- Doors and Seats
4 doors, 5 seats
- Engine
2.3T, 4 cyl.
- Engine Power
169kW, 350Nm
- Fuel
Petrol (95) 7.7L/100KM
- Manufacturer
FWD
- Transmission
Manual
- Warranty
3 Yr, 100000 KMs
- Ancap Safety
NA
Straight and harrow
PIGEONHOLE: Steroid abuse, Saab style.
PHILOSOPHY: Viggen is Swedish for thunderbolt.
WHO'S BUYING IT: Saab purists. There can be no other explanation.
WHY YOU'D BUY IT: It goes very, very fast.
WHY YOU WOULDN'T: But only in a straight line.
STANDARD EQUIPMENT: Climate control air conditioning, power windows and mirrors, remote central locking, 17-inch alloy wheels, electrically adjustable leather-trimmed and heated sports seats, fog lamps, cruise control, steering-wheel-mounted audio controls and carbon-fibre dashboard inlays. Plus the mandatory sills-and-spoilers body kit. No sunroof.
SAFETY: Dual front air bags plus side impact bags, seat belt pre-tensioners, active head restraints which protect against whiplash injury, and a sturdy bodyshell. The Saab safety culture, unlike the fighter-plane fable, is not the invention of an advertising agency.
CABIN: Trademark upright driving position with a tall dashboard cowl provide good ergonomics and vision but where's the cockpit storage space? Well trimmed with high quality materials, the controls are logically arranged, easy to use, contemporary in design and well lit. Rear seat comfort and space is among the best to be found in any current coupe. Big boot.
SEATING: Seats don't come a lot better for long-haul drivers and the rear bench is a revelation after the cramped confines of so many rival coupes. It incorporates a split fold feature for access to a generous luggage compartment. There's a ski hatch too.
ENGINE: Light the fuse and stand clear! On Euro fuel it produces 165kW and 342Nm of torque. These are V8-style outputs from a 2.3-litre turbo four cylinder. There's so much torque it literally overpowers the front-drive chassis. Stomp on the pedal, even in third gear, and the Viggen does a fair imitation of changing lanes! The claimed 0-100km/h time is 6.8 seconds but to do that, you'll need premium unleaded and an extra two points of octane boost.
TRANSMISSION: Five-speed manual is the usual deliberate, precise Saab shift. In first and second gears a torque limiter cuts in to prevent too much engine force doing nasty, twisty things to the driveline. There is no traction control software fitted.
STEERING: Sports suspension, 215/45 section 17-inch tyres and a heavily damped steering system produce a slightly numb-feeling wheel. Too much throttle induces violent kickback through the rim.
RIDE: A very firm suspension and aggressive tyres do not a magic carpet make. Trade-offs have been made in the interests of handling. Fine on the highway but it would be wearing in the big city.
HANDLING: Depends how you drive it but there's too much engine for this chassis. Those poor front wheels have to steer, stop and put all that force to the roadway. No other maker is game to feed so many newton metres through the sharp end, which is why they feed it through four-wheel-drive systems, to spread things around a bit. The Viggen is very much from the aim first, then fire school of handling.
FUEL: The official numbers are 11.3 litres/100km in the city and 7.1 on the highway with a combined figure of 9.2 litres. Flex the right foot, however, and those figures will be difficult to achieve.
BRAKES: Anti-lock assisted four-wheel discs but ventilated only at the front, which is a mild surprise given the performance and claimed 250km/h top speed. They work well.
BUILD: The Viggen is a limited production run of 2,500. The basic 9-3 on which it is based is a much-improved car.
WARRANTY: Three years/100,000km.
ANTI-THEFT: Remote central locking in a clever key with a rolling code immobiliser.
AUDIO SYSTEM: Lots of grunt from this six-speaker system.
COST: The manual-only Viggen coupe costs $80,000. A convertible version will sell for $104,900.
VERDICT: Saab defies the laws of physics. No other maker believes more than 150kW can be tamed through a front-drive chassis. After driving the Viggen, it's hard to disagree. This is a ferocious but unbalanced sports coupe. One for experts or eccentrics only.