It’s not often that four-door sedans show up on our doorstep painted in what can best be described as “Ferrari” red. Sedans – especially imported sport sedans – are usually painted dark, muted colors, or silver. Rarely do their makers venture beyond these safe colors. Yet here was the top-of-the-line Saab sedan, radiant – no, resplendent – in its red coating. And it looked good in it too.

But at first blush, the color seemed inappropriate. There’s a 250-hp inline four under the hood – Saab’s high-output turbo engine – but the car felt sedate; very well mannered but sedate. The upside was the 26 mpg fuel economy in mixed city/highway driving, and the car’s “upstanding citizen” personality. Sure, an automatic transmission replaced the standard five-speed manual gearbox, but that didn’t explain the lack of grunt.

That’s when I pressed the button with the big letter “S” on the top of the shifter. It wasn’t red on a white background, but it might as well have been. Pushing this button gave the 9-5 super powers….or at least more accelerative force. Lots more. It’s easy to be skeptical of these buttons on cars equipped with automatic transmissions. For years, it seemed they had little – if any – effect. But in the Saab 9-5, not only did this button hold the engine revs longer, it liberated more boost. Lots more boost. Enough to turn the 9-5 into a rocket ship by comparison.

Thankfully, the chassis is able to handle the extra power without the nasty manners of Saab’s 9-3 Viggen. That car is a wandering beast, unable to carve a straight path down roads that aren’t billiard table smooth, and beset by more creaks and groans than most old age homes. The 9-5, on the other hand, has a reasonably stiff chassis – no creaks – and a suspension capable of handling ruts, bumps, off-camber sections, and just about anything else you can throw at it.

If you expect the 9-5 to be a Swedish BMW, reconsider. The controls are too light, the engine has too few cylinders, and the wrong wheels are driven. Think instead of a Northern European sport sedan built with the help of the Japanese. It would be light, direct, capable, but have a level of style, soul and personality that Japanese automakers can only dream of. That’s the Saab 9-5 Aero.