Photo Credit: The Garage Blog
Gary over at the Garage Blog has had a nice long-term test drive with a 2009 Saab 9-3 Aero XWD. The Aero models of the 9-3 as you know all have the V-6 turbocharged engine, but in terms of XWD, his model apparently did not come with the electronic Limited Slip Differential (eLSD) option or he did not indicate it in his review.
It is nice to know that the tires that the car came equipped were not the continental Swedish Gislaved tires that have traditionally been supplied with Saabs over the years, but the less expensive Korean Hancook directional snow tires, the same ones I have on the Saab 9000 this year! I would prefer this combination, in addition to silver steel winter wheels with this tire combination for the ultimate winter setup in such a review.
The review itself was nice complete with plenty of photographs, but given that he had 4 inches of snow to drive through with XWD and these directional snow tires, I would have liked to read a much more thorough and detailed description about this experience, specifically when he indicated that the car handled well “just about everything”, so what did it miss? Would eLSD have been beneficial in covering the “everything” reference? What about driving a 5 or 6-speed version? I guess he only had the automatic version which is too bad. These are the questions I am left asking, so I hope that I can get the opportunity to get a long term test drive in a Saab 9-3 XWD 5-Speed 2.0T SportCombi with eLSD, without the V-6 engine, in an effort to compare and get down to the nitty gritty details with these technologies in the weather they were designed to excell at, (snow & ice).
I leave you with this quote in the end of his review.
Overall, the 09 Saab 93 Aero XWD is a comfortable, capable Euro sedan with the soul of fighter jet with just enough design details to keep the Saab purists interested. Like I said, quirky stuff adds personality.