Good day, Autopian friends. I’m back for the weekend and here to start our time together with a devastating story. Yes, that’s right, I’m here to tell a sob story. Excuse me, I meant to say, Saab story. You be crying tears of frustration, sadness, and nostalgia hopefully at the end of your reading.
I own a shirt that I ordered from blipshift.com, a crowd-sourced website for car shirts, apparel, and stickers. The shirt is bright red with a Saab 900 stamped across the middle. Right below the 900 is “STORY” spelled out in big bold letters. Take a peek:
blipshift
I wore this shirt the other day to class for the first time in months. I forgot I owned it. I figured people would point to me and say with a chuckle, “Oh, haha, I get it. Saab’s story is like a sob story! Because they’re gone!” That certainly didn’t happen; quite the opposite did.
A classmate of mine came up to me between our orchestra rehearsals and inquired about the shirt’s meaning. I said, “It’s a Saab story because the downfall of Saab is a sob story in my books.” He looked at me puzzled and asked, “What’s a Saab?” I said in confusion, “Huh?” He was like, “I’ve never heard of that before.” I was mesmerized.
This was a kid who had heard of Polestar and the glorious Volvo V70R but had no idea what Saab was. I couldn’t believe it! Then it got me thinking; do people my age know about Saab?
I asked some of my friends, who can’t tell a Civic apart from a Diablo if they were familiar with “Saab.” I got a mixture of responses, some including:
“Is that a type of chicken?”
“I sobbed yesterday during my Calc test.”
“It sounds Swedish” (this was the closest one.)
As an aspiring teacher, let me practice educating you all, my readers, on a brief history of Saab’s mangled past. Saab began life in 1937 in Trollhättan, Sweden, as an airplane manufacturer to provide planes for the Swedish Air Force, just as Europe was steeling itself for another war. The company’s full name was Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, giving the world the acronym Saab. Try saying that four times in a row!
The very first Saab car project was known as Project 92, hence where the model, 9-2 emerged from. Saab produced many cars throughout the 20th century, and by the 1980s some of its turbocharged models competed with the likes of BMW. General Motors took a 50% share of Saab in 1989 and eventually made it a wholly-owned subsidiary in 2000.
I was born in 2003, the year Britney Spears received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the year General Motors introduced the “mighty” Chevy SSR. [Editor’s note: Mighty, huh? Who wants to tell him? —PG] But the 2000s were really Saab’s last hurrah. Even in that decade, many of its cars started to unceremoniously blur with various other GM products, resulting in at least one bizarre but generally well-respected team-up with Subaru too.
Sadly, when GM began to decline in 2008, so did Saab. Later Saabs still had the old-school Swedish charms like the night panel and center console ignition, but were plagued with the problems and interior quality issues GM was known for at the time. Eventually, GM sold Saab off to supercar manufacturer Spyker, which was unable to revive Saab, resulting in a filing for bankruptcy in 2011.
For years, the brand has been owned by a Chinese group called National Electric Vehicle Sweden, or NEVS, but it’s apparently defunct as of this year. NEVS spent about a decade not doing much with the Saab brand, which considering the booming Chinese auto industry these days seems like a massively missed opportunity. As a car manufacturer, it’s functionally dead these days.
I was in third grade when Saab filed for bankruptcy, learning my multiplication tables (nine, 18, 27, 36—still got it, baby) at the time. I didn’t even know what a bank account was, let alone the meaning of bankruptcy. I bet most of you are like, this kid’s that young? Get him out of here, he doesn’t know enough about Model T’s, Dusenbergs, Buick Park Avenues, or whatever old people cars you all drive.
But I can at least respect my elders. More than most, in fact. And I may be young, but I can still lament the death of Saab as much as any modern enthusiast. It just makes me sad that any memory of this brand, any real nostalgia for it, is starting to vanish. Besides whatever 2000s kids grew up riding in Saabs owned by their parents at the time, any love for this now-very-dead brand is going to come through internet weirdness, and that only goes so far. Saab has now gone from a brand whose possible resurrection was cheered on by various editors of The Autopian once to the modern equivalent of AMC or Scout. That sure stings.
Anyways, as a huge Saab fan, I encourage all of my fellow Gen Z-ers to go out there and find a Saab. Don’t be like my friends! Familiarize yourself with Saab. They are magnificent Swedish works of art and deserve all of the love they can get. Find it and send me a picture with three fun facts. Perhaps you might win a prize.
A prize of recognition, as there is no Saab merch to give out anymore.
Saabs used to be everywhere here in Finland, they made them here 1969-2003. The Finnish police Saab is always the first one I think of when I think of Saab.
I had an ’04 9-3 in high school (I am currently a freshman in college) that was sadly totaled after a short ownership period. Even though I now drive a car that is newer and objectively better than the Saab in most ways, every time I see a Saab driving around, I can’t help but miss my old car in so many ways. The seats were wonderful, the turbo power was fantastic, and it felt so special and rare compared to everything else on the road. I’ve been around Saabs since I was very young since my grandparents owned multiple, and they always make me smile when I notice one out and about.
I’m always on the outlook for a clean, low-mileage example, and sooner or later, I’m going to have to bite. Every single Saab I’ve been in has felt so much better than any other car I’ve had the opportunity to experience.
I agree with you Rob… Saab is probably the most semi-recently-departed brand I lament… on a regular, at-least weekly basis. I came so close to buying a gorgeous malachite green metallic 900 with gold BBS basketweave wheels (what can I say? it was the 90s) from Zumbach Saab on the west side of Manhattan as my first new car, back when I was
probably close to your agein my 20s.More recently/during the pandemic, I test drove a neighbor’s plain Jane dark blue 9-3 (I forget what year… from fairly late in the Saab story) and I’ll be damned if even with 100K+ miles, a non-turbo engine, and an iffy third gear, that thing still friggin’ rocked! It was solid, comfortable, quick, and while not as charmingly weird as a 99 or even a 900, it was still delightfully odd by most measures. Unfortunately, he wanted a few grand for it, which seemed like too much to me, considering that it needed between $2-3K more in transmission work and some (not nearly all) of the various other things needing attention. All told, it’d have cost closer to $6K to wind up with a nice car worth $3K at most.
Of course, it didn’t help that the mechanic who provided the estimate was none other than the famous Raffi of Saab & Raffi on Sunset in Los Angeles, and he charges $140/hour for electrical work (which this 9-3 needed too). I don’t begrudge him even a single cent that gets from his hard-earned experience, but sadly, such rates put this particular Saab out of contention for me.
So, I remain, sadly Saabless.
YEP.
The ‘Tide pod and Avacado toast’ kids know little…
Viewed from the front the 96 is streamlined. From the side, roughly the shape of an airfoil. Get her up to ~75mph the airfoil causes her to leave ground where, absent any forward thrust, there is a gentle landing. The result is an up and down cycle with the appearance of skipping and floating along without effort. OK – this being the internet and not wanting to start a false rumor I hereby deny the veracity of the forgoing.
Born from jets.
I had an 9-7x, so I do not know if that makes me a Saab owner or not. Everyone hates on that model for the badge engineering, but I think of the Trailblazer as a poor man’s 9-7x rather than the other way around. Saab improved the suspension and the styling to where I think it was the most comfortable and best looking SUV offered by any of the Big 3. It was everything the Trailblazer should have been.
The bad reputation also created a huge opportunity to pick one up used for dirt cheap. My memory is that Trailblazers and Envoys with similar miles to my Saab were going for 50% used.
The 9-7X was what the Buick Rainer should have been.
Yeah, I am not sure why they looked at a gas guzzling V8 and thought of the Swedes, but I thoroughly enjoyed owning it and am glad it exists.
*were going for 50% more than what I paid for my Saab.*
I owned a green 3-door ’96 900 turbo for about two years when I was in college. I loved that car dearly. The poor Saab suffered mightily as I learned how to drive stick on it, despite no one I knew really being able to teach me. A friend of mine helped me pick it up (he had learned on the E30 he bought 3 months prior) and from there I sort of just figured it out. Was a bold choice at the time, but the ’89 Geo Prism needed a replacement and I had always loved Saabs so there ya go.
It is disturbing to think that kids these days don’t even know what Saab is. I’m not THAT old… right? RIGHT???
Funny enough, I am looking for an old 900 with a stick to learn on. I feel like a dumb kid for not knowing how to shift gears manually but my love for Saab makes up for it, I hope.
DO IT.
Will admit, the clutch on that 900 was a bit tricky, though that might’ve been because I cooked it while trying to learn. I had no point of reference for how it was supposed to feel so I always assumed it was normal. Years later I’m fairly certain it wasn’t.
Fun fact that I’m sure someone else on here has mentioned by now; Saab of that era (maybe always?) need to be in reverse to start. I always figured that was a weird quirk that lended itself to being an anti-theft feature. Not a ton of people know how to drive stick anymore, and even fewer would figure that you need to be in reverse, oh, and also that to get into reverse you have to pull up the shift boot.
A joyously strange car, it was.
I owned a ’89 900 for ten years, traded it for a ’99 9-3 whick I drove for another 12 years until it was destroyed in a nose and tail crash in the rain on the Eastern Distributor in Sydney. They were the best cars ever made for me. They drove beautifully. I have refused to buy GM vehicles for myself or my Companies and have advised friends and acquaintances to do the same.
I do the same.
As the current owner of a Canadian early ‘85 SPG, I feel you, brother.
I have owned three Saabs: 1986 900S (16V), 1997 900 Turbo and 2003 9-3 “Arc”. Loved them all. I still remember a Boston garage attendant sheepishly returning after 20 minutes to explain that he had no idea how to start the car. And then there was the “put it in reverse so you can take out the key”.
In 2012, with Saab disappearing, I sold the 9-3 and bought the closest thing I could find, an Audi (A4) allroad. I still have it, but I miss the Saab.
I had almost forgotten the “put it reverse to release the key,” confused my family anytime they borrowed the stick 900T.
When I drive my mother’s five-speed Sonic, I still habitually leave it in reverse.
No Volvo XC70? I feel like that would have been a closer 9-3 replacement
With several miserly paychecks in the bank from my first “real” job, I bought a shinny new ’73 96V4. In those years most cars were RWD – the age of chains, tire studs, edging uphill with a running start and then crabbing.The SAAB’s FWD made it a stand-out.
The enormous cargo space afforded by the then novel flip-down rear seat, free wheeling, and strong heater were bonuses. Remove the wedges under the driver’s seat and this tiny car was a perfect fit for my 6’2″. The obvious comparison was with the Beatle, but much safer. The reasons and comparative advantages have changed, but we still have a 2002 9-3, the last year with significant SAABness retained.
It’s amusing that these days AWD is deemed necessary for every Tom, Dick, and soccer mom. At the small boarding school where I taught there were at least four 96/95 v4’s; they were ubiquitous in New England.
Not a SAAB fanboy but I did enjoy renting a SAAB 93 Convertible for a week and initially considered a Sonnet as a beginner project car.
I appreciate Saab for their weirdness (at least in the pre-GM era), but at the same time I can’t say I feel much for those cars, given that they were all FWD-based. Maybe I’m just too much of a BMW fanboy.
You are…
My best friend is a Saab guy. I live on the west coast and he’s still back east so I regularly get to borrow one of his when I travel east to visit him and my parents.
The usual car I borrow is a 9-5 Aero in wagon form with a turbo and 5-speed (he only buys MT Saabs). As one might expect, the turbo is a bit old school in that it takes a little while to spool up and then hits. I find this rather amusing and fun, and combined with some agility it’s a car I enjoy driving. I also helped teach my friend’s daughter to drive manual in this one as my friend can be a little impatient.
The other one I’ve borrowed is a more recent acquisition, a 9-3 Viggen in convertible form and also having a proper manual transmission. I got to drive it last summer and that was joyful fun. My parent’s place is about 75 minutes from my friend’s, so I found a bunch of back roads and took some extra time cruising at 45 mph through beautiful farm country. I also took my dad, who is in his 80s, for a nighttime ride through the backwaters of where I grew up.
I appreciate the eternal stylishness of Saabs; they may be old but the looks never seem outdated. I also enjoy the quirkiness and the “fun to drive” factor, although having to put the transmission in reverse every time you want to start one is a little bit of strangeness I could do without; likewise the window controls in the center console. They are comfortable and practical, and I think the automotive world lost something when we lost Saab.
Well said. Enjoying a back roads drive in a convertible Saab is something I really miss.
Great words. The Viggens are unbelievably fun, from what I have heard
Saabs have always been cool and never quite got the recognition they clearly deserved. They were particularly influential along my journey because my dad owned a manual black on black 93 hatchback in the late 90s/early 2000s. I thought it was cool to watch him row through the gears and he’d always talk to me about why it was cool because he didn’t really have any other captive audience to preach the glory of Saab to. I have fond memories of rolling around in it with him and listening to albums like Nevermind and Mellon Collie that he had in his visor CD pouch.
I thought it was the coolest car out there and when I went to school in 6th or 7th grade and found some kids who were talking about cars I was eager to tell them about my dad’s Saab. One of them was rich asshole of a kid who laughed at me, said Saabs were poor people cars, and that his dad had a Porsche AND the brand new Hummer H2. It hurt a little bit but I maintained my allegiance.
Unfortunately the clutch was pretty difficult to modulate and we lived in the city…my mom wound up stalling it in less than ideal locations a few times and that was that. She told my dad he needed to get something safer and more family friendly, and thus began a long line of mid tier Volvos for him until he eventually switched to Audis around 2007.
We also had neighbors we were friends with during that time who had a maroon over white 93 convertible. I remember rolling through our old neighborhood as late as the early 2010s and they still had it. That car was always cool to me as well and they were gratuitously nice people who always gave us the time of day when we were kiddos. As a 30 something now I’ve come to appreciate that quality a bit more…life is really busy and tiring and they didn’t have to spend as much time with us as they did. But they wanted to. Haven’t heard from them in ages but I hope they’re well.
I was sad when GM GM’d them and I hated watching their fall from grace when it came to their perception in car publications. Back then Motortrend and C&D were like the automotive Bible for adolescent/teenage Nsane and it seemed like the cars just got worse and worse the more GM meddled. The rest is history.
And it sucks! Saabs always had forward thinking styling, endearing quirks, a focus on driving fun, and they were thoughtfully engineered. It sucks that corporate greed got in the way of all of that and frankly there’s a part of me that’s still really resentful of GM for how many cool brands they diluted and killed. Now I’m sad…long live Saab’s memory and thanks for this article Rob. It was a good one and having weekend content on this site is a privilege that I’m grateful for. Keep sharing the good news of Saab to all your Zoomer kin.
Oh and let the record show that I would rather let Saab rest in peace then see them come back as a goddamn electric crossover….
As I noted in my comment one of the big issues with stalling a Saab at inopportune times is that you have to put the car in reverse to start it again. It definitely increases the stress level to add that extra time and step when people are behind you.
That is incorrect, manual SAABs had to be in reverse in order to remove the key. They would start in any gear.
My first car was a 1972 SAAB 99 with the 1.85 4 cylinder Triumph derived engine. To this day one of the most fondly remembered cars I have owned.
That’s sad.
I’ve owned at least a couple dozen Saabs and have saved several of them over the years — everything from 96 V4s to NG9-5s have blighted my driveway at one time or another, either as drivers, flips or lovely driveway ornaments. I’ve dragged plenty of broken ones home, tinkered and wrenched lots, then either sold/sent them on to new owners or have occasionally done work for friends, sending their cars back home in good operable condition.
At the moment, I have a half-dozen Saabs at home, with one 9000 Turbo, a couple 9-5s (one’s currently for sale, after a rescue and extensive recommissioning, the other I bought new, drove a ton, sold it, then bought it back ten years later–it’s not leaving again), and three 9-3s in sedan, combi and convertible flavors. All but one of the cars drive, in one form or another; two of the ‘drivers’ are in the spring project queue, and the broken one I should be able to have back on the road by summer after some engine work.
I’ve had one college-aged dude compliment my on the 9-5 that I’m trying to sell when at the car wash a few months back–he’d never seen one and thought it was cool. And it is. What’s challenging is that even modern Saabs were ahead of their time, styling and engineering-wise, so they pretty well blend in / they’re invisible these days, but many of those I talk to who have them cherish their cars.
As the cars slowly wend their way through the junkyard ecosystem, about the only ones that are still easily found in the self-serve yards are ’03-up 9-3s. 9-5s are getting thin on the ground, fast, 9-3s of both generations are still surprisingly plentiful, in a GM/roach-like manner. Most of the surviving classic 900s I see are convertibles nowadays. The only remaining 9000 I’ve seen in my region of the US… is my own.
About 15 years ago I had a coworker who had an almost irrational love of the 9000. He had tons of them, all but one in various states of disassembly. He kept one alive by scouring parts off of the others, which was no small feat in the upper rustbelt I was living in at the time. I remember him talking about driving to St. Louis to pick up a glovebox or something, neglecting to mention to his wife that there was an entire car still attached to it. His Saab 9000 graveyard was epic, and his wife had the patience of a saint!
“For years, the brand has been owned by a Chinese group called National Electric Vehicle Sweden”
And that group was owned by Evergrande… a company that itself was in trouble.
And because of that, it Saabotaged their chances of survival…
Listen all ya’ll it’s a saabotage!
Listen All Ya’ll It’s A Saabotage!!
LISTEN ALL YA’LL IT’S A SAABOTAGE!!!
….all credit for this joke goes to RCR and their recent Viggen video
I never should have sold my ’96 900. N/A, but plenty quick with the five-speed… and yes, the previous owner’s an architect.
https://i.imgur.com/awKLt57.jpg
Edit: Its name was ‘Baab’.
As my log in suggests: The death of Saab is sad. Having seen that shirt I may look for an old turbo. I had the 99GLi and loved that car beyond measure. I’ve had 4 Saabs, my brother has had 5. They were so much better than the German over engineered status symbols. Now I’m sad. I dream of going to Sweden and finding a good condition Volvo Amazon and either a Saab 94 or another 99. Next year in Trollhatten
Saabs are/were pretty popular in my area. I see them almost daily. Mainly gm Era ones but there is the occasional 900/9000. In fact I saw one of the roughly 500 9-3Xs ever made the other day. It was red. There’s also a couple 9-4s around here too.
You must live in New England
Nope, MN.
Plenty of em still rolling around the Puget Sound area as well
People live in Minnesota? And there are Saabs there? Where have I been
Follow the Scandinavian diaspora!
Owned an ’88 900 Turbo in ~’01-03? Amazing car. Each and every one left in the world should be cherished.
And SPEAKING of both SAABs and t-shirts, let’s do a little cross-promotional OHOAT linkage (it seems Syd likes SAAB stuff)!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CALCgyCJBz_/
https://www.instagram.com/p/CH5hFhqlT1q/
https://www.onehellofatown.com/
My favorite Saab t-shirt is and was: That isn’t an oil leak, I’m marking my territory