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A Saab that’s fun!

A Saab wagon that’s fun!

Has the bottle blond been slipping Viagra into the creamed-chipped beef?

A pleasantly styled wagon with a 3-liter, turbocharged V-6 with some kick to it, a standard electronic stability control system to keep you moving in a straight line and a cargo hold accessed through a hatchlid big enough to accommodate the clubs of every member of your foursome.

What were these Swedes thinking?

Volvos and Saabs, especially station wagons, traditionally were for older folks who wear elbow patches on their sport coats, berets on their melons and wingtips on their feet.

But the 2002 9-5 SportWagon we tested is for all ages, at least for anyone able to slip body behind the wheel and arm along the floor to find the ignition between the two front seats in order to insert the key.

If BMW won’t give up kidney-shaped grilles, why should Saab give up having its drivers reach to the floor to put the key in the ignition?

Saab is having a good year. Sales through March were up 17 percent, to 9,138 units, led by the top-of-the-line 9-5 sedan and wagon. Sales are expected to strengthen more when the new entry-level 9-3 hatchback coupe and sedan come out this fall.

For ’02 Saab had given the 9-5 SportWagon a modest front/rear-end redesign, or what it calls a “subtle reworking,” for a sportier and more contemporary look. You’ll notice the change mostly upfront, where clear headlamp lenses now rest.

With its 3-liter, 200-horsepower, turbocharged V-6 teamed with a 5-speed automatic, the Saab SportWagon is alert and lively. Fuel economy is 18 m.p.g. city/26 m.p.g. highway.

Saab also tweaked the suspension so you feel more in tune with the road and less like a passenger along for the ride. The firmer suspension tuning is similar to the performance settings on the 9-5 Aero sedan. Steering system revisions provide quicker, more precise response, and the perception that the V-6 is even quicker.

As noted, electronic stability control with standard four-wheel anti-lock brakes and traction control gives the SportWagon road manners usually reserved for performance sedans.

Roomy front and rear with an added touch of class, a hard rear cargo cover that quickly folds up, rather than one of those cheap pull out/snap back/reach for the first-aid kit vinyl shades that grace too many of today’s machines and graze too many fingers and hands. The hard cover also keeps road noise from coming up through the cargo floor.

Only drawback is new Saab nomenclature for ’02. We tested an ’02 9-5 Arc 3.0t SportWagon and not the 9-5 Linear 2.3t SportWagon or the 9-5 Aero SportWagon.

While 3.0t and 2.3t refer to 3-liter and 2.3-liter engines, respectively, and t refers to turbocharging. Linear, Arc and Aero refer to an architectural forms strategy to replace previous model designations, such as simply the 9-5 wagon.

Saab says the “feel o f Scandinavian design” has been incorporated into the cars to designate different levels of comfort, function and performance. Have to think that based on that premise, the Pontiac Aztek would be called Dumper.

When someone asks, “What’s that?” it’s just so much easier to say “A Saab 9-5 wagon,” than it is to respond, “an Arc” or “a Linear.”

Only complaint with the car, other than that the guy in charge of names needs therapy, is that it stickers at a shade less than $40,000.

Come on. A $40,000 Arc?

Maybe that’s why Noah built his own.