The 50th Anniversary Saab Jubilee Documentary – 1987

Posted on 31. Jan, 2008 by in 1980-1989, Trollhättan, Sweden

I was sorting through the video collection today and uncovered a film on VHS titled “The 50th Annivesary Jumbileumdagen” or the Jubilee Day which took place in Trollhättan, Sweden on August 10th, 1987.

This 50th Anniversary is for the SAAB company since 1937 when they began as an aircraft manufacturer, but also represents the 40th Anniversary as an automobile manufacturer.

I enjoyed this documentary and hope you do too and I leave you to see the differences from the experience then, in comparison to the 60th Anniversary event I went to this past year again in Trollhättan, Sweden, now officially known as the “Saab Festival”.

Here is a summary of this documentary from the cover & refererse of this videocasette:

50th Anniversary Jumbileumdagenjubilee.jpg

A Video Documentary of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of SAAB Scania, held at its factory in Sweden, plus side trips of interest to all SAAB owners.

Comprehensive footage covering the whole event:

The Ultimate Concours, with every kind of SAAB from all over Europe and the States.

SAAB’s on parade: 92′s to 9000′s and more…

A Video stroll through the SAAB Museum

Parts, Parts, Parts: a look through a Swedish boneyard

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One Response to “The 50th Anniversary Saab Jubilee Documentary – 1987”

  1. mpprh

    01. Feb, 2008

    Just to fill in some of the background to this video.

    Saab was losing money big time. The 92,93,96 series had stopped production (1980 in Scandinavia). Few of these small car owners had been able to “jump” to the 99. Now, the 99 had just ceased production.

    Saab had shared the development costs of the 9000 with the Fiat group, eventually including Lancia & Alfa versions of the 9000. In order to meet the needs of old 92,93,96,99 owners, Saab manufactured the Saab 600, a version of the Lancia Delta – but made in Finland. The video follows a red one on the road.

    They also became the importer of Lancia into Sweden, and all Saab dealers offered Lancias to try and keep the old owners. They obviously didn’t offer the Lancia Thema, which was the Lancia version of the Saab 9000. Tiny Sweden became the best export market for Lancia (Even today Lancia outsells Saab worldwide).

    The 9000 was an international success, but by 1988 Saab was again looking for a partner. Fiat & Mazda seemed to be in the frame, but in December 1989 GM acquired 50% of Saab, following very shortly after Fords acquisition of Jaguar.

    Of course, there is much to say about the future joint 20% share purchases by GM & Fiat around 2000, then GM paying USD 2bn to get out of the deal. Then the Fiat group became very profitable and now has a stock value far higher than GM. The long term benefit to GM in Europe is the replacement of GM/Isuzu diesel engines with Fiat diesel engines.

    Peter

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