2005 SAAB 9-5 SportCombi 2.3L Turbo 5MT (220 HP)

Vehicle Overview

GM allowed SAAB to introduce a facelifted version for the 9-5 wagon in 2005, and the result didn’t surprise too many people; it was a larger but uglier version of the 9-3 station wagon.

In 2005, the Swedish carmaker tried to adapt more GM features in its cars. General Motors’ management already asked them to reduce innovations to keep their products on a competitive level. 2005 9-5 Sport Combi showed what that translated into Swedish was.

The car’s front fascia was identical to the sedan’s, with the same googles around the headlights, which looked like they were added aftermarket by a clueless customer. Only one horizontal slat from the grille was chromed, supporting the Saab badge, and the rest were kept unpainted. From its sides, the car’s designers decided to resemble the sedan’s shape on the C-pillars and darkened the D-pillars between the rearmost windows and the rear windscreen. The taillights were split between the quarter panels and the tailgate at the back, following the same shape as those installed on the 9-5 sedan, just wider.

Inside, Saab took more interior parts from GM’s bins, but their squared shapes didn’t integrate that well with the rounded shapes of the dashboard. The car’s wide instrument cluster extended over the center stack and continued on the center console. In the back, a split-bench expanded the trunk from 416 liters (14.7 cu-ft) to 1,489 liters (52.6 cu-ft), which was smaller than other compact-segment stations wagons. Still, the carmaker hoped to compete against Volvo V70 and the BMW 5-Series Touring, which offered way more interior room.

Under the hood, Saab installed a choice of seven engines, and two of them were fueled with ethanol. It was a bold idea, which didn’t match the market’s needs.