Photo Credit: Saab History

A good friend of mine, Kevin, here in New England, and longtime Saab Enthusiast, owner of numerous Saabs including a pristine 1992 Saab 900 Turbo Convertible, 1969 Sonett V4, both in blue, has recently acquired a beautiful 2008 6-Speed Saab 9-3 SportCombi in polar white at a dealership in Boston, a former advertiser on Saab History.

Kevin, contacted a number of dealerships just earlier this past week and was determined to find this evidently unique combination, and did, but the Saab Automobile USA website was of little help come to find out.

What was good to hear was that he did not go through a large bank, he went through a small bank that provided him a huge incentive, a good rate and even a $100 gas card for the loan!

He was one happy camper this past Tuesday evening, and I was fortunate to help assist in the process. I should mention it was hard to keep up with him as we head North out of Boston following the sale in his new generation Saab 900 SET Coupe, but I am lucky I could spot his polar white exterior a mile away!

Photo Credit: Saab History

I want to share with you a cake that my wife and I put together for the birthday celebration of our great longtime friend Carl Levine.

Carl has been a longtime friend, Saab owner, enthusiast and contributing editor here on Saab History.

It was a pleasure celebrating his birthday and I wish him many more good years ahead!

Photo Credit: DT

A Saab Enthusiast has recently written about his excitement with his 2003 Saab 9-5 Aero and has given Saab History permission to share some of it!

Here’s his opening line wow!

“If you can’t take to the sky …
Take to the road, preferably in a machine that will allow you to move as quickly (and safely) as possible. I’m a huge believer in the power of transportation. It transforms our world and lets people reach beyond normal definitions of space and distance. “

To read the complete story, please visit his blog directly

 
The Swedish Saab Club’s ex-President, Martin Bergstrom, was recently interviewed on Sweden’s Rapport.
 
He has quite the Saab collection there, very impressive! In fact, one of the many vintage Saabs he owns includes the one-of-a-kind Saab 99 Limo that took the current King of Sweden to the Boston State House back in 1976! It’ll be nice to see this again once it has been restored!
 
I had the chance to meet him at last year’s 2007 Saab Festival, a nice guy and has done a lot for his club and Saab Enthusiasts all across the world! It is a good interview regardless of your knowledge of the Swedish Language.

Photo Credit: Fagen Family (l-to-r 95 9000 Aero Ben, 91 900 Rachel, 91 900S Lynda, 87 900S Peter)

Peter Fagen of Connecticut, has recently submitted his “Saab Family Photo” here on Saab History.

As promised, I have indicated that I will highlight any submittals of Saab Family photos here on Saab History.

Thanks, you all look very proud to be a Saab Family! Have a happy holidays!

Photo Credit: Saab Cars USA

Are you a Saab family? The recent Saab Choice of Generations Film has gotten me thinking. Do you have various Saabs parked in your driveway at all times from members of your family?

This phenomenon has been under documented, so I am urging you to submit your photos here on Saab History and I will showcase them! If you can, please provide a description along with your photo in the form below!

cforms contact form by delicious:days

A Saab Enthusiast actually created one of the most visually appealing video as a take off from Saab Sweden’s “Turbo Gene” quiz website launched some months ago.

I found this video recently on youtube and asked the author and he said that he just created this as a hobby, and no Saab did not pay him for the work, so I was asking myself what?

My only thing about the video is that technically, the beginning section when he rolls the time back, it should have stopped in 1977 or 1978, the year when Saab launched the turbo motor? I guess he could be thinking about when Scania started using the Turbo, but maybe I’m just giving him too much credit at this point.

I think it is pretty well done visually though, what do you think?

As a follow-up to the illustration of poll’s titled “the people have spoken” about the future of Saab Automobile, one Saab Enthusiast writes Saab History to share his thoughts about Saab Automobile USA’s future as well!

Here is his piece in his own words:

Saab’s USA Future

I don’t know if the website monitors the news, but while proposing that Saab have its own head rather than sharing it with Cadillac and Hummer I would like to point out the following:

1) Hummer is not much longer going to be a GM brand as it is up for sale. Either it will be sold or dissolved, but GM is not going to invest in it anymore. Now the head of luxury products will only worry about two divisions - Cadillac and Saab.

2) Saab and Cadillac share parts - more than people care to admit. The Saab 9-3 Aero currently has a 2.8 L V6 engine that comes orginally from the Cadillac CTS. Saab engineers did add a Mitsubishi turbocharger (I believe) but it is still a Caddy engine. Cadillac is also selling a rebadged 9-3 in Europe as the BLS. True, it does not sell well but it is more product sharing. It is not such a stretch to have the same person running these two divisions.

3) Finally, as has been in the news a lot lately, GM is hemmoraging - badly. It lost over $6 Billion in the last quarter alone, and is on the verge of global bankruptcy. Saab in Europe is a break-even proposition right now, and Saab USA loses a ton of money. If GM is to cut costs where do you think they will cut first? Where they are losing money. My bet is that Saab USA may no longer exist if the company declares Chapter 11 and has to reorgranize. At best, it will offer three cars the 9-3, 9-4 and 9-5 - and they might be at Cadillac dealerships.

It is too bad that the auto industry is in so much turmoil right now and the global economy is in bad shape, but the reality is GM cannot afford two divsiion presidents - especially for a division as small as Saab is in the USA.

Sincerely.
A 2006 Saab 9-3 owner

Photo Credit: Mr. Jorgen Trued

A Saab Enthusiast has started a Saab 9-3 Turbo-X blog, I guess it was about time!

The opening photo features his Turbo-X SportCombi on the backdrop of a Viggen Jet in Grastorp, North of Trollhättan, where I visited with my wife last year during the 2007 Saab Festival.

Photo Credit: Chris Campbell

Chris, a frequent visitor to Saab History has provided a wonderful photo taken en-route to the recent Swedish Car Day 9 when his 2002 Saab 9-5 reached 100,000 on the odometer while he chose to match the speed, how appropriate!

Photo Credit: Zach Wallace

A Saab enthusiast has just provided Saab History with a wonderful photo of his Saab 9-3 Viggen to showcase here on Saab History.

I really like this photo for many reasons, especially with how the Viggen has been kept original including those wheels!

If you have a photo that inspires you of your Saab, please submit it to Saab History here for others to view around the world!

Photo Credit: Mark Ward

I first covered Mark Ward of Missouri’s 1995 Saab NG900 Electric project titled “Saabrina“, back in December of 2006 when the project really got underway.

Over the past few years, I have illustrated the incredible progress he has made such as the drivetrain in September of 2007, the battery install in December of 2007 to the recent actual driving footage of the car this past February.

My most recent coverage included a nice interview with him here that covers all sorts of commonly asked questions.

Here is his final installation to the Electric Vehicle Community regarding this absolutely devastating blow to development. I should indicate that, he beat Saab Automobile to task by actually making an electric vehicle that runs and has proved it this past spring.

I am very sympathetic and my heart is with him as he indicates on his final blog entry.

Very Sad News to report much after the fact.

At 3:00 A.M. on the morning of April 17th 2008 a fire of unknown origin broke out in my garage. The Saab, all of my machinery and all of my work for 3 years was destroyed.

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