As a life-long, 50-year Pacific Northwesterner, I can vouch that Saabs are surprisingly well-represented region-wide even years after the demise of the marque. Here in Portland, Oregon, we continue to have a Saab dealer (who maintains a stock of gently-used cars that have been reconditioned to factory-new shape) with factory-trained Saab mechanics and a huge stock of Saab parts purchased from other (now defunct) Saab dealers. Thanks for this great video!
You said surprising, but if someone said "Hey, guess which US city still has an active Saab dealership" I'm pretty sure I'd say Portland. How are you guys doing for Volvos, as a matter of interest?
Nicely put together and very accurate. Im an ex SAAB Master Technician, did my apprenticeship on 900's in 1988 and worked for them for 14yrs before starting The SAAB Clinic. 900's Are great. I had a late 1992 classic 900i in just last week, non turbo convertible. What an amazing car to drive, i had really forgot how well they drive. 9000's are also great. I have a 1997 9000 Aero 2.3T with 360bhp which i cover 800 miles a week in !.
A late SAAB 900 convertible is still on my shortlist of lottery win cars. It's around 30 years since they were sold new and yet the desire for one has still not faded. That speaks volumes for that brand and that series.
@@markwilliams5654 Nope. 830 Miles total this week, 41.3mpg average. All my fuel is paid for anyway, but still great that a 25yr old Saab with 360bhp does 40mpg average.
Errata: "Descendants", not "Ancestors" in the intro. Alfa Romeo "Gweeya" should be "Julia". Bing Translate failed me! Also, there aren't many cars with "16 valves per cylinder"! Rather the 16V were spread out over all four cylinders. The photo that was supposed to be Erik Carlsson is actually of Per Eklund.
5:19 It’s a pity designers of modern cars don’t take note of SAAB’s philosophy for interior controls. Central touch screens that take ever increasing times to navigate around menus to perform even simple functions are definitely a retrograde step when it comes to safety. 😡
While ergonomics and designed user-interfaces were a big thing back in the 1980s, sadly, in the 2000s the concept of design has gone out the window. Just look at the user-interface on smartphone Apps, which you'd think was thrown together by a particularly clumsy (and dim-witted) ten year old. I was trained in user-interface design, back in the '80s, but haven't seen any job advertisements for those skills in many a long year.
Never use that shit while driving. Do not text and drive! Same principle. YOU are driving, YOU get the fatal accidents. Pull over somewhere safe. Are you all duh?!
like me - much as I was a Saab man all my life, we always had at least one good (older) Volvo among our Saabs... the one I loved the most was my wife's 740 GL station wagon ... great car.
This is one of the most informative videos about Saab that I've ever seen.... incredible history of the entire manufacturing of the Saabs....I absolutely love it.... Thank you endlessly. Let's push the Saab engineers to Launch the new Saab Opening....They most bring back this extraordinary most advanced vehicle ever created.... please make your voice and ours heard!!!
In the 90's my wife had one of the last runout 900's in the UK. She could *only just* afford it on her company car allowance. She loved it - it was a big step up from the Astra she had before and a great car for bopping up and down the M4 between Theale and London. When I was looking for a car the next year, the excellent Saab dealer persuaded me into leasing a Saab 9000, the first new car I'd ever had. I cried the first time I drove it, because it was *so expensive* - the most I'd ever spent on a car ever - but I drove it all over the south of England doing my contract/consult business and just toally fell in love with it too! It was so big my wife called it my 'ship'! But it was an amazing car do do the long commutes to and from customer sites. In the end I only had it a year, closed the lease due to a change in our circumstances, but I have never forgotten that car, or my wife's 900. We moved (back) to Australia and our next car was - a 9-3 convertible! Another fantastic car that had people stopping to take their picture with it and ask to sit in it.
Wow, people stopped you for a picture in a 9-3 ? That had only replaced the 900 series convertible. They ( convertibles ) still had a bit of a Yuppie status back then..
I drove a ‘93 900 turbo convertible from ‘97-2000 as well.. all around the Bay Area.. put 77 thousand miles on it.. loved it.. loved that automatic top and stick.. had great pick up and go and everything was within super easy reach. Had heated seats.. something else no one had. I wish I would have kept it.. but when Saab dealerships disappeared I got worried about maintenance.. that was 20 year old me speaking.. I had no idea I could fix anything.. and RUclips wasn’t yet bringing everyone automotive knowledge. Pretty much every car I’ve ever had I wish I had kept except for the jeep compass. Anyhow, cheers to your wife.. I relate 100%. Was hers English green or red? I had a black one
I drove a '79 Saab 900 turbo just out of high school and loved that car and its relative ease of maintenance. I got that car for super cheap, because the woman selling it had just been divorced and she wanted that car to go, just to piss off her ex. My win, as that car was such a peach! Great mileage w/ excellet performance, you just needed to keep the engine in the higher RPMs to keep the slanted four banger producing power. They hadn't quite figured out the turbo lag issue w/ their first turbo units, but my friend was a real mechanical wiz and he introduced me to waste gates and down pipes. What a game changer, w/ nearly instant power when mashing the GO pedal. I sold that car for four times what I paid for it and bought a brand new Triumph TR8, cause that wedge shape was just too cool and it had an aluminum V8. Wish I had kept my reliable old Saab.
My 1991 900S 3-door was without a doubt the best car I have ever owned. Anthracite grey. My current 2001 Viggen convertible (and other 9-3s I've had) is poor in the snow but a 0-60 of 6.0 sec and top of 160mph. I've owned eight SAABs, the first I bought at 16 was a 1972 99LE. 24:34 is exactly how it looked (except for the removed headrests). I'd love to put a Trionic 7 motor into a SAAB 90.
One of your best videos ever. Saab was indeed a fine and desirable brand in its day but unfortunately too small to survive as an independent. To me the Gen 1 900 represents the best of Saab and they lost something when the much less appealing Gen 2 arrived. I visited a Saab dealer in 2003 (two dusty cars shoved at the back of a tacky prefab Chevrolet showroom for a supposedly premium brand!) as I was interested in the new 9-3. It was obvious that they had all but given up so I went and bought another Volvo instead.
Great video ! Exactly 6 weeks ago I bought a classic 900 S Convertible 1992 (colour 'citrix-beige') that was imported fom the USA in 1999. I think from California, because the Saab is almost stainless (free from rust). It's a magnificent car and I'm proud of it !
I had a Saab 900S here in the US. I really loved that car. It had the 5 speed manual transmission and those flashy angle spoke wheels. Jet black paint and a sunroof. Car was fast, drove solid, and got even better in cold weather. It was so comfortable too. You felt like you were sitting in dining room height chairs! Heated seats, nice head rests and visibility through the wrap around windscreen were top notch. Thank you for the video, it brought back a lot of good memories of the car and how different it was compared to other makes.
Another great video. I loved the 900 Turbo, always fancied one but never got to own one. It's amazing how often the Triumph Dolomite is referenced in stories on cars, it must've been ahead of its time!
As a life-time SAAB aficionado, I appreciate your approach to the SAAB 99>900 evolution. The references to the Ricardo-Triumph engine are fine to a point. Once the Swedes developed this engine, it was far from the original, crooked head-bolts Ricardo design. All it maintained was the original architecture. My best tech could replace an N/A 99 or 900 clutch disc in 25 minutes!
Thanks for bringing that up. I was just going to write it. The Saab development of the old Triumph engine was a really good engine compared to the original Triumph engine. Ive owned both versions and many 99´s are still rolling here in sweden.
@@thomascatford2627 However, it can be done very fast. Less than 1 hour. And to change the disc you have to remove the complete clutch anyway. Its easy because the gearbox dont have to be removed at all.
@@TT.Hell. iim an old timer and worked on saabs 95/96/99/90/ 900 1978 till 2001, i would challenge you to fit a complete clutch including slave cyl to a 99 in under an hour, if you dont know how to change the clutch disc without removing the cover plate you should do some research
Thanks for the historical video. I owned a 1990 900 S and was a wonderful car while in college. Many years later I bought a 2003 9-3 Vector and was probably one of the best cars I ever owned, Zero turbo lag and a head turner for compliments. I ended my Saab ownership with the 2011 family 9-3 wagon in AWD. Unfortunately, GM had ruined Saab by then and the quality was poop. I was able to get a buy back offer. I bought a 2013 buick Regal GS with a turbo. Miss those cars!
Excellent video, and I've always liked Saab's. One interesting fact, when Tiffany had her number one hit 'I think we're alone now', she was asked on a Saturday Morning TV Show (it wasn't Saturday Superstore, it was on ITV) what she was going to buy first now that she had a number one, she replied 'a black Saab Turbo' . I'll never forget that, she suddenly became ultra cool to me and yes, I bought her record.👍🏻😉
@@BigCar2 I still want to buy a good 900SPG someday. White, not the usual black over black. There are a slew of Saab people more than willing to maintain them. I had driven one in the mid 2000s when I had moved to Oregon, and it was quite the car - before GM bled them to death money-wise to the point we all know when they were re-badged Subaru wagons. GM did them no favors being so parsimonious about spending capital to keep the firm going, and it's sad.
1:30 that was a great idea. When a friend got a used 9000 and showed it to me, he said: "Stroke the bumber here". When I did, I felt minor unevenness. And he said smiling: "Well the Polo that hit it is totally broke".
Me being Finnish, Saab stories are always interesting, as some of them were built here :) My dad even had a 1976 Saab 99 in the 80's for two years. At first as a secondary car and last year as our only car. I remember reading the Saab customer magazine, where they showed all the newest updates to Saab 900. We had the 99 from 1986 to 1988, so I guess during that time the 900 received the newer front end styling. Sadly those magazines are gone by now. Would be fun to read them now :)
@@marcusjosefsson4998 This may well be true or at least many classic Saab owners say so. Perhaps, no wonder that the convertibles were built in Finland. Also heard of better rust proofing on Finnish built examples.
I’ve never even driven a Saab but I really had a respect for the brand with its innovations in safety and performance. It’s such a shame that it’s no longer in business
Buy a secondhand Saab. Why not? Take care you buy one that got great maintenance, do not buy a bad one. Nobody likes worn out this and worn out that, unless the price was low.
GM killed Saab by turning down the deal with the Chinese because of its fear of Chinese competition. Yet, GM now sells more cars in China than in the States since 2012. Go figure!
Great video and a story well told. I have a 900 convertible now after 99 and 900 and virtually grew up in SAAB‘s. There IS something special about them and you managed to capture just that.
178k subscribers! I subscribed when there was only a few hundred, this channel is criminally undersubscribed. The content is extremely well researched and your choice of cars is excellent, so far.
One of our neighbors while I was growing up, who was recently retired orthodontist, bought a new 4 door turbo. He maintained it meticulously and it was always garaged. It looked like a year old car when he passed away after owning it for twenty years and it didn't even have 40k miles. One of his grandson's inherited it and within a year totaled it while playing Erik Carlson on icy roads.
I live in Connecticut where Saab’s are still seen on the roads daily, Saab’s were always popular in New England because they’re great in snow and built extremely well. I’ve got lots of family in Sweden and Norway where you still see lots of Saab’s, even really old ones. The Sonnet sports cars are still on the road there.
I own a 9000, but I always drool over the 900 everytime I see them, would love to try them or own one someday, (it is getting really expensive compared to 9000).
The 900 shows what happens when a car is in production for too long. When it came out, its competitor was e.g the BMW 323i E21. Then the E30 came and went, and in 1993 you had the BMW 325i and M3 E36. Only a few people at that time prefered the Saab anymore, as sales numbers show. At least in Germany, from the mid 80ies onwards the 900 was seen as a quirky car, mainly bought by architects, intellectuals and people who didn't want a BMW or Mercedes. And of course the convertible as a second car for the wife or children of rich people. The 9000 had an even tougher time from the start and was rejected even by many Saab fans. At that time the Alfa 164 with its 3l Busso engine was a much more desirable alternative to a BMW 535i or Mercedes 300E. But fast forward to today and everybody smiles when seeing a 900 😃
I Agree, Why buy anything else When there was the BMW e30 in the Showrooms ? Even the e30 316 was a Brilliant car. Then Came the BMW e34, Way Better than the e30. Still Today i Run a BMW e34 525i SE Manual, with the M50 engine. from 1995, 26 Years old & no Probs at 130,000 miles. Great Car All round. My secret is :- I have an e34 520i SE manual & i Prefer My 520 to my 525, Same car Same Year. Same Engine less 500cc & 42 bhp. & Still a BMW 6 Cyl Inline 6. And the Merc 190E . another Great car.
The Volvo 240 stayed in production for just as long though, and the Mini, Beetle and Lada Niva & Riva even longer? :) It can lead to cars becoming iconic.
Stopping quickly is an understatement. I've never driven a car that could stop as hard-and-fast as my sister's 84 900S. You could literally stand on the brake pedal and it would throw you into that curvacious windshield if you weren't setbelted-in.
the RHD offset pedals are something that you get used to after a while and stop noticing. What nobody ever mentions about the 99/900 is how the wiper blades freeze up in winter, making them solid and shaped to match the left-right curvature of the windscreen, so as soon as they move there's only the end points of them touching the glass. It doesn't matter really, but for something developed by a bunch of Swedish people it seems like a significant thing to ignore. i'm sure i read somewhere that when the 9000 was being developed and people were finding out it was going to have passive rear steering, Lotus asked if they could have a look at it, but i can't find it any more
Great video... although my father was a SAAB owner & the dealership was only round the corner from our house (I almost lived there) ... I couldn't convinced him to buy that 900 Turbo I lusted after.... will never forget that wrap-round windscreen :-)
I loved my ‘86 4dr 900. Living in Connecticut, they were everywhere! Quirky, but extremely solid! I’m still mad at what GM did to them… GM: - “We’re a huge corporation who wants to buy your operation.” Saab: - “Wonderful!! Here are improvements we’d like to implement to our line.” GM: - “Whoa, whoa. That sounds expensive. Here’s a Vauxhall Vectra; Build off of that!” Saab: - “But… then why did you buy us?”
Part of the reasoning was that GM identified that a Saab 900 took around 110 production hours to build, whereas a Vectra took around 25-30 hours. They thought that the way ahead was to build something based on the Vectra, rather than engage in the futile task of knocking 80-odd build hours off an all-new Saab design.
GM gave them a perfectly capable and reliable Vectra ECU (or Engine brain) then Saab engineers spent time and money reverse engineering it when they should have been concentrating on the main priority which was survival.
Thank you so much! Makes me miss our dark blue 1983 900 3 door 115hp manual shift. The car my wonderful wife learned to drive a stick with - and enjoyed it!
A very good and very clear explanation. I was always intrigued by Saab but lived where it wasn't sold. Then after moving to the Netherlands, my new dutch g/f had a Saab 900 hatch. It was very well put together and I found it innovative in a number of respects. It was nice and solid to drive too, but lacked oomph - speed and agility. BTW: Alfa Romeo Giulia: It's pronounced 'Julia' !
Thanks for sharing your home base. For some reason I always thought you were in the UK. Not only because of your wonderfully calming accent but also that you feature so many Europe only cars.
The 9000 was also a great car. Faster and more interior space in a shorter car than the 900. Nice handling with a good chassis, lots of comfort and good build quality. Very underrated! Not such a drivers car as the 900, but arguably a better all rounder.
I agree. I had a well-worn 9000i which was a real cruiser. Even though it had done 320.000 Km, the servo steering was still so accurate that you could steer the car with just your thumb when cruising A-roads at 80 Kmph, and the (leather) seeats were so comfortable that I managed to do a 650 Km non-stop stint from Stockholm to Helsingborg in around six hours. Now I drive a 2004 93t Sport Sedan, one of the most beautiful Saabs ever made, black and with white leather seats. It's a nice car, too, but it's not as "Sabbsk" as the 9000, and I will probably put it up for sale in a couple of weeks when my Saab mechanic has replaced the rear disk brakes and the car is approved at the bi-annual inspection, simply because i use it too little (just 5000 Km per year). I've also tried the original 900 16V Turbo a couple of times. Fun to drive, and indredibly fast mid-accelerations, but not as comfortably on long trips as the 9000.
@@DrLoverLover Errr what ?. The B202 in the 9000 was designed in 1982 to 1984 and released in late 1984. It evolved into the then later B204 and B234. So no idea where your getting 1960's engine from. And crap ?, they are super reliable and massively over-engineered. A standard engine with no modifications can be tuned to 400-500bhp with just bigger injectors and turbos. It is one of the most reliable 4cyl engines ever made.
What a machine! :D Always had a soft spot for the old 900, somehow its aesthetics were able to mix a design that was both classic and modern at the same time, even today it looks like a fine car! :D Superb video as always! :D
Great video. thanks. We had a ton of Saabs growing up...every era of Saab. My favorite was the 79 Turbo! 4 spd manual, sunroof, 5 door (Hatchback). Took the Turbo forever to spool up but when it did, it was lots of fun feeling it kick in.
If only Saab had done a deal with BL. Both companies had an incredible ability to produce innovative designs on a limited budget and had a slice of the executive market. Then again, there would have been no Rover R8. I'm so sad that both these clever yet troubled marques no longer exist.
Had three of the cars shown. Went from a Rover 2600 to a Dolomite 1850HL to a SAAB 900 turbo 8v hatch when I was 18/19. I miss the SAAB and would have a red over grey 16v if I could afford to have a car collection.
Yes.... I had a saab 9000 h plate bought for 160quid. It was awesome with so many luxuries.... however the big ends were goin hence 160 quid. Then I went to the scrappy to find an engine due its ace condition. I found another saab 9000.... one I've never seen before . It was an f plate - wasn't a turbo but it was gold and black. Its lights were slightly smaller.... the grill black instead of silver. A black duck tail spoiler with the lights continuing through the length of the boot via a fake sticker thing... it had 170k on the same 2ltr engine and was auto. It had no mot but the scrappy let me have it for 100quid. It passed mot right out! I've never seen another one. Tried looking om the net. Nothing. Black and gold with gold wheels too.... sadly a white van man wrote it off.... his name "Mr grub!" How appropriate. Anyway I was gutted. Many years later running my channel a subscriber bought us a saab 93 convertible. I loved it....but guess what.... Big ends killed it.... a common problem from that engine. I have links on my channel should you wish to see me pick it up and blog with it via music vids etc. It was a turbo as well... Forever grateful for that from my subscriber who sadly passed away from cancer. Again I have links if you wish to view the blogs....anyone reading this. Just ask. Best wishes. Riley
Good review! The Mk1 900 was the one & only true SAAB. Especially in it's latest facelift, before GM came in, was quite a stylish & individual car (exterior/interior )
I still have my third 900 in superb original condition, but here I want to sing praises for the 1987 Saab 9000 I once owned. If ever one could fall in love with the philosophy of thoughtful design, then I was head over heels obsessed with the 9000. Its spaciousness, ambiance, and mile eating comfort put a grin on my face. Even nice touches such as the beautifully laid out instruments, lighting and the fuse panel in the glove box were "turn-ons." When it came time to buy a new car, Saab no longer existed. I told the Audi dealer my regrets about this, and that Audi was my second choice as a result. I miss the 9000 very much; nothing has been able to replace it for me. As an airline pilot, appreciation of instrument panel layout was a given. My 900 still gives me great solace though.
My first car was a Saab 90 - nice to see it featured in one of your videos! Also, here in Sweden, the 900 was always more of a peoples car than an all out luxury car - I still find it weird to think of it as one, however much I like the 900...
Exactly, when I moved to Scotland I noticed Volvo and Saab were like luxury cars. I mean, just like you, I'm a Swede and will always see Saab and Volvo as I see Ford and Vauxhall cars in the UK. Cars for the people as if you want luxury, you get BMWs or MB cars.
@@VinDieselS70 - made me remeber that I did a free-lance interview with the then Saab-designer Jason Castriota for Auto Motor & Sport at the 2010 LA Autoshow. I found it so strange and quite funny that he refered to the old Saabs (92, 93, 95, 96) as small premium/luxury cars! For me, they were allways the basic peoples-cars of Sweden. Sure, well built, but still at the bottom of the food chain...
I still have a '91 Saab 900 2.1i (3 door) and I really like it. However, I recently bought a Saab 9000 CSE 2.3t. And oh my, the level of over-engineering and build quality is next level compared to the 900.
Massive appreciation from a huge Saab fan and owner of the last gen 9-3 from Russia! Really looking forward to the announced video about the later models!
@@BigCar2 I had assumed you lived in Britain, that's quite the plot twist! ;) Have you found yourself picking up American pronunciations to be better understood in day-to-day conversation? E.g., Asking a waiter for WaRDer instead of WaTer. Or saying caN't with a sharp N instead of caRN't.
@@TassieLorenzo I definitely use the "waRDer" trick to be understood. I once asked for "water". The waiter looked confused, then 5 minutes later his manager came over asking what type of whisky I wanted! Working in software, I still say "prohsess" instead of "prowcess". And "rowter" instead of "rooter".
Thanks for the memories, I had an early 900 five door glen here in oz and surprised a visiting student from Japan that we could carry his brand new surf board to the airport on the inside!
Honestly I think it's unfair to say that GM was the death of Saab. Hear me out. Because if GM hadn't bought them in the nineties, Saab would've probably stopped existing right there and then. Saab was just a difficult company to keep afloat. The quirky way the cars were designed meant they cost a lot of money during development. But the low sales numbers meant that getting your investment back was difficult. GM at least tried to cut development costs by building Saabs on a shared platform, like the Volkswagen is now doing with its MQB platform (which has Skoda, Seat, Audi, Volkswagen, you name it on it). GM gave us the (pretty terrible) 900NG. But also the much more loved 9-3 and 9-5. The 9-2X and the 9-7X are some weird last ditch efforts to boost sales and, well, at least they tried 'something'. The last 2010 9-5NG and 9-4X SUV were serious contenders. But in the end Saabs were just a tough sell. Because they were asking Audi money for what people saw as a modified Opel. And they sold them in Porsche numbers. Combined with the fact that the only people who would buy Saabs were not regular customers, but rather just the Saab enthusiasts, made that GM ultimately had no option but to sell Saab when the 2008 recession hit. Of course the Americans from Detroit weren't the best parents for the weird, quirky Swedish car brand we all love. But without them Saab's final model would've been the 900 we all just looked at.
Good video. I owned and drove a 96, a 900 flat front turbo coupe, a 9000 and a 93 convertible. The 900 was rock solid, charismatic and fun. I did 300.000 km+ with it, sometimes on terrible roads, camping out in the back, but no major problems. It never let me down, the original gearbox, engine, turbo, steering rack, springs etc all doing fine. The 9000 was smooth and civilised, but more fragile and suffering expensive electronic bugs. The 93 is a pleasant, easily loved, understated convertible, though more mainstream and missing the independent character of the original 900.
In the mid 1980s, my wife’s older sister was in a relationship with an Italian, who we thought of as a member of the jet set. A lovely guy, Franco was lead salesman for an Italian agricultural company. He turned up one visit in a jet black Saab 900 Turbo, in which he drove the four of us from Guildford to the girls’ parents home in Devon. He had no respect for the speed limits. It was among the most thrilling and frightening drives I’ve ever had. He tailgated, he overtook in marginal situations and he took rural A roads at speeds that even I, a young motorcyclist, used to enjoying taking risks for their own sake, found alarming. It didn’t help that, as we progressed further west, it began to snow. We got there in the dark, the final few miles seeing Franco muttering & peering forward, while again & again spooling up the turbo hard out of every roundabout and junction. For all his aggressive driving, we had not a single “moment” in the entire journey. Having arrived, Franco reverted to his normal charming, urbane style. I resolved to decline any further journeys with him as pilot. During the following year, he asked if I’d look after his car while he made a sales tour to the United States & would I please take it to the Saab dealer in Guildford for its service? Of course I would. I only drove a Saab 900 Turbo once. I recall the ignition switch was on the floor between the seats. It had a very solid feel to it that was never matched until I owned a German saloon , 20 years later. It was also a very good looking car. Was it particularly fast? Compared to the first car I bought, a very tatty Ford Escort MkII estate, it certainly was. Mostly it went fast because that’s what Italian men did, all the time, over 40 years ago. Good video, this. Enjoyed it very much.
The title is a bit misleading. The B engine from 1972 onward was no longer a Triumph engine and certainly not by the time the 900 came along. Saab thoroughly revised it, ironing out the inherent flaws the original Triumph engine was burdoned with, the major one being the construction of the cylinder head which was prone to warp when overheating and the bolts were partly slanted making it almost impossible to remove the head. For all intents and purposes, the B engine was of Saab's own construction, and by extension, so was the H engine.
@@johnburns4017 i owned and drove the Triumph engine. It was unreliable because it overheated. Suggesting that SAAB did a "few" tweaks raises the question as to why Triumph didn't do the "few" tweaks.
@@johnburns4017 And how many of the Triumph engines have you owned and driven? It was a very good teapot. Very stressful driving in summer with the heater on full to help cool the engine.
Great video. I had a 1984 900 Turbo which was only just run-in when the company sold it at 90,000 miles. Followed it with a 9000 Turbo. Smoother turbo response, quieter, roomier, but the change from double wishbone front suspension to Macpherson strut did affect the handling - you always knew exactly where you were in the 900. Also, I loved the hefty clunk of the 900 doors. My wife, after nearly 40-odd years sometimes remarks on that feeling of safety that gave her. There were so many thoughtful and brilliant design features in that car, like locking the transmission in reverse when parking (this stopped a London car compound copper in his tracks once), and the ability to deliver fresh air to the face and warm air to the feet. Just looking at the shots of the dashboard makes me feel very nostalgic (today I drive a VW Touran, still going strong at 120,000 and with a bit of the same driver appeal). But it's not the same.
Enjoyable video. I learned to drive in my mother's 99 and drove my father's 900 turbo during the late 70s/early 80s, so I have a soft spot for these cars. Touching on the Fiat partnership, a Saab 600 was marketed in the Nordic countries, basically a badge-engineered Lancia Delta, with all the rust issues associated with Italian cars of that era. Not sure if any survive up here now! However I think it was a foretaste of what was to become of the Saab brand under GM ownership,
@@pistonburner6448 That’s wrong. The same thing nearly happened to Mercedes because it isn’t profitable if the car is to good. Because then it is to expensive to make. That’s why older Mercedes cars are more reliable then newer ones.
@@erik5589 Incorrect. You assume that being unprofitable automatically means = the car is too good. Companies are unprofitable for a variety of reasons, some of them being: not having enough production volume, not designing the cars intelligently enough, having inferior products which aren't in high enough demand, not catering to your customer base well enough, etc... There's all kinds of reasons. It's absolutely certain that Saabs weren't "too good" as it was far from making the best cars, and certainly wasn't making its cars the most expensive way as it was even cheaping out with their inferior fwd-platform type, 4-cylinder engines only, etc. etc.
@@pistonburner6448 I‘m sorry I didn’t explain it correctly I didn’t want to say that a car company’s bankruptcy is necessarily a result of making to good cars. I wanted to say that that was the case for Saab. As far as I know was especially the Saab 900 far ahead of its time and most of the other Saab cars were really well engineered which isn’t the case for newer cars anymore.
@@erik5589 Yeah, in my opinion or according to my assessment they had the unfortunate combination of spending a lot on some things, then using cheap solutions in others (like only having limited model range and only fwd cars with 4-cyl engines). I mean did you hear that they wasted a huge amount of GM's resources by designing their own GPS navigation system instead of just using the GM stuff which was right there for them to use... Really many people, even people like my father who had owned 4 Saabs in the past, once up to a certain budget did not feel that fwd 4-cyl cars could cut it. And Saab was pretty much gone before I got old enough to even consider their cars...there were some around still of course, but they did not appeal to young people. I've never bought a fwd car and never will.
Nice video.. I worked at SAAB when the "New 900" was shown to the press for the first time. My last assignment at the company before getting laid off in -93 was to help fix the press cars so they would be in a proper good condition before the press got their hands om them. I especially remeber that there was a "squeeke" from the lower control arrms in the front sub frame and we had to take it apart and stick a couple of washers in there to remove the noise. Every car choosen to be a press car had a list of things that needed to be fixed and some of the jobs were quite involed requiring us to take "half the car" apart to fix. But, officially of course, all the cars were ready to be delivered directly to the customer straight off of the production line :)
I regret never having owned a Saab. Drove a couple (900's) but never a turbo. Until they were slowly destroyed by GM, they held their value well, Young idiot me could afford a 10 year old Audi 80, but not a similar vintage Saab.
As much as I hate GM, Saab would have done Dodo without them - ultimately though it was GM's failure to understand the brand; they should have just made a Saab, a big Cadillac, the Corvette, the Silverado and Syclone/Typhoon.
As a child, I would look into the Triumph showrooms at the Dolomite. It was the British BMW. When serving in Germany, I bought a SAAB 99 Turbo. What a car! Heated seats, Espacher Petrol heater and great performance and tractability in the snow. In 1989 I managed to buy a one owner fully dealer serviced Dolomite. The cars were very different but shared some lineage. I loved them both!
Thank you for displaying my (then) 900 Enduro, and portions of my video. A mention would have been nice, but I’m not overly precious about these things. Great channel, thanks as always.
I put an attribution in the lower left corner of the video. I would have put a link but I seem to recall the original link in your video was no longer up. Sorry to cause offence, I try to attribute and link in the description when I can. Is there a link I can add?
There's something about the 99/900 Saabs that none of the later Saabs or other cars can duplicate. Nothing feels the same. Some combination of the interior proportions, the curved windshield, the space, the ride etc. make for a unique Saabiness that was lost in the GM platform successor.
The SAAB 900 the LAST, TRUE, SWEDISH designed SAAB! The "99" was DECADES ahead of it's time! The HUGE, ITALIAN influenced "9000" was a TERRIBLE car by comparison. The "99" and "900" were magnificent! They were: SAFE, PRACTICAL, ROOMY, and in the "ARAB OIL EMBARGO" 1970's VERY economical too! It got GREAT milage compared to its competitors!!! These were amazingly "far looking" cars and included a practical, exhaust driven, TURBOCHARGER too! They were AMAZING AUTOS!!! UNTIL... THE ITALIAN MERGER ENDED THAT FOREVER!!! "SEXY" won out over "PRACTICALITY OF USE AND OPERATION". UGH..WAYTAGO "FELLINI FANS"!!! THE PREMATURE DEATH OF THE BRAND WAS INEVITABLE!!! PITY. PS: SAAB AUTO was bought by a speculator who, predictably, was unable to sustain production and development. "GEBERAL MOTORS" the USA's HUGE conglomerate saw a bargain and picked it up to compete with it's great rival "FORD" who'd already gone on a buying spree acquiring old, venerable brands like "JAGUAR" amongst others. "GM" predictably tried to "rebadge" it's own products, like a CHEVY "BABY BLAZER" SUV, as a SAAB product! It wasn't in ANY way. When the "GO GO" economy of the late 90's ENDED in a "crash" that spelled the final end for SAAB as an automaker. A real shame! SAAB in many ways echoed another, very innovative but failed AMERICAN car maker... "TUCKER". PRESTON TUCKER was a dreamer and a visionary. His sedan was ALSO decades ahead of it's time with many innovations which would someday become MANDATORY as standard equipment in ALL autos either built or imported into the USA. SAAB was such a brand! I lift my glass of "AQUAVIT" in salute and fond memory to you SAAB of SWEDEN!
My first car was a 1986 900 SPG and I still miss it. Perfect for the PNW and shockingly good in the snow, even with the bald summer tires I had. Really wish I could find a 99 turbo but they're pretty rare at this point.
Great video! This one of the hero cars of my youth and I love it how you talk about rather normal cars, while the internet is already full of exotic stuff. And let people talk about minor mistakes or whatever. Your vids are something I am really looking forward too! Those vids will be a source of information for many years to come and people will still watch this in many, many years.
Missing Saab; in Spain were very rare and only 3 door till mid 80s; the local dealer in Barcelona was on my way to Arts School and I've got fascinated in spring 1981 when I saw a black Saab 900 Turbo 4 doors for the first time; I even took friends over.
Great to see this right after watching Jason’s Saab 900 Turbo video on Hagerty. Great insight in this video, I always love your deep dives to answer all the questions I hadn’t even thought to ask about automotive history. From one Seattle local to another, keep up the great work! Love your videos!
After 3Volvos(2 240 and a 740) ,i made my dream comes true in 2018. A 900 NG 1996. After a couple of weeks ,i lost the exhaust muffer. Never put a new one.Wonderful sound until the car went to the scrapyard. Unforgeatable memories.Never had a car that sticked so much to the ground during stiff curves.
Thanks for this. As I mentioned before I sold Saturn, and in Canada this was the franchise Saturn Saab Isuzu. So I sold them from 1995 to 2007. In Canada, at least, the first generation lasted until 1994, with 1995 being the first year of the second generation - except the convertible that lasted until 1995. So, yes I sold these. I can’t wait for your second generation / 9-3 video, as well as Saab 9000. Finally, thanks for the Saturn video you suggested. Some omissions but otherwise good. I enjoyed this.
SAAB cars and SAAB owners are in my opinion a special "breed" of car people. Not in a bad way but special as they are very different from other car brands and car people and that is avery genuine experience I have seen over many years since I was a little kid growing up in the late 80's. SAAB are fine cars indeed, but you will have to have that special "SAAB mentality" to fully appreciate it as they work in there unique own way. I would never myself buy or own a SAAB, but non the less I give my respect to the brand itself and its owners. In general, SAAB owners really care for there cars! Heck I lived just a year ago near a guy who owned freakin 28 SAAB cars on his property !!!!
My first "real" car was a 4 year old SAAB 900 & it was so reliable that I had it for 12 years, the only reason I got rid of it was the end of leaded fuel. I had it so long that some people thought I'd bought another that was exactly the same! I could drive it all day because it was so comfortable & ergonomic. I'd have kept it years longer if it could have used unleaded.
@@DrRock2009 Once I had to use unleaded mine knocked no matter what & fuel consumption went through the floor. Performance dropped, too. I wasn't the only one that this happened to & SAAB dealer told me that my engine wasn't going to last long like this.
Thanks for this retrospective of this very important model for Saab ! The Saab I remember from my teenage years! The sound of the Turbo on this big engine! Love it!
My neighbour had a 900 turbo when I was a young boy in early 90’s.i could count on 1hand the amount of times I have seen them up to this day in West Yorkshire in the UK.must of always been pretty rare over here.
Great video - very well researched and presented. The SAAB 900 classic is one of my favourite cars - especially in 3dr Aero form - I would have loved to have owned one!
Great video. Currently driving my 4th (black) Saab, a SportCombi from '08. Holds all my music gear, most notably my orchestra bass. Gotta fit that or the trio of keys plus amp (piano, organ, synth), or the drum set and eBass rig, gotta be manual trans, gotta have HP, gotta be relatively small and sit as a car. Also just love the way they look and drive.
I bought a new Saab 99 in '72 or '73, I can't remember exactly but it was a great car, never had any problems in over 100,000 miles. Then I got a used Saab 96 with the V-4 engine, i loved that car, great in the snow and fun to drive.
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
As a life-long, 50-year Pacific Northwesterner, I can vouch that Saabs are surprisingly well-represented region-wide even years after the demise of the marque. Here in Portland, Oregon, we continue to have a Saab dealer (who maintains a stock of gently-used cars that have been reconditioned to factory-new shape) with factory-trained Saab mechanics and a huge stock of Saab parts purchased from other (now defunct) Saab dealers. Thanks for this great video!
Whatttt? Where is it? I’d love to check it out next time I’m in Portland!
Down here in the South they’ve significantly thinned out. Still have a lot of Oldsmobile cutlasses though
You said surprising, but if someone said "Hey, guess which US city still has an active Saab dealership" I'm pretty sure I'd say Portland. How are you guys doing for Volvos, as a matter of interest?
@@andrewkatz3845 twin cities MN also still has a Saab dealer and several qualified repair garages
Never used Gary small, but there are still some good Saab service providers here. T-Scandia is my current go to shop.
Nicely put together and very accurate. Im an ex SAAB Master Technician, did my apprenticeship on 900's in 1988 and worked for them for 14yrs before starting The SAAB Clinic. 900's Are great. I had a late 1992 classic 900i in just last week, non turbo convertible. What an amazing car to drive, i had really forgot how well they drive. 9000's are also great. I have a 1997 9000 Aero 2.3T with 360bhp which i cover 800 miles a week in !.
The 2.3 is 5 cylinders? Anyhow Saab were excellently made. Sweden stuff at their best
Must cost a fortune with petrol at 1.50
A late SAAB 900 convertible is still on my shortlist of lottery win cars. It's around 30 years since they were sold new and yet the desire for one has still not faded. That speaks volumes for that brand and that series.
@@zairomolino4074 No, Saab never made a 5cyl engine.
@@markwilliams5654 Nope. 830 Miles total this week, 41.3mpg average. All my fuel is paid for anyway, but still great that a 25yr old Saab with 360bhp does 40mpg average.
Errata: "Descendants", not "Ancestors" in the intro.
Alfa Romeo "Gweeya" should be "Julia". Bing Translate failed me!
Also, there aren't many cars with "16 valves per cylinder"! Rather the 16V were spread out over all four cylinders.
The photo that was supposed to be Erik Carlsson is actually of Per Eklund.
Here is an idea: get in contact with Doug DeMuro and do a video together. That should be fun to see.
I must say, I did shudder when I heard you pronounce it like that lol
I believe it is called Giulia (pronounced Julia )
😅😂🤣🤣
That and the Swedish ö is like the German one( think "Hermann..."). or the œ in hors d'œuvre.
5:19 It’s a pity designers of modern cars don’t take note of SAAB’s philosophy for interior controls.
Central touch screens that take ever increasing times to navigate around menus to perform even simple functions are definitely a retrograde step when it comes to safety. 😡
I can't believe they are like that today but they are. For example Tesla having the speedometer in the middle and not in the sight of the driver!
Exactly. Knobs that you can use without looking at them are much safer,.
While ergonomics and designed user-interfaces were a big thing back in the 1980s, sadly, in the 2000s the concept of design has gone out the window. Just look at the user-interface on smartphone Apps, which you'd think was thrown together by a particularly clumsy (and dim-witted) ten year old. I was trained in user-interface design, back in the '80s, but haven't seen any job advertisements for those skills in many a long year.
It baffles me that gm doesnt use saabs connectors. Its far better than the crap they have now.
Never use that shit while driving. Do not text and drive! Same principle. YOU are driving, YOU get the fatal accidents. Pull over somewhere safe. Are you all duh?!
Much as I love my Volvos, there will always be a place in my heart for Saab. Have driven quite a few 900s; super comfortable cars. Great video!
Same here.
like me - much as I was a Saab man all my life, we always had at least one good (older) Volvo among our Saabs... the one I loved the most was my wife's 740 GL station wagon ... great car.
that makes 2 of us !
240 4cyl red lock for ever
@@CaptainZG 740 great car if you never have to replace heater core. My daughter has a 740 turbo and I have to admit it's a good car except for that.
This is one of the most informative videos about Saab that I've ever seen.... incredible history of the entire manufacturing of the Saabs....I absolutely love it.... Thank you endlessly. Let's push the Saab engineers to Launch the new Saab Opening....They most bring back this extraordinary most advanced vehicle ever created.... please make your voice and ours heard!!!
In the 90's my wife had one of the last runout 900's in the UK. She could *only just* afford it on her company car allowance. She loved it - it was a big step up from the Astra she had before and a great car for bopping up and down the M4 between Theale and London.
When I was looking for a car the next year, the excellent Saab dealer persuaded me into leasing a Saab 9000, the first new car I'd ever had. I cried the first time I drove it, because it was *so expensive* - the most I'd ever spent on a car ever - but I drove it all over the south of England doing my contract/consult business and just toally fell in love with it too! It was so big my wife called it my 'ship'! But it was an amazing car do do the long commutes to and from customer sites. In the end I only had it a year, closed the lease due to a change in our circumstances, but I have never forgotten that car, or my wife's 900. We moved (back) to Australia and our next car was - a 9-3 convertible! Another fantastic car that had people stopping to take their picture with it and ask to sit in it.
Wow, people stopped you for a picture in a 9-3 ? That had only replaced the 900 series convertible. They ( convertibles ) still had a bit of a Yuppie status back then..
I drove a ‘93 900 turbo convertible from ‘97-2000 as well.. all around the Bay Area.. put 77 thousand miles on it.. loved it.. loved that automatic top and stick.. had great pick up and go and everything was within super easy reach. Had heated seats.. something else no one had. I wish I would have kept it.. but when Saab dealerships disappeared I got worried about maintenance.. that was 20 year old me speaking.. I had no idea I could fix anything.. and RUclips wasn’t yet bringing everyone automotive knowledge. Pretty much every car I’ve ever had I wish I had kept except for the jeep compass. Anyhow, cheers to your wife.. I relate 100%. Was hers English green or red? I had a black one
She had a green one 😊
My dad had one, 1995,wheelspinned in 1st and 2nd gear, barely rusted and lasted forever.
Its honestly one of the best sabs he's ever driven.
If rainy with studded tires mine wheelspins 4th, low end power is frickin insane, way too much for FWD
I drove a '79 Saab 900 turbo just out of high school and loved that car and its relative ease of maintenance. I got that car for super cheap, because the woman selling it had just been divorced and she wanted that car to go, just to piss off her ex. My win, as that car was such a peach! Great mileage w/ excellet performance, you just needed to keep the engine in the higher RPMs to keep the slanted four banger producing power. They hadn't quite figured out the turbo lag issue w/ their first turbo units, but my friend was a real mechanical wiz and he introduced me to waste gates and down pipes. What a game changer, w/ nearly instant power when mashing the GO pedal. I sold that car for four times what I paid for it and bought a brand new Triumph TR8, cause that wedge shape was just too cool and it had an aluminum V8. Wish I had kept my reliable old Saab.
My 1991 900S 3-door was without a doubt the best car I have ever owned. Anthracite grey. My current 2001 Viggen convertible (and other 9-3s I've had) is poor in the snow but a 0-60 of 6.0 sec and top of 160mph. I've owned eight SAABs, the first I bought at 16 was a 1972 99LE. 24:34 is exactly how it looked (except for the removed headrests). I'd love to put a Trionic 7 motor into a SAAB 90.
Poor in snow with Michelin Pilot summer rubber. Lol, quite the opposite with proper winter tires.
One of your best videos ever. Saab was indeed a fine and desirable brand in its day but unfortunately too small to survive as an independent. To me the Gen 1 900 represents the best of Saab and they lost something when the much less appealing Gen 2 arrived. I visited a Saab dealer in 2003 (two dusty cars shoved at the back of a tacky prefab Chevrolet showroom for a supposedly premium brand!) as I was interested in the new 9-3. It was obvious that they had all but given up so I went and bought another Volvo instead.
All time favorite, the 900! Drive them since 1990. never regret it. Love your channel!
I've owned 5 Saabs, I loved every second behind the wheel of those cars. BEST CAR EVER MADE.
Great video ! Exactly 6 weeks ago I bought a classic 900 S Convertible 1992 (colour 'citrix-beige') that was imported fom the USA in 1999. I think from California, because the Saab is almost stainless (free from rust). It's a magnificent car and I'm proud of it !
I had a Saab 900S here in the US. I really loved that car. It had the 5 speed manual transmission and those flashy angle spoke wheels. Jet black paint and a sunroof. Car was fast, drove solid, and got even better in cold weather. It was so comfortable too. You felt like you were sitting in dining room height chairs! Heated seats, nice head rests and visibility through the wrap around windscreen were top notch. Thank you for the video, it brought back a lot of good memories of the car and how different it was compared to other makes.
Another great video. I loved the 900 Turbo, always fancied one but never got to own one. It's amazing how often the Triumph Dolomite is referenced in stories on cars, it must've been ahead of its time!
As a life-time SAAB aficionado, I appreciate your approach to the SAAB 99>900 evolution. The references to the Ricardo-Triumph engine are fine to a point. Once the Swedes developed this engine, it was far from the original, crooked head-bolts Ricardo design. All it maintained was the original architecture.
My best tech could replace an N/A 99 or 900 clutch disc in 25 minutes!
Maybe replace a 900 clutch disc in that time, certainly not a complete clutch and certainly not a 99 clutch
Thanks for bringing that up. I was just going to write it. The Saab development of the old Triumph engine was a really good engine compared to the original Triumph engine. Ive owned both versions and many 99´s are still rolling here in sweden.
@@thomascatford2627 However, it can be done very fast. Less than 1 hour. And to change the disc you have to remove the complete clutch anyway. Its easy because the gearbox dont have to be removed at all.
@@TT.Hell. iim an old timer and worked on saabs 95/96/99/90/ 900 1978 till 2001, i would challenge you to fit a complete clutch including slave cyl to a 99 in under an hour, if you dont know how to change the clutch disc without removing the cover plate you should do some research
@@TT.Hell. the triumph type engine was originally a 1709cc then 1854cc they were good reliable units if maintained properly.
Thanks for the historical video. I owned a 1990 900 S and was a wonderful car while in college. Many years later I bought a 2003 9-3 Vector and was probably one of the best cars I ever owned, Zero turbo lag and a head turner for compliments. I ended my Saab ownership with the 2011 family 9-3 wagon in AWD. Unfortunately, GM had ruined Saab by then and the quality was poop. I was able to get a buy back offer. I bought a 2013 buick Regal GS with a turbo. Miss those cars!
Excellent video, and I've always liked Saab's. One interesting fact, when Tiffany had her number one hit 'I think we're alone now', she was asked on a Saturday Morning TV Show (it wasn't Saturday Superstore, it was on ITV) what she was going to buy first now that she had a number one, she replied 'a black Saab Turbo' . I'll never forget that, she suddenly became ultra cool to me and yes, I bought her record.👍🏻😉
Wonder if she did. She certainly had good taste in cars.
Not sure she got it. She was a two hit wonder (or three hits with the Beatles cover).
@@BigCar2 I still want to buy a good 900SPG someday. White, not the usual black over black. There are a slew of Saab people more than willing to maintain them. I had driven one in the mid 2000s when I had moved to Oregon, and it was quite the car - before GM bled them to death money-wise to the point we all know when they were re-badged Subaru wagons. GM did them no favors being so parsimonious about spending capital to keep the firm going, and it's sad.
Check out The Human Leagues video for "Don't You Want Me". I'm not sure whose Saab starred in it.
It was Phil Oakeys! I think it’s still running today
1:30 that was a great idea. When a friend got a used 9000 and showed it to me, he said: "Stroke the bumber here". When I did, I felt minor unevenness. And he said smiling: "Well the Polo that hit it is totally broke".
Me being Finnish, Saab stories are always interesting, as some of them were built here :)
My dad even had a 1976 Saab 99 in the 80's for two years. At first as a secondary car and last year as our only car. I remember reading the Saab customer magazine, where they showed all the newest updates to Saab 900. We had the 99 from 1986 to 1988, so I guess during that time the 900 received the newer front end styling.
Sadly those magazines are gone by now. Would be fun to read them now :)
Often the Saabs built in Uusikaupunki/Nystad had better build quality than the Swedish built cars.
@@marcusjosefsson4998 This may well be true or at least many classic Saab owners say so. Perhaps, no wonder that the convertibles were built in Finland. Also heard of better rust proofing on Finnish built examples.
@@zoltanvarga1606 True. They were not as prone to rust as the others.
I’ve never even driven a Saab but I really had a respect for the brand with its innovations in safety and performance. It’s such a shame that it’s no longer in business
Buy a secondhand Saab. Why not? Take care you buy one that got great maintenance, do not buy a bad one. Nobody likes worn out this and worn out that, unless the price was low.
GM killed Saab by turning down the deal with the Chinese because of its fear of Chinese competition. Yet, GM now sells more cars in China than in the States since 2012. Go figure!
Great video and a story well told. I have a 900 convertible now after 99 and 900 and virtually grew up in SAAB‘s. There IS something special about them and you managed to capture just that.
178k subscribers! I subscribed when there was only a few hundred, this channel is criminally undersubscribed. The content is extremely well researched and your choice of cars is excellent, so far.
Glad you've been here so long Marky!
A Black Saab 900 Turbo was my absolute favourite saloon in the 80's. Would love to find the opportunity to drive one today. Top video.
The video, we all been waiting for the legendary Saab 900, as always a great video and thanks for the effort.
Great timing with Jason Cammisa's review :)
Very interesting about the "AUSTIN" and "TRIUMPH" connection. Never knew that!
I drove several Saab 99's in Finland, I loved them. Even got to drive several 2 stroke noticed ones. They had some nice curves on them
One of our neighbors while I was growing up, who was recently retired orthodontist, bought a new 4 door turbo.
He maintained it meticulously and it was always garaged.
It looked like a year old car when he passed away after owning it for twenty years and it didn't even have 40k miles. One of his grandson's inherited it and within a year totaled it while playing Erik Carlson on icy roads.
I live in Connecticut where Saab’s are still seen on the roads daily, Saab’s were always popular in New England because they’re great in snow and built extremely well. I’ve got lots of family in Sweden and Norway where you still see lots of Saab’s, even really old ones. The Sonnet sports cars are still on the road there.
I own a 9000, but I always drool over the 900 everytime I see them, would love to try them or own one someday, (it is getting really expensive compared to 9000).
Will never forget my dad's SAAB 9000CSE! Such a shame SAAB aren't still around today, another tradgedy along with Rover.
The 900 shows what happens when a car is in production for too long. When it came out, its competitor was e.g the BMW 323i E21. Then the E30 came and went, and in 1993 you had the BMW 325i and M3 E36. Only a few people at that time prefered the Saab anymore, as sales numbers show.
At least in Germany, from the mid 80ies onwards the 900 was seen as a quirky car, mainly bought by architects, intellectuals and people who didn't want a BMW or Mercedes. And of course the convertible as a second car for the wife or children of rich people.
The 9000 had an even tougher time from the start and was rejected even by many Saab fans. At that time the Alfa 164 with its 3l Busso engine was a much more desirable alternative to a BMW 535i or Mercedes 300E.
But fast forward to today and everybody smiles when seeing a 900 😃
Imo, the 9000 CS is the better 'saab' tough. The level of over engineering is unreal. Plus that B234zl engine.. ❤
I Agree, Why buy anything else When there was the BMW e30 in the Showrooms ?
Even the e30 316 was a Brilliant car.
Then Came the BMW e34, Way Better than the e30.
Still Today i Run a BMW e34 525i SE Manual, with the M50 engine. from 1995, 26 Years old & no Probs at 130,000 miles. Great Car All round.
My secret is :-
I have an e34 520i SE manual & i Prefer My 520 to my 525, Same car Same Year. Same Engine less 500cc & 42 bhp. & Still a BMW 6 Cyl Inline 6.
And the Merc 190E . another Great car.
too long ? How about the Beetle ?
@@A1DJPaul In Sweden of course BMW was not the enemy, but the excellent Volvo 850 which outclassed the 900 in every way.
The Volvo 240 stayed in production for just as long though, and the Mini, Beetle and Lada Niva & Riva even longer? :) It can lead to cars becoming iconic.
Stopping quickly is an understatement. I've never driven a car that could stop as hard-and-fast as my sister's 84 900S. You could literally stand on the brake pedal and it would throw you into that curvacious windshield if you weren't setbelted-in.
the RHD offset pedals are something that you get used to after a while and stop noticing. What nobody ever mentions about the 99/900 is how the wiper blades freeze up in winter, making them solid and shaped to match the left-right curvature of the windscreen, so as soon as they move there's only the end points of them touching the glass. It doesn't matter really, but for something developed by a bunch of Swedish people it seems like a significant thing to ignore.
i'm sure i read somewhere that when the 9000 was being developed and people were finding out it was going to have passive rear steering, Lotus asked if they could have a look at it, but i can't find it any more
Great video... although my father was a SAAB owner & the dealership was only round the corner from our house (I almost lived there) ... I couldn't convinced him to buy that 900 Turbo I lusted after.... will never forget that wrap-round windscreen :-)
I loved my ‘86 4dr 900. Living in Connecticut, they were everywhere! Quirky, but extremely solid!
I’m still mad at what GM did to them…
GM: - “We’re a huge corporation who wants to buy your operation.”
Saab: - “Wonderful!! Here are improvements we’d like to implement to our line.”
GM: - “Whoa, whoa. That sounds expensive. Here’s a Vauxhall Vectra; Build off of that!”
Saab: - “But… then why did you buy us?”
Part of the reasoning was that GM identified that a Saab 900 took around 110 production hours to build, whereas a Vectra took around 25-30 hours.
They thought that the way ahead was to build something based on the Vectra, rather than engage in the futile task of knocking 80-odd build hours off an all-new Saab design.
GM gave them a perfectly capable and reliable Vectra ECU (or Engine brain) then Saab engineers spent time and money reverse engineering it when they should have been concentrating on the main priority which was survival.
@@Witheredgoogie people blame GM too much. I believe it’s just the same anti Americanism that pervades in Europe
Thank you so much! Makes me miss our dark blue 1983 900 3 door 115hp manual shift. The car my wonderful wife learned to drive a stick with - and enjoyed it!
A very good and very clear explanation. I was always intrigued by Saab but lived where it wasn't sold. Then after moving to the Netherlands, my new dutch g/f had a Saab 900 hatch. It was very well put together and I found it innovative in a number of respects. It was nice and solid to drive too, but lacked oomph - speed and agility. BTW: Alfa Romeo Giulia: It's pronounced 'Julia' !
Thanks for sharing your home base. For some reason I always thought you were in the UK. Not only because of your wonderfully calming accent but also that you feature so many Europe only cars.
Your brain is shaped by your youth experiences, and as I moved to the US in 1995 it's all Britain in there!
The 9000 was also a great car. Faster and more interior space in a shorter car than the 900. Nice handling with a good chassis, lots of comfort and good build quality. Very underrated! Not such a drivers car as the 900, but arguably a better all rounder.
I agree. I had a well-worn 9000i which was a real cruiser. Even though it had done 320.000 Km, the servo steering was still so accurate that you could steer the car with just your thumb when cruising A-roads at 80 Kmph, and the (leather) seeats were so comfortable that I managed to do a 650 Km non-stop stint from Stockholm to Helsingborg in around six hours.
Now I drive a 2004 93t Sport Sedan, one of the most beautiful Saabs ever made, black and with white leather seats. It's a nice car, too, but it's not as "Sabbsk" as the 9000, and I will probably put it up for sale in a couple of weeks when my Saab mechanic has replaced the rear disk brakes and the car is approved at the bi-annual inspection, simply because i use it too little (just 5000 Km per year).
I've also tried the original 900 16V Turbo a couple of times. Fun to drive, and indredibly fast mid-accelerations, but not as comfortably on long trips as the 9000.
Still a crap 60s engine
@@DrLoverLover Errr what ?. The B202 in the 9000 was designed in 1982 to 1984 and released in late 1984. It evolved into the then later B204 and B234. So no idea where your getting 1960's engine from. And crap ?, they are super reliable and massively over-engineered. A standard engine with no modifications can be tuned to 400-500bhp with just bigger injectors and turbos. It is one of the most reliable 4cyl engines ever made.
Thank goodness you explained where the Pacific Northwest is!!
Everybody has been looking everywhere for it!
What a machine! :D
Always had a soft spot for the old 900, somehow its aesthetics were able to mix a design that was both classic and modern at the same time, even today it looks like a fine car! :D
Superb video as always! :D
Thanks Ruairidh!
Great video. thanks. We had a ton of Saabs growing up...every era of Saab. My favorite was the 79 Turbo! 4 spd manual, sunroof, 5 door (Hatchback). Took the Turbo forever to spool up but when it did, it was lots of fun feeling it kick in.
If only Saab had done a deal with BL. Both companies had an incredible ability to produce innovative designs on a limited budget and had a slice of the executive market. Then again, there would have been no Rover R8. I'm so sad that both these clever yet troubled marques no longer exist.
You can now buy a Donkervoort. If you dare.
Had three of the cars shown. Went from a Rover 2600 to a Dolomite 1850HL to a SAAB 900 turbo 8v hatch when I was 18/19. I miss the SAAB and would have a red over grey 16v if I could afford to have a car collection.
Yes.... I had a saab 9000 h plate bought for 160quid. It was awesome with so many luxuries.... however the big ends were goin hence 160 quid. Then I went to the scrappy to find an engine due its ace condition. I found another saab 9000.... one I've never seen before . It was an f plate - wasn't a turbo but it was gold and black. Its lights were slightly smaller.... the grill black instead of silver. A black duck tail spoiler with the lights continuing through the length of the boot via a fake sticker thing... it had 170k on the same 2ltr engine and was auto. It had no mot but the scrappy let me have it for 100quid. It passed mot right out! I've never seen another one. Tried looking om the net. Nothing. Black and gold with gold wheels too.... sadly a white van man wrote it off.... his name "Mr grub!" How appropriate. Anyway I was gutted.
Many years later running my channel a subscriber bought us a saab 93 convertible. I loved it....but guess what.... Big ends killed it.... a common problem from that engine. I have links on my channel should you wish to see me pick it up and blog with it via music vids etc. It was a turbo as well...
Forever grateful for that from my subscriber who sadly passed away from cancer. Again I have links if you wish to view the blogs....anyone reading this. Just ask.
Best wishes.
Riley
9:42 Absolutely NO reason to apologize! I LOVE the photo! 😍😍😍
Good review! The Mk1 900 was the one & only true SAAB. Especially in it's latest facelift, before GM came in, was quite a stylish & individual car (exterior/interior )
From Sweden I would say that the SAAB 96 was the only true SAAB
Thank You So Much for keeping the Sweden 🇸🇪 made SAAB legacy alive! Many Happy Good Blessings in Return! 🌷🌿🌍💖🕊🇸🇪🇺🇸
I still see a few old 900's out on the road. Saab's definitely had a distinctive Seat Headrest style.
Check out the early 99 headrests, like 1972.
I still have my third 900 in superb original condition, but here I want to sing praises for the 1987 Saab 9000 I once owned. If ever one could fall in love with the philosophy of thoughtful design, then I was head over heels obsessed with the 9000. Its spaciousness, ambiance, and mile eating comfort put a grin on my face. Even nice touches such as the beautifully laid out instruments, lighting and the fuse panel in the glove box were "turn-ons." When it came time to buy a new car, Saab no longer existed. I told the Audi dealer my regrets about this, and that Audi was my second choice as a result.
I miss the 9000 very much; nothing has been able to replace it for me. As an airline pilot, appreciation of instrument panel layout was a given. My 900 still gives me great solace though.
My first car was a Saab 90 - nice to see it featured in one of your videos! Also, here in Sweden, the 900 was always more of a peoples car than an all out luxury car - I still find it weird to think of it as one, however much I like the 900...
Exactly, when I moved to Scotland I noticed Volvo and Saab were like luxury cars. I mean, just like you, I'm a Swede and will always see Saab and Volvo as I see Ford and Vauxhall cars in the UK. Cars for the people as if you want luxury, you get BMWs or MB cars.
@@VinDieselS70 - made me remeber that I did a free-lance interview with the then Saab-designer Jason Castriota for Auto Motor & Sport at the 2010 LA Autoshow. I found it so strange and quite funny that he refered to the old Saabs (92, 93, 95, 96) as small premium/luxury cars! For me, they were allways the basic peoples-cars of Sweden. Sure, well built, but still at the bottom of the food chain...
Exactly, I knew several people who had the 900 working on building sites and just the average shopping car 😅
I also had a 90, didn't know they were built for only 3 years. 😮
The most beautiful product ------ 1987 Saab 900 Turbo 16
I still have a '91 Saab 900 2.1i (3 door) and I really like it.
However, I recently bought a Saab 9000 CSE 2.3t. And oh my, the level of over-engineering and build quality is next level compared to the 900.
This. I have a 97 9000 CSE, I think the 9000 was the peak of engineering for Saab!
Massive appreciation from a huge Saab fan and owner of the last gen 9-3 from Russia! Really looking forward to the announced video about the later models!
Wow, that’s a pure British accent in the Pacific North West 👍. As a Brit, one can detect ones accent 😆
It never really disappeared. Don't know why. PNW is a great place to live though.
Well, he doesn't sound at all American.
How the hell are your state side 😀 never realised! Microsoft? I’ve watched it all and assumed you were in Hampshire or something!
@@BigCar2 I had assumed you lived in Britain, that's quite the plot twist! ;) Have you found yourself picking up American pronunciations to be better understood in day-to-day conversation? E.g., Asking a waiter for WaRDer instead of WaTer. Or saying caN't with a sharp N instead of caRN't.
@@TassieLorenzo I definitely use the "waRDer" trick to be understood. I once asked for "water". The waiter looked confused, then 5 minutes later his manager came over asking what type of whisky I wanted!
Working in software, I still say "prohsess" instead of "prowcess". And "rowter" instead of "rooter".
Thanks for the memories, I had an early 900 five door glen here in oz and surprised a visiting student from Japan that we could carry his brand new surf board to the airport on the inside!
Honestly I think it's unfair to say that GM was the death of Saab. Hear me out. Because if GM hadn't bought them in the nineties, Saab would've probably stopped existing right there and then. Saab was just a difficult company to keep afloat. The quirky way the cars were designed meant they cost a lot of money during development. But the low sales numbers meant that getting your investment back was difficult. GM at least tried to cut development costs by building Saabs on a shared platform, like the Volkswagen is now doing with its MQB platform (which has Skoda, Seat, Audi, Volkswagen, you name it on it). GM gave us the (pretty terrible) 900NG. But also the much more loved 9-3 and 9-5. The 9-2X and the 9-7X are some weird last ditch efforts to boost sales and, well, at least they tried 'something'. The last 2010 9-5NG and 9-4X SUV were serious contenders. But in the end Saabs were just a tough sell. Because they were asking Audi money for what people saw as a modified Opel. And they sold them in Porsche numbers. Combined with the fact that the only people who would buy Saabs were not regular customers, but rather just the Saab enthusiasts, made that GM ultimately had no option but to sell Saab when the 2008 recession hit. Of course the Americans from Detroit weren't the best parents for the weird, quirky Swedish car brand we all love. But without them Saab's final model would've been the 900 we all just looked at.
Great video - love the structure of the first section but then the opinion section took it up to an even higher level. Well done indeed
A really fun car to drive, especially with the turbo engine.
Good video. I owned and drove a 96, a 900 flat front turbo coupe, a 9000 and a 93 convertible. The 900 was rock solid, charismatic and fun. I did 300.000 km+ with it, sometimes on terrible roads, camping out in the back, but no major problems. It never let me down, the original gearbox, engine, turbo, steering rack, springs etc all doing fine. The 9000 was smooth and civilised, but more fragile and suffering expensive electronic bugs. The 93 is a pleasant, easily loved, understated convertible, though more mainstream and missing the independent character of the original 900.
I’d love to see a video on the Volvo XC90, a car that twice “relaunched” Volvo. Anyway, thanks for the great video as usual!
In the mid 1980s, my wife’s older sister was in a relationship with an Italian, who we thought of as a member of the jet set. A lovely guy, Franco was lead salesman for an Italian agricultural company. He turned up one visit in a jet black Saab 900 Turbo, in which he drove the four of us from Guildford to the girls’ parents home in Devon. He had no respect for the speed limits. It was among the most thrilling and frightening drives I’ve ever had. He tailgated, he overtook in marginal situations and he took rural A roads at speeds that even I, a young motorcyclist, used to enjoying taking risks for their own sake, found alarming. It didn’t help that, as we progressed further west, it began to snow. We got there in the dark, the final few miles seeing Franco muttering & peering forward, while again & again spooling up the turbo hard out of every roundabout and junction. For all his aggressive driving, we had not a single “moment” in the entire journey. Having arrived, Franco reverted to his normal charming, urbane style. I resolved to decline any further journeys with him as pilot.
During the following year, he asked if I’d look after his car while he made a sales tour to the United States & would I please take it to the Saab dealer in Guildford for its service? Of course I would. I only drove a Saab 900 Turbo once. I recall the ignition switch was on the floor between the seats. It had a very solid feel to it that was never matched until I owned a German saloon , 20 years later. It was also a very good looking car.
Was it particularly fast? Compared to the first car I bought, a very tatty Ford Escort MkII estate, it certainly was. Mostly it went fast because that’s what Italian men did, all the time, over 40 years ago.
Good video, this. Enjoyed it very much.
I love the classic 900, but the values have shot up recently. They were always pretty affordable if a bit mechanically fragile.
Price and value is not the same thing,
@@rimmersbryggeri what is "market value"?
@@chrisdavidson911 fickle
Mechanically fragile? In what way?
@@DrRock2009 In sweden SAAB means some people use other peoples cars (Somliga Använder Andras Bilar). (Meaning loan cars from the dealer)
Very nice! My dad had a 1992 900 and I owned a 900-2. Both very different of course but loved and still love and miss Saab.
The title is a bit misleading. The B engine from 1972 onward was no longer a Triumph engine and certainly not by the time the 900 came along. Saab thoroughly revised it, ironing out the inherent flaws the original Triumph engine was burdoned with, the major one being the construction of the cylinder head which was prone to warp when overheating and the bolts were partly slanted making it almost impossible to remove the head. For all intents and purposes, the B engine was of Saab's own construction, and by extension, so was the H engine.
The Triumph engine was an absolute disaster. It overheated. I owned a TR7 and was glad to see the back of it. SAAB had to rework it .
@@tryagain.k1821
The Triumph engine was superb. Ask SAAB, they used it for three years in its original form. Still made today in China.
The SAAB engine from 1972 onwards were Triumphs tweaked a little here and there.
@@johnburns4017 i owned and drove the Triumph engine. It was unreliable because it overheated. Suggesting that SAAB did a "few" tweaks raises the question as to why Triumph didn't do the "few" tweaks.
@@johnburns4017 And how many of the Triumph engines have you owned and driven? It was a very good teapot. Very stressful driving in summer with the heater on full to help cool the engine.
Great video. I had a 1984 900 Turbo which was only just run-in when the company sold it at 90,000 miles. Followed it with a 9000 Turbo. Smoother turbo response, quieter, roomier, but the change from double wishbone front suspension to Macpherson strut did affect the handling - you always knew exactly where you were in the 900. Also, I loved the hefty clunk of the 900 doors. My wife, after nearly 40-odd years sometimes remarks on that feeling of safety that gave her. There were so many thoughtful and brilliant design features in that car, like locking the transmission in reverse when parking (this stopped a London car compound copper in his tracks once), and the ability to deliver fresh air to the face and warm air to the feet. Just looking at the shots of the dashboard makes me feel very nostalgic (today I drive a VW Touran, still going strong at 120,000 and with a bit of the same driver appeal). But it's not the same.
Enjoyable video. I learned to drive in my mother's 99 and drove my father's 900 turbo during the late 70s/early 80s, so I have a soft spot for these cars. Touching on the Fiat partnership, a Saab 600 was marketed in the Nordic countries, basically a badge-engineered Lancia Delta, with all the rust issues associated with Italian cars of that era. Not sure if any survive up here now! However I think it was a foretaste of what was to become of the Saab brand under GM ownership,
Saab 900 Turbo was an amazing car. I remember them well in the 80s.
Leave it to GM to destroy a good thing.
Why was Saab sold to GM? Because Saab had destroyed themselves, ergo: Saab was never "a good thing".
@@pistonburner6448 That’s wrong. The same thing nearly happened to Mercedes because it isn’t profitable if the car is to good. Because then it is to expensive to make. That’s why older Mercedes cars are more reliable then newer ones.
@@erik5589 Incorrect. You assume that being unprofitable automatically means = the car is too good.
Companies are unprofitable for a variety of reasons, some of them being: not having enough production volume, not designing the cars intelligently enough, having inferior products which aren't in high enough demand, not catering to your customer base well enough, etc... There's all kinds of reasons.
It's absolutely certain that Saabs weren't "too good" as it was far from making the best cars, and certainly wasn't making its cars the most expensive way as it was even cheaping out with their inferior fwd-platform type, 4-cylinder engines only, etc. etc.
@@pistonburner6448 I‘m sorry I didn’t explain it correctly I didn’t want to say that a car company’s bankruptcy is necessarily a result of making to good cars. I wanted to say that that was the case for Saab. As far as I know was especially the Saab 900 far ahead of its time and most of the other Saab cars were really well engineered which isn’t the case for newer cars anymore.
@@erik5589 Yeah, in my opinion or according to my assessment they had the unfortunate combination of spending a lot on some things, then using cheap solutions in others (like only having limited model range and only fwd cars with 4-cyl engines). I mean did you hear that they wasted a huge amount of GM's resources by designing their own GPS navigation system instead of just using the GM stuff which was right there for them to use...
Really many people, even people like my father who had owned 4 Saabs in the past, once up to a certain budget did not feel that fwd 4-cyl cars could cut it.
And Saab was pretty much gone before I got old enough to even consider their cars...there were some around still of course, but they did not appeal to young people. I've never bought a fwd car and never will.
Nice video..
I worked at SAAB when the "New 900" was shown to the press for the first time. My last assignment at the company before getting laid off in -93 was to help fix the press cars so they would be in a proper good condition before the press got their hands om them. I especially remeber that there was a "squeeke" from the lower control arrms in the front sub frame and we had to take it apart and stick a couple of washers in there to remove the noise. Every car choosen to be a press car had a list of things that needed to be fixed and some of the jobs were quite involed requiring us to take "half the car" apart to fix. But, officially of course, all the cars were ready to be delivered directly to the customer straight off of the production line :)
Yes, the quality control for ordinary customer Saabs were abysmal
I regret never having owned a Saab. Drove a couple (900's) but never a turbo.
Until they were slowly destroyed by GM, they held their value well, Young idiot me could afford a 10 year old Audi 80, but not a similar vintage Saab.
As much as I hate GM, Saab would have done Dodo without them - ultimately though it was GM's failure to understand the brand; they should have just made a Saab, a big Cadillac, the Corvette, the Silverado and Syclone/Typhoon.
As a child, I would look into the Triumph showrooms at the Dolomite. It was the British BMW.
When serving in Germany, I bought a SAAB 99 Turbo. What a car! Heated seats, Espacher Petrol heater and great performance and tractability in the snow.
In 1989 I managed to buy a one owner fully dealer serviced Dolomite. The cars were very different but shared some lineage. I loved them both!
Seen a sticker on a 9000: "Born by airplanes, killed by as***les". Nailed it!
Alfas 8,32 ought to be a fairly safe swap. If you're a fan.
Thank you for displaying my (then) 900 Enduro, and portions of my video. A mention would have been nice, but I’m not overly precious about these things. Great channel, thanks as always.
I put an attribution in the lower left corner of the video. I would have put a link but I seem to recall the original link in your video was no longer up. Sorry to cause offence, I try to attribute and link in the description when I can. Is there a link I can add?
This is probably a great video but after the third round of midroll ads interrupted you I gave up =\
Gotta pay for the work I put into the videos somehow.
There's something about the 99/900 Saabs that none of the later Saabs or other cars can duplicate. Nothing feels the same. Some combination of the interior proportions, the curved windshield, the space, the ride etc. make for a unique Saabiness that was lost in the GM platform successor.
The SAAB 900 the LAST, TRUE, SWEDISH designed SAAB! The "99" was DECADES ahead of it's time!
The HUGE, ITALIAN influenced "9000" was a TERRIBLE car by comparison.
The "99" and "900" were magnificent!
They were: SAFE, PRACTICAL, ROOMY, and in the "ARAB OIL EMBARGO" 1970's VERY economical too! It got GREAT milage compared to its competitors!!!
These were amazingly "far looking" cars and included a practical, exhaust driven, TURBOCHARGER too!
They were AMAZING AUTOS!!!
UNTIL...
THE ITALIAN MERGER ENDED THAT FOREVER!!!
"SEXY" won out over "PRACTICALITY OF USE AND OPERATION".
UGH..WAYTAGO "FELLINI FANS"!!!
THE PREMATURE DEATH OF THE BRAND WAS INEVITABLE!!!
PITY.
PS: SAAB AUTO was bought by a speculator who, predictably, was unable to sustain production and development.
"GEBERAL MOTORS" the USA's HUGE conglomerate saw a bargain and picked it up to compete with it's great rival "FORD" who'd already gone on a buying spree acquiring old, venerable brands like "JAGUAR" amongst others.
"GM" predictably tried to "rebadge" it's own products, like a CHEVY "BABY BLAZER" SUV, as a SAAB product! It wasn't in ANY way.
When the "GO GO" economy of the late 90's ENDED in a "crash" that spelled the final end for SAAB as an automaker.
A real shame!
SAAB in many ways echoed another, very innovative but failed AMERICAN car maker... "TUCKER".
PRESTON TUCKER was a dreamer and a visionary. His sedan was ALSO decades ahead of it's time with many innovations which would someday become MANDATORY as standard equipment in ALL autos either built or imported into the USA.
SAAB was such a brand!
I lift my glass of "AQUAVIT" in salute and fond memory to you SAAB of SWEDEN!
God stop using caps
I love your videos. I rode in in a Saab 900 with a friend when I was 14 years old. Incredible, quirky car.
I've been waiting for this story! Wonderful, well done.
My first car was a 1985 900 non-Turbo. It was reliable, easy to work on, made decent power and a unique sound.
My first car was a 1986 900 SPG and I still miss it. Perfect for the PNW and shockingly good in the snow, even with the bald summer tires I had. Really wish I could find a 99 turbo but they're pretty rare at this point.
I loved my 3 classic Saab 900s, my T16s was possibly my favourite car I've owned.
Great video! This one of the hero cars of my youth and I love it how you talk about rather normal cars, while the internet is already full of exotic stuff. And let people talk about minor mistakes or whatever. Your vids are something I am really looking forward too! Those vids will be a source of information for many years to come and people will still watch this in many, many years.
Oh and I can't wait for part II about the new 900/9-3 cos that's a brilliant story too! I know a bit about that!
Again...a great video! 👍🏼
Missing Saab; in Spain were very rare and only 3 door till mid 80s; the local dealer in Barcelona was on my way to Arts School and I've got fascinated in spring 1981 when I saw a black Saab 900 Turbo 4 doors for the first time; I even took friends over.
Great to see this right after watching Jason’s Saab 900 Turbo video on Hagerty. Great insight in this video, I always love your deep dives to answer all the questions I hadn’t even thought to ask about automotive history. From one Seattle local to another, keep up the great work! Love your videos!
Let’s hope the rain stops!
@@BigCar2 Been a wet few weeks...even by Seattle standards!
After 3Volvos(2 240 and a 740) ,i made my dream comes true in 2018.
A 900 NG 1996. After a couple of weeks ,i lost the exhaust muffer.
Never put a new one.Wonderful sound until the car went to the scrapyard.
Unforgeatable memories.Never had a car that sticked so much to the ground during stiff curves.
I had 1988 turbo ragtop. The turning circle for that car was amazing. Very comfortable and engaging car.
Thanks for this. As I mentioned before I sold Saturn, and in Canada this was the franchise Saturn Saab Isuzu. So I sold them from 1995 to 2007. In Canada, at least, the first generation lasted until 1994, with 1995 being the first year of the second generation - except the convertible that lasted until 1995. So, yes I sold these.
I can’t wait for your second generation / 9-3 video, as well as Saab 9000.
Finally, thanks for the Saturn video you suggested. Some omissions but otherwise good. I enjoyed this.
SAAB cars and SAAB owners are in my opinion a special "breed" of car people. Not in a bad way but special as they are very different from other car brands and car people and that is avery genuine experience I have seen over many years since I was a little kid growing up in the late 80's.
SAAB are fine cars indeed, but you will have to have that special "SAAB mentality" to fully appreciate it as they work in there unique own way.
I would never myself buy or own a SAAB, but non the less I give my respect to the brand itself and its owners.
In general, SAAB owners really care for there cars! Heck I lived just a year ago near a guy who owned freakin 28 SAAB cars on his property !!!!
My first "real" car was a 4 year old SAAB 900 & it was so reliable that I had it for 12 years, the only reason I got rid of it was the end of leaded fuel. I had it so long that some people thought I'd bought another that was exactly the same! I could drive it all day because it was so comfortable & ergonomic. I'd have kept it years longer if it could have used unleaded.
All Saab’s can use unleaded since 1979…
@@DrRock2009 Once I had to use unleaded mine knocked no matter what & fuel consumption went through the floor. Performance dropped, too. I wasn't the only one that this happened to & SAAB dealer told me that my engine wasn't going to last long like this.
Thanks for this retrospective of this very important model for Saab ! The Saab I remember from my teenage years! The sound of the Turbo on this big engine! Love it!
My neighbour had a 900 turbo when I was a young boy in early 90’s.i could count on 1hand the amount of times I have seen them up to this day in West Yorkshire in the UK.must of always been pretty rare over here.
Great video - very well researched and presented. The SAAB 900 classic is one of my favourite cars - especially in 3dr Aero form - I would have loved to have owned one!
Great video. Currently driving my 4th (black) Saab, a SportCombi from '08. Holds all my music gear, most notably my orchestra bass. Gotta fit that or the trio of keys plus amp (piano, organ, synth), or the drum set and eBass rig, gotta be manual trans, gotta have HP, gotta be relatively small and sit as a car. Also just love the way they look and drive.
Great video as always!
I bought a new Saab 99 in '72 or '73, I can't remember exactly but it was a great car, never had any problems in over 100,000 miles. Then I got a used Saab 96 with the V-4 engine, i loved that car, great in the snow and fun to drive.
Last year i inherited a 33 year old SAAB 900 turbo four door Sedan from my father.
Damn'! That's a really nice and comfortable car. Love it. 😍