Saab R.I.P.?

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cfz2882

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Looks like saab may have bitten the dust for good after being in trouble several
times during the last 20 yrs...
I have a 1971 "99"saab and have came close to getting a 1973"96",'60"93"and a few
99s and 900s
very imaginative engineering was one of saab's best characteristics along with
usually bulletproof engines(4-stroke era-saab found out the hard way that 2-stroke
engines did not like running at a steady constant high speed on 1950s american
interstate highways-pistons would seize from not getting enough oil via the fuel
mix apparently...)
R.I.P. saab 1949-2011.
 
Park it next to the Hummer.

...which, interestingly enough, GM were prepared to sell to the Chinese lock-stock-barrel....

 

I really feel for SAAB...one of the last truly individual car makers 'sanitized' by GM by forced floorpan sharing which helped sales dive and now not even able to be sold to the Chinese.....
 
On Saab.

I have a 1987 Volvo 240 and recently sold my 2002 Saab 9-3. The Volvo has always been driven more, but the Saab cost the extended warranty company between 3 and 4 THOUSAND dollars in repairs annually for the 6+ years I had it, the Volvo never even got close to that number.

My Saab was a potentially great car. It was comfortable, the ergonomics were second only to my Volvo, it was a pleasure to drive, it had spectacularly good handling, it got phenomenally good fuel economy, and was WAY faster than it should have been. I really miss the turbo. It was a hatchback and could hold a tremendous quantity of stuff. I never tested its safety gear, but I researched it extensively and it was second to none when I bought it.

My complaint (and I blame GM entirely for it) was the relative poor quality of the car. Granted it had a nice, solid feel (closing the doors was akin to closing a safe), but it suffered from a never-ending list of issues. The interior fit and finish looked good, but upon closer inspection, poor fit and finish of the materials was apparent. The small plastic items tended to be cheaply made and prone to falling out of position. The biggest problem was electrical gremlins, primarily faulty sensors. The electronics were a nightmare! I went through 3 throttle bodies in 50,000 miles! The alternator bearings failed at 60,000, the window switch pack in the console had to be replaced twice, and the radio sometimes wouldn't work at all. I had to have both electronic display screens replaced. I also had to have significant suspension repairs performed. All this and I drove it gently (I was used to my Volvo 240 and I like better fuel economy more than speed). There were lots more issues with the car, but I have to get to sleep and cannot elaborate right now.

I found my Saab to be innovative in design. Many of the unusual aspects of the car's design actually made good sense and worked well. I will really miss the "night panel" button that killed all the dashboard lights except for the lower range on the speedometer. There's nothing like the ergonomics of a Saab. They almost make up for the GM-induced quality issues. I was hoping it would be a good alternative to a newer Volvo, but I was disappointed.

I'll miss the driving experience a great deal, but not the repair experience. I had hoped they'd find success away from GM, but they were sucked dry and left for dead, a resurrection was a long-shot.

I'll miss Saab, the seemingly last bastion of against-the-grain innovation that worked.

Dave
 
I'm Saabing. Not for the car, I thought they looked like a overgrown Hoover. But for my friend who left her position at the Chrysler dealership to go to the European dealership that specialized in Saab.

[this post was last edited: 12/20/2011-14:19]
 
I never owned one,

but I drove a friend's a number of years ago, and I liked it a lot.

I thought that the GM affair was a mistake.

The ignition lock on the transmission tunnel was very cool.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Had a 2002 9-3 and a 2004 9-5 wagon. Really liked driving both cars, but the service issues did become tiresome. We have two Volvos now, a 2008 S60 and a 2011 XC70, and my perception is that they are built much better than the Saabs were. We bought them each as new cars and have yet to have a repair in the 30,000 miles they've logged between them. And at least my Volvo dealer/service center is within walking distance of the house, which makes oil changes and maintenance easy to keep up with at minimal inconvenience.
 
I liked the earlier Saab's. Like the 1960's V4's. They were the definition of automotive strangeness. Whenever I had a chance to drive in one, it always put a smile on my face for some reason. This one seems to be in it's native habitat.

whirlcool++12-20-2011-21-44-28.jpg
 
red saab "96"

that red saab is the same as the '73 "96"i almost got in the late '90s-the one i
found had the german ford v4,some of the earliest 96s had a modified version of
the 3cyl.two stroke from the earlier "93"model. The '96,basicly just a modified,
updated "93"was made through 1980;a 1950s bodyshell in production for some 25yrs!
The 99/900 basic platform was made 1968-'93,so about 25yrs there too! In the
99/900,the engine is "backwards"with the accessory belts against the firewall,
a gear(68-77)or chain(78-93)to the transaxle under the engine.the cylinder bank
is at a 45*angle for more hood clearance.
 
Oddly enough, that Taunus (German Ford) V-4 was designed in Michigan and was first tested in Saabs. The powertrain used in the FWD Taunus 12M/15M/17M was part of Ford's Cardinal project to produce a smaller car alongside the Falcon. They got as far as the powertain at which point it became clear that the car would cost as much or more than the Falcon to produce, which meant it couldn't be built in the US as smaller had to mean cheaper. Ford didn't want to just bury the program as they'd spent quite a lot of time and money on it, including buying a small fleet of Saabs that were then converted to V-4 power to test the engine and transmission. Ford first tried to peddle the program to Ford of England, but they wanted nothing to do with a FWD car as BMC was making lots of publicity but little or no money with their FWD cars (Mini and 1100). Ford of Germany liked the idea however and completed the design of the car.

 

At the same time in the early '60s Saab was busy designing the 99, an all-new car that was finally introduced in '68. They became quite worried that sales of the three cylinder 96 were dropping rapidly, in addition to the prospect that two-stroke engines might be outlawed in some countries (such as the US) due to their high emissions. The 99's inline four cylinder engine would not fit in the 96, so Saab badly needed a stopgap engine to drop into the 96 to keep it alive a few more years. About the only engines that would fit were the Ford V-4 or Lancia's narrow-angle V-4 from the Fulvia. The Fulvia engine is much nicer, very smooth and free revving as compard to the Ford but no doubt the Ford was cheaper plus Ford had plenty of production capacity. It worked well enough for the 96 to make it to 1980, far longer than anyone could have imagined.

 

It's sad to see Saab end this way, although no sadder than watching GM turn it into a badge-engineered Opel. For some years I ran an '87 900T. It was a decent car; I loved the huge hatchback, and the chassis was better than it had any right to be given that it was basically the same as the '68 99 yet was handling nearly double the power. At the time I had a friend with a very late Volvo 240 which I rode in or drove a number of times. Compared to the Saab, the Volvo seemed very clunky and didn't like bumpy roads at all - the rear suspension got crashy and the glove box door would fly open all by itself. Neither was as comfortable and elegant as a Peugeot 505, but the Saab was sportier and could be driven pretty damned quickly on back roads for something that could hold so much inside.
 
Wow,thanks for that info hydralique! The 1973 96 i looked at(and should have got)
i think had a stripped timing gear as when i tried to see if the engine was free
by turning the fan,the fan and belts turned freely-the drive pulley apparently is
driven by a gear meshed with the timing gear-fan and accesories turn reverse the
usuall direction.Back in the mid '80s,in high school auto shop,there was a steady
stream of v6 capris and mustang 2s,72-75era,coming in with dead engines due to
the camshaft gear loosing a section of it's plastic teeth;the gear had a ring of
plastic teeth molded around a cast-iron center section-as the plastic aged,it
shrank around the iron center and developed cracks-a section would come off and
the mustang or capri would come to a stop...I recon the v4 had a similar gear
and the same happened to the gear in the 96 i looked at.
Strongly considering buying the 96,i instead bought a fiero because it was local
and didn't need towed as the saab would have(should have got the saab instead-
whoops...)When i got my 99 going,it had the original early 99 triumph built engine
that had been run out of oil and ruined,so i got the engine out of an '80 900 and
installed that-helped with parts from a '74 99.
 
Yes, looks like it is a true SAAB story this time...

and very sad for us. We've been SAAB drivers for 40 years, along with a bunch ofVolvos. We got my first SAAB in 1971, the year we were married, a '67 96 3 cyl it was my car, the wife had a Volvo 122-S. Incredible snow car but with the 2 stroke 3 cyl not so great at hiway speed as it was about maxed out at 60. Traded on a new 99 in 1974, a car we loved. That one gave way to an '84 900 Turbo (son now has), '87 900 (other son now has), '87 900O Turbo (daughter got and wrecked), '91 9000, 2 '99 9-3s (the last good year for GM 900/9-3s by the way) and a 2000 9-5 Aero. We're currently thinking about a 9-3 Sport Combi. The 2006 and later 9-3 Sport Sedan/Combi is a great and pretty dependable car. They are quirky, fun, super safe, advanced, and individualistic. Not for everyone but no other car is like a SAAB. Our 5 Volvos have been sensible tanks, but the SAABs are our true love... we hope they can pull off yet another miracle and survive. If not we'll just keep ours forever.
 
I've got a 2009 9-3 Sportcombi which has been great, it just turned 25k miles in 24 months. It has been virtually trouble-free (literally--in the 2 years the extent of the problems have been: the airbag light has illuminated twice...in the first week I got it, and last week (i.e. 2 years later). Probably just a temporary fault which corrected itself. The bluetooth has been a little wonky the last couple weeks (randomly dropping the the bluetooth connection), which might be my phone. The anti-pinch on the drivers' door needs to be recalibrated (entails disconnecting the battery cable to recalibrate it...could do it myself if I was fussed enough). Otherwise, entirely trouble-free. Hope they can team with someone (Turkish company) to get some good out of the Phoenix architecture (next-gen 9-3) which they've got pretty well in the bag.
 
I originally wanted a Saab when I was looking for a 5-door hatchback. My 2003 Hyundai Elantra GT is a direct rip off of a Saab when you look it from the rear. To add further insult to injury, the dashboard looks like it came out of a VW Golf. :)

What turned me off to Saab was doublefold. The first problem was the sticker shock I got in the showroom. I didn't really see the value for the money. The second problem was that I knew they were rebadged GM products with a slightly different body style.

If Saab started building non-GM based vehicles which weren't rebadged and didn't cost an arm and a leg in comparison to everything else, I'd consider one as my next vehicle. Especially if it had decent performance, a very good crash rating and didn't come from the parts bin...

One considerable advantage when buying Saab? It's easy to pronounce.. in any language!

 
For all the grousing

about GM by SAABists, including myself, they would have gone under long ago if not for GM. And there's nothing wrong with the basic Opel platform, and SAAB engineers have designed their own suspensions, safety systems, Trionic engine management and much more. In fact GM took much of the SAAB engineering and incorporated it into their own cars, the new Buick Regal is basically a SAAB design and a very nice car. The new 9-5 is a fabulous car, but status loving Audi/BMW types won't give it a look at it doesn't flaunt their egos enough. However the upcoming Phoenix 9-3 and smaller possible 9-2 - if they survive- may even have BMW engines.
 

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