From building fighter jets to turbocharged sport sedans; the meteoric rise and fall of Saab.

The brainchild of Swedish engineers, Saab originally built jets. How did they go from building jets to making cars? Why’d they stop?

After World War II, Saab diverted what they learned making fighter jets during the war into building planes for the roads.

▴2 Their first popular car was the Saab 92. With an aerodynamic design & the exclusive color of Swedish Military Surplus Green paint as the only option, the Saab 92 was the start of something special.

▴3 -▴4 Models went in sequence up to the Saab 99, but two cars stand out - the Saab 96 & the Saab 99. The 96 gained tremendous popularity as it was the first Saab that was widely exported, selling nearly 550,000 units worldwide. The Saab 99 put them on the map bringing innovations that Saab would be known for - wraparound windscreen, self-repairing bumpers, headlamp washers, & side impact door beams.

▴5 Their success was minimal compared to what happened in 1979 when the Saab 900 was introduced, quickly becoming a cult classic. Over 1 million 900s were sold. It was a very cool car. If you wanted something different from the big muscle cars of the time, the Saab was a strong candidate.

This success sparked attention from GM, and in 1989 they decided to buy 50% of Saab for around $600 million. ▴6 Saab introduces the 9-3 & continues to do fairly well, but as GM slowly buys more of the company, things go awry. Constant delays of new models, forced re-badged collaborations with other GM brands like Opel, poor sales, & GM taking away Saab’s autonomy created a toxic environment in which Saab slowly & painfully died.

▴6 After almost a decade of exchanging potential owners due to bankruptcy, collaborating with Subaru, & delaying Saab successors, enough was enough & the operation was purchased by NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), a Chinese consortium, that decided to only use the 9-3 platform to make electric vehicles for sale in China. The Saab name was purchased back by the Swedish aerospace company.

▴7 Thus came the end of the Saab legacy. A car that was birthed from aeronautic engineering. The thinking person's car. It drove off into the sunset as an icon of the 80s.

📷Sources: | wikipedia | Saab |