Artikkeli: Mikä on maailman paras auto?

[Talviomena]

Halusin jakaa täällä lukemani autoalan artikkelin, jonka on kirjoittanut eräs nimettömänä pysyttelevä, paljonkin autoista tietävä taho. Joku saattaa kirjoittajan ehkä tekstistä arvatakin. Mutta, pidemmittä puheitta, tässäpä luettavaa syysiltaan:

Right. After decades of testing every hypercar, SUV, saloon, and glorified lawnmower to hit the tarmac, I'm finally ready to reveal my ultimate thought on the matter of cars. And here it is: the greatest car ever built on this Earth is the Saab 9-5 Aero Sportcombi from 2002 to 2005. Yes, that’s right—the Saab. Not a Ferrari, not a Bentley, not even the mighty Lexus LFA. And I can hear the Twitter mobs forming already.

Now, why would a man who’s driven everything under the sun—from Mercedes’s AMG lunacy to Bugatti’s financially ruinous excess—declare that an old Saab wagon is the pinnacle of automotive genius? Because, dear reader, the Saab 9-5 Aero Sportcombi, specifically from the halcyon days of the early 2000s, represents something no car today has: a soul. And it’s a soul steeped in Swedish quirks, eccentric engineering, and turbocharged charm.

You see, the 9-5 Aero Sportcombi wasn’t about brute force or mind-numbing acceleration. Oh, it had power—256 horses were packed under the bonnet, and with a light tap, that turbo would spool up and fling you to 60 mph in just over six seconds. But unlike today’s supercars, which seem to be designed by cold-hearted algorithms, the Saab felt like it was tuned by a merry band of Swedish engineers who genuinely wanted you to have fun. It wasn’t just going fast; it was going fast with that unique whoosh and a turbo whistle that let you know, unmistakably, that you were driving something special.

And then there’s the interior. Other cars give you leather, brushed metal, and wood. But the Saab? It had a cockpit designed to make you feel like a fighter pilot. The ignition? Between the seats, like you were preparing for takeoff. The night panel button? A delightful, entirely unnecessary feature that dimmed all but the speedometer, because Saab trusted you to know how fast you were going without being distracted by all that digital clutter. It was a car that respected your intelligence and didn’t try to do all the driving for you. It didn’t need 15-inch touchscreens or haptic nonsense. It needed you to know where you were, which you would, because Saab cared about visibility, sightlines, and making you feel like a king in a cabin above the common road-goer.

It was practical, too. The Sportcombi could swallow more gear than most modern SUVs without sacrificing its looks. And let’s talk about those looks for a moment: no car has ever exuded understated cool quite like the 9-5 Aero. It didn’t scream at you. It didn’t try to look aggressive or shout “I’m wealthy.” It whispered, “I know things you don’t.” This was a car for people who knew exactly what they wanted in life and didn’t care if the world thought they were mad for it.

But perhaps the greatest thing about the Saab 9-5 Aero is what it represents. It’s the last breath of a company that dared to be different, to think beyond German efficiency or Italian passion. Saab’s engineers had been raised in the cold Swedish north, where practicality meets creativity in ways that other carmakers simply don’t understand. It’s a car that came from a time when Saab was Saab, not some rebadged monstrosity, but an honest-to-goodness beacon of quirky, turbocharged joy.

So, if you’re looking for my ultimate verdict on what the best car in the world is, forget your Lamborghinis, your Aston Martins, or even your Bugattis. The answer lies in a turbocharged Swedish wagon with a soul as deep as the fjords and a spirit that never dies. It’s the Saab 9-5 Aero Sportcombi, and it’s magnificent.

[-Hese-]

Kyllähän tuosta ihan ensimmäisenä tulee mieleen Jeremy Clarkson.