Saab best European car when looking at vehicle fire

Last winter there were a couple of incidents where new Saab 9-5's caught fire. The Swedish car magazine Teknikens Värld mentioned these incidents in December of last year:

Two new Saab 9-5 is burned in a short time
In a short time, two new Saab 9-5 have caught fire in the engine compartment, and both incidents occurred in Linköping. No people were harmed.

On Friday a new Saab 9-5 (pictured above) began to burn while driving in Linköping. The fire in the car, which was test drive car, started in the engine compartment (note the hole in the hood). This was reported by Östgöta Correspondenten. The driver managed to drive the car to the side and call the emergency services which came and extinguished the fire. No people were injured.

The fire is not the first that has occurred in a new Saab 9-5. Shortly before Friday's incident another fire occurred, reportedly also this one in the engine compartment and even here it was in Linköping. No people were harmed.

According to unconfirmed information, Friday's fire occurred in a 9-5 BioPower while the other fire occured in a fully equipped 9-5 Aero XWD Turbo6. It has been mentioned that the two cars were equipped with retrofitted electric engine block heaters of various types and makes, but it is unknown if these were the cause of the fires.

According to an anonymous tip to teknikensvarld.se, the two block heaters which were used are not approved by Saab. Which may seem a bit strange considering that one of the cars was a Saab dealer test drive car.

I have not read how the workshops or insurance companies concluded after investigating the two fires.


But anyway, let's get to the main point of this post: How often does a Saab catch on fire compared to other car makes?


To answer this question I turn to the Norwegian insurance company Gjensidige Forsikring. They have collected statistics of car insurance cases concerning vehicle fire.

Car make	Fires per 10,000 vehicles per year
CHEVROLET	49
CHRYSLER	36
RENAULT	32
MERCEDES-BENZ	32
AUDI	31
CITROEN	27
BMW	25
PEUGEOT	23
OPEL	22
VW	20
FORD	20
VOLVO	19
NISSAN	19
SAAB	16
SUZUKI	16
MITSUBISHI	15
HONDA	15
MAZDA	13
HYUNDAI	11
TOYOTA	7
All makes	20

Source: Gjensidige Forsikring, table published by VG.
The figures are an average from 2008 and 2009. The statistics are based on makes with at least 12 reported fires during the two years.


From the table we can read that 16 out of 10,000 Saab cars catch on fire each year in Norway. That is more seldom than the average, which is 20 out of 10,000 cars. The average for Norway is the same as for the UK, which could indicate that the statistics for Norway is transferable to other European countries with the same car makes and models.


Furthermore, Saab is the best European car. Only five Japanese makes and one Korean make do better. Compared to Saab's premium competitors, Saab is better than Volvo and a lot better than BMW. Mercedes-Benz and Audi can't even compete!


Conclusion: Yet another good reason to be satisfied with choosing Saab!

Saab 9-5 - "The world's safest car"

In an interview with Swedish car magazine Vi Bilägare, Mats Fägerhag who is Vice President Vehicle Product Development at Saab, claims that with the new Saab 9-5 they have made the world's safest car. A claim that very well could be true given that the previous generation Saab 9-5 was named the safest car in Sweden and the current Saab 9-3 has won many safety awards. Here is what Mats Fägerhag says in the interview:


"We have made the world’s safest car"
The new Saab 9-5 is the safest car to ever have left the assembly line in Trollhättan. Last year it received five stars in Euro NCAP’s new and comprehensive crash test. The first large Saab car, the model 9000, was appointed by Folksam as Sweden’s safest car in real accidents.

Top score
Since then, Saab’s safety has often been rewarded with top marks in crash tests. In December last year, the result of the new 9-5 was presented: Five stars according to Euro NCAP’s new crash test standards. The new Saab car got higher scores than the Mercedes E-Class, which is the only competitor tested under the new norms. Chief engineer Mats Fägerhag doesn’t even sounds a bit boastful when he observes:

- We have made the world’s safest car.

Gyro detects rolling
In the new 9-5, Saab has developed the safety systems even a few steps further. All outer seats are fitted with side airbags and dual pre-tensioner to tighten both the diagonal and the horizontal part of the safety belt. Side curtains cover the side windows all the way from the front to the rear window and also covers the windscreen pillars.

- In some oblique collisions, we have seen that the front-seat passengers can hit the pillars, says Mats Fägerhag.

Even when the car crashes head-on, the side curtains will deploy, and also if the car should roll. A gyrometer detects if the car is about to roll.

110 cars crashed
Before the 9-5 was ready for test drives, Saab had destroyed 110 cars in crash tests. 71 different types of tests have been conducted, including collision with an artificial moose. Saab and Volvo are the only manufacturers in the automotive world to do the moose crash test.