SAAB: c/d?

'73 and back, they are fucking awesome.

you mean these?

http://www.thefreewheelers.net/images/autos/large/1973_Saab_Sonett.jpg

That's the Sonnet 3 which is cool (used to have one) but I prefer the Sonnet V4.

http://damox.com/cars/thumbs/Saab/1968_Saab_Sonett_V4_red.jpg

I've got a 9.5 2.2litre turbo diesel estate car/station wagon, which I'm pretty pleased with. it has been GENERALLY reliable, though servicing costs are high. the turbo intercooler needs replacing at the moment (500 uk pounds) which I'm saving up for. It is pleasant to drive, very smooth, and it gets pretty good fuel economy, I drive with the light right foot, and regularly get 40MPG plus.

I'd drive one!

Im' looking at a 2001 9-3

get a 900 aero. they are one of the iconic cars of the 1980s!

yes, my saab infatuation started with the 900, esp. the convertible ones. But being completely clueless in terms of mechanics, i'm thinking this would be a bit out of my league

http://www.saab900spg.com/files/page0_1.jpg

so gangsta

omg i love saabs, was gonna start this thread a little while ago ;)

me and my saab, the other day

http://www.worldwide-military.com/Military%20Aircraft/EU%20Fighters%20plaatjes/Grote%20foto

right on

http://graphikdesigns.free.fr/saab-convertible.html

http://graphikdesigns.free.fr/saab-convertible.html

http://www.adclassix.com/images/79saab900turbo.jpg

This is the old Saab "aeroplane" logo that they used until '73 when they stopped making beautiful cars.

http://www.saabhistory.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/11/saab_logo_1967_1974_small.jpg

And this is me on tour flexing for the camera phone and showing off my one and only tattoo.

http://a336.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/56/l_b75b060e80bf88a92be4ef94d00e39ef.jpg

My family had a 99 and two 900s over the years, all driven 200k+ miles. Best-handling car I've ever driven, and tons of space inside for how small they are.

But yeah, IIRC very expensive to fix when things break.

youn to thread

Mone was great till it started to fall apart - expensive dud thereafter

TOTALLY FUCKING CLASSIC (and then totally fucking dud from 100K miles on - thing is, they're built so durably that they'll last forever while bleeding you dry and leaving embarrassing wet spots in the darnedest places, like an impossibly hale and completely daft geriatric)

I'd still kill for a modern version of the last pre-GM 900. My first car was an '88 900S, which I sold for a 9000 Aero in 2000. I wanted to stay loyal, but the GM 900 and 9-3 (1994 and on, iirc) are unfortunately dud vs the real thing, though I know plenty of folks who have been happy enough with them. And I say that without any bias toward GM - SAAB wouldn't be around today without them period, and I'm grateful that they've tried to keep the brand alive. They've just been starved for fresh product for way too long... e.g. the 9-5's been out there essentially unchanged since 1997. Most if not all of its competitors have already refreshed twice since then.

So yeah anyway SPG was pretty much the greatest thing the 80s produced.

seinfeld drove one.

And Vonnegut sold them

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/have_i_got_a_car_for_you/

Prrety pleased with the one I got I must say! Altho I regret a bit not having gone wild and bought a convertible

http://www.autobytel.com/images/2006/Saab/97X_Staff/400/06_Saab_97X_07.jpg

This is an absolute abomination for a once classic automaker.

urgh, what the hell is that?

ford explorer

actually it's a chevrolet trailblazer. It's almost the same exact vehicle. GM owns SAAB and is driving it into the ground. SAABs are not long for this world, I fear.

chevrolet trailblazer aka GM Envoy aka SAAB 9-7X

horrible stuff - but isn't that model US only?

so it seems the current crisis means GM is now selling SAAB. Is this good?

apparently GM wants to sell SAAB, but no one wants to buy it. SAAB may not exist in a years time.

WHICH SUCKS

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/feb/20/automotive-generalmotors

Hopefully a new investor can be found, but it does feel like the "old" Saab target market just buys Audis now.

somebody told me once why the ignition key in saabs is next to the emergency brake instead of on the steering column - i assume you all have heard this?

Is it any of these:
This is for many reasons, some of which follow: Saab believes this is a safer position in case of an accident. The driver's knee often jerks upward in a collision; the compact and dense ignition module on the steering column of many other cars has shattered many kneecaps. Saabs have bolstered dashboards for both front seat occupants. Also, the floor-mounted position yields more space, allowing modern Saabs to have a metal bar that rotates over and up into the ignition when the key is turned to the "Lock" position. This makes Saabs very challenging to hotwire. Ergonomically, the ignition's location next to the parking brake lever, gearshift, and seatbelt, saves time as all motions associated with startup fall right at hand and become second nature. Last of all, the ignition is located on the floor because, in the airplanes that inspired Saab automobiles, the throttle controls were all located on the floor. Originally Saabs also had the key located on the right side of the steering column, but when they changed from a column shifter to a floor shifter, the ignition key followed along, except in the Sonett III and 9000.

I'd guess it's either the knee issue or the doing everything in the same hand thing.

I'd never ever heard of the Sonett before this thread.

none of those! the story i was told is that sweden used to have an auto race that for some weird reason included a sprint at the beginning, where drivers would have to run 100 meters or whatever to their cars, jump in, start them up, and then take off. the saab team realized that by putting the ignition next to the handbrake, their drivers shaved crucial tenths of a second off the time it took them to get the car started!

But loads of races and rallies used to have sprints at the start, like Le Mans and stuff. And, in Sweden they drove on the left-side of the road until 1967 when they just changed over. Most imported cars were left-hand drive though - I don't know what side early Saabs and Volvos had their wheels. That's the sort of information the Volvo Owners Club should be having in their magazine not a bunch of tiresome old duffers complaining about young people and/or people who don't drive Volvos.

what would the right-side or left-sideness of it have to do with anything?

erm, if it was RHD you could jump in and put the key in with yr right hand and put the handbrake off with your left. If the key was on that side of the steering column. I'm not really convinced that using the same hand to turn the key, select a gear and release the handbrake would be quicker than using both hands.

Actually, I've not driven that many LHD cars but the ignition's always on the right hand side of the column, right? That would make it a bit awkward to do a quick start, I guess. So maybe moving the ignition would make sense. I'm thinking about this too much.

oh i wasn't thinking that the handbrake would be on! i guess it would be

I've always heard that the ignition placement is for safety, as chord described. That seems much more plausible than the race theory TBH.

Saab CEO blasts GM management (somewhat translated from http://www.e24.se/branscher/verkstadsindustri/artikel_1108211.e24 )

“The company losses stems from a downturn in demand due to an aging product portfolio, non compatible cycles, a thin portfolio of products, and unused product capacity.”

I like the new redesign of the 9-5. Too bad it'll probably never make it...

^^ only six years too late, which is kind of the story of SAAB under GM. I'm not really hatin'... without GM they might not have survived this long, but they've definitely been unable to compete on their current product cycle. The 9-5 is currently TWO GENERATIONS behind competition from BMW, Audi, and the Japanese marques.

Good news, maybe? http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSLB79943720090611

Seems doomed to failure. Saab is in that netherworld below volume car manufacturers now, it seems very likely to do a Rover.

I'm kinda optimistic. I see a better chance of them surviving on their own. Streamlined production, lower production targets - niche brand for eco-conscious alterna-yuppies. But maybe I'm naive about these things.

There is an early 90s 900 for sale on my block. If only I had a job...

at lower production targets Honda Civics would cost $40K. so that's a problem.

but god I love early 90s 900s...

Koenigsegg is a well-managed company that makes weird fast cars that sell pretty well in their class -- it's a good fit.

Yeah but Saab is not a niche car maker; it is a low selling car maker. It's best-selling car, the 9-3, is part of a highly competitive and saturated segment of the market. Saab has to convince a shopper not to buy a Mercedes, BMW, Volvo, Infiniti, Acura, Lexus, Audi, Cadillac, and even high-end Hondas, Toyotas, Volkswagons, etc. Entry-level luxury sedans is a tough place to get market share.

Saab has sold 4,600 cars this year in the United States - market share is 0.1%. Only Ferrari, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Maserati, and Maybach have sold fewer vehicles.

If Saab isn't backed by a big corporation, it's R&D budget will be small and it's ability to compete will be eroded that much more.

(This post is based on U.S. market - don't know about European market)

The year's almost half over and only 4,600 people have bought a new Saab in the US? That's kind of a jaw-dropping figure.

Car sales are down 38% across the board, but yeah that's a shocking number. Saab's sales are down 55%.

I want to believe

But in any case saab will need to reposition the 9-3 which is kinda undistinguisable from the 9-5 at this stage

It doesn't help, right now, that a SAAB 9-3 is obviously an Opel/Saturn/Vauxhall, something that ford has managed to avoid with volvos that are basically focuses and mondeos. SAAB has had anything distinctive in 10 yearsand this has diminished the brand.

Their best hope, and something koeniggsegg may bea ble to help with is a revival of the 93/96 shape as a super-light REEV along the lines of the aptera.

Saabs were better when they were weird. See also Citroen, which got (and sold) better when they got weird again.

So, the preponderance of opinion is that classic Saabs are classic, whereas recent Saabs are dud.

would love to see a modern version of this

http://christopherfountain.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/saab_96_mc850_small.jpg

My 9-5 station wagon is pretty classic actually! I wish I got the change to drive it more.

9-5 is pretty much a classic Saab

I'm loving my hatchback 9-3 actually (2001)

I'm currently driving a '91 900. It's a good car. But to me, the really great Saabs were not distributed in the US after '73 or made in Sweden after 1980.

sorta like volvo post what, 1977?

This may be the end.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/25/business/global/25saab.html?_r=1&hp

woahhhh

I was hoping for a revival, there hasn't really been a Saab for 10 years now and I was hoping that a fastback sporty saloon like the 900 would emerge from this.

guys we could get together and buy saab

RIP and good riddance.

Never buying Swedish again (fuck a volvo)

<q>I was hoping for a revival, there hasn't really been a Saab for 10 years now and I was hoping that a fastback sporty saloon like the 900 would emerge from this.</q>

OTM. I was expecting a new-Mini, Cinque Cento type of sporty 900. Gutted

in the states it seems that Subaru have filled the void left by Saab for the last 10 years, although not with the oh so useful fastback. I guess if I am to buy a car over here it will be one of the subaru wagons.

can't see what could replace a saab convertible

In my mind it is probably the audi one. Not a good replacement, I'll grant.

or the volvo C60 fwiw.

love our sade 9-5 aside from all the damn funky electrical problems it a great car to drive.

Everything that was once unique about this brand has vanished. The console ignition, the fucking tragicomedy of putting reverse where 2nd should be, GM killed SAAB a decade ago...

they got rid of console ignition?!

It has been just another badge on a vauhall/opel/saturn.

In other news BMW launched a really nifty 2.0 diesel that can get a 5 series to within a gnats whiskers of 50 US mpg. Naturally it will never make it to the USA.

audi coupes & convertis are wank. Arriviste nonsense for yuppies who fancy themselves as designer-y. Also, they seem to be biting on other manufacturers style/steez. psuedo-porche, erzatz lancia or lambo wannabe? No thx.

I was at the SAAB dealer getting mine serviced + new intercooler & oil seal ( 1021 ukp D: ) the end-of-line 9-5 w/akll the extras looked sweet, I thought. It did have a console ignition too!

I'll be sad if they go down the tube. They make some of the vanishingly few cars on the road I actually like the style of.

(on a run down to burton on trent & back @ the weekend, I got 45.6 mpg out of my 9-5 2.2tdi)

Koenigsegg has 45 employees. How did anyone think this would work? I'm sad to see SAAB go, if that comes to pass. Ed and others are right though, SAAB hasn't really existed for some time now.

it was Koenigsegg basically giving a swedish veneer to Beijing Automotive.

My folks had an '86 900S. Damn, I loved that car.

New hope? Dutch company Spyker Cars is interested in Saab, talks with GM. Looking shaky... Still, bring on the handbuild convertibles!

Chinese company will buy the name after the closure, Rover-style. Also LOL at Steve Shasta and anyone who bought an overpriced Ford thinking it was a Swedish car.

Ayo I had a 86 900s so you can just go ahead and LOL on my wang in yo grill dawggy.

err an 84? this one: http://www.saabhistory.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/1984_spg_prototypea.jpg

powder blue

Also LOL at Steve Shasta and anyone who bought an overpriced Ford thinking it was a Swedish car.

― Three Word Username, Wednesday, December 2, 2009 3:21 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You mean Chevy. Lol.

To be fair, at least Saabs and volvos are based on european GM and ford product rather than US, which makes a big difference.

sweet ride Shasta.
extra breath of life, I wanna believe!

All over then: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BH2SZ20091218

Saab-story, really

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-met-saab-protest-0125--20100124,0,2782301.story

SAAB rally --- no, not *that* kind of rally, unfortunately.

Not dead yet!

G.M. Strikes Deal To Save Saab

HELL YEAH!

2010 9-5 looks intriguing. Would prolly have been awesome in 2007.

looks sweet but I feel a bit young leering at such a car. Curious to see the next gen convertible 9-3

tired of this mess - not sure whether I will ever be able to buy the next gen convertible 9-3 :-(

Been mourning my old 9-3 which died 3 years ago, but with a second baby in tow, I now really have to take the plunge and buy a new car.
Never thought i'd ever switch local teams but these new Volvos are looking mighty fine. Thinking of getting a cross-country V90

Fab, do it -- my sister made the switch from Saab to Volvo (S90 in her case) and is very happy to have done so.

Enjoyed this piece in the NYT earlier this year about one of the last Saab dealers in the US:

https://nyti.ms/2sYnEA0