What is it?

Ok, so maybe we're being a little optimistic about the Saab 9-5, but it should be, ooh, about four times as good as the current 9-5 - which isn't a bad car, we might add, but in dog years it's 84. The new 9-5 will be the first Koenigsegg era Saab when it hits dealers in Spring 2010 (assuming the takeover continues its course), and it certainly sounds promising enough to springboard the company to a brighter future

Why's it here?

Not to overegg the age pudding, but it's about time really. Saab's engineers have had the might of GM behind it during development, who despite bankruptcy woes can endow the Swedish firm with stuff like the Insignia platform. That's a decent start, but thankfully Saab hasn't forgotten its roots, so it has turbocharged everything in sight, starting with the 178bhp 1.6-litre range-prop through to the 296bhp 2.8-litre V6 turbo range topper. That'll be the Aero one. Front- or four-wheel drive are the options, so it's still at a dynamic disadvantage to its natural peers by default, but we're confident it'll not be embarrassed - active damping and chassis management systems will filter through the range.

Show stopper or floor filler?

Difficult one. On looks alone it's no show stopper, not helped by the fact we've already seen it, but we can report that the 9-5 certainly doesn't shame itself among the litany of crazy concepts at Frankfurt; if it lives up to the hype Saab is generating, it'll certainly find plenty of fans among execs sick of the three-pointed star and, you know, the other ones.