Saab: the rise and fall
Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget – which translates into English as Swedish Aeroplane Company Limited and is usually shortened to Saab – was formed as a military aircraft manufacturer in 1937 and is still successful in aerospace, among other fields, today.
In the motoring world, Saab is known as a now sadly defunct but once very innovative car marque.
That story began in 1945, when demand for military aircraft suddenly collapsed and the company decided to try its hand at automotive design.
Let’s now reflect on Saab’s four-wheeled history, in chronological order.
1. 1946 Ursaab
Ursaab, or ‘original Saab’, is the collective term for four prototypes built from 1946 onwards.
They all looked very strange, though their aerodynamic appearance becomes less surprising when you remember that Saab knew very little about designing cars but a great deal about designing aircraft.
Mechanically, they resembled contemporary DKWs, with two-cylinder, two-stroke engines and front-wheel drive.
Saab would not deviate from two-strokes until well into the 1960s, and remained faithful to front-wheel drive until the car operation folded nearly half a century after that.
2. 1949 Saab 92
Four years after the division responsible for it had been created, Saab put its first car on the market in 1949.
It was called the 92 simply because that was the next number in Saab’s sequence for civilian vehicles.
The 90 was a twin-engined passenger plane, the 91 a single-engined training aircraft.
The body design wasn’t as radical as that of the Ursaabs, which might not have looked out of place in a mid-century, science-fiction film, but the 92 still appeared very unusual, and was notably aerodynamic for its time.
3. 1953 Saab 92B
Saab originally gave the 92 a very small rear window and no bootlid, obliging owners to load the luggage compartment from the inside.
These features did a lot for the car’s structural strength but very little for its visibility or practicality, so in 1953 a much larger rear window and a bootlid were added.
The 92B, as the updated version became known, also had more luggage space (not because the boot was larger but because the spare wheel and battery which had previously been stored there were given new homes) and a wider range of body colours.
The 764cc, twin-cylinder engine received an upgrade, too, resulting in a power increase from 25bhp to 28bhp.
4. 1955 Saab 93
The Saab 92B was joined in the closing weeks of 1955 by a new model called the 93, and their production overlapped for around a year after that.
Sixten Sason, Saab’s first car designer, took the opportunity to make several changes – including, in what might now be seen as a backward step, a vertical rather than horizontal radiator grille – but the overall shape was carried over from the 92.
Under the skin, however, there was a new, smaller-capacity (748cc) but more powerful (34bhp) three-cylinder, two-stroke engine, along with 12-volt electrics and coil-spring suspension, which replaced the torsion-bar arrangement Saab had used previously.
5. 1955 Saab Sonett
The first of Saab’s Sonett sports cars was a two-seat roadster which shared some of its components with the 93.
The chassis and glassfibre body were specific to the car, but it was powered by the 93’s engine and three-speed gearbox, which were mounted behind the front wheels to improve weight distribution, rather than in front of them as in the saloon.
This switch could have led to the Sonett having one forward gear and three reverses, but Saab got round that quite easily by making the engine run backwards – a simple enough matter with a two-stroke.
Several prototypes were made, but the Sonett of this era never went into series production.
6. 1957 Saab 93B
Less than two years after its launch, the 93 became the Saab 93B.
Several improvements had been made, the most noticeable of them concerning the windscreen.
Until now, all Saabs had been fitted with two-piece windscreens with a central divider, but in the 93B the ’screen consisted of just one piece of glass, allowing the wipers to overlap each other and provide greater visibility in wet weather.
7. 1958 Saab GT750
Intended to appeal to customers in the USA, the GT (for ‘Gran Turismo’) 750 was a high-performance variant of the 93B.
The 748cc, three-cylinder engine was still used, but it had been uprated to produce 50bhp, or nearer 60 with an optional tuning kit which, when fitted, transformed the car into what was known as the GT750 Super.
Similar models of the 1960s were based on the Saab 96, and known as Sport, GT850 or Monte Carlo.
8. 1959 Saab 93F
With a replacement model due to go on sale shortly, the F was the run-out version of the Saab 93, produced for the least amount of time.
It was only slightly different from the 93B, the most significant change being that, unlike any previous 93, it had front-hinged doors – hence, no doubt, the F suffix, since the Swedish equivalent of ‘front-hinged’ is framhängd.
Only around 600 93Fs were built, making this by far the rarest of the regular Saab 93s, and comparable to the limited-edition GT750.
9. 1959 Saab 95
The first Saab 95 was essentially an estate version of the 93, but powered by an 841cc development of the three-cylinder, two-stroke engine.
As mentioned earlier, the 93 was not much longer for this world, and the 95 name was soon transferred to the estate derivative of the 96.
From then on, 95 history closely followed that of the 96, which we’ll be looking at shortly, and the car was still being manufactured as late as 1978.
The example pictured here bears little resemblance to a 93 or an early 96, but that’s because it was built in 1972, by which time Saab had made many changes to the design.
10. 1959 Saab Monster
Perhaps the wildest car Saab ever made, the Monster was a stripped-out 93 fitted with two modified 748cc engines mounted, as usual, ahead of the front axle.
Its power output was well in excess of 100bhp, and it was unofficially timed at more than 120mph.
The ‘monster’ name referred not only to its remarkable straight-line performance but also to its handling, which was reported to be appalling.
The extreme front weight bias and substantial power output put too much strain on the front tyres, leading the car to understeer like an oil tanker.
11. 1960 Saab 96
The car which really brought Saab to international attention looked at first very much like the 93, though a comprehensive rear-end redesign created greater visibility and more room for back-seat passengers and luggage.
The distinction between old and new models became more obvious in 1964, when the original, very 93-like nose was replaced, as pictured here, by one with the front panel, lights and radiator grille much further forward.
For several years, the only available engine was the three-cylinder two-stroke (now measuring 841cc, as it had in the early days of the 95 estate), but this was replaced in a momentous development which took place in 1967.
12. 1964 Saab Catherina
The Saab Catherina (or Catharina, as designer Sixten Sason appears to have thought it should be called) was almost certainly built in 1964, though it did not make its public debut until April of the following year.
The two-seat sports car had a detachable roof panel mounted between the windscreen and rear pillars, a feature which became known as a targa top when Porsche adopted it for the 911.
Mounting the headlights behind transparent panels echoed what Jaguar had already done with the E-type, while the near-vertical rear window placed between prominent rear buttresses foreshadowed the Jaguar XJ-S introduced a decade later.
The Catherina/Catharina was taken no further, and remains an interesting oddity in the history of Saab.
13. 1965 Saab MFI13
MFI stands for Malmö Flygindustri, the company which built this concept at around the same time as the Catherina was being put together.
It is possible to hold the opinion that the Catherina was the better-looking of the two, but Saab seems to have felt that the MFI13, pictured here with the Catherina in the background, had better prospects for further development.
Only one example has ever existed, but it led directly to the production of the first Saab sports car ever sold to the public.
14. 1966 Saab Sonett II
The MFI13 was substantially reworked before going on sale as the Saab Sonett II.
Originally, the new model was powered by a tuned version of the 841cc two-stroke, but in 1967 this was replaced, as it would be in the 96 at the same time, by a Ford engine.
This satisfied an increasing demand that two-stroke units should be cast into the wilderness, but it wasn’t necessarily to the benefit of the Sonett II, since the engine was a lot heavier than the Saab one and produced only slightly more power.
15. 1966 Saab Toad
Known in Swedish as the paddan, the Toad was part of the development process which led to the Saab 99.
Nobody was meant to know about that car yet, so Saab reworked a long-nose 96 to act as a prototype.
Observant onlookers might have noticed that although the Toad looked very similar to the 96, it was also considerably wider, and sounded completely different since it was powered by a four-cylinder engine.
Four Toads are believed to have been built, though only one survived for long.
16. 1967 Saab 96 V4
After persevering for several years with two- and three-cylinder two-stroke engines, Saab eventually decided it was time to switch to a four-cylinder four-stroke.
The company wasn’t in a position to develop one of its own, and after considering several possibilities it opted to buy the V4 developed earlier in the 1960s by Ford of Germany, at first in 1.5-litre form and later as a 1.7.
During the V4 era, the Saab 96 was revised several times, and became available from 1969 (at least in markets where this was permitted) with rectangular headlights.
When it was discontinued in 1980, the 96 had been in production for 20 years, or nearly double the amount of time Saab had been selling cars at all when it made its debut.
17. 1968 Saab 99
The Saab 99 marked the beginning of an entirely new chapter for the car maker, being the first saloon with no resemblance whatsoever to the Ursaab prototypes of the 1940s.
It was also significantly larger than the 96 and, unlike that car, it was fitted from day one with rectangular headlights and a four-cylinder, four-stroke engine.
This time, the engine – a slant-four initially measuring 1.7 litres – was supplied by Triumph, which didn’t use it in one of its own cars until several years after the launch of the 99.
Saab later redesigned the engine, and began manufacturing it in-house in 1972, while the 99 remained in production for another 12 years after that.
18. 1970 Saab Sonett III
The Saab Sonett III started out as a restyled Sonett II V4, the restyling in question having been performed by Italian designer Sergio Coggiola.
The visual change was dramatic, since the new Sonett had a very low nose which required the fitment of pop-up headlights.
The 1.5-litre engine was soon replaced by a 1.7 of the same type, but due to increasingly strict emissions regulations the power output remained the same as before, at 64bhp.
The III was by far the most successful of the Sonetts, but not successful enough for Saab to consider it worth persevering with after 1974.
19. 1978 Saab 900
The 900 was related to the 99 but more than a foot longer than it, and was therefore the largest car Saab had yet developed.
Available as a saloon, a hatchback or, in a first for Saab, a convertible, it remained on the market for a decade and a half.
A turbocharged SPG version (known elsewhere as Aero) built in 1989 covered more than a million miles on the original engine, before owner Peter Gilbert donated it to the Wisconsin Automotive Museum in 2006.
The Saab 90, essentially a low-specification 99 with the rear end of a 900, was sold briefly in parts of Europe in the 1980s.
20. 1978 Saab 99 turbo
Saab was by no means the first manufacturer to use turbocharging to increase an engine’s power output, but it played an important role in popularising the technology.
By today's standards, the original forced-induction 99 had a great deal of turbo lag, and around 140bhp (the exact figure varied according to which market the car was sold in) no longer seems impressive.
It wasn’t even all that impressive at the time, since the earlier BMW 2002 turbo had produced 168bhp, but Saab had concentrated more on spreading the power across the rev range.
For its time, the Saab 99 turbo was astonishingly fast for a medium-sized family saloon, and media reports were generally favourable.
21. 1984 Saab 9000
In a partnership which went well beyond the earlier supply of engines by Ford and Triumph, Saab collaborated with Fiat on the development of a new platform for executive cars.
This was the basis of the 9000, the first Saab with a transversely mounted engine, and of the Alfa Romeo 164, Fiat Croma and Lancia Thema.
Although all four cars were related, Saab went its own way in several areas, applied its own styling and mostly used its own engines, though a General Motors Europe 3-litre V6 (also used in the Cadillac Catera and Vauxhall/Opel Omega, among others) was introduced in 1995.
Every member of the quartet survived for at least a decade, and the last few Saab 9000s were assembled in 1998.
22. 1985 Saab EV-1
Don’t be misled by the modern interpretation of the name: EV stands for Experimental Vehicle, and has nothing to do with batteries.
The one-off concept was a 2+2 coupé powered by a modified version of Saab’s 2-litre turbo engine, now producing more than 280bhp and making the lightweight, aerodynamic EV-1 very fast indeed.
Other intriguing features included the use of Kevlar and carbonfibre, plus an array of solar panels in the roof.
Four years after it was built, the Saab EV-1 made a brief appearance in the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II.
23. 1994 Saab 900
The second and final 900 was the first model developed after General Motors became part-owner of the now stand-alone Saab Automobile, and – not coincidentally – the first based on a GM platform.
Related to various Chevrolets, Holdens, Opels, Saturns and Vauxhalls, this 900 had far more modern styling than the long-lived car it replaced, and was powered either by Saab engines or a 2.5-litre version of the GM V6 used in the 9000.
Sensonic models had conventional manual gearboxes with automated clutches, but this arrangement was unpopular and soon faded from the scene.
The 900 name did not survive into the 21st century, but the car did, with a different badge.
24. 1997 Saab 9-5
Almost every production Saab had a name starting with the number 9, but the protocol changed several times over the years.
The last system was introduced with the 9-5, which would otherwise have been given the same name as the 9000 it replaced.
It was based on a longer version of the platform used for the 900, and although the four-cylinder petrol engines were Saab’s own, other units in the range were supplied by GM, Fiat or Isuzu.
25. 1998 Saab 9-3
Applying the new naming system to the smaller Saab went only a modest way towards convincing people that the 9-3 was anything other than a refreshed 900.
As refreshes go, however, this one was fairly sizeable. Saab claimed that more than a thousand changes had been made.
The most dramatic 9-3 of this generation was the Viggen, named after a Saab combat aircraft which had been around since the 1970s.
The ground-level Viggen had a 2.3-litre, turbocharged, petrol engine which produced 231bhp, almost 10 times the output of the original 92.
26. 2001 Saab 9-X
Saab used the 9-X name three times in the 21st century for concept cars which had little hope of leading to production models.
The first was revealed at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2001, the year after Saab became a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors.
Its designers took the idea of a multi-functional vehicle to extremes, giving the car attributes of a coupé, a roadster, a station wagon and a pick-up truck.
Power – around 300bhp of it – came from a 3-litre, turbocharged, V6 engine which drove all four wheels.
27. 2002 Saab 9-3
The second 9-3, unlike the first, really was all-new, and not related to any previous Saab.
Being based on GM Epsilon’s platform, though, it was definitely related to several other General Motors vehicles including the Cadillac BLS which, despite its branding, was both designed and manufactured by Saab.
As part of a strategy which made more sense in Detroit than in Europe, this 9-3 was available primarily as a saloon and not at all as a hatchback, though convertible and estate body styles were also offered.
Significant changes made for 2008 included the introduction of a four-wheel-drive system co-developed with Swedish company Haldex.
28. 2002 Saab 9-3X
The four-wheel drive 9-3 appears at first sight to have been previewed by a concept unveiled six years earlier.
In fact, while the Saab 9-3X also had four-wheel drive, it was an SUV/coupé crossover, a type of vehicle without which no international motor show was complete in the early 21st century.
Looking not entirely unlike the previous year’s 9-X concept, though considerably less radical, it had a petrol engine which, given the preferences of the time, should ideally have been replaced by a diesel if the 9-3X had gone into production.
29. 2004 Saab 9-7X
Other than the badge and some of the styling, Saab’s first SUV wasn’t a Saab at all.
It was, instead, part of a family of General Motors vehicles which included the Buick Rainier, Chevrolet Trailblazer, GMC Envoy and Oldsmobile Brava.
The 9-7X was built exclusively at GM’s Moraine Assembly plant in Ohio (nowhere near Sweden, you’ll notice), and was the only Saab ever powered by V8 engines, including the 6-litre Chevrolet LS2.
Production ended when Moraine Assembly was shut down in 2008.
30. 2005 Saab 9-2X
The 9-2X was in almost every respect a Subaru Impreza Wagon, Saab’s only contribution being to apply its own styling to the front end.
One of Saab’s very few four-wheel-drive production cars, it was given the not necessarily complimentary nickname of ‘Saabaru’, which might also have been applied to a similarly altered version of the Subaru Tribeca.
That model never made it to production, but if it had it would have been the only Saab ever sold with a flat-six engine.
Saab had even less to do with the 600, which was simply a rebadged Lancia Delta sold in the Nordic countries in the early 1980s.
31. 2006 Saab Aero X
One of the few Saabs to rival the much earlier Monster in oddness, the Aero X concept had no doors, access being provided instead by a canopy.
This, the company said, “offers the Aero X pilot full 180-degree vision, and also facilitates entry and exit from its low-slung cabin,” without explaining how the latter could be achieved if the car landed upside-down.
Other notable features included LED interior and exterior lighting, carbonfibre bodywork, electronically controlled suspension, four-wheel drive and a 400bhp twin-turbo V6 engine which could run on 100% bioethanol.
32. 2008 Saab 9-X BioHybrid and 9-X Air
The second 9-X was largely a showcase for its 200bhp, 1.4-litre, turbo engine, designed to run on a mixture of 85% bioethanol and 15% petrol.
Unveiled at the Geneva show in March 2008, the Saab 9-X BioHybrid had one feature in common with the EV-1 of 23 years before: a roof-mounted solar cell.
The 9-X Air (pictured), revealed in Paris seven months later, was a convertible version of the same car which, like the 1964 Catherina concept, had a detachable roof panel.
In this case, the panel was made of fabric, and was removed or deployed automatically rather than by hand.
33. 2009 Saab 9-3X
Unlike the earlier concept of the same name, the production 9-3X was not an SUV but a relatively conventional estate car.
It differed from the regular 9-3 estate in that it had more body protection, greater ride height and, in the case of versions with petrol engines (but not diesels), four-wheel drive.
Obvious rivals were the Audi A4 allroad, Škoda Octavia Scout, Subaru Outback and Volkswagen Passat Alltrack, but Saab would not last long enough for the 9-3X to give any of them much to worry about.
34. 2010 Saab 9-5
The second-generation 9-5 has the gloomy distinction of being Saab’s last non-SUV production model designed in-house.
Developed during the period of GM ownership, and based on the new Epsilon II platform, it was regarded by the motoring media as reasonably good, but not outstanding.
Saab needed more than that, but crucially it also needed financial stability, and that disappeared not long after the marque was taken over by Dutch sports-car manufacturer Spyker.
35. 2011 Saab 9-4X
Saab’s very last production vehicle was an SUV closely related to the Cadillac SRX.
Like the 9-7X, it was not manufactured anywhere in Europe, but at GM’s Ramos Arizpe assembly plant in Mexico, starting in February 2011.
Powered by V6 engines – either a naturally aspirated 3-litre or a turbocharged 2.8 – it was canned within a few months, after not much more than 1000 examples had been built.
36. 2011 Saab PhoeniX
The Saab story effectively ends with the unveiling, at the 2011 Geneva motor show, of the PhoeniX, a dramatic-looking, aerodynamic, 2+2 hybrid with a c200bhp, 1.6-litre, turbo petrol engine driving a front wheel and an electric motor powering the rears.
At the time, it was said to be “based on a new architecture which will underpin the next Saab 9-3 model”, but there was to be no next 9-3, and no next Saab, either.
Unlike the mythical bird its final concept was named after, the marque did not rise from the ashes, but it is fondly remembered as one of the most interesting and innovative of all car makers.
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