Words: Jason Round

Honestly, we’ve never considered Saabs to be cool, but this particular 9-3 may just put a spanner in those works.You see, Saab customers, VIP guests and dealers from all over the world are being greeted with 'a cab on the rocks' when they arrive for the Saab Ice Experience event at Sweden's world-famous Ice Hotel.Saab broke the ice (pun intended) when it pioneered the concept of an open-top car providing practical, all-year-round transport, so it was clearly a cool idea to 'freeze frame' the latest Saab 9-3 Convertible in a garage made from ice at the hotel, near Jukkasjärvi in northern Sweden, 200km north of the Arctic Circle.

Visible at night from a kilometre away, the icy reflections of the convertible's illuminated bright blue paintwork give arriving guests, quote, “an automotive interpretation of the Northern Lights”. The installation, added to this year's version of the Ice Hotel, is made from 60 ice blocks weighing 30t, all harvested from the nearby Torne river, one of Europe's purest.

The oversized ice-mobile is to celebrate Saab’s 60th anniversary this year, and the new Anniversary Convertible model was chosen to light up the sky. About 500 guests will attend the event, which finishes on 18 March, although test driving will not include the ice-bound Convertible. Boo!

"Snow and ice are core elements of Scandinavian nature, so it was a very natural step for us to adopt this theme for our convertible, the original car for all seasons," said Marie Larsson, Saab's Event Project Manager.

Gives new meaning to the phrase ‘packin ICE’, doesn’t it?

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