Featured SAAB Is Back, Well Sorta

I wonder if they'll be as over engineered as the original Saabs were. It was their reluctance to lower quality and reduce costs that led to their demise.

 

Only rode in a SAAB twice, two different cars. Both time I came away wondering how intelligent folks could like such a rattletrap. In both cases it was the owners second SAAB. Occasionally still see one around. My impression is they got better and were going for a more upscale niche.

 

They may have been "born from jets", but they were built like tanks. I loved my old 900S. Good first car, but it was hard to find anyone to fix it, and there weren't that many dealers.

Why GM’s Reinvention of Saab Failed

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Thanks for the detail from your SOTP. Over here we weren't subjected to the GM redesigns and the Saab engineering was sustained contrary to successive demands from Detroit. The plug was finally pulled but some cars can still be found and unbranded garages to maintain them. Most will have found their way to Africa from UK by now.

**SOTP acronym for side of the pond**

 

Must have been his big SAAB story,

 

I had a 1980 Saab 900 Turbo with the first year 5-speed transmission. Loved the design, hated the turbo and transmission. It was clear that Sweden doesn't have high speed roads like Germany. They certainly don't have anything like I5 that runs down the middle of California. Car lasted less than 70,000 miles - the turbo and transmission couldn't take 6 hours straight of 70+ mph freeway. More recent turbos have active cooling, and more important, active lubrication after engine shutdown. The next year's transmission had a bearing that was twice the size of the failed one in my 1980. Service was far more limited than anything we've seen with the Prius.

One unique feature was the 6 litre (gallon and a half!) windshield washer tank. Guess they do have muddy roads in Sweden...

The 1979 was the first Saab with a place to install a radio. Our 1980 came with factory installed speakers, but no radio. Strictly an aftermarket item. On earlier versions, you hung the radio under the dash. Seating was upright, something you have to go to a SUV today.

One thing the Saab had in spades was attitude. It was crashworthy and spacious in an era when neither sold cars.

So I'm sorry to see the Saab design go away. But the implementation and service quality earned them their fate.

 

Well, perhaps not their fate.

 

The turbos were temperamental. You had to let them run a few minutes before starting and parking so the oil would run through the system and prevent damage.

The non-turbos didn't require much babying. I had mine for 8 years, 150K + miles. It needed too many expensive repairs, so I got a Honda Accord from Repulsive Bob Rohrman's Schaumburg Honda.

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I had a Rover 418 turbo diesel like that. They advised in the manual to allow the engine to reach its operating temperature before pushing the revs to hard. Worked fine for me, passed down to daughter, who's husband thrashed seven bells out of it and sold it cheap as a near wreck.