Saab 9-3 restyling + AWD

Saab is getting ready a restyled 9-3 that will give the car a similar front design to the 9-5. That has not been a very successfull design although in fact the 9-5 is now a very old model having difficulties to compete with other cars in that class. Interestingly the 9-3 will also introduce the availability of AWD, probably of Haldex-type. We wonder if such new technology would not justify a deeper model change? The restyling does not seem enough to give new life to this model.

A completely new interior design is not expected altough it would be important due to the lacklustre of the current design. The 9-3 achieved a very strange feat: altough being based on a mainstream car platform (the Opel Vectra) and pretending Saab to be a sort of premium brand, it managed to have interior design and quality that is actually worse than on the original Vectra... We never understood this but such strange event might be related with the lack of direction, focus, strategy, etc. of the Saab brand in GM group.