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| Buy it in black and - ta-da! - it's a hearse |
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It's a sad indictment of our image-conscious world that, on spotting a stunning woman on the arm of a squat little bloke with a face like a bag of spanners, we generally assume she's there because of his wallet. He must surely be a successful businessman, a high-flying gangster, or both. It's only when we get to know him better that we discover the truth - maybe he's just a really nice bloke. You know: lots of 'inner qualities'. So, when faced with Saab's 9-3 Aero 1.9 TTid SportWagon, one of the top models in the marque's revamped 9-3 range, I told myself to ignore the fact that it's, well, ugly beyond belief, and concentrate on the positives. Would true love win out?
Um, sort of. The beast has a warm heart, in the form of a potent new four-cylinder twin-turbo diesel engine that delivers 180bhp, travels from 0-60mph in 8.3 seconds and produces a top speed of 137mph - all while returning impressive economy of 47.9mpg combined. It's all very smooth, the two turbochargers ensuring that there's instant grunt at low engine speeds, which doesn't peter out as you run up through the gears. There's also a 2-litre petrol engine available and, if you're not collecting Greenie points right now, there's a 2.8 V6 petrol option, with Saab's impressive XWD ('cross-wheel drive').
If you do want to score Greenie points, however fallaciously, you could wander down the 9-3 SportWagon range and opt for the 1.8 or 2.0 BioPower engines, which can run on standard unleaded petrol, on E85 bioethanol or on a mixture of the two, without the driver needing to make any adjustments at fill-up time. (But please remember that you're probably doing the planet no favours at all. The latest evidence is that biofuel is far worse for the environment than good ol' gasoline.)
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