As we all know , the Saab brand which is owned by GM has been on the chopping board for the good part of this whole year. It seems the financial fiasco of 2009 has been the final nail in the coffin for this Swedish manufacturer of aeroplanes and automotive masterpieces. The Saab brand has a love hate relationship with many car enthusiasts out there. From its quirky looks to its insane turbocharged engines, the Saab brand has made many instrumental innovations in the creation of the everyday cars we see on the road this days. The Saab division has attracted many suitors but GM seems to pretty much want to shut it down despite multiple offers from both Spyker and Koenigsegg as well Geely from China. The Saab automobile operation was started as sub operation of an airplane company in the late 1940s. SAAB actually stands for Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, or Swedish Aircraft Co. Despite having no experience designing cars, its talented aeronautical engineers decided to build a car their way . This was basically transformed into a lightweight, rigid, aerodynamic and ergonomic automobile.
Being Swedish, they were also very practical and the cars were pretty well engineered and planned
“Form follows function” has long been the mantra at Saab, along with safety and intelligent design. Saab’s early cars had lightweight, high-revving two-stroke engines coupled to a neutral chassis that allowed the cars to be flung around the rally circuits of Europe with great success.
Being front-wheel-drive, which was a rarity in those early days, they were also perfectly suited to winter driving conditions and won themselves a cult following in the Balkan countries as well as in the northern states of the US. They looked just a little strange compared to your average car, and they were certainly configured differently, but it was these differences that made people appreciate them.
n the 1970s, Saab unveiled their Combi-Coupe body design which has become the single most identifiable Saab shape. This versatile hatchback gave Saabs a sleek, sporting profile, and the folding rear seats opened up a cavernous luggage area
Later that same decade, Saab pioneered turbocharging for the everyday car. Whilst a few manufacturers had experimented with turbos before this, Saab was one of the first to get the formula right and make it available in what was essentially a Swedish family car . This was the day the world saw the Saab 99 Turbo.
Turbocharged engines became a common feature of the Saab lineup and remain so today. The Saab 900 Turbo was sold from 1979 to 1993 and is still considered by enthusiasts to be the “Saabiest” Saab ever made. It combined a luxurious, well-appointed interior with cutting-edge turbo technology and the Combi Coupe’s trademark load capacity. It really was a car that you could take to Home Depot in the morning and then give a good thrashing to on the racetrack in the afternoon.
The 1980s also saw the birth of the Saab Convertible, an icon conceived wh
en Saab USA’s legendary chief, the late Robert J Sinclair, was forced by his bosses in Sweden to take a quantity of unpopular two-door Saab 900s to sell in the U.S. Bob agreed to take the vehicles so long as he could name his desired specification, which included power windows and other modern amenities of the time, and no roof.
Bob commissioned a prototype from the American Sunroof Co. (for a mere $30,000), and this vehicle was an immediate showstopper. When the vehicle was finally released for sale in 1986, dealers didn’t have books big enough to contain the orders they received. Such stories are common in history books about Saab. The little company that could. Saab enthusiasts refer to this as the Spirit of Saab.
The 1990s saw the beginning of the GM era for Saab. General Motors owned a 50 percent share of Saab through this decade, buying the remaining 50 percent share in 2000. Saab had some fantastic vehicles in this period, but GM never saw the value of what they had in Saab.
They never really invested in the company to build on what was a cult following with enormous goodwill.
When GM announced in early 2009 that it planned to sell Saab, the enthusiast community was abuzz. Finally, it seemed Saab might get a chance to spread its wings once again.GM was reported to have 27 interested buyers for the company early in the year and despite detailed negotiations with several of them, the right deal has failed to materialize.
If there is no last-minute miracle in the next few days, Sweden will lose a large portion of its industrial base, many enthusiasts around the world will lose their favorite mar
que and the generic car company overlords with their everyday transportation appliances will have won another battle in the war of automotive mediocrity.
