For example, in the 1960s their main car, well their only car, had a 2-stroke 850cc

engine that meant you had to add oil every time you filled up, and the interior converted

into a bed for those remote Swedish road trips.

Oh, and their parent company made fighter jets!

But did you know you can still buy a Saab today, and why isn't it called a Saab?

This is the unconventional Saab story.

(music)

The story starts, oddly enough, with Germany's

surrender at the end of the first World War.

The peace treaty severely limited what aircraft Germany could produce, so the Swedish company

Svenska Aero was set up in 1921 to assemble German aircraft.

At the start they were little more than a way to get around the trade embargo, and many

parts supposedly manufactured in Sweden were actually made in Germany and smuggled out.

But during the 1920s and 30s both Svenska Aero and rival ASJA started to assemble other

aircraft like the British De Haviland Tiger Moth, and by 1929 they were designing their

own aircraft.

With the threat of World War 2 hanging over Europe, the Swedish government charged both

companies to produce a steady stream of military aircraft.

They couldn't rely on aircraft from other nations, especially as their partner up until

now had been Germany.

Both Svenska Aero and ASJA merged to form AFF in 1937, then SAAB Aeroplan in 1939.

Although Sweden was neutral during the war, there were fears that they would be drawn into

the conflict, fears that were heightened when the Soviet Union invaded Finland in the 1939

Winter War.

Saab's first plane was the 1942 Saab 17 bomber and reconnaissance aircraft, followed

by the Saab 18 twin-engine bomber in 1944 and Saab 21 fighter in 1945.

After the war the governments around the world had all the military aircraft they needed,

so Saab needed to do something with their spare production capacity.

Car production in war torn Europe was almost non-existent, and the US was concentrating

on satisfying local demand.

What Saab needed to do was produce a Swedish car.

The car would be named “Ursaab” which means “original Saab” and would be designed

by Sixten Sason and engineered by Gunnar Ljungström in less than 6 months.

Both men would go on to create every Saab until the late 1960s.

You can tell the car was designed by a bunch of aircraft designers, because it looked like

an aeroplane with its wings chopped off!

But that sleek design produced 50% less drag than contemporary cars.

With just a 2-stroke 18hp engine it wasn't going to win any drag races, but it would

get Sweden moving.

Saab's first production car, the 92, was released in 1949.

Saab had an excess of military green aircraft paint after the war, so the only colour the

92 came in was green!

Saab put their car through wind tunnel testing, quite a rare thing at the time, giving the

car a low drag factor of just 0.3, and it didn't use standard chassis construction

to save weight.

These things helped the 2-stroke 25hp engine allied to a 3-speed manual gearbox get the

car to a top speed of 65mph.

And that 2-stroke engine required an oil / fuel mix, so the filler cap had a label to remind

drivers to add oil.

To help sell the car, and to provide additional testing, Saab took the 92 rallying just 2

weeks after the car was released.

By 1952 they were winning races, starting with the 'Coupe des Dames'

in the Monte Carlo rally.

By 1953 the car was improved as the 92B, and Saab purchased paint that wasn't green to

give their customers some variety!

And a better car was needed.

Foreign car companies had recovered and were once again targeting Sweden.

The 92 had sold 20,000 cars and was replaced by the Saab 93 in 1955.

The car was a little bigger and better appointed, but the big news was a more powerful 3-cylinder

33hp engine.

As Sweden had many remote, unpopulated areas, the cars could be converted for sleeping.

And Saab was growing as a company.

The 93 was the first car it would export, with the USA being its main market.

They used their advertising to highlight their aircraft roots, something they would return

to time and time again.

They started small, exporting just 300 in 1956.

With limited spare parts on hand, Saab initially restricted sales to only a few areas in America

to ensure their customers received good service.

By the end of the 1950s the USA was their main export market.

Many were exported to the Pacific Northwest where Scandinavians loggers had settled.

With sales taking off in the USA and Saab being seen for rallying success, they produced

a lightweight sports car for the American market.

Leaning on their aircraft division, the Sonett used a lightweight aluminium frame, allowing

its tiny 748cc engine to get it to 99mph.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a success, and only 6 were made.

With the Sonett a failure, Saab took a different tack with the GT750 in 1958, a sporty version

of the 93 with an uprated engine.

It could get to 60mph in 15 seconds, compared to the standard car's 27 seconds.

You really couldn't expect blistering speeds in the 1950s!

Saab rally drivers found if they kept the revs and momentum up, they could win.

They won the Great American Mountain Rally in New England in 1956, and the Monte Carlo

rally in 61, 62 and 63.

Erik Carlsson was one of their top drivers and had a long and illustrious career, winning

in Saabs from the mid 50's to the late 60s.

He was known as “Carlsson on the roof” because of his habit of occasionally rolling

the car and having to get out and right it again,

something that was made slightly easier with Saab's round shape!

Saab kept improving the 93, and in 1959 produced an estate or wagon version.

To make better use of the small engine it received a 4-speed gearbox.

Despite the hiccup with the Suez crisis in the mid 50's that introduced temporary fuel

rationing in Sweden, times were good, and by 1959 Saab was exporting over 6000 cars

to the USA.

Saab was known for its quirky 2-stroke engined cars and developed a small but fiercely loyal following.

The Saab 96 has a more powerful engine: 42hp. New rear seats - there's room for three.

Bigger boot. New wraparound rear window. New instrument layout with safety padding.

New and ingenious ventilation system.

All new features making the Saab 96 stronger, roomier, more beautiful.

Drive the Saab 96, you'll be spellbound! Saab, the Swedish car with aircraft quality.

The 93 was replaced by the Saab 96 in 1960, a more refined and powerful car, but it still

had the 2-stroke engine that was by now in the 1960s getting really rather out of date.

They were unrefined, and with vehicle adoption moving to the mass market, new car owners

found it confusing and fiddly to add the correct amount of oil every time they filled up.

There was a power struggle within Saab over moving to 4-stroke engines.

Three engines were tried – the Boxer 900cc engine from the Lloyd Arabella, BMC's A-series

from the Mini and the 1.1L Lancia Appia engine.

But Saab had just spent a lot of money expanding.

It was still a small company with just one vehicle and didn't have money to develop

a new engine.

Buying one from outside would cut into Saab's tight profit margin, so its introduction was

blocked by Saab's CEO.

Saab's engineers staged a coup by going around the CEO to Saab's biggest shareholder

to plead their case.

It succeeded, and further testing resulted in Ford's V4 Taunus engine being chosen.

The engineers were vindicated when the 2-stroke engine failed US emissions tests in 1967,

meaning Saab dodged a bullet in their largest export market.

Saab tried another US sports car with the Sonett II in 1966.

To save weight it had a fibre glass body.

The tiny 850cc 2-stroke engine got the car to 60 in 12.5 seconds, and managed 109mph

on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

In 1967 the car received the Taunus 1500cc 4-cylinder engine which made the car more

refined, but surprisingly not any quicker.

Saab released the redesigned Sonett III in 1970 with cool pop-up headlights.

But sales of the Sonett were low throughout its life and Saab ended production in 1974

to focus on its mainstream cars.

And by now Saab was selling more and more of them.

By 1965 it had sold 250,000, and it sold another 50,000 the following year.

In 1968 they created the larger Saab 99 to join the 96.

The company instantly went from a maker of quirky cars, to a semi-luxury car maker, spoken

in the same breath as BMW's 2002 and Alfa Romeo's Giulia, and the car sold well in the USA.

It got the first ever headlight wipers in 1971 and heated seats in 1972.

Volvo is known as a company obsessed with safety, but Saab pioneered many safety features

and made it a top priority.

To save money, they used Triumph's new 4-cylinder engine, on an exclusive 4-year contract.

By 1972 they'd bought the rights to produce the engine and continued to improve it, and

it would be used in one form or another until 2009.

But the 99's party piece came in 1978.

Saab had merged with Scania trucks in 1969, and one thing Scania knew about was turbochargers.

With fuel prices sky high, and Saab wanting their 4-cylinders to compete with V8's,

they created the 99 Turbo, one of the first production turbo cars.

The public loved its increased power; 143hp with a 124mph top speed.

The Saab 900, introduced in 1978, would go on to be Saab's best-selling car.

Like many Saab's up to this point, the front glass was highly curved to provide exceptional

visibility on the sides.

Many put this down to Saab's military aircraft heritage, as they were still producing civilian

and fighter aircraft after all these years.

And Saab continued to use its jet aircraft heritage to sell cars.

The old Saab 99 continued production and would be sold until 1987 in its revised design as

the Saab 90.

To round out Saab's range, in 1978 they struck a deal with Fiat to sell the Lancia

Delta as the Saab-Lancia 600 in Sweden.

This agreement led to a broader agreement to create the Saab 9000, released in 1984.

A close relative to The Fiat Chroma, Lancia Thema and Alfa Romeo 164, it pushed Saab further

into the luxury car category, which help US sales.

The seats were apparently inspired by the classic Muppet Show sketch “Pigs in Space”,

but I'm guessing not much was inspired by the Swedish chef!

Saab sold just one model in the 1960s, but by the mid-1980s, at least in Sweden, it was

selling four different cars.

But despite the fact that two of these were modified Fiat's, the company was in dire

financial straits.

Rising costs were shrinking profits.

The company looked around for potential suitors and found it in General Motors.

GM had been trying to produce high margin luxury models in Europe for decades through

Vauxhall / Opel, but by the late 80s customers wanted prestige German brands, and GM realised

they needed a company like Saab to compete.

For Saab's part, they eyed GM's vast US dealer network, hoping to expand its main

export market.

But the two companies were like chalk and cheese.

GM was like your strait-laced dad, with freshly starched shirts and shiny shoes.

Saab was the unruly teenager who was always out late, driving fast and thinking big.

Almost immediately GM was asking its unruly teen to do the sensible thing and rebadge

its Opel Vectra with minor modifications.

Saab rebelled.

The first fruits of their collaboration was the updated Saab 900 in 1994.

It was supposed to be a lightly restyled Opel Vectra, but only 1/3 of the car was an Opel,

and the other 2/3 reworked with Saab's “magic”.

That in itself was OK, but Saab focused on reworking the wrong parts, making an unremarkable

car that would need to sell big to recoup the inflated development costs.

By 1995 Saab had made its first profit in years, and by 1997 had produced 3M cars.

They introduced the 9-5 to replace the 9000 they'd created with Fiat.

This would be GM's first big push into the luxury car market, and it was the first car

to offer ventilated seats.

Like the 900 it used the Opel Vectra platform also used by the Saturn L-series.

But rather than relying on that reworked Triumph V4 from the late 60s, Saab had access to

GMs large range of engines.

To compliment the new 9-5, the 900 would be updated and renamed the 9-3.

But Saab had lost some of the quirkiness existing customers loved, and new customers saw BMWs,

Audis and Mercedes as more compelling luxury cars.

To round out the range, GM launched two new cars in 2005.

The 9-2X, a rebadged Subaru Impreza, and the 9-7X, a lightly reworked Chevy Trailblazer.

But no one was fooled that the 9-7X was a high-end luxury SUV that could compete with

a BMW X5.

And if you want a Subaru Impreza, why not just go and buy a Subaru Impreza?

It all came to a head in 2008 when GM filed for bankruptcy.

With a Government bailout they were forced into making difficult decisions and cut several brands.

Hummer, Saturn, Pontiac, and yes, Saab got the axe.

GM was rumoured to be in conversation with several car companies, but in the end, it

came down to Swedish Koenigsegg, who would be backed by Chinese car maker BAIC.

But due to delays and problems ironing out financing, Koenigsegg backed out.

GM announced that if Saab wasn't purchased by January 2010, it would wind down the company.

At the 11th hour GM accepted an offer from Dutch sports car maker Spyker.