SAAB was founded as an aircraft company in 1937 although its heritage goes back to 1921 when Svenksa Aero was formed to build German aircraft under licence. In 1932 they were bought by ASJA – in English these letters stood for the Swedish Railroad Workers Air Plane Department. After several years with no commercial success, ASJA was reformed as Svenska Aeroplan AB, or SAAB. I presume it was difficult for railroad workers to build aircraft!
In 1944 the company started to look at diversification and they chose car manufacturing – there was already a history of auto makers and aircraft companies sharing technology. In 1949, the SAAB 92 was launched, a curvy car that resembled a stretched VW Beetle. It was powered by a 2 cylinder, 2-stroke 750cc based on a DKW design. It pumped out a whopping 25hp!
SAAB’s rallying success started with the 92 and followed on with the 93, an upgrade with a 3-cylinder 750cc engine increasing power to 33 horses. The 93 came out in 1955. In addition to the 93, SAAB built the 94, a two door sports car with the same engine, also called the Sonnett 1 and the 95, which was a wagon version of the 93 that was in production for nearly 20 years!
In 1960, SAAB launched the 96 to replace the 93 and this also stayed in production for 20 years, starting with the 3 cylinder before being fitted with a Ford V4 – originally from the German made Taunus (a Cortina shell with a different engine).
In 1966 the SAAB 97 appeared – this was the Mark 2 and Mark 3 Sonnett sports car that also used the Ford V4 motor.
SAAB has always been known as a quirky company but you can’t go past this story. In 1964 the helicopter division was trying to find a way of increasing productivity and was officially developing a hovercraft – an upside down helicopter. What came out of the factory was a …. caravan! Do you think the workers could tell the difference? I hope so. They called it the SAABO!
OK, back to useful things! The 99 arrived in 1968. It was built by Valmet in Finland – the same crowd who are finishing off building Porsche Boxsters today before they move that production to Austria. The 99 also started the turbo craze in Europe and used the same Triumph motor as the Dolomite, which meant that it was possible to fit the SAAB turbo unit on a Dolomite – and the 16 valve Dolomite Sprint head on a Saab 99!
The 99 was stretched and improved to become the 900 and the SAAB 600 was basically a Lancia Delta with a different badge! Because of this, it was only sold in Scandinavia. Following on from this came the 9000 – a shared platform with FIAT that spawned the FIAT Croma, Lancia Thema and Alfa 164. Basically, the same car but a different shell. Some of the 9000s were built in Finland as well.
In 1990 GM bought 50% of SAAB Automobile because it was losing money hand over fist – not surprising really if you’re supposed to make a hovercraft and build a caravan! GM’s first move was to make a new 900 out of an Opel Vectra! 10 years later GM took the other 50% and in 2009 they tried to sell their stake to Koenigsegg who wanted to use Chinese funds to pay for the deal. When this fell through, the Dutch Spyker company put in an offer with Russian backing - and like the Magna offer for Opel, GM rejected it.
GM really got into the badge-engineering lark with SAAB. The 9-2X was a Subaru Impreza and most of the current models are based on Opel platforms with some being built at Opel factories! The 9-5, also badged as a Saturn L Series was based on an Opel and built in Germany.
The good thing about SAAB though, was the fact that they were individualistic cars and at the forefront of technology. They were the first to fit headrests, diagonally split dual braking circuits and the self-repairing impact absorbing bumpers. They are safe and reliable cars that hopefully will survive even though General Motors wants to abandon them.
Last updated: 02 Jan 2010