2006 Saab combines sport, versatility

When is a station wagon not called a station wagon?

When it's a Saab 9-3 SportCombi.

For 2006, Saab expanded its car line of 9-3 sedans and 9-3 convertibles by adding a wagon. But it's not officially called a 9-3 wagon.

In a nod to former Saab nomenclature that used "combi" to denote versatility and utility in Saab hatchbacks, the new 9-3 wagon debuted as a stylish, five-door model whose name conveys sportiness and utility.

The 9-3 SportCombi has the latest Saab interior design, too, as well as a new, 250-horsepower, 2.8-liter V-6 with twin-scroll turbocharger providing nine pounds of boost.

With a starting manufacturer's suggested retail price, including destination charge, of $27,620, the base 9-3 SportCombi with 210-horsepower, turbocharged four cylinder is only $1,000 more than a Saab 9-3 sedan.

But for consumers who need to haul big items, this wagon offers nearly five times the cargo space, or a maximum storage space of 72 cubic feet in back, with rear seats folded down, versus a 15-cubic-foot trunk in a 9-3 sedan.

Prime competitors to the Swedish-built 9-3 SportCombi are other European wagons.

These include the 2006 Audi A4 Avant, which starts at $32,060 for an all-wheel drive model with 200-horsepower, turbocharged, four-cylinder engine, and the 2006 Volvo V50, which starts at $27,185 for a base model with 168-horsepower, five-cylinder engine.

Note that Saab's 9-3 SportCombi with turbo V-6 starts at $33,620.

The test 9-3 SportCombi sets itself apart quickly among European wagons because of aggressive front end styling that makes the car look almost as if it has been customized by an American aftermarket firm. The front bumper and air dam extend low toward the pavement, so the car looks as if it's hugging the road.

Too bad, though, that there's not enough clearance there for the 9-3 SportCombi to make it into some driveway entrances without scraping. Drivers also have to be careful not to pull in too far into mall parking spots or the car's air dam will be damaged when it hits parking spot curbing.

Even with this expressive styling, though, no one seemed to look at the 9-3 SportCombi during my test drive. And I struggled to see around sport utility vehicles, trucks and even some other cars. There's no high ride height in this car.

The sporty nature of the 9-3 SportCombi is evident. The suspension tuning on the uplevel car -- known as the Aero trim level with turbocharged V-6 -- provided taut handling.

I didn't worry or fuss going through long, sweeping curves, because this Saab held its line and felt rather hunkered down to the pavement without a lot of body motions.

The car uses MacPherson struts up front and an independent, four-link configuration in the rear suspension.

Sixteen-inch tires and wheels are standard on the base, four-cylinder model. The 9-3 Aero SportCombi wears 17-inch tires that grip quite well.

But passengers felt a good amount of road vibrations nearly all the time and on rough, uneven pavement, they even bounced roughly in their seats. I had to deal with some torque steer, too. This is the sudden pulling of the car to one side or the other during a speedy startup and it stems from so much power from the V-6 going to the front wheels all at once in this front-wheel drive car.

Maximum torque is 258 foot-pounds at a low, 2,000 rpm, and in the test car with six-speed automatic transmission, it came on eagerly and strongly with little lag. The overall performance felt sporty, and I kept thinking this is no stodgy station wagon.

I liked that Saab includes a turbo boost gauge in the instrument panel. Several carmakers prefer to leave that gauge off and not let drivers see, via a needle, when the turbo is contributing to the power delivery.

But there was nothing in the test car that calculated and reported fuel economy as I drove. And with a government rating of only 17 miles a gallon in city driving with the automatic transmission, the 9-3 SportCombi with V-6 isn't a fuel sipper.

The 2.4-liter, turbocharged four cylinder in the base 9-3 SportCombi with manual transmission is better, with a rating of 22 mpg.

Three adults sit closely in the back seat because the car's width is only 69.4 inches. This is in keeping with European cars' narrower sizes but compares with the 71.5-inch width of even a small SUV like a Toyota RAV4. The back seat also was a bit uncomfortable because front sport seats with head restraints are large and block the view out front.

Rear legroom of 35.1 inches is decent, and I liked that the rear door windows go down all the way.

Best of all, the Saab 9-3 SportCombi has a large opening under its rear liftgate to help make the rear cargo area more accommodating.

While official 9-3 SportCombi crash test results are not out in the United States, the 9-3 sedan has racked up noteworthy results in these tests.

Last December, the sedan became a "best pick" of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety after frontal and side crash tests.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has no rating for the 2006 9-3 sedan or wagon, and Consumer Reports magazine said reliability of the 9-3 cars has been below average.