Posted on February 4, 2010 – 19:16 in Features | Stephan
Nulla tenaci invia est via – the story of Saab
It was in 1989 that GM stepped up and bought Saab, restructured it and integrated it into their own shared-platform portfolio. From 1989 to 2010 GM/Saab reworked the 900, launched and reworked the 9-3, the 9-5 and the two badge-engineered 9-2 (basically a Subaru Impreza) and 9-7 (Chevrolet Trailblazer) for the US market. GM took a lot of Saab’s engineering skills and concepts to strengthen their other brands, leaving Saab as a somehow unwanted child, weakening the once strong image and moaning the huge loss of money the brand produced. Though some hardliners deny the GM Saabs to be real Saabs, those are still great cars that still stand out from the rest of the automobile-world.
And so Saab managed to keep a loyal, almost fanatic following. People that love the heritage of the brand, the countless smart features (like the floor-mounted ignition-switch) of the cars, the eco-awareness of the brand and the quirky, classic, jaw-dropping designs. Though watered-down a little by the GM years, Saab’s brand is still going strong and cars like the Turbo X with the incredible new 4WD-drive-system (which made it even beat Porsches on the track), the 2nd generation 9-5 and concepts like the Aero-X proof that there is still a lot of creativity to be found in the Trollhattan HQ.