My dad worked 47 years at the saab factory in Trollhättan and he developed the ac unit in the og 900 and the 9000 aswell as the 9-3 and the 9-5. He died at work so we honor him in the way of always driving saab. Rip dad.
Nope. Nobody cares about Lancia. Nobody cares about SAAB. If people cared, they'd buy them. They didn't buy them. Their products just couldn't compete anymore.
@@justinbennitt835 Well, we see how many care, don't we? They're out of business. Don't get me wrong. I like SAAB but that doesn't change the fact that they didn't produce what the market wanted.
@@manoman0 They only produced what GM wanted. If they were independent it would be a complete different story. Check out their concept cars and you'll see what they were planning on releasing
Having actually rolled my 900 I can speak to this. I had my sunroof open at the time and it’s a strange sight to see grass sticking through over your head. Both doors still worked but I had to crawl out the top because when I landed I ended up with a fence post on either side of the car. Yes, I was very lucky. I also had the factory racks on my 900 and wondered how strong they were. I found a photo taken in a junkyard with a second SAAB literally stacked on top of one and they were not bent.
My father was a SAAB fanatic, from hes driving license in the late 1950,s to hes last breath 2000. I will never forget the sound and smell of the 2 strokes, or the acceleration of the first 99 Turbo, only made in 350 examples, I guess. What a rocket in the 1970,s,, 🤪. He eventually sold it to a museum for more than he bought it new. Cheers and have a excellent weekend Visio,, 🍻😎👍!
I remember that Turbo well . garage near where i worked had one in to have a clutch fitted and the guy took me out to ''test'' the clutch , that thing could move . The car belonged to a Wimbledon football club player but i can not remember his name . Bought an old Saab a few years later , it was a great car until my wife cooked the engine one winter , warped the head and blew the gasket . It had that Triumph engine in it with the slanted bolts going from the crankcase to the head , spoke to a few people about the repair and got told to many horror stories about how hard they can be to remove , shame , it was a nice car
I own 2 Saab's - a 2008 97x Aero and a 1993 9000 Aero. The difference in build quality is amazing. The 9000 has 200,000+ miles and still drives like a new car. As a member of the local Saab club, most owner's agree the 9000 was one of the best ever built for speed, quality and performance.
In Norway, when the SAAb bankrupcy was final, we had up to a 100 SAABs driving around Oslo in a nice tribute cruise. Nice but so very sad. GM destroyed SAAB and thats the end of THAT.
I had some work on my 900 Turbo, and was told by the mechanic to fill it up, and take it out on the freeway and blow it out. It just so happen there was a State Trooper, close by, and stopped me. He asked, "what the hell do you have in that??
My first was a nearly-new Saab 96 in 1980. Red. I drove 'until the wheels fell of': the engine was rebuilt twice and the g'box and clutch 3x. Then, an EMS and later a 99 Turbo II followed. Expensive motoring when things went bad... After a long period of non-Saab company cars, it was back to Saabs: 2x a 9-3 Diesel and a 96 imported from North Sweden again. Nowadays, I own a wonderfully restored, 99% original Saab 95V4 from 1973!
I remember my dad and me driving his Saab 900GL classic, that little car would take me anywhere. Now I have my license and i get to drive my dad everywhere in that same Saab 900. I am in love with that car
The 900 series was an amazing car because they used super high quality parts, they were very easy to work on ( due to the aircraft pedigree ), they handled well, they lasted a long time, and they looked good. I parked a 1982 Turbo with a bit over 285,000 miles and I beat the hell out of that car. It was still running and in good shape at the end. It was hatchback and I have hauled a truck transmission, full size refrigerator, a dishwasher, numerous deer, and many other large items. I also had it off road more than most SUV's alive today. It would also cruise very comfortably WELL over the legal speed limit. Luckily I still have a tuned 1985 900 SPG.
My father got his first SAAB in the late 1950’s, and continued for two decades. I learned to drive on one, in the mid 60’s. I loved the freewheeling and I still kinda drive like I have it. One of them died when a gas station attendant forgot to add the oil to the gas tank. And my only experience with rebuilding an engine was on a SAAB. Finding a new V-4 motor was a real ordeal. Turns out that the same engine was in some non-auto function, like a well pump and I was able to get one of those. This is all in the US.
My dad loves SAAB, my brother loves SAAB, I love SAAB. Its just one of those Swedish things, either you love SAAB or Volvo. We have 4 SAABs on our yard and the latest one, a SAAB 9-3 2.0t Polar Edition -02 is mine and its near mint condition and I love it
the thing I remember about Saab is, while working on a couple of 1980's and 1990's Saabs while I was an apprentice mechanic thinking how weird the engineering on those cras was but how well made everything was.
Once one understood the design philosophy the car made sense and was fairly easy to wrench, especially something like a clutch replacement which could easily be accomplished in under 2 hours.
@@paulskopic5844 Probably came from their military engineering background. Swedish Airforce demanded easy to maintain in the field airplanes, so SAAB (atleast on airplane side) put great emphasis on making parts easy to access and building plane into assemblies or modules, that could be quickly bolted on and off from the plane in the field with minimal equipment. Idea being..... If it is broken in the field, unbolt it, take same spare assemble from the supply truck, bolt that in, put the broken one in the supply truck to be driven to a workshop somewhere deep in the forest and probably under a mountain. They will refurbish it and send it back to supply. Since the place the plane is.... must be minimal to not be a big permanent target. So there is not great hangars and machine shops at the airstrip. It is just the strip with couple pads to park the planes at while supply truck, fuel truck and munitions truck drive next to it at the pad and load and unload stuff from the plane. Be it loading in more fuel, spent swapping out spent cartridges, putting on new missiles or swapping out whole plane parts. So I assume as such, SAAB engineers had lot of experience designing bolt on, bolt off mountings, clampings and supports. Including were specific understanding of the assembly and maintenance process due to military demands. "right we have to think where that bolt head is going, since well the field mechanic needs to get their wrench on to it without disassembling the whole fighter plane from around the bolt. No point having few easy bolts holding the engine to make unbolting it fast, if you have to first remove the wings to get hold of the bolts securing the engine in place."
@@aritakalo8011 You are absolutely correct, and I also have explained this to others. Saab is the complete opposite of Japanese cars where there is no thought to ease of maintenance. Saab also used as few parts as possible which is the opposite of both Japanese and German where the design philosophy seemed to be "why use less parts when it is so easy to make it more complicated". I have wrenched a lot of other brands and I would take a 900 series always for ease of maintenance.
I agree with you completely. The Powertrain was so, "weird" for the era a lot of Mechanics had difficulty working on them here in the States. I am a Master Mechanic now so I can spend a little more time on a single vehicle. But back when I was starting out, time was money. The more Vehicles I got in and out of my shop in a timely manner the happier the customers were which led to life long customers in most cases. As a young small business owner having repeat customers was like owning a Goose that laid Solid Gold Eggs 😊
My dad had a lot of SAAB-cars... 95, 96, 900... Back in 1998 I bought a Volvo Amazon which I still own and is for sale, btw. Recently, I purchased a beautiful Volvo P1800E automatic from the USA. It's in the blood.
loved my volvo, but piled it up on ice in early part of 2004 and ended up with a 1997 Saab...getting a radiator so she will be back on the road. That being said, when she goes the way of the earth, I will try to get another volvo
I remember driving down an interstate in Maine during a blizzard with about 8 inches of unplowed snow still on the highway. So many spinouts and people pulled over but it didn't even slow down my 74 Saab 99 my favorite car I ever owned
My fellow UA-cam viewers, I'm a BIG TIME SAAB FAN MYSELF. I once owned the Saab 9000 CDE and Saab 9-5. Still to this day, they both were the best non All-Wheel Drive cars I ever owned, they are GR8 in the snow, but hey, they were produced in Sweden which is expected. Confession! I want another Saab but learned 2010-2011 models are safety-solid, but a mechanical nightmare. Finally, a mechanic I know who specializes in Saabs and Volvos said the 2009 9-5 Aero was their last GR8 car. I hope they do make a COMEBACK!
Thanks for this. It brought back good memories. I had four 99s over a period of 30 years. The last was from the final batch, built in the Finnish special vehicle plant (a homologation model - Saab had to build a certain number for sale to keep rallying the 99). Finally sold it a few years back as parts were becoming hard to source. Great cars. I miss them.
SAAB actually developed their design language quite significantly over the decades! Its a common misconception that they became less SAAB-like in the 2000s. By the end they arguably had a much stronger brand identity than even the hayday years of the 900! Envall was an absolutely masterful designer don't get me wrong, but the 900 had a lot in common with German Bauhaus. The evolution from the ng900/9-3 to the last gen 9-3/9-5 were SAAB finding its identity again in Swedish sculptural design, as originally utilized by Sason.
Honestly, I agree. 70's-90's Saabs had this "form follows function" type look. Otherwise, the first and last Saabs had very swoopy, ornate lines. They feel more like they were dictated by emotion rather than the engineering hardpoints of the car.
Back when the Saab 93 went to 3 cylinders, instead of the 92's 2, they said "That's not a Saab!" When the V-4 cars took over for the 2 strokes, the "enthusiasts" said "That's not a Saab!". When the 99 debuted with an overhead cam slant 4, the 96 owners said "That's not a Saab!" When they stretched the nose to make the 900 turbo, the 99 owners said "It's too big....That's not a Saab!" When the 9000 came out, a large car, developed with Fiat, with a transverse powertrain, the 900 folk said "That's DEFINATELY not a Saab!"....... Then along came GM. By then, it was forgotten that the first "URSAAB" was built using components from several different manufacturers, many scrounged from wrecking yards, while another 15 years of "Not-a-Saabs" kept the company rolling and introduced many folks to their FIRST Saab! Everyone who bought one, thought THEIR car WAS a Saab!
While Saab may have stopped being Saab in the late 90s to early 2000s we have the partnership with GM to thank for some of the most bullet proof engines to ever be made. The supercharged LSJ ecotec motor in the cobalt ss and saturn ion redline is essentially a B207 engine from Saab. Made the top 10 engine list when it came out and set some FWD land speed records around 2003 reaching over 212mph
I honestly was really torn up about parting ways with my 89 saab 900, but after seeing this. I just can't do it, I love that car so much. I'm now more determined than ever to do something about it. Thank you for all your great videos, you legend.
Grew up in a manual 1993 Saab 900 turbo. It was a fun car manual,turbo and it had a sunroof(like a poor mans Porsche). There weren’t to many driving around South Carolina more of a “northern” car.
This is quite a good tribute to Saab, my favourite car company ever...I agree, probably the first 900 was the very last real Saab, but also the 9000 and the 9-5 mk1 were incredibly good and well engineered, also quite fast! Once Jeremy Clarkson said that in acceleration from 80 to 120 kmh the 9-5 was faster than a 911 turbo...probably it isn't, but 250 hp on a fwd in the 90s were astonishing!
Actually, that 80-120kmh acceleration claim was in official 9000 Aero ad/brochure. I might still have it... 9000 weighed only about 1400kg so 230hp makes it quite fast. Even 9000 2,0T i had was fast. Fun fact: Saab manufacturer in Uusikaupunki made three 9000 V8's by themselves. It was based on 2 combined 4 cyl engines. One is still in factory museum.
The 9-5 aero is incredibly quick through second and third, first gear is where most of the bogging down happens because the esc kicks in... But if you turn it off with the button saab left in you'll leave tire marks even with full tread tires into 3rd lol, saab after 2000 still knew how to have fun and waste GM's money, thats why they sold them but also why i still love some post 2000 saabs too
The pre 1994 turbo's could be tuned for that level of power except all of it could not be used until 3 rd gear because of a weak link in the transmission.
Saab Turbos of a certain age were designed for extremely good "mid range" acceleration. I'm positive there was a UK advert which had a picture of the back of some sort of fast 9000, with the caption "The new Saab 9000, as seen from a Lamborghini Diablo", with the usual asterisk and small print of "in 5th gear from 30-70mph" or whatever, but still impressive!
Though they looked like a Nissan or something bland the beauty of the 9000 was its aerodynamics. At speed it just got lower and more stable. I got my turbo to 120 and it was as calm as could be.
@@Oblio1942 it could also just be the 9-2x Aero which isnt an "sti" I have a friend in Colorado Springs thats selling an awesome condition Aero thats got a spare engine since we all know how reliable those engine are. Hes asking 7k for it which is still a lot but it's a "saabaru" so it's automatically worth more some how. He is also selling a linear 9-2x manual trans for 2k that has about 150k miles and comes with the 2.5 N/A motor and the car is 100% stock down to the airbox.
@@Itsarealone it could be, but the 05 was basically a wrx with a nicer interior and a different front bar so i cant imagine itd be any different than someone sti swapping a wrx which is pretty common where I live. Even if it was the 92x without the turbo, 06 i think, tons of people sti swap gc8 imprezas and gd 2.5rss also pretty easily. So again completely plausible from my point of view even if all they did was take the turbo, intercooler and maybe the shocks from an sti and threw them on a 92x with an ej205 instead of swapping in an ej257 with the 6 speed gearbox and everything
too bad you didn't mention the 9000 with the B234R engine, its an absolute powerhouse with superb tuning-opportunities. its often considered the best saab ever made
The 9000 was a really sad story, it was the most ambitious project from Saab automobile. It is underrated car, I own one, on the first test drive, I was blown away, it doesn't drive like a 90s vehicle, it's different.
I once worked at a garage and there was a Saab Aero model in the workshop, alongside the companys owner maserati. The Saab had a stainless steel exhaust, and when they started the 2.8 V6 turbo, i thought they started the Maserati because it sounded so good
I had a 99 Turbo. BLACK. But I lived in South Florida where the weather is very warm and humid. It had factory installed air conditioning. The car handled like a dream. I LOVED IT.
GM's Chevrolet Division introduced the Corvair and improved all the flaws in the Gen 2 (1965-69) version. However, it wasn't profitable and used Ralph Nader as the scapegoat for killing it. They replaced it with the Vega and we know how well that worked out. Another great job, GM! I had a Gen 2 Corvair Corsa and it was an excellent car....except for the drum brakes....and it was extremely reliable. I haven't bought another GM product since. I love all the SAAB's and my buddy had a 900 non-turbo that he treated like a rented mule. Fantastic car!
Growing up as a kid in the US during the late 90’s early 00’s, I was fortunate enough to have a neighbor that had a 1990 Cherry Red II 900 Turbo convertible. I was in love from the first time I saw it, and completely obsessed even though I couldn’t drive yet. 20 years later, I now own that exact car. It still puts a smile on my face every single time I see it. To SAAB, the greatest cars ever made.
I've had a bunch of SAABs. 8, I think. Current is 2001 Viggen convertible. Hot-rodded a bunch of ways. Even with a LSD, it'll spin racing tires at 40mph. It's now genuinely fast, with 0-60 just under 6 sec. Favorite SAAB ever was the grey 1991 900S 2-door. No turbo but simply the best car I've ever owned. And really good-looking.
@@CarshowRellStudios I had my whole interior redone last year. They did the boot as a throw-in. It’s bulkier, and harder to fit in the bottom retainer, but looks OK. That was a place out here in Portland. They also did my floor mats, but no logo. I still have my originals, though they’re stained. Check on saabcentral and Saabnet bulletin boards.
There is still a lot of Saabs around here in Denmark. :D A girlfriend took me for a drive in her father's 99 and it was much cooler than the car we had in my family.
Mary her! Make her kids! Girl got some sand. Btw just came back from northern Jutland, and I haven't seen any Saab until Germany ;) , things were different in Gothenburg plenty of those beauties on the roads.
Managed a Saab dealership from 1993 to 2001, personally owned 6 of them (all pre-GM )....Worked in the car business for 37 years with many fine brands. Saab was always the best of them all. RIP to that amazing company, destroyed by GM, who just never understood how special Saabs were. Thank you, sir.
No , Saab killed themseles to a great extent. They had the vectra platform and the parent company gave them specifications for the cars that were being built , but , Saab decided to ignore what they had been told to build and designed things how they thought it should be . They were given a perfectly good sat nav system to build into the dashboard but decided to develop a completely new one from scratch costing way to much . That is just one example , there are a lot more . If they had done as they were asked to do then maybe they would have lasted longer
I currently own 2 Saabs, a 2007 9-3, and a 2010 9-3 XWD, and love both! I would like to get another 67 96 3 cylinder 2 stroke, with oil tank! One of my brothers had a Sonnet III years ago, and dad had a 99 Turbo. The 96 3 popper was my first car! It’s been a saab story ever since! That’s all I will ever own, even if GM had their hands in it! The Swedes still had their hands all over the design, even when GM owned them. My first brand new saab was a 1991 Saab 900s, and I racked up well over 200,000 before I sold it! Thanks for the great video!
Had a viggen for 2 years. Awesome, unique, and quirky car. And also pretty quick even by today’s standards. Unfortunately they are expensive to maintain today, but I loved it
Great video. What about the 9000? My daily driver is a tuned 9000, it always blows my mind how a 2.3ltr 4 cylinder makes so much power and is so quick in a solid well built car. I absolutely love the Saab 👍
I was driving a Datsun 810 (4 door, independent suspension, 240Z motor). It was quite the sleeper. One day I passed a showroom carport and saw my first Saab. Didn't know anything about them at the time, but it was truly love at first sight. It was a new (1979) 99 EMS, beautiful green with Aztec wheels. I added a custom exhaust manifold and 2" exhaust pipe. I literally ran it into the ground, headliner drooped, odometer died, but the final issue was the stick trans locked up in 2nd gear. I traded it in on a new 84 Turbo. Several vehicles later a 9-3 sedan, then a 9-3 Sport Combi wagon (V6), then decades later... I currently own a 2004 9-5 wagon which I purchased in 2008. She now has 165K and needs a new home. My retired Saab Indy's wife is selling her 2008 Saab 9-3 Sport Combi wagon and Im ready for it. Anyone interested in my very well appointed 9-5, Im in Ft Lauderdale, FL
The Saab 99 Turbo is just such an iconic car. The silhouette is so easily recognizable. Always brightens my day to see one, as they are tough to find in the United States. Also it's been great to watch this channel the past five years! Can tell you are excited about producing videos again.
Thank you for the video! I had a '74 and a '78, 99. Fantastic cars and they each had their clutches replaced by me. Easiest clutch job in the world. I would love another 'real' SAAB!
Little correction to make: the H in H-engine has nothing to do with compression, it was developed out of the B-engine and getting rid of the internal water pump. Other changes made too, making it lighter in weight as welk.
I remember Saabs were always the fast cars on the German Autobahn (When I was 11 or twelve). I always asked: " Was that a Porsche?". "No. That was a Saab." Now I would like to have a Saab 900. The real Saab 900.
@@mifiamigahna Is it an euro-spec manual or US-spec auto? Mine's a manual, and I've heard that the clutch likes to slip a bit more due to the increase in torque after the factory Hirsch-tune. I wonder if it's gonna be a problem? It's used, it has 176.000 km on the clock, so fair to say that the clutch has been through some
@@stegtflaesk Mine's a manual as well. I bought it at 200 Mm and the previous owner had replaced the clutch a year or so before that. The original clutch slipping was probably the main reason for that. The previous owner did also upgrade to the Viggen's brakes and lowered it though, so maybe he just upgraded the clutch because he had bigger plans for the car.
After twenty or so 900 classics, three of which were 900 Aeros (SPG to Americans) and two 900 Enduros (Australian-only and rare as hen's teeth) I still miss all of them. They had real souls, and I'll certainly get more again one day. Thank you for the reminder! :)
Had a 900 and currently have a 9-3 convertible that still looks the part and drives superbly. A fantastic heritage and real character that even GM could not completely diminish.
I've loved every saab I owned. I've owned 5 over the last few years. I'm now down to 2. One is a lime yellow 9-3 convertible and the other is a classic 900 convertible
Loved this video! However I had wished you included the SAAB 9000 which I believe ran from 1986-1998, the early models had a t3 turbo, then went to a tb05 turbo, then the t25 or td04hl for the aero models. The 9000 was the family Saloon that eventually changed into the 9-5 when GM took stake. Many will say the 9000 was the last of the well built SAAB's. I owned a 1995 CS (base lpt model) and fell in love! I grew up last to a neighbor that owned a c900, a sonnet and a scarabe green 9000. I ended up buying one almost identical to my neighbors but mine was manual and the original owner was a woman that bought it new in Murray, Utah. It was cool to see all the service records she had kept, yet she was the only one that did so. I now own 2 2005 9-5 ARC's one is an Estate and the other a Saloon and also own a 2007 9-3 Aero 2.8 6mt.
I had no idea SAAB was a aircraft manufacturer first. However, that was the sensation I got the first time I test drove one with that small turbocharger. From the sound the exhaust made to the driver oriented cockpit like instrumentation. When that turbocharger Kicked in, it felt like I was taking flight! I don't see them much here in Texas anymore. SAAB's Technology was light years ahead of its time. The problem I had was finding someone who knew how to work on it. Even taking it to the Dealership was no guarantee it would be completely fixed. Ultimately, the difficulty of repairing it, the high cost of parts and the fact that there was only one Dealership in the largest city in Texas did mine in. Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen...all small engine family cars pay homage to SAAB in my opinion. The Toyota Camry 4 cylinder with a small turbocharger was just introduced for the first time in the States in 2020!
I remember my family getting a SAAB in 89. Driving from our home in northern Sweden down to spend a year in the middle east. The car was roomy and kept us cool down there in the desert heat and cozy up in the coming chilly winters.
I worked at a Saab dealership when I got out of trade school in the mid 80s when Saab was still Saab. I fell in love with the quirkiness of them. I stayed until the year after the 9000 came out and it was then I knew they were going in the wrong direction. The shop car was an 85 900 4 door 8 valve in black and even though it was just a base " regular" Saab, I volunteered to get customers and parts and any other driving errands I could just to get behind the wheel of the "black 5 speed". The 900 was always my favorite. We had a 900 SPG for a little while that I got to drive a few times as well. It was Grey and gorgeous. Also we had 1 customer with a red Sonnet that I was lucky enough to work on and drive a couple of times too. Oh, the good old days. How I miss them. My personal car was a 71 Opel GT. That car got me laid so many times. I wish I still had that. Car mean. Lol
At the time when I had a 900 3-door, I lived in Boulder, Colorado and really enjoyed an active out-door lifestyle. Serveral of my friends had Saabs and raved about them. I was always a Honda guy but bought into their phrase for the 900's. I'm thinking mine was an 1987 or 1988 but don't remeber for sure. It was a 3-door liftback which gave me a huge flat area in back for camping, or carrying bike/ski equipment, so in theory it seemed like a match made in heaven. That enchantment was short lived, however. There were fundamental things about the car which immediatley began driving me (no pun intended) bonkers. First of all, the space between the brake pedal and the gearbox 'hump' was so narrow, I couldn't even wear hiking boots as I drove, as my foot would not fit in the space to operate the gas pedal. Even wearing "thinner" shoes, my foot would barely fit, forcing me to hold my foot in one very confining uncomfortable position. There was no "moving my foot around" to get a variety of leg positions, thus in about 1/2 hour of driving, my right leg was aching. Next on the list was the high dashboard. It was so high that I felt like a small child in a supermarket, trying to see what was on top of the check-out counter. I just couldn't see over the darned thing. The dashboard was also situated much closer to me than I was used to in Honda's, so I always felt cramped for space and unable to see. That lack of forward visibility wasn't the only visibility issue. The rear of the car was essentially just a big metal box and (like a panal truck) behind me was one huge blindspot. It was awful. The entire interior of the car felt cramped and unpleasant. Even the side windows had very high "sills" adding to the "cramped" feeling of the interior. If I recally correctly, the Saab engineers also thought it would also be a good idea to locate the ignition switch in the console between the driver and passenger seat. Any dirt, dust or "bread crumbs" fell right onto/into it, as would any spilled coffee. Again... it was awful. And honesty (honestly... I'm just being honest) the car simply didn't handle all that well. It always felt "primitive" compared to my Hondas (which felt refined and quick). I owned the car for only about a month and sold it, going back to a Honda accord which was "light and airy" on the inside, with almost perfect visibility (and required much less maintenance, by the way). Honesly, I had high hopes for that 900 but it was God awful. I honesly don't see any appeal to them whatsoever. In my humble (yet some people say "lovable") opinion, these were just horrible cars to live with. If I actually had to drive one, I wouldn't accept one even as a gift. At least the Swedes produced ABBA... so they did some things right... Designing cars was not one of them.
I'm glad you said all of that, as I had a similar experience. I was so inundated with praise of these cars from my (admittedly yuppie) friends that I fell for their pitch as well... much to my chagrin later. Like you, after living with the car for a couple of months I dumped it. It was just a terrible car to live with. (And it certainly wasn't inexpensive to repair and maintain.)
9-3 2009 Aero owner here. Its not the best performance car. It has usually some issues mostly with electricity. You never know what will brake when you sit behind the wheel. But when you meet another Saab driver and you wave to each other, its the best feeling. Its such an unique car and I am very proud to be a part of it . Hail to all old and new Saab cars \o/
still driving my first car that i got in 2019, a saab 9-3 convertible 1999, only 93,000 miles runs like a dream and honestly love it hope they someday come back to us
Just an idea maybe do cars from each country around the world, like Sweden's got Volvo and Saab. maybe some lesser know brands only found in other countries. Also great vid.
Great vid! You seem to have missed the 9000 though which was between the Saab 900 Classic and 900 NG. It was perhaps the best Saab ever and still very much Saab-ish with some very clever technology for the time. Due to that though it was also the car that made Saab lose money since it was so expensive to build, during the 99 and 900 Classic days they were doing very well :)
The problem with the 9000 was it was a magnitude more complicated than the 900 classic series which made it less reliable and reduced the service life.
@@paulskopic5844 they’re very reliable cars despite being very complicated. I own two of them and I know of many people who own them with very high mileage (above 400k km), and they’re stikl going strong without many issues.
My daily driver is a tuned 9000 with nearly 300kms on the clock and it's a rocket ship. The engine and gearbox are pushed much harder than the engineers originally designed and the reliability has been nothing short of amazing. I change the oil every 10k and check fluids and that's all I have ever had to do to it. I love driving that car and I'm always amazed at what a good job they did building it.
@@Aquarious I am basing my opinion on my brother in laws' 9000 which started becoming a money pit at about 150K miles, and he did most of the work. I have always thought about an early 90's 9000 Aero and perhaps I should revisit this idea.
In Highschool back in the late 90’s I got a 1985 Saab 8 valve non-Turbo handed down to me from my parents. I loved that car! Unique sound, and it was actually easy to maintain too!
When I was a kid back in the 70's I remember seeing the SAAB TV commercials they were different.. They showed their latest models (900's I think), they took one car and rolled it down a hill (guessing about 7 times) then it would land on it's wheels and then drive off, another the driver opened the door and walked away. The body's showing roll damage at the time it was a cool commercial. It showed the strength and safety of their vehicles. All I can say is they were very well built cars. When they got involved with GM, like Saturn it all went downhill. Thanks again Visio for another great video! Cheers!!
Does anyone think Seinfeld had an impact w SAAB’s popularity in the 90s. I remember they had a few episodes based around SAAB. Also, those years was when they had their highest sales
My father has a Saab 900 SPG turbo and I learned to drive in that thing. Quirky but wonderful! 300,000 plus miles on it and still going strong! I was so enthusiastic about that thing that a friend of ours actually GAVE me a 1972 Saab Sonnet III. Really looking forward to getting it back up and running!
I have been driving Saab convertibles since 1999. I currently drive a black 2008 9-3 Turbo and a chartreuse metallic 2006 9-3 Turbo. Absolutely love my Saabs.
People have turned their backs on the car company that drove your favorite teacher to school every morning you ungrateful sods (they make good planes, too)
I have a 2009 9-5 2.3T, I love it. You gotta drive a saab to really appreciate them. Such a smooth ride, and you can feel all the horsepower going right into those front wheels.
At 4:50 ish those are 900 not 99 and the first motor in the 99 series was a triumph motor with hard to loose head bolts, you had to force the head up a bit so you could saw them of. Lucky me I started to work there after those motors where replaced with a SAAB motor so I never had to do it.
One of my friends is a big big SAAB fan, he fully restoring a 9000, with the 2.0 turbo engine. Today is his birthday, i immediately sent the video for he. I also love SAAB's, but mainly i'm a Peugeot guy, with a couple of 205's. Thank you very much for this presentation, it was really interesting. Keep up the good work! Regards from Hungary!
I’m in no way trying to brag, but when I was younger I wanted to be a race driver when I grew up. When I was 17 my dad gifted me a Saab 9-3 turbo, a few months later for my 18th birthday my uncle (who is, to this day, a collector of Porsches) gave me a 911. I drive both vehicles in rotation for a little over 2 years, but something strange started happening… I found myself driving the Saab more and more and the 911 less and less until I realized I was completely in love with the Saab!! I’ve owned 6 more Saabs since then (still have my 9-3 and a 9-5 which is my wife’s current vehicle). I can’t say enough about how GOOD Saabs are!!!
My dad worked 47 years at the saab factory in Trollhättan and he developed the ac unit in the og 900 and the 9000 aswell as the 9-3 and the 9-5. He died at work so we honor him in the way of always driving saab. Rip dad.
Your dad kept my dad cool on the freeway then, thanks
I drive a 2002 9-3 SE and I can confirm that your dad did a great job!
My AC in the 2004 9-5 Arc is the best I have ever had in any car, including from my one year-old C Class. It’s an amazing system.
Thanks Eric!!...I've enjoyed his handiwork for years now with both 900 and 9000 Aero
my dads been a volvo/saab mechanic for 30 years there's no chance i ever not own one of these cars
Saab and Lancia are brands that should make a strong comeback, always respecting their past.
Nope. Nobody cares about Lancia. Nobody cares about SAAB. If people cared, they'd buy them. They didn't buy them. Their products just couldn't compete anymore.
@@justinbennitt835 Well, we see how many care, don't we? They're out of business. Don't get me wrong. I like SAAB but that doesn't change the fact that they didn't produce what the market wanted.
@@manoman0 They only produced what GM wanted. If they were independent it would be a complete different story. Check out their concept cars and you'll see what they were planning on releasing
@@justinbennitt835 Yes, yes. True. And those who didn't care enough were all it needed.
Nah, they will ruin them
Fun fact:
When Saab went rallying with the 900 it didn’t need a roll cage due to it strenght. Tho they had to do so to comply to regulations.
99
@@robludwigsen7831
As far as I know it was with the 900
Watch project 99 on youtube...awesome documentary. Saab left rallying before the 900 came out basically. It got too expensive.
Having actually rolled my 900 I can speak to this. I had my sunroof open at the time and it’s a strange sight to see grass sticking through over your head. Both doors still worked but I had to crawl out the top because when I landed I ended up with a fence post on either side of the car. Yes, I was very lucky.
I also had the factory racks on my 900 and wondered how strong they were. I found a photo taken in a junkyard with a second SAAB literally stacked on top of one and they were not bent.
@@robludwigsen7831
I Will watch it thx
My father was a SAAB fanatic, from hes driving license in the late 1950,s to hes last breath 2000.
I will never forget the sound and smell of the 2 strokes, or the acceleration of the first 99 Turbo, only made in 350 examples, I guess.
What a rocket in the 1970,s,, 🤪.
He eventually sold it to a museum for more than he bought it new.
Cheers and have a excellent weekend Visio,, 🍻😎👍!
I remember that Turbo well . garage near where i worked had one in to have a clutch fitted and the guy took me out to ''test'' the clutch , that thing could move . The car belonged to a Wimbledon football club player but i can not remember his name . Bought an old Saab a few years later , it was a great car until my wife cooked the engine one winter , warped the head and blew the gasket . It had that Triumph engine in it with the slanted bolts going from the crankcase to the head , spoke to a few people about the repair and got told to many horror stories about how hard they can be to remove , shame , it was a nice car
My dåd har a 99 turbo sedan. Rhen ge opted out and sent for a 100 hp GL...bummer. Although he Had a fuel injected EMS 118hp in 1974.....sweeeeeet
Rhen ge opted out and sent for.....
Then.....
Went......new Lenovo yoga i9....so my dream cars? 9000 CS Aero, tuned to 400hp And a Sonett II V4 in racing mode
I own 2 Saab's - a 2008 97x Aero and a 1993 9000 Aero. The difference in build quality is amazing. The 9000 has 200,000+ miles and still drives like a new car. As a member of the local Saab club, most owner's agree the 9000 was one of the best ever built for speed, quality and performance.
The 9000 used a Fiat/Lancia/ Alfa chassis
@@steveistherealdeal7216 yeah it did, but it was so extensively modified only few parts actually are interchangeable
7part were interchangable only
SAAB will never die in my heart. That's why I own 2.
Another one with 2 Saabs!
I also own two! Haha
None so far but a 900 cabriolet is on my to Do-list next 10 years. 🤗
In Norway, when the SAAb bankrupcy was final, we had up to a 100 SAABs driving around Oslo in a nice tribute cruise. Nice but so very sad. GM destroyed SAAB and thats the end of THAT.
Got 3 in my stable and looking for a Viggen.
2010's decade destroyed a lot of things we love
yeah :,(
GM were the downfall of saab
Well, they barely kept their head above the water even without GM.
@@miljororforsprakpartiet290 True. G.M tried to help but from what i have heard Saab just dug a deeper hole for themselves
The writing was already on the wall since GM bought SAAB in 1989
My first car was a SAAB. It had an incredible amount of torque and was a blast on the highway.
Same here. The first was a 99 ems from -73.🙂
I had some work on my 900 Turbo, and was told by the mechanic to fill it up, and take it out on the freeway and blow it out. It just so happen there was a State Trooper, close by, and stopped me. He asked, "what the hell do you have in that??
My first was a nearly-new Saab 96 in 1980. Red. I drove 'until the wheels fell of': the engine was rebuilt twice and the g'box and clutch 3x. Then, an EMS and later a 99 Turbo II followed. Expensive motoring when things went bad... After a long period of non-Saab company cars, it was back to Saabs: 2x a 9-3 Diesel and a 96 imported from North Sweden again. Nowadays, I own a wonderfully restored, 99% original Saab 95V4 from 1973!
Thank you for this video. Let’s treat this as a Tribute everyone 🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪
My dad was A huge saab fan, he had 3 two stroke 96s a v4 96 and lastly a 99
I remember my dad and me driving his Saab 900GL classic, that little car would take me anywhere. Now I have my license and i get to drive my dad everywhere in that same Saab 900. I am in love with that car
The 900 series was an amazing car because they used super high quality parts, they were very easy to work on ( due to the aircraft pedigree ), they handled well, they lasted a long time, and they looked good. I parked a 1982 Turbo with a bit over 285,000 miles and I beat the hell out of that car. It was still running and in good shape at the end. It was hatchback and I have hauled a truck transmission, full size refrigerator, a dishwasher, numerous deer, and many other large items. I also had it off road more than most SUV's alive today. It would also cruise very comfortably WELL over the legal speed limit. Luckily I still have a tuned 1985 900 SPG.
My father got his first SAAB in the late 1950’s, and continued for two decades. I learned to drive on one, in the mid 60’s. I loved the freewheeling and I still kinda drive like I have it. One of them died when a gas station attendant forgot to add the oil to the gas tank. And my only experience with rebuilding an engine was on a SAAB. Finding a new V-4 motor was a real ordeal. Turns out that the same engine was in some non-auto function, like a well pump and I was able to get one of those. This is all in the US.
My dad loves SAAB, my brother loves SAAB, I love SAAB. Its just one of those Swedish things, either you love SAAB or Volvo. We have 4 SAABs on our yard and the latest one, a SAAB 9-3 2.0t Polar Edition -02 is mine and its near mint condition and I love it
the thing I remember about Saab is, while working on a couple of 1980's and 1990's Saabs while I was an apprentice mechanic thinking how weird the engineering on those cras was but how well made everything was.
Once one understood the design philosophy the car made sense and was fairly easy to wrench, especially something like a clutch replacement which could easily be accomplished in under 2 hours.
@@paulskopic5844 Probably came from their military engineering background. Swedish Airforce demanded easy to maintain in the field airplanes, so SAAB (atleast on airplane side) put great emphasis on making parts easy to access and building plane into assemblies or modules, that could be quickly bolted on and off from the plane in the field with minimal equipment.
Idea being..... If it is broken in the field, unbolt it, take same spare assemble from the supply truck, bolt that in, put the broken one in the supply truck to be driven to a workshop somewhere deep in the forest and probably under a mountain. They will refurbish it and send it back to supply. Since the place the plane is.... must be minimal to not be a big permanent target. So there is not great hangars and machine shops at the airstrip. It is just the strip with couple pads to park the planes at while supply truck, fuel truck and munitions truck drive next to it at the pad and load and unload stuff from the plane. Be it loading in more fuel, spent swapping out spent cartridges, putting on new missiles or swapping out whole plane parts.
So I assume as such, SAAB engineers had lot of experience designing bolt on, bolt off mountings, clampings and supports. Including were specific understanding of the assembly and maintenance process due to military demands. "right we have to think where that bolt head is going, since well the field mechanic needs to get their wrench on to it without disassembling the whole fighter plane from around the bolt. No point having few easy bolts holding the engine to make unbolting it fast, if you have to first remove the wings to get hold of the bolts securing the engine in place."
@@aritakalo8011 You are absolutely correct, and I also have explained this to others. Saab is the complete opposite of Japanese cars where there is no thought to ease of maintenance. Saab also used as few parts as possible which is the opposite of both Japanese and German where the design philosophy seemed to be "why use less parts when it is so easy to make it more complicated". I have wrenched a lot of other brands and I would take a 900 series always for ease of maintenance.
takes longer to put a belt on than change a clutch !!
I agree with you completely. The Powertrain was so, "weird" for the era a lot of Mechanics had difficulty working on them here in the States. I am a Master Mechanic now so I can spend a little more time on a single vehicle. But back when I was starting out, time was money. The more Vehicles I got in and out of my shop in a timely manner the happier the customers were which led to life long customers in most cases. As a young small business owner having repeat customers was like owning a Goose that laid Solid Gold Eggs 😊
So sad that Saab "died". Even though im a Volvo "guy" still Saab's are unique and special like Volvo's
Volvo Guy here too ^^ (240 crowd)
S60 guy here but would love to find a good 900 T
I'm a car guy so I like all kind of cars.
My dad had a lot of SAAB-cars... 95, 96, 900... Back in 1998 I bought a Volvo Amazon which I still own and is for sale, btw. Recently, I purchased a beautiful Volvo P1800E automatic from the USA. It's in the blood.
loved my volvo, but piled it up on ice in early part of 2004 and ended up with a 1997 Saab...getting a radiator so she will be back on the road. That being said, when she goes the way of the earth, I will try to get another volvo
My dad is a SAAB fanatic. We probably had 20 SAAB cars as I grew up.
I remember driving down an interstate in Maine during a blizzard with about 8 inches of unplowed snow still on the highway. So many spinouts and people pulled over but it didn't even slow down my 74 Saab 99 my favorite car I ever owned
My fellow UA-cam viewers, I'm a BIG TIME SAAB FAN MYSELF. I once owned the Saab 9000 CDE and Saab 9-5. Still to this day, they both were the best non All-Wheel Drive cars I ever owned, they are GR8 in the snow, but hey, they were produced in Sweden which is expected. Confession! I want another Saab but learned 2010-2011 models are safety-solid, but a mechanical nightmare. Finally, a mechanic I know who specializes in Saabs and Volvos said the 2009 9-5 Aero was their last GR8 car. I hope they do make a COMEBACK!
My almost 22 year old 9-5 aero wagon is still surprising mustangs and bmw's.
Thanks for this. It brought back good memories. I had four 99s over a period of 30 years. The last was from the final batch, built in the Finnish special vehicle plant (a homologation model - Saab had to build a certain number for sale to keep rallying the 99). Finally sold it a few years back as parts were becoming hard to source. Great cars. I miss them.
SAAB actually developed their design language quite significantly over the decades!
Its a common misconception that they became less SAAB-like in the 2000s. By the end they arguably had a much stronger brand identity than even the hayday years of the 900!
Envall was an absolutely masterful designer don't get me wrong, but the 900 had a lot in common with German Bauhaus. The evolution from the ng900/9-3 to the last gen 9-3/9-5 were SAAB finding its identity again in Swedish sculptural design, as originally utilized by Sason.
Honestly, I agree. 70's-90's Saabs had this "form follows function" type look. Otherwise, the first and last Saabs had very swoopy, ornate lines. They feel more like they were dictated by emotion rather than the engineering hardpoints of the car.
I don't miss my Saab... I drive it every day! 34 years old and she still gets me to work on time. What an incredible machine. 900 for the win.
When I rally raced, there was a guy with an old Saab. One of the coolest cars I ever saw. He was quite the Saab guru.
I just picked up my 9th SAAB. 8 900s and 1 99. Yep, my favourite cars ever!
Back when the Saab 93 went to 3 cylinders, instead of the 92's 2, they said "That's not a Saab!"
When the V-4 cars took over for the 2 strokes, the "enthusiasts" said "That's not a Saab!".
When the 99 debuted with an overhead cam slant 4, the 96 owners said "That's not a Saab!"
When they stretched the nose to make the 900 turbo, the 99 owners said "It's too big....That's not a Saab!"
When the 9000 came out, a large car, developed with Fiat, with a transverse powertrain, the 900 folk said "That's DEFINATELY not a Saab!".......
Then along came GM. By then, it was forgotten that the first "URSAAB" was built using components from several different manufacturers, many scrounged from wrecking yards, while another 15 years of "Not-a-Saabs" kept the company rolling and introduced many folks to their FIRST Saab!
Everyone who bought one, thought THEIR car WAS a Saab!
While Saab may have stopped being Saab in the late 90s to early 2000s we have the partnership with GM to thank for some of the most bullet proof engines to ever be made. The supercharged LSJ ecotec motor in the cobalt ss and saturn ion redline is essentially a B207 engine from Saab. Made the top 10 engine list when it came out and set some FWD land speed records around 2003 reaching over 212mph
You now have my attention, and respect. This video makes me wanna cry.
I honestly was really torn up about parting ways with my 89 saab 900, but after seeing this. I just can't do it, I love that car so much. I'm now more determined than ever to do something about it. Thank you for all your great videos, you legend.
I just recently bought my first Saab, a 9-5 Griffin from 2010 and i love it! It's the most comfortable car i've ever owned!
My grandpa was a Saabist, i'll always have childhood memories with those swedish tanks. They were very popular in Finland.
Grew up in a manual 1993 Saab 900 turbo. It was a fun car manual,turbo and it had a sunroof(like a poor mans Porsche). There weren’t to many driving around South Carolina more of a “northern” car.
Yeah down south everyone started at mine like it was a space ship from the future even though my spg was 25 yrs old
That was it. The last real Saab (‘93)
This is quite a good tribute to Saab, my favourite car company ever...I agree, probably the first 900 was the very last real Saab, but also the 9000 and the 9-5 mk1 were incredibly good and well engineered, also quite fast! Once Jeremy Clarkson said that in acceleration from 80 to 120 kmh the 9-5 was faster than a 911 turbo...probably it isn't, but 250 hp on a fwd in the 90s were astonishing!
Actually, that 80-120kmh acceleration claim was in official 9000 Aero ad/brochure. I might still have it... 9000 weighed only about 1400kg so 230hp makes it quite fast. Even 9000 2,0T i had was fast.
Fun fact: Saab manufacturer in Uusikaupunki made three 9000 V8's by themselves. It was based on 2 combined 4 cyl engines. One is still in factory museum.
The 9-5 aero is incredibly quick through second and third, first gear is where most of the bogging down happens because the esc kicks in... But if you turn it off with the button saab left in you'll leave tire marks even with full tread tires into 3rd lol, saab after 2000 still knew how to have fun and waste GM's money, thats why they sold them but also why i still love some post 2000 saabs too
The pre 1994 turbo's could be tuned for that level of power except all of it could not be used until 3 rd gear because of a weak link in the transmission.
Saab Turbos of a certain age were designed for extremely good "mid range" acceleration.
I'm positive there was a UK advert which had a picture of the back of some sort of fast 9000, with the caption "The new Saab 9000, as seen from a Lamborghini Diablo", with the usual asterisk and small print of "in 5th gear from 30-70mph" or whatever, but still impressive!
Though they looked like a Nissan or something bland the beauty of the 9000 was its aerodynamics. At speed it just got lower and more stable. I got my turbo to 120 and it was as calm as could be.
I learned to drive in a 1968 V4 Saab 96. Four speed on the column. And that FWD was uncommon in 1968. Very good for Wisconsin snow.
How about a 👍👍 for Visio Racer and how well he does his videos and his passion for ALL cars❗
Whatever generates views buddy
There's a guy near me selling his STI swapped 'Saabaru" wagon. Very unique build and a sleeper
That dude is a moron then 🤣
Is It a 9-2x
@@Itsarealone only for selling it, that sounds fucking sick
@@Oblio1942 it could also just be the 9-2x Aero which isnt an "sti" I have a friend in Colorado Springs thats selling an awesome condition Aero thats got a spare engine since we all know how reliable those engine are. Hes asking 7k for it which is still a lot but it's a "saabaru" so it's automatically worth more some how. He is also selling a linear 9-2x manual trans for 2k that has about 150k miles and comes with the 2.5 N/A motor and the car is 100% stock down to the airbox.
@@Itsarealone it could be, but the 05 was basically a wrx with a nicer interior and a different front bar so i cant imagine itd be any different than someone sti swapping a wrx which is pretty common where I live. Even if it was the 92x without the turbo, 06 i think, tons of people sti swap gc8 imprezas and gd 2.5rss also pretty easily. So again completely plausible from my point of view even if all they did was take the turbo, intercooler and maybe the shocks from an sti and threw them on a 92x with an ej205 instead of swapping in an ej257 with the 6 speed gearbox and everything
too bad you didn't mention the 9000 with the B234R engine, its an absolute powerhouse with superb tuning-opportunities. its often considered the best saab ever made
The 9000 was a really sad story, it was the most ambitious project from Saab automobile. It is underrated car, I own one, on the first test drive, I was blown away, it doesn't drive like a 90s vehicle, it's different.
I once worked at a garage and there was a Saab Aero model in the workshop, alongside the companys owner maserati. The Saab had a stainless steel exhaust, and when they started the 2.8 V6 turbo, i thought they started the Maserati because it sounded so good
9000 aero seats are so nice I made them into recliners in my living room!
When I lived in upstate New York in the late 90’s I owned a 9000 aero tuned up. People loved riding in the back
I had a 99 Turbo. BLACK. But I lived in South Florida where the weather is very warm and humid. It had factory installed air conditioning. The car handled like a dream. I LOVED IT.
The best car ever made. I have 1 in my garage now still lookn like new. 1986 900s
I'm so glad I own one of the last true Saabs, it's a wonderful experience.
Hey, let's buy SAAB without having a business case, go bankrupt, and then prevent SAAB from being saved by someone else. Great job, GM!
GM only wanted Saab for its patents.
I hate gm forever!
Gm is using the B207R in all its new turbo 4-cylinder cars. From camaro to Cadillac. GM stole that motor. Ecopower forever!!
GM's Chevrolet Division introduced the Corvair and improved all the flaws in the Gen 2 (1965-69) version. However, it wasn't profitable and used Ralph Nader as the scapegoat for killing it. They replaced it with the Vega and we know how well that worked out. Another great job, GM!
I had a Gen 2 Corvair Corsa and it was an excellent car....except for the drum brakes....and it was extremely reliable. I haven't bought another GM product since.
I love all the SAAB's and my buddy had a 900 non-turbo that he treated like a rented mule. Fantastic car!
Growing up as a kid in the US during the late 90’s early 00’s, I was fortunate enough to have a neighbor that had a 1990 Cherry Red II 900 Turbo convertible. I was in love from the first time I saw it, and completely obsessed even though I couldn’t drive yet. 20 years later, I now own that exact car. It still puts a smile on my face every single time I see it. To SAAB, the greatest cars ever made.
I love the round body style of the early Saabs.
I've had a bunch of SAABs. 8, I think. Current is 2001 Viggen convertible. Hot-rodded a bunch of ways. Even with a LSD, it'll spin racing tires at 40mph. It's now genuinely fast, with 0-60 just under 6 sec. Favorite SAAB ever was the grey 1991 900S 2-door. No turbo but simply the best car I've ever owned. And really good-looking.
I don’t have to “remember”, I still have my ‘92 900 vert!
Me too, I still drive my 87 900 turbo vert regularly.
Way to go!
94 900s vert right here. Any tips on finding a new shift glove or floor mats with Saab logos?
@@CarshowRellStudios I had my whole interior redone last year. They did the boot as a throw-in. It’s bulkier, and harder to fit in the bottom retainer, but looks OK. That was a place out here in Portland.
They also did my floor mats, but no logo. I still have my originals, though they’re stained.
Check on saabcentral and Saabnet bulletin boards.
As a Saab-Guy myself it is great video to watch. Great job!
There is still a lot of Saabs around here in Denmark. :D
A girlfriend took me for a drive in her father's 99 and it was much cooler than the car we had in my family.
Wow, marry her asap!! She and her father has great taste!
Mary her! Make her kids! Girl got some sand. Btw just came back from northern Jutland, and I haven't seen any Saab until Germany ;) , things were different in Gothenburg plenty of those beauties on the roads.
Managed a Saab dealership from 1993 to 2001, personally owned 6 of them (all pre-GM )....Worked in the car business for 37 years with many fine brands. Saab was always the best of them all.
RIP to that amazing company, destroyed by GM, who just never understood how special Saabs were.
Thank you, sir.
The GM beancounters ruin another iconic marque. It's what they do.
Beancounters ruin absolutely everything.
@@PistonAvatarGuy especially the GM ones
GM beancounters killed Holden in Australia
@@archygrey9093 GM literlly killed so many cool car companies, fuck GM, all my homies hate GM
No , Saab killed themseles to a great extent. They had the vectra platform and the parent company gave them specifications for the cars that were being built , but , Saab decided to ignore what they had been told to build and designed things how they thought it should be . They were given a perfectly good sat nav system to build into the dashboard but decided to develop a completely new one from scratch costing way to much . That is just one example , there are a lot more . If they had done as they were asked to do then maybe they would have lasted longer
Had a '67 Saab Monte Carlo 650, 3cyl 2 strike 3 carbs 15mpg smooth, fast, solid. Sounded like a popcorn machine at idle
Have to agree, that’s why I daily drive a SAAB 900 spg, best car I’ve ever owned!
I currently own 2 Saabs, a 2007 9-3, and a 2010 9-3 XWD, and love both! I would like to get another 67 96 3 cylinder 2 stroke, with oil tank! One of my brothers had a Sonnet III years ago, and dad had a 99 Turbo. The 96 3 popper was my first car! It’s been a saab story ever since! That’s all I will ever own, even if GM had their hands in it! The Swedes still had their hands all over the design, even when GM owned them. My first brand new saab was a 1991 Saab 900s, and I racked up well over 200,000 before I sold it! Thanks for the great video!
I love my 900 turbo. Comfort, speed, practicality. No other car comes close.
Had a viggen for 2 years. Awesome, unique, and quirky car. And also pretty quick even by today’s standards. Unfortunately they are expensive to maintain today, but I loved it
Great video. What about the 9000?
My daily driver is a tuned 9000, it always blows my mind how a 2.3ltr 4 cylinder makes so much power and is so quick in a solid well built car. I absolutely love the Saab 👍
I was driving a Datsun 810 (4 door, independent suspension, 240Z motor). It was quite the sleeper. One day I passed a showroom carport and saw my first Saab. Didn't know anything about them at the time, but it was truly love at first sight. It was a new (1979) 99 EMS, beautiful green with Aztec wheels. I added a custom exhaust manifold and 2" exhaust pipe. I literally ran it into the ground, headliner drooped, odometer died, but the final issue was the stick trans locked up in 2nd gear. I traded it in on a new 84 Turbo. Several vehicles later a 9-3 sedan, then a 9-3 Sport Combi wagon (V6), then decades later... I currently own a 2004 9-5 wagon which I purchased in 2008. She now has 165K and needs a new home. My retired Saab Indy's wife is selling her 2008 Saab 9-3 Sport Combi wagon and Im ready for it. Anyone interested in my very well appointed 9-5, Im in Ft Lauderdale, FL
The Saab 99 Turbo is just such an iconic car. The silhouette is so easily recognizable. Always brightens my day to see one, as they are tough to find in the United States.
Also it's been great to watch this channel the past five years! Can tell you are excited about producing videos again.
You are welcome to visit Trollhättan and the nearby towns here in Sweden. Trust me, you'll never see so many nice SAABs in your life anywhere else!
Thank you for the video! I had a '74 and a '78, 99. Fantastic cars and they each had their clutches replaced by me. Easiest clutch job in the world. I would love another 'real' SAAB!
Little correction to make: the H in H-engine has nothing to do with compression, it was developed out of the B-engine and getting rid of the internal water pump. Other changes made too, making it lighter in weight as welk.
I remember Saabs were always the fast cars on the German Autobahn (When I was 11 or twelve). I always asked: " Was that a Porsche?". "No. That was a Saab."
Now I would like to have a Saab 900. The real Saab 900.
I’m just about to buy a 9-3 1.8t Hirsch performance 🤩
same, im getting a 2.0 hirsch performance convertible next week, so excited!
Well, we still have SAAB enthusiasts after all, I wonder if the cars can be made of Swedish parts by the same people in the future, hmm.
Nice!
I drive a 2.0 SE Hirsch since august and I'm very happy with it.
@@mifiamigahna Is it an euro-spec manual or US-spec auto?
Mine's a manual, and I've heard that the clutch likes to slip a bit more due to the increase in torque after the factory Hirsch-tune.
I wonder if it's gonna be a problem? It's used, it has 176.000 km on the clock, so fair to say that the clutch has been through some
@@stegtflaesk Mine's a manual as well.
I bought it at 200 Mm and the previous owner had replaced the clutch a year or so before that.
The original clutch slipping was probably the main reason for that.
The previous owner did also upgrade to the Viggen's brakes and lowered it though, so maybe he just upgraded the clutch because he had bigger plans for the car.
After twenty or so 900 classics, three of which were 900 Aeros (SPG to Americans) and two 900 Enduros (Australian-only and rare as hen's teeth) I still miss all of them. They had real souls, and I'll certainly get more again one day. Thank you for the reminder! :)
First time i saw a torx screw was in a SAAB! 😁
Had a 900 and currently have a 9-3 convertible that still looks the part and drives superbly. A fantastic heritage and real character that even GM could not completely diminish.
The 99 is my favorite and in that 70's green with the TURBO a lotto car for me!
I've loved every saab I owned. I've owned 5 over the last few years. I'm now down to 2. One is a lime yellow 9-3 convertible and the other is a classic 900 convertible
Loved this video! However I had wished you included the SAAB 9000 which I believe ran from 1986-1998, the early models had a t3 turbo, then went to a tb05 turbo, then the t25 or td04hl for the aero models. The 9000 was the family Saloon that eventually changed into the 9-5 when GM took stake. Many will say the 9000 was the last of the well built SAAB's. I owned a 1995 CS (base lpt model) and fell in love! I grew up last to a neighbor that owned a c900, a sonnet and a scarabe green 9000. I ended up buying one almost identical to my neighbors but mine was manual and the original owner was a woman that bought it new in Murray, Utah. It was cool to see all the service records she had kept, yet she was the only one that did so. I now own 2 2005 9-5 ARC's one is an Estate and the other a Saloon and also own a 2007 9-3 Aero 2.8 6mt.
I'm with you on the 9000, I've got a '96 9000 Aero manual, scarab green with only 138k miles. It's a great road car.
I had no idea SAAB was a aircraft manufacturer first. However, that was the sensation I got the first time I test drove one with that small turbocharger. From the sound the exhaust made to the driver oriented cockpit like instrumentation. When that turbocharger Kicked in, it felt like I was taking flight! I don't see them much here in Texas anymore. SAAB's Technology was light years ahead of its time. The problem I had was finding someone who knew how to work on it. Even taking it to the Dealership was no guarantee it would be completely fixed. Ultimately, the difficulty of repairing it, the high cost of parts and the fact that there was only one Dealership in the largest city in Texas did mine in. Toyota, Honda, Subaru, Mazda, Volkswagen...all small engine family cars pay homage to SAAB in my opinion. The Toyota Camry 4 cylinder with a small turbocharger was just introduced for the first time in the States in 2020!
I miss “the true Saab” dearly. It was like Volvo but better
100%
@@Vicke08 depends.
I love both honestly though, that’s why I was a bit special writing that comment.
@@Vicke08 At its era, it better than every other cars.
@@Vicke08 Yes the are no doubt !!!
I remember my family getting a SAAB in 89. Driving from our home in northern Sweden down to spend a year in the middle east. The car was roomy and kept us cool down there in the desert heat and cozy up in the coming chilly winters.
im amazed how well ''linköping'' was pronounced
I worked at a Saab dealership when I got out of trade school in the mid 80s when Saab was still Saab. I fell in love with the quirkiness of them. I stayed until the year after the 9000 came out and it was then I knew they were going in the wrong direction. The shop car was an 85 900 4 door 8 valve in black and even though it was just a base " regular" Saab, I volunteered to get customers and parts and any other driving errands I could just to get behind the wheel of the "black 5 speed". The 900 was always my favorite. We had a 900 SPG for a little while that I got to drive a few times as well. It was Grey and gorgeous. Also we had 1 customer with a red Sonnet that I was lucky enough to work on and drive a couple of times too. Oh, the good old days. How I miss them. My personal car was a 71 Opel GT. That car got me laid so many times. I wish I still had that. Car mean. Lol
What a Saab Story ;)
At the time when I had a 900 3-door, I lived in Boulder, Colorado and really enjoyed an active out-door lifestyle. Serveral of my friends had Saabs and raved about them. I was always a Honda guy but bought into their phrase for the 900's. I'm thinking mine was an 1987 or 1988 but don't remeber for sure.
It was a 3-door liftback which gave me a huge flat area in back for camping, or carrying bike/ski equipment, so in theory it seemed like a match made in heaven.
That enchantment was short lived, however. There were fundamental things about the car which immediatley began driving me (no pun intended) bonkers.
First of all, the space between the brake pedal and the gearbox 'hump' was so narrow, I couldn't even wear hiking boots as I drove, as my foot would not fit in the space to operate the gas pedal. Even wearing "thinner" shoes, my foot would barely fit, forcing me to hold my foot in one very confining uncomfortable position. There was no "moving my foot around" to get a variety of leg positions, thus in about 1/2 hour of driving, my right leg was aching.
Next on the list was the high dashboard. It was so high that I felt like a small child in a supermarket, trying to see what was on top of the check-out counter. I just couldn't see over the darned thing. The dashboard was also situated much closer to me than I was used to in Honda's, so I always felt cramped for space and unable to see.
That lack of forward visibility wasn't the only visibility issue. The rear of the car was essentially just a big metal box and (like a panal truck) behind me was one huge blindspot. It was awful.
The entire interior of the car felt cramped and unpleasant. Even the side windows had very high "sills" adding to the "cramped" feeling of the interior.
If I recally correctly, the Saab engineers also thought it would also be a good idea to locate the ignition switch in the console between the driver and passenger seat. Any dirt, dust or "bread crumbs" fell right onto/into it, as would any spilled coffee. Again... it was awful.
And honesty (honestly... I'm just being honest) the car simply didn't handle all that well. It always felt "primitive" compared to my Hondas (which felt refined and quick).
I owned the car for only about a month and sold it, going back to a Honda accord which was "light and airy" on the inside, with almost perfect visibility (and required much less maintenance, by the way).
Honesly, I had high hopes for that 900 but it was God awful. I honesly don't see any appeal to them whatsoever. In my humble (yet some people say "lovable") opinion, these were just horrible cars to live with. If I actually had to drive one, I wouldn't accept one even as a gift.
At least the Swedes produced ABBA... so they did some things right... Designing cars was not one of them.
I'm glad you said all of that, as I had a similar experience. I was so inundated with praise of these cars from my (admittedly yuppie) friends that I fell for their pitch as well... much to my chagrin later. Like you, after living with the car for a couple of months I dumped it. It was just a terrible car to live with. (And it certainly wasn't inexpensive to repair and maintain.)
I had two type 96’s back in the day.
9-3 2009 Aero owner here. Its not the best performance car. It has usually some issues mostly with electricity. You never know what will brake when you sit behind the wheel. But when you meet another Saab driver and you wave to each other, its the best feeling. Its such an unique car and I am very proud to be a part of it . Hail to all old and new Saab cars \o/
I miss my 900s Turbo soooooooo much. I put 229K on it and sold it for 700 bucks. I regret it many years later.
We owned 14 SAABs 1972-2021. They were all daily drivers and served us well, whether the 2-stroke Typ 96, the 99, 900, 9000, or 9-5. Good memories.
I remember the ignition placement
Right in the middle like a fighter jet 🛩
Bang in the middle haha saab baby !
still driving my first car that i got in 2019, a saab 9-3 convertible 1999, only 93,000 miles runs like a dream and honestly love it hope they someday come back to us
Just an idea maybe do cars from each country around the world, like Sweden's got Volvo and Saab. maybe some lesser know brands only found in other countries. Also great vid.
My 1967 SAAB 96 two stroke remains one of my fondest automotive memories. I miss it.
Great vid! You seem to have missed the 9000 though which was between the Saab 900 Classic and 900 NG. It was perhaps the best Saab ever and still very much Saab-ish with some very clever technology for the time. Due to that though it was also the car that made Saab lose money since it was so expensive to build, during the 99 and 900 Classic days they were doing very well :)
The problem with the 9000 was it was a magnitude more complicated than the 900 classic series which made it less reliable and reduced the service life.
@@paulskopic5844 they’re very reliable cars despite being very complicated. I own two of them and I know of many people who own them with very high mileage (above 400k km), and they’re stikl going strong without many issues.
My daily driver is a tuned 9000 with nearly 300kms on the clock and it's a rocket ship. The engine and gearbox are pushed much harder than the engineers originally designed and the reliability has been nothing short of amazing. I change the oil every 10k and check fluids and that's all I have ever had to do to it.
I love driving that car and I'm always amazed at what a good job they did building it.
@@Aquarious I am basing my opinion on my brother in laws' 9000 which started becoming a money pit at about 150K miles, and he did most of the work. I have always thought about an early 90's 9000 Aero and perhaps I should revisit this idea.
Surely the 9000 platform should have been cheaper since they shared it with the Fiat Croma and Alfa 164?
In Highschool back in the late 90’s I got a 1985 Saab 8 valve non-Turbo handed down to me from my parents. I loved that car! Unique sound, and it was actually easy to maintain too!
Saab seats.
Until you've done a roadtrip in one you would never understand comfort.
Thanks gm for ruining one of the great greats
I agree 100% .
saab was still kicking and fighting while under GM though, developing their own gps system without GM even knowing
5000. Km roadtrip in US in 2018 with my Saab 2002 9-3 , old car but nice seats .
@@houseking9211 Yeah, like that was a smart thing to do. That, exactly that might tell you why Saab went out of business.
Saab ruined their own stuff... damn you people are truly ignorant.
When I was a kid back in the 70's I remember seeing the SAAB TV commercials they were different.. They showed their latest models (900's I think), they took one car and rolled it down a hill (guessing about 7 times) then it would land on it's wheels and then drive off, another the driver opened the door and walked away. The body's showing roll damage at the time it was a cool commercial. It showed the strength and safety of their vehicles. All I can say is they were very well built cars. When they got involved with GM, like Saturn it all went downhill. Thanks again Visio for another great video! Cheers!!
Does anyone think Seinfeld had an impact w SAAB’s popularity in the 90s. I remember they had a few episodes based around SAAB. Also, those years was when they had their highest sales
no
@@TheSebiestor that’s odd because those were the highest sales they ever had
As a kid, I marveled at the hood and hood mechanism. It kept the paint out of harm's way when working in the engine compartment.
2-stroke Saab is 🔥
My father has a Saab 900 SPG turbo and I learned to drive in that thing. Quirky but wonderful! 300,000 plus miles on it and still going strong! I was so enthusiastic about that thing that a friend of ours actually GAVE me a 1972 Saab Sonnet III. Really looking forward to getting it back up and running!
Handbrake on front wheels? Cool idea for drifting)
It’s actually quite elegant. It pulls back the front caliper and cocks it against the rotor.
I have been driving Saab convertibles since 1999. I currently drive a black 2008 9-3 Turbo and a chartreuse metallic 2006 9-3 Turbo. Absolutely love my Saabs.
When Saab is called "Lanciaab" lol 🤣😂😂
They are and will always be one of the best cars I've ever driven.
That 900... So much fun!!!
People have turned their backs on the car company that drove your favorite teacher to school every morning you ungrateful sods (they make good planes, too)
1982 SAAB 900 Turbo was my car in college and it will always be one of the best cars I have ever owned at any price.
I have a 2009 9-5 2.3T, I love it.
You gotta drive a saab to really appreciate them. Such a smooth ride, and you can feel all the horsepower going right into those front wheels.
At 4:50 ish those are 900 not 99 and the first motor in the 99 series was a triumph motor with hard to loose head bolts, you had to force the head up a bit so you could saw them of. Lucky me I started to work there after those motors where replaced with a SAAB motor so I never had to do it.
One of my friends is a big big SAAB fan, he fully restoring a 9000, with the 2.0 turbo engine. Today is his birthday, i immediately sent the video for he. I also love SAAB's, but mainly i'm a Peugeot guy, with a couple of 205's. Thank you very much for this presentation, it was really interesting. Keep up the good work! Regards from Hungary!
I’m in no way trying to brag, but when I was younger I wanted to be a race driver when I grew up. When I was 17 my dad gifted me a Saab 9-3 turbo, a few months later for my 18th birthday my uncle (who is, to this day, a collector of Porsches) gave me a 911. I drive both vehicles in rotation for a little over 2 years, but something strange started happening… I found myself driving the Saab more and more and the 911 less and less until I realized I was completely in love with the Saab!! I’ve owned 6 more Saabs since then (still have my 9-3 and a 9-5 which is my wife’s current vehicle). I can’t say enough about how GOOD Saabs are!!!