Hip eye from the Swede guys

Saab calls the color of our 9-3 Aero convertible test car Lime Yellow, a name that hardly does justice to its eye-crossing intensity. How about Hyperbaric Chartreuse? Metrosexual Melon?

By any name, the new paint option -- featured in the company’s press materials and advertising for the car -- makes a bold statement about the redesigned 9-3 convertible: It’s here, it’s Swedish, get used to it.

In an effort to grab a bigger piece of the premium, $40,000-and-up convertible market, of which Los Angeles is the sun-damaged capital, Saab has given its 9-3 convertible a “Fab Five” makeover.

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Step 1: Add a dose of styling Botox. The crisp character lines of the previous model have been relaxed so that the car, while retaining Saab’s high shoulder line and gentle wedge profile, has a fuller, more voluptuous form.

Compared with Saab’s previous offerings, which were limned in Scandinavian cool but a little esoteric, the new car is less an acquired taste. The target-audience needle has moved from “Swarthmore professor of comparative lit” to “Sony studio executive.”

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Step 2: Drop the hemline. The bottom edge of our sport-package Aero model was ringed with racy “ground effects” -- ground-hugging body valences and sill extensions meant to improve the car’s aerodynamic stability, or at least its cosmetic appeal. Saab’s Euro competitors, such as BMW and Audi, offer sport-tuned variants with lots of ground effects, but the inspiration for the 9-3 seems to be the hovercraft-like bodywork of Asian tuners.

Combined with the new car’s more athletic musculature -- 2 inches wider with almost 3 inches more wheelbase over a slightly shorter overall length -- and the Aero package’s lowered sport suspension, the ground effects package gives the ragtop a hip, streetwise beauty.

Ground effects usually are packaged with bigger wheels. To my eye, the 9-3 Aero’s 17-inch alloy wheels and tires seem a little undersized amid all the composite bodywork. But the wheel wells are large enough that upsizing the tires an inch or two shouldn’t be a problem.

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Step 3: Get a new hairdo. The 9-3’s soft-top is a substantial piece of engineering. The automated top mechanism performs a lovely bit of ballet, set in motion at the touch of a button -- no manual latching of the leading edge of the top to the windshield header.

Rather than pivot up on rear-mounted hinges, which is typical with hard-tonneau cars, the C-shaped tonneau cover (the bodywork behind the rear seats that covers the folded top) slides back like the lid of a Bang & Olufsen CD player. The top then deploys in a speedy 20 seconds, quick enough to get the job done at a stoplight. With the top down, the tonneau seems to vanish, integrated cleanly into the rear deck. A line of contrasting trim surrounds and defines the four-seat cabin.

The whole idea here is to eliminate the negatives of convertibles: the gawky-looking top, the noise and heat and gloom of a ragtop, the fiddling with latches. Mission accomplished. This is as slick a soft-top as you will find on the market.

Built into the contours behind the rear-seat headrests are spring-loaded roll hoops that will, if the car’s computers sense an imminent rollover, pop out with the help of a pyrotechnic charges. This technology is similar to that used in Mercedes SL roadsters. Theoretically, the roll hoops and windshield A-pillars can support the car’s weight.

Ever the safety geeks, Saab engineers have reinforced the convertible 9-3 with lots of extra steel (accounting for the weight gain of more than 200 pounds, to 3,696 pounds, over the sedan) and endowed it with the company’s “active” head restraints (headrests that move forward to limit head movement in rear-end impacts); adaptive front air bags and seat-mounted side air bags; and something called “self-repairing bumpers,” which can sustain low-speed impacts without damage. Look out, Galleria!

And for those fashionistas who always overpack, the 9-3 convertible provides a huge boot equipped with what Saab calls a “self-expanding trunk.” When the top is up, its bellows-like storage well is retracted, expanding the trunk capacity from 8.3 cubic feet to a whopping 12.4, easily the biggest in its class.

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Step 4: Accessorize. Our 9-3 Aero convertible was loaded with great features, including Bluetooth communication for wireless devices and pre-wiring for hands-free cell phone; leather heated power sport seats with integrated shoulder harnesses; OnStar telematics system with a free year’s service; power everything; a 300-watt CD sound system; a $1,195 Touring package including rain-sensing wipers, parking assist, in-dash six-CD changer; and -- just for kicks -- an air-conditioned glove box.

The interior ambience reflects a cautious updating of Saab’s long-standing aesthetic. The mood is serenely technical, with soft green backlighting in the instruments, LCD displays and button icons. Favoring stark sophistication over simplicity, Saab ergonomics take some getting used to.

For instance, the heat control is adjusted on a scale of 1 to 10 rather than temperature. The Saab Infotainment system, a menu-driven system based around a monochrome LCD display, offers one of the world’s most befuddling procedures to change AM to FM. The banks of identical switchgear occasionally make one feel like Patty Duke in “The Miracle Worker.”

The thing to remember about a makeover is that under the new styling there remains the same foundation, more or less unchanged. Such is the case with the newly fabulous Saab. And that’s not a bad thing.

For starters, Saabs are cars for people who like to be active in driving, who like even to be busy. Unlike its naturally aspirated competitors -- say, the Volvo C70 or BMW 3-Series -- the turbocharged, 210-horsepower Aero has a very distinct power curve. The 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine is slow to rouse in the lower rpm range, then the turbocharger kicks in and the car surges elastically toward redline on gusts of 221 pound-feet of torque. (The convertible comes in two models, the Arc, at $39,995, and the Aero, at $42,500. Both cars use this version of the Ecotec engine.)

Through the years Saab has dialed back these tendencies with succeeding generations of its Trionic engine management software, to give it more progressive and refined power flow. I expect that Saab has the software just about where it wants it now, and that sensation of swelling boost is what the integration engineers think a Saab should feel like.

To keep the car on the boil, you need to work the gears, particularly in city traffic. And despite the fact that automotive writers have been moaning about it for ages, Saab’s gearshift mechanism retains its rubbery feel, with vague shift gates that can cause you to miss a gear every now and then. My test car had a six-speed manual transmission; a five-speed automatic is an option.

Yet in a market filled with narcotically easy luxury cars, the Saab does have the virtue of being interesting. Its vices have become virtues of a sort.

Like the redesigned 9-3 sedan that arrived last year, the convertible 9-3 is based on parent company General Motors’ Epsilon platform, a fact that means nothing to most consumers, nor should it. The Epsilon-based chassis is, however, a lot stiffer than the undergirding of the previous convertible -- a more rigid chassis improves ride quality and handling, because the suspension links, springs and shocks don’t need to be tuned as much to compensate for flex in the car’s foundation.

The Aero ragtop is a reasonably satisfying piece. It is a front-drive car, and it drives like one. The weight balance is 60-40, front-rear, compared with the sedan model, which is an almost optimal 53-47. But the sticky 17-inch tires have good bite on turn-in and plenty of lateral grip, provided you don’t try to put down too much throttle in the corner. If you do, the steering will go light and the car will understeer. The 9-3 Aero is more noticeably more neutral in handling than the previous convertible. Its greasy bits comprise McPherson strut front and multi-link rear suspension with “passive rear-steer” geometry, which allows the rear wheels to deflect slightly away from the turn, “steering” the rear around the corner.

The power rack-and-pinion steering system has good feel and quick reflexes; the four-wheel disc braking is strong and free of fatigue. The open-top Aero comes equipped with anti-lock brakes, traction and stability control systems and electronic brake force distribution, the webbing of a technological safety net if the driver slips.

All that said, the Saab isn’t a hair-on-fire sports machine like the BMW M convertible. This is a competent touring convertible, more mild than wild, more boulevardier than street-fighting man. However, judging from the not-quite-filled wheel wells, I think Saab has left itself some room for a more extreme performance version to come. Anyone for a slammed Saab?

What we have here is a Saab convertible that is ready to move from Bravo to premium cable. Fully equipped, the car is priced at more than $45,000, which is nobody’s idea of Scandinavian frugality. Compared with Mercedes, BMW and Audi cabriolets, the Saab isn’t quite as tony, but neither is it as commonplace.

Drive to Santa Monica on any weekday, and you will find yourself cheek to cheek with multitudes of German sedans, mostly in dour shades of black and gray.

The Saab stands out in shades of curious yellow.

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Times automotive critic Dan Neil can be reached at dan.neil@latimes.com.

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2004 Saab 9-3 Aero convertible

Wheelbase: 105.3 inches

Length: 182.4 inches

Curb weight: 3,550 pounds

Powertrain: 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4 engine, six-speed manual transmission, front-wheel drive

Horsepower: 210 hp @ 5,500 rpm

Torque: 221 pound-feet @ 2,500 rpm

Acceleration: zero to 60 mph in about eight seconds

EPA rating: 21 miles per gallon city, 30 mpg highway

Price, base: $42,500

Price, as tested: $46,170, including $675 destination charge

Competitors: Volvo C70 convertible, Audi A4 cabriolet

Final thoughts: Swede Chariot

Source: Saab Cars USA