Fortunately for us, southern California’s recent spate of rainy weather broke and we were able to drop the Saab’s top and hit the back roads of Santa Barbara’s wine country along the same route covered in the movie Sideways, which also featured a Saab convertible. Navigating the rolling hills, twisty roads and burgeoning vineyards couldn’t have been a better adventure and the Saab 9-3 Aero was the perfect car from which to enjoy the gorgeous weather.

The 9-3 Convertible’s chassis is stiff and flex is non-existent with the top down. No twitching or shaking was evident over the sometimes-rough roads of the backcountry. At speed in the early morning, the wind chill did get cold enough that we raised the top because the front seat warmers and a strong heater just weren’t enough to stave off the cold. With the top raised, wind noise was surprisingly minimal thanks to Saab’s three-layer top design.

Powering around the back roads of Santa Barbara, Solvang, Buellton and Los Olivos really let the new 250-horsepower V6 show its stuff. The new V6 is so smooth you might catch yourself forgetting to upshift, as we did a couple of times along the route. At higher revs, the engine is smooth with no annoying buzzes begging you to shift up to the next gear. The six-speed transmission is smooth whether driving the automatic with the paddle shifters or navigating the manual transmission’s gates, but Saab needs to increase the size of the steering wheel paddles, which we found to be easy to lose track of during hard cornering. Also note that you’ll experience very little delay when shifting with the automatic in the manual mode. Power is available throughout the rev range and downshifting is minimized due to the available low-end torque. Just add throttle and the car launches smoothly up to your desired speed.

The Saab 9-3 can also handle any corner that gets between you and the glass of cabernet at the next winery. Slight understeer is evident but add throttle at the apex of the turn and the 9-3 shoots out of the corner. Saab has also done a good job of balancing the firmness of the ride, maintaining handling but providing a comfortable ride that is suitable for long trips. Steering feel and response at speeds under 70 mph is good but gets too light at higher speeds. Still, the Saab 9-3 loves to run at 80 mph and if you’re not paying close enough attention it will sneak up on triple digits in a hurry. Fortunately, the brakes worked well enough to keep us from contributing to California’s revenue base at a couple of points along the drive route.