Saab History

Image Credit: Saab History

As a follow-up to the posting I made back in November of 2006 on the logo history, it is about time that I compliment this information with the following on the correct capitalization and nomenclature of the models of the Saab Automobile brand. I hope this sheds some more light in our dialog about Saabs, SAABs and all of the great products that have been developed over the years.

I have provided a fairly well written piece already done on Wikipedia that I would like to articulate if I may regarding the correct capitalization and model nomenclature as a guide.

It is my hope that as a result of this posting, others will be able to better articulate their writing and speaking when referring to all of Saab’s products from 1947 until present. I also think that this posting will help to end search criteria that is typically entered in Google as follows: (SAAB 93 XWD, SAAB 92 ABS, Saab 94 Ski Rack, 2001 SAAB 95, 1999 93, etc.) If this search criteria was taken literally, as it should as google can only do just that, we would have had Cross Wheel Drive available in the late 1950’s, ABS in the late forties, and two long production runs for the SAAB Ninety Five and Ninety Three. Let’s hope that this clarifies this naming and model nomenclature once and for all.

1947-1969 (Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget)

The Company: When referring to the company in both written and oral communication where the products were produced between 1947 and 1969, it is proper to use SAAB in all capital letters to refer to these vehicles.

The Models: When referring to vehicles model nomenclature in both written and oral communication that were produced during this time, they are written and pronounced as 92 (Pronounced: Ninety Two), 92 (Pronounced: Ninety Three), 94 (Pronounced: Ninety Four), 95 (Pronounced: Ninety Five), 96 (Pronounced: Ninety Six), 97 (Pronounced: Ninety Seven)

1970-2000 (Saab-Scania)

* Note: Although the merger took place in 1990, the original products continued. (excluding NG900, 9-3 & 9-5)

The Company: When referring to the company in both written and oral communication where the products were produced between 1970 and 1990, it is proper & acceptable to refer to them as Saabs in lower case letters or Saab-Scania vehicles, also in lower case letters.

The Models: When referring to vehicles model nomenclature in both written and oral communication that were produced during this time, they are written and produced as 97 (Pronounced: Ninety Seven), 98 (Pronounced: Ninety Eight), 99 (Pronounced: Ninety Nine), 90 (Pronounced: Ninety), 900 (Pronounced: Nine Hundred), 9000 (Pronounced: Nine Thousand), 9-5 (Pronounced: Nine Five), NG900 (Pronounced: New Generation 900), 9-3 (Pronounced: Nine Three).

2001 - Present (Saab Automobile / General Motors)

The Company: When referring to the company in both written and oral communication where the products were produced between 2001 and the Present, it is proper & acceptable to refer to them as Saab in lower case letters and/or Saab Automobile / GM vehicles.

The Models: When referring to vehicles model nomenclature in both written and oral communication that were produced during this time, they are written and produced as 9-X (Pronounced: Nine X), 9-2x (Pronounced: Nine Two X), 9-3x (Pronounced: Nine Three X), 9-3 (Pronounced: Nine Three), 9-4x (Pronounced: Nine Four X), 9-5 (Pronounced: Nine Five), 9-7x (Pronounced: Nine Seven X)

I leave you with a brief summary from Saab Automobile’s entry from Wikipedia.

Saab / SAAB Correct Capitalization and Model Nomenclature:

While Saab is in fact an acronym, and, as with many other manufacturers, the word “SAAB” appears in all-capitals within the corporate emblem and in on-vehicle badging, the current correct capitalization of Saab when in print is “Saab,” and not “SAAB.”[citation needed] Other manufacturers such as Volvo, Toyota, Lexus, Acura, and Chevrolet employ the use of all-capitalized vehicle badging, but they are still considered proper names and capitalized as such when written. Likewise, Saab is treated as a proper name and not an acronym, despite its origins..”[citation needed]

Furthermore, all current Saab vehicles are badged with a large 9 and a smaller 3, 5, or 7x following the 9, such as “9³”. However, the digits are considered separate, and are spoken as, for example, “nine three,” and written as “9-3.” Nearly every Saab model ever produced has begun with the number 9 (Saab 600 being an exception), and Saab’s two models became 9-3 and 9-5 in the late 1990s, which was likely a marketing attempt at positioning the vehicles as direct competitors to the BMW 3-series and 5-series, respectively.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_Automobile

Photo Credit: Saab History

This Tuesday, marks the first installment for the 2008 season continuing the Saab Sighting series.

This week, I spotted a beautiful green NG Saab 900 4-door coupe in the Dupont Circle area neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Of course I dropped a nice note underneath the windshield wiper in hopes that the owner would be inspired enough to visit the site and see their car prominently displayed. Here’s hoping, enjoy!

Photo Credit: Saab History

Today is Tuesday and that means another installment of the Saab Sighting of the Week. This past weekend during a bike ride to Alexandria, Virginia, I managed to spot a beautiful new generation Saab 900 convertible prominently displayed at a Marina that runs alongside the Potomac River just south of National Airport. The photo opportunity was just too good to pass up.

If you have any photographs of Saab sightings that you would like to share, please contact me directly and I will gladly post them.

Photo Credit: Saab History

I have not done a Saab sighting of the week in quite some time, until today. Today, I happened to spot a beautiful cirrus white, NG900 passing by the Embassy of Argentina.

I hope to find some more good sightings in the future, but it’s all about timing as you can imagine and by the looks of this photo, I just managed to take the photo while the Saab started to take flight.

Photo Credit: Mark Ward

Mark Ward of St. Charles, Missouri is now getting very close to getting his project “Saabrina”, the electric Saab NG900 driveable.

He has just received his battery charger now, so he’s almost there. Please take a look at his website to see his amazing progress.

It is quite incredible how much this project has advanced in the last few years, I look forward to seeing this electric Saab NG900 roll down the road, and function almost entirely like a normal Saab NG900, but without the internal combustion engine.

Photo Credit: Saab Automobile USA

1997 SAAB 900 SE “TALLADEGA CHALLENGE”

Ten years after the successful “Long Run” with a trio of 9000 Turbos, Saab went for an encore at the famous NASCAR Talladega Motor Speedway in Alabama. Doubling the effort with a fleet of six cars, this time around, the Saab of choice was the “New Generation” 900 in a three-door configuration.

When the checkered flag fell on Oct. 24, 1996, a silver Saab 900 SE 2.0 Turbo had covered more than 25,000 miles (40,000 km) at an average speed of more than 140 mph (226.45 km/h), including time spent fueling and servicing the car.

In setting these international records, the Saab 900 had to beat the previous world record that was set with the 9000 Turbo at Talladega in 1986.

Saab’s innovative, water-cooled Garrett turbochargers and Trionic engine management system helped these engines and components endure strains that engineers never imagined. Exhaust temperatures of more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit and turbocharger’s turbines spinning at almost 200,000 rpm for hours on end proved the durability and reliability of these powerful engines.

After completing a distance equivalent to more than one lap around the earth at full throttle, the Saab 900 Turbo and its V-6, along with its non-turbo brethren, set 40 international speed records.

Following the tradition established a decade earlier with the “Long Run” 9000 Turbo, a record-setting Saab 900 SE from the 1996 Talladega Challenge was retained for the Saab Heritage Collection in the United States.

In October of 1996, Saab Automobile brought over 6 randomly selected standard production 1997MY Saab 900 models to the Talladega International Speedway to test their endurance on the track over the course of a 8 days. The 6 Saab 900 vehicles included naturally aspirated, turbo’d and V6 equipped vehicles. Journalists from all over the world were invited to participate including notables such as legendary SAAB rally personality, Simo Lamipinen of Finland and of course Erik Carlsson.

This event was titled the “Talladega Challenge” and was the 10-year anniversary of the first time Saab came to Talladega Speedway back in October of 1986 with a series of standard production 9000s known as the “Long Run”.

Here is the detailed video that captures this event. Enjoy.

Photo Credit: Saab Automobile USA

1995 SAAB 900 SE “PIKES PEAK”

After a rich career that lasted a quarter-century, it was clear that the brand-defining Saab 99-900 series deserved a worthy successor. The Swedish company had started design and engineering development during the mid-1980s, but found itself in financial trouble as a weakening dollar quickly deteriorated its business in the all-important U.S. market.

By the end of 1989, General Motors Corp. emerged as the white knight for Saab, initially taking a 50-percent interest in the car company. Beyond financial support, GM Europe was also instrumental in providing technical components and systems that led to the completion and launch of the “New Generation” (NG) 900. It debuted in the summer of 1993, initially only in a five-door hatchback configuration.

Its familiar name and design profile notwithstanding, the NG 900 was indeed new from stem to stern. The front-drive powertrain was now transversely mounted, saving space while offering a first in Saab history: a 2.5L V-6 engine, in addition to the tried-and-true, four-cylinder turbo. A unique aircraft-inspired innovation was the “Black Panel,” allowing the driver to shut down all instrument lighting except the speedometer and emergency lights.

To prove that all of these changes didn’t diminish the core qualities that dyed-in-the-wool enthusiasts held so dear, Saab accepted a very tall challenge indeed: to race up the steep gravel roads of Pikes Peak, Colo. faster than any car in its class.

By the time the dust settled, the 1995 three-door, 2.0L Turbo Saab 900 SE made its point. The New Generation was here to stay.

This is one of the first television advertisements that ran in the United States by Saab Cars, USA, Inc. at the time with the efforts of the advertising agency, “Angotti, Thomas & Hedge”

Photo Credit: Saab Automobile

The New design of the Saab 900 convertible or “cabriolet” in Europe, was introduced in 1995 following the new generation model 900 sedan that was introduced a year earlier.

On a more comical note on the new generation (NG) Saab 900’s safety record, Saab ran a television ad in 1995 depicting the safety cage of the new generation Saab 900. Take a look below.

It was mentioned earlier that in the recent IIHS crash test of the 1995 Saab 900, it underperformed the present Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan in the high speed crast test. In response to the recent comment made on this post, I thought it was appropriate to show how strong the Saab 900 new generation model (1994-1998) was when it came to roll-overs and run-ins with animals, specifically the “Moose”.

One can deduce from watching both of these videos, the Saab 900 model that ran from 1994 until 1998 was safer in front-end crashes that encountered animals, but not as safe when it came to high speed offset crashes with vehicles or non-movable objects . Take a look at this ABC news clip below and see for yourself.

This is the second of three compiled videos that the IIHS has recently supplied Saab History from their testing facility in Northern, Virginia.

In this video, you will see some significant advances while watching the comparison videos of the 1995 900, 1999 9-3 and 2003 9-3 Sport Sedan.

The video that you are about to see below consists of the following four segments.

* 2003 Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan High Speed Offset Crash Test
* 1999 Saab 9-3 Hatchback High Speed Offset Crash Test
* 1995 Saab 900 Hatchback High Speed Offset Crash Test
* 1995 Saab 900 Hatchback Crash Test split-screen comparison with 2003 Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan.

Enjoy the video and post your comments below.

For more information on the IIHS, please visit http://www.iihs.org/

Mark Ward of Missouri, the proud owner of a 1995 Saab 900 began an ongoing project to convert his Saab into a complete electric car that he refers to as “SAABRINA”.

It looks like he has been making some good progress with this electric Saab project over the past year.

For more information on his project, please visit his blog at http://saabrina.blogspot.com/

It got quite chilly this weekend here in Washington, D.C., so winter is just upon us.

With winter around the corner, I found probably one of the most appropriate advertisements on a forum called “Saab Central” recently. This advertisement includes a Saab 900 NG that is a new spin on the old “Saab vs.” advertisements from the late 1990’s.

An individual by the name of “CleveSaab” made this creative ad. This ad really sells the Saab as the true Swedish Winter Sled by the tools it is equipped with in order to withstand a harsh winter. Excellent work!

To see the thread on this forum called Saab Central, click here http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87472

In 1996, Saab sponsored the Michelen SCCA Pro series “Rim of the World” rally in Palmdale, California. Sam Bryant and Rob Walden were the driver and co-driver of a factory supplied “Find your Own Road” yellow new generation 900 Turbo 3-door.

For more information on the SCCA Pro Series, visit http://www.scca.com/Pro/Pro.asp

The footageI have managed to locate is rally 2 of this race, enjoy! I wonder who has footage of Rally #1 in this series?