdrive. It is the participating members that make these kinds of
little events special. Looking forward to seeing you again soon on the next GASE event!

Take care and may the SAAB be with you, always!

Magnus
President/Chairman of GASE

Here are some pictures from the event.

Below you will see a lot of picture thumbnails, as usual, to get a bigger view, just click on the small
picture to see a version with higher resolution. The sequence of the pictures correspond to the story
told earlier on this page.

...And then everyone went home, happy after a good day of SAABing...!

See you all next meeting !

Take care,
Magnus