I had a 900 sedan as a company car once. Drove home from Detroit to Toronto during a snow storm with my three soon to be teens in tow. Took about six hours, but we made it home safe and sound. I could not believe how planted that car was in the snow about 90-100 km/H on all season tires. Went straight as an arrow.
I feel like I have to go and visit that museum someday. I’ll never forget the moment when me and my parents went to pick up our then brand new Saab 9-5 SE saloon in Stockholm in June year 2000. After almost 21 years, it still goes like ”a king” on the roads. It’s also still within the family (nowadays I’m the sole owner of that car). It very much looks like the car shown at 3:26, except that my car happens to be painted in the so called ”Scarab green livery”. Over the years, I’ve ridden in a lot of different cars from different brands. NOTHING beats that 9-5! For a tall guy like me, I find the comfort and spacious passenger compartment of that 9-5 outstanding.
They were always something special. I remember a neighbour had a 99 Turbo and thereafter a 900 Turbo. Very exotic in the late seventies. I’ve had three Saabs myself, a ‘93 900, a ‘93 9000, and an ‘03 9-5 station wagon. Esp. the 900 and 9000 were incredibly spacious, you could fit anything in the boot and the rear seet of the 9000 was wide as a Mercedes S-class.
Truly sad that nobody could help SAAB.A back catalogue of intresting innovative cars.Tragic that General Motors didnt understand what they had,SAAB could have been a real asset to them.Such a waste.
That is not all correct. The last offer to buyed SAAB havened maked Mercedes Benz. With 2, 3 Mrd. Euro haded MB taked SAAB. But, MB COE wouldn't this adventure. The chief today of MB is swede. The ironie of history. MB became cost free the world patent of SAAB. And looked today the engine technologie. All cocurrenz producted today small engine (4 Zylinder, max. 2,3 ccm) with strong turbo (0,8-2,6 bar pressed). That is exactly the building engine to pressed less CO2. That was all of the big automobile player a plane SAAB to drove on the wall.
The greated car ever. The SAAB was since concurrenz 10-15 years forward. The best high technologie engine standart of the world. The most and highest security cars. Hammer car with sensationell plane history and the compromise total.
I had 5 Saabs in my early motoring lifetime, and without ANY doubt, they were THE best cars I've ever owned. It was SO sad that even their new company owners couldn't make a success of the brand. I think one of their biggest short-comings was that they didn't have new vehicles on the horizon in order to keep up with the latest trends and requirements. Their apparent inability to listen to what the market and buyers ACTUALLY wanted in a quality car I feel sure also assisted in their downfall, along with the fact that GM felt they were costing too much to build. A very sad loss to the motoring world !
@@keithsymons5708 This car is something COMPLETELY different! SAAB is a fight for the highest quality! David's fight with Goliath (SAAB vs gm) lost by SAAB!
some things make economic sense, some things just have a lot of sense, it is also true that people not always make decisions that make much sense... I do not understand these buyers that did not see the many benefits of Saab, preferring to go for Audi, BMW, etc. But well, what people choose not always makes sense. Quite often they miss the point and settle for less, or even far less (as in politics). GM might have had some economic arguments to make that fatal decision. It is also true that Saabs obsession to continue to build „Saab-specific“ might have made it less efficient in terms of cost management. But perhaps GM could have tried other alternatives. It is clear though that they were not really interested in saving this quality product, preferring to continue building cheap crap in the US (from an environmental point of view exactly the wrong policy). We can continue to speculate ad infinitum… and still hope that someone will revive the legend sometime in the future. As I was a child we had a Saab 96 for many years, and I always wondered about the high quality and uniqueness of our treasure on wheels. Since that time I continued to be a loyal admirer. I am not a fan of cars though, since I love pickups, jeeps, vans and suvs… BUT should I ever buy a car, it would be certainly a Saab (the 900?) and if not, then of course a Volvo! (at least we still have Scania)
There is no place for Saab in the world as it is today. People want brand new cars that they make monthly payments on. Saab like Mercedes Benz, no longer exists. When you see a 10 year old A-class driving around with the exhaust hanging off that’s a pretty clear sign the prestige has gone! Mercedes Benz cars today are nothing like they were up until about 1993. Back then you had to have money to own a Mercedes...
I'm a Saab fan, I've owned many, currently I have a 2004 9-5 Aero, a 1993 9000 Aero and a 2008 9-7x Aero. Too bad GM did not have the ability to keep Saab alive and unique. Perhaps if the had gone all electric, that would have been interesting.
The family Ericsson is Company grounder of SAAB. These family haded nothing for SAAB. The costs was to high which to expensive expansion with the best forward high autombil-manufactory-hall in Trolletan. These was a main ground, why SAAB cooperation gone with GM. All is very sad for the grandios worked of the sweden ingenieur. The german Schwaben ingenieur is same high class how sweden ingenieur power.
Those early ones with the enclosed front fenders were so badly designed,especially for a country where it snows ,they would fill up with snow ❄️ and stop you from making a turn 😆
