There are still a remarkable number of Saabs in and around Fort Collins, CO, likely to do with it being a college town, but 99’s are awfully rare these days. I’ve spotted this one a couple of times heading the other way but never parked, and this time he was at least going in the same direction so I was able to snap a shot as he passed by.
A little rust around the rear fender (alright, so it’s pretty bad in that spot) but it’s still chugging along nicely. As far as I can tell, the GL was introduced for ’76 and in ’77 got larger taillights so I am pegging this as a ’76. Generally highly rated as a driver’s car, Saab as usual had designed a very safe and advanced vehicle with FWD, fuel injection, and numerous safety features.
99’s were also the last cars that Saab entered in rallying as a factory team, with a 1977 99EMS and a 1979 99Turbo notching wins with Stig Blomqvist at the wheel. This GL still has the giant factory mudflaps behind all four wheels and the wheels themselves still sport the large metal hubcaps as well. Hopefully I will catch up with it one day while it’s at rest but for now it’s always on the move.
Guessing made in Belgium. Air pollution there affected paint quality.
Saabs built in Belgium? Volvo yes, but Saab? News to me.
Same here, never knew that. But it seems like the IMA company in Mechelen assembled some 20k 99s in the mid seventies and that half of them were sold in the US.
Yeah, it’s getting a little rust here and there after over four decades.
I look at that picture wistfully. While I’ve got a bucket list of motorcycles that I’ve always wanted to own, there’s a good chance that I’m going to knock down a few of them in the next decade (actually already started).
Cars, on the other hand, probably not. And tops on my list are anything Saab (but especially the 99) and Citroen. Unfortunately, finding mechanical backup is going to be more difficult (I’ve already got my mechanic for anything on two wheels), and there’s the matter of storage (the second garage can hold four motorcycles or one car – and already has three bikes).
Seeing an old Saab on the road looks so odd. Oh wait, they looked odd when new. But given that, I think Saab designs have aged better than most other cars from their respective eras.
I haven’t seen a 99 on the road in quite some time — even for 900s, it’s become unusual to see any pre-1990 model outside of a car show. As a former Saab owner, I love to see these still in use.
My area, a DC suburb, had lots of Saabs back in the day, and I still see them occasionally today. There are a couple of 99s around here, and until recently a 96. 900s and 9000s are more common though all are starting to become rare sights. I guess the 99 survival rate might be helped by a few factors – a significant enthusiast following, relatively high parts interchangability over 25 years of the 99/900, and their solid construction. I never found 99 to be all that odd looking except for the drooping deck lid, which also stole some potential luggage space.
I really like the Saab 99’s quirky design. I also wish they hadn’t made it so boxy. The Saab 99 designers pretty much threw away the iconic teardrop shape of the 96.
Porsche did a much better job of maintaining the brand’s basic look when the 356 was replaced by the 911.
Sometime in the mid ’80s I took one of these for a test drive. As I recall the rust at that time was already more advanced than this example. Glad I passed on that example, but I’ve not yet overcome my admiration for the thoughtful quirkiness of these things.
I’ve lived in Fort Collins most of my life, that car belonged to the family of a kid I went to school with. It’s crazy that it’s still kicking around town!
I really miss the clean sheet original modernism this car reflects. Gone, even with French cars.
Modern era cars have ten times the engineering input (crash resistance, electronics, pollution control, etc.) than cars back in the Saab 99 period. An independent manufacturer just can’t amortize the expense over a relatively low production like they used to. Also, for example the Saab 99 was made for 16 years, then heavily modified into the 900 (although you could see they were basically the same thing), which went on for 20 more. That’s 36 years for one basic design. The Volvo 240 also went on forever. You can’t get away with that anymore.
Saabs under GM ride on GM platforms shared by other cars, and all kinds of other GM bits and pieces, and don’t have the feel of the “real” Saabs, one problem with platform sharing and GM’s blanding influence. Yes, GM could have managed way better, but Saab was going to fold without GM ownership even sooner. Geely just poured bottomless money into Volvo.
That’s a great point about how long the Saab 99/900 lived. Passenger cars – or even trucks – kept in production for decades may be a relic of the 20th Century. What I wonder is whether more is at play than faster-changing and more expensive technology. Car designs may be more complicated today, but you can also more easily buy components off the shelf or develop partnerships. This can make it easier for a small-scale automaker to amortize costs.
Another factor may be that the auto industry’s attitude about what represents a “competitive” product has dramatically changed. Back in the Vietnam era some automakers still challenged “planned obsolescence” as a matter of principle. Today pretty much nobody does.
I’d also throw out the idea that Saab lost its independence partly because it stopped innovating in a market-savvy way. For example, the automaker might have gotten a lot more bang for its buck by offering an AWD wagon variant of the 900 rather than a convertible.
I doubt that Saab could have competed (at least in the U.S.) with an AWD wagon given the success of Subaru in that niche. Even before the advent of the Outback, Subaru was successfully selling the AWD version of the Legacy wagon it was based on, starting with the 1990 model. Saab eventually did offer an AWD wagon under post-GM ownership, the 2010 9-3x SportCombi, but it was far too late; only about 500 were sold in the U.S. in 2010 and 2011 combined – but at least you could get one with a stick.
As for Saab’s decision to make a convertible, enough of them were sold over a 25-year period that, now that I’m in the market for one, I have a reasonable selection of recent examples. There aren’t that many other good choices than Saab if you want a modern used convertible with an honest rear seat and don’t want to buy a Mercedes, BMW, or Audi. (I don’t think the Chrysler Sebring/200, Pontiac G6, Volvo C70, or Toyota Solara are worth considering, but opinions vary.)
Don’t forget the 9-2X – yes, a Subaru clone but still a Saab badged AWD wagon in both 2.5i and 2.0 turbo guises starting in 2005. I for one bought one over a WRX but mainly due to the sale price when GM was discounting them well lower than what a WRX would have cost.
The could have probably figured out a way to do an AWD 9-5 wagon which was available much earlier than the 9-3 wagon and could have competed with the Volvo XC70 and Audi Allroad.
True, concerning both the 9-2x (although not very capacious for a wagon) and the potential for a first-generation 9-5 AWD wagon; indeed, there were a few prototypes of a 2010-11 second-generation 9-5 AWD wagon, but apparently none were ever offered for sale.
I still don’t think a first-gen 9-5 wagon, if offered with AWD, could have competed with the Legacy/Outback-sized Subaru AWD wagons because of the price differential; our very nicely equipped 2003 Legacy SE wagon was purchased new for $20-21,000, whereas prices for new 2003 (FWD) 9-5 wagons were in the low to mid-thirties. Yes, the 9-5 wagon had advantages over the Subaru wagons of that era, but not $10,000 worth.
They would have competed with Volvo, Audi etc.
Some of those 9-5 wagon prototypes (the new shape of which we only got a few sedans before the end, not the older familiar one) actually did end up getting registered in Europe. It was a massive ordeal but once one EU country let one get plates, it became easier for the others. There are a few good articles on the whole process out there and there have been several meetups, at Saab-fests those wagons are pretty much the belle of the ball.
The Subaru Impreza wagon had the advantage of already looking kind of Saabish so it looked like a plausible Saab with the Saab style front end grafted on. Known of course as the Saabaru.
Subaru must have used some Italian designer for them, since after that all Subarus look very different from that one Impreza model and similar. The Chevy Tahoe(or whatever it was)/Saab was a lot less convincing.
Still have my beautiful 2001 9♡3 in the SF Bay area!
I owned a 1969 Saab 99, with the Triumph engine. Though it had a few drivetrain issues, it was a JOY to drive. My first experience with radial tires, which simply floated over cracks. And my only experience with Saab’s “freewheeling” feature, where you could shift gears whenever you let off the gas as long as the car was moving. I loved it.
After years of wondering, i finally checked a book out of the library that promised a complete examination of the engineering of the 99. Why was the engine in backwards?, I wondered.
Drilling through the book, all I found was an account of the 99’s unveiling, which noted some Brit journos wondered “why is the engine back to front?”, but no answer to that question.
Mostly what I miss about Saabs is hearing them, especially the turbocharged ones, with genuine Saab mufflers.
To my eyes, these 2-door coupes are the best looking Saabs of the “modern” era. But then I’m biased, having owned a yellow ’73. I know most people love the hatchbacks, but those are too new-fangled to be “real” Saabs. (Unwritten rule of Saab fandom: any Saab newer than yours isn’t a genuine Saab.)
From the UK here and I have grown up with Saab my Dad had 2 99’s in the 70’s 2 900’s in the 80’s then a 9000 through the 90’s. I picked up the bug and drive a 9-5 Wagon.
I’d love to have a 99 or early 900, but I just can’t see that happening, but that picture just reminded me of my dad’s one when I was just a child, and as he opened the door a cloud of greyish blue smoke would puff out from his cigarettes.
They’re getting rare in their home country too, seems that most of them have fallen victim to the “folk race”. A cheap way to car racing over here. after each race, anyone can purchase the car for SEK 8000 ($750)
When I was in Boulder, Colorado in 2009 I had a pleasant conversation with some Saab owners who I think had 99s or 900s. If I remember correctly they sometimes used a barter system with a local Saab mechanic to get their cars worked on and sounded like they used some home made parts such as brake lines.