Once upon a time I drove a Saab 9-3 and it left me cold and disappointed.

I thought it was tinny, unresponsive and soul-less – and it had these atrocious looking chrome headlights that were amongst the worst design features in motoring over the past few years.

Well fast forward to the next generation and boy how things have changed.

Take the ultimate makeover show where the ugly bird gets transformed into a swan.

Well in this case there is no airbrushing, no need to shine the lights in a certain way, and certainly no need for loads of make-up because these beauty changes are more than skin deep.

Changes

Well that’s exactly what’s happened with the new 9-3, except none of the changes will disappear by the end of the night.

The latest version of the second biggest Saab is a something of super transformation, and the car is shooting back in the right direction.

These are very interesting times for Saab at present after General Motors reached a tentative agreement to sell the badge to the Swedish sports car manufacturer Koenigsegg.

The €400m deal is dependent on funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which has been guaranteed by the Swedish government.

The move is part of GM’s massive restructuring programme which will see Opel and Vauxhall being sold on also.

Koenigsegg hand builds just 18 cars a year and employs 45 people. It will have to up the ante considerably to run Saab, which sold 93,000 cars in 2008.

Well, based on my Saab experience I think the time has come to snap it up now.

So what exactly was it that I liked about the Saab? Well, in this game you get a feeling if a car is right one minute after setting off.

And from the off this felt very right. Acceleration was sweet, handling was deliciously controlled and it was quite a little cruiser.

Onboard comfort has been completely stepped up and this is now the complete junior executive car.

Full leather interior complemented by a delicious two tone design has injected even more sex appeal to the affair.

Back seat passengers have bags of room, lots of comfort and lots of space.

The biggest surprise of all was in the boot, where there seemed an almost container-load of room. But the best bit of all was under the bonnet.

A delicious 2.0litre Turbo engine controlled and drove the whole affair beautifully.

Could this really be a hark back to the good old days when Saab stood for quality sports driving? Well if this latest experience is to go by, then yes, yes indeed.

And there is no chrome eye shadow to go and spoil it all. The Saab 9-3t Aero will cost you around €49,000.

- Ian Mallon