Yes I owned a 9-5 and a 9-3x Aero. They were crappy cars with all kinds of issues. Who designs a GPS that requires you to pull into a parking lot of you want to enter an address because you must be in park?
As far as I know, the general rule is that the car has to stand still (manual transmissions don't have a "park" so being in park only applies to automatic transmissions). In any case, this is a (quite logical) security rule navigation units by ALL manufacturers (those built-in a car) have to comply to, so that you don't cause an accident when trying to enter an address while driving / unintentionally moving (the "logic" being that you could sue the car manufacturer if they allowed you to enter an address while driving and you would crash in the process. Of course, the person on the passenger seat could safely enter an address while driving, but the fear of being sued is apparently greater than customer's needs [especially in the US where you can sue a microwave manufacturer for not stating explicitly that it's not a good idea to try to dry a cat in a microwave ;-) ]). AFAIK you can get rid of this limitation via an unofficial firmware in the navigation unit, but this is in no way SAAB-specific.
Who still used stupid number pads to enter the directions?
No clue what you mean, mine has a touchscreen.
Saab is no longer here because people didn't buy them.
Saab is no longer here because GM decided to either kill the brand or sell it to whoever paid when the last economical crisis almost caused bankruptcy of GM as such. When the new owner (Spyker), who apparently did not have enough money to survive until the new models could actually generate enough profit, wanted to sell the brand to NEVS, GM did not allow Spyker to sell the rights to manufacture the 9-5 NG model. Otherwise SAABs would be manufactured still today. Now NEVS is preparing a new-generation (electric) car based on the SAAB Phoenix development platform, which is what they were allowed by GM to actually buy from Spyker. So, SAAB is no longer here because of GM decisions.
They weren't aesthetically pleasing and had poor repair records. Their engines were weak and got poor mileage for being so underpowered.
Aesthetics is a matter of opinion, but as far as I can tell by people's reactions, the 9-5 NG is perceived extremely positively.
As far as power is concerned, 300 HP and 0-100 km/h in 6.9 seconds (330 HP and 0-100 km/h in 6.1 seconds with the Hirsch software update) for a 2.4-tons-heavy car seems underpowered to you? Hmmmm.
I'd never compare the 9-5 to the BMW 5 Series because they aren't even close. The 2011 9-5 (the last of the Saabs) was $38,525 - $49,565. A 5-series of the same year ran $45,050 - $66,700. They aren't even in the same price category.
I have driven a few BMW 5 series, and if you don't speak about the M5 model (which is a completely different car than a normal 5 series), there was nothing superior on the BMWs. Price-wise in Europe the range was quite comparable (again I am not speaking about the M5 model) and it is the same category by size also. Moreover, I would say BMW is a bit overpriced ;-).
And yes, in a way they are not even close -- at least in many parts of Europe (not to mention less developed countries like Russia / China and the likes) 5 series and 7 series BMWs are mostly driven by "weird individuals" who earned their money in half-legal/illegal ways and need to show off their status. SAABs, on the other hand, were bought by a completely different clientele, at least in Europe (e.g. consulates). This partially addresses your point on people not buying SAABs - well, often times the new oligarchs have quite a poor taste ;-) and for a common person 50 000 EUR for a car is really a lot of money. Also, loved by masses is not equivalent to superior (often quite the opposite).
It's obvious that you love your car. That's great. But you're delusional about the worth of it because you're so in love with it. You can't see it for the issues they had or the facts that represent the reason not only GM sold them off but their new buyer shuttered them.
Yes, I like the car, but I am not being non-critical or delusional... I don't know any of the old models but the 9-5 NG is an extremely good car and had GM not killed it, it would be a commercially successful one, too. SAAB had many progressive technologies long before the competition (for instance, Apple CarPlay was announced at WWDC in 2013, Android Auto in 2014, well after IQon
by SAAB, not to mention turbo charging, head-up displays, torque-vectoring, etc.).
What I was originally trying to say was that Apple has, IMHO, no chance of building a decent hardware for a car in a reasonable time and that's why they should have bought a (not too old) platform, perhaps a progressive and currently inactive one, like the 9-5 NG platform that is laying on the shelves of GM (or rather Spyker who cannot sell it unless GM approves the buyer), instead of trying to re-invent the wheel.
Of course, there is no hope they will, as Apple is known for their rather excentric and non-sensical acquisitions (except NeXT which happened a long time ago). Just as an example, buying Beats and not buying SUN microsystems with all their advanced technology which took decades to develop (for roughly the same money) was as stupid as it gets...
