MOTORING: MORE official details

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jun 24, 2007 | by Brian Twomey

MORE official details have emerged about the spruced up Saab 9-3 range. Apart from adopting more daring bolder looks the 9-3 also enjoys an improved interior although the majority of changes have taken place under the skin.

Engineers have added a 180hp, 400 Nm, 1.9-litre twin-turbo diesel (1.9 TTiD); a 280 hp 2.8-litre V6 turbo petrol engine, shared with the Vectra OPC, and a 200hp, 300Nm 2.0t Saab BioPower version (175hp when run on lower-octane regular unleaded) to the engine range. The last addition is especially significant as Saab has never offered the Biopower alternative in the smaller Saab before.

Saab claims that the new 1.9 TTiD can accelerate to 100km/h in 8.5 seconds, top 225km/h but can also return 5.9L/100km on the combined cycle and pumps out a reasonable only 159g of CO2 per km.