Wordless Outtake: 2010 Saab 9-5 2.0 TiD – Coming To The End Of The Road
– Posted on January 13, 2026
-
-
-
American Brands: GM 
American Brands: Ford 
American Brands: Chrysler 
American Brands: AMC, Jeep and All Others 
Automotive Histories and Misc. 
Asian Brands 
UK Brands 
Australian Brands 
European Brands 
Cars Of A Lifetime & Auto-Biography 
Buses 
Trucks, Pickups and Vans 
Design 
Trains, Planes & Ships 
Motorcycles, Trikes, Bicycles 
Engines, Transmissions and other Tech 
Tractors, Lawn Mowers, Off-Road Equipment 
RVs, Motorhomes, Trailers, Campers
Well, that’s a wonderful car, I’ve always liked Opels. Does it at least have its starting switch behind the gear selector?
It does; IIRC the 9000 and pre-99 models were the only Saabs without the ignition switch in the center console.
I doubt this is the car most people think of when someone mentions “Saab”, but it was a decent, if not distinctive, offering. The general consensus seemed to be the 2nd gen 9-5 would have been a nice $40,000 car, but it cost $50,000 and at that price it was a tough sell, especially for a brand everyone knew was circling the drain.
Occasionally I see one on the road. That front view with the floating roof and disappearing A pillars is striking.
Basically an Opel with a Fiat engine.
Saab? Where?.
We may not like what GM did with Saab, but we still have GM to thank for Saab existing in any form at all into the ’90s and beyond.
If Saab had been managed properly, it would still exist today. GM treated it like an Oldsmobile, Pontiac, or Saturn. They stripped the Swedish brand of its distinctive character.
At least Ford showed a bit more respect for Volvo when they bought it. Volvo continued making its own engines, which were even used in some European Fords.
I think, as I said in another post, GM wasn’t solely responsible for the demise of Saab Automobile; Saab Aviation also played a part. They had absolutely no interest in the brand continuing to make cars; it seems they were only interested in airplanes.
While you are correct I think it’s worth noting that SAAB never produced their own engine from scratch
Sometimes dead is better.
I never drove or even rode in a SAAB. But, as a child of the 1970s and teen of the 1980s, I always loved them. Rounded and FWD when most cars were boxy and RWD. Plus, growing up in a small town in the South, SAABs were a rather rare sight. But I loved their quirky looks and aviation inspired design. Plus, I like people who are different and unique and that admiration extends to the automotive world as well. RIP = SAAB. You are missed.
Story goes that they were six months’ development and a few million Kroner off being a decent car.
I actually liked the styling of these, but sadly they’re about as popular as the present day Dodge Hornet. All I really remember from Saab’s final days was their TV commercial pitch “Born From Jets” which at the time I thought and still think an ad man just found trivia from Wikipedia to make a Hail Mary pass
“Saab: Born from Chevys.”
With the easy snipe out of the way, IMO should’ve introduced this gen2 9-5 as a wagon first with the sedan to follow a year later. Satisfy the pent-up demand for the model that would be the volume seller in Scandinavia and across Europe with the most appeal to the hardcore Saab fans in America first before pushing for China and more volume in America (that would, as events had it, never come).
Have only ever seen one of these, on a trip to the UK in 2013. I thought they looked good in pictures, and seeing one in the metal confirmed it. They might have been an Opel in a fancy suit, but what a well-cut piece of haute couture it is!
I’m not a Saab lover and have never aspired to own one. But to me, the last 9-5 looks more Saab-ish than the previous gen.
They had a lot more ‘presence’ in the metal than their predecessor, which was a bit ancient by the time they scraped together the dough to get it into production and were thus competing with the previous-generation Volvo 850.
The attempt to take SAAB mainstream was inevitable, but it seems as if it was rushed into production and things like the spring/damper/ARB rates and HVAC and things weren’t quite there yet. Which when your competition is BMW, Volvo et al…
The one existing wagon looks good, too.
But by then it was over for GM already.
We never got the truly cynical badge-engineering jobs over here and indeed, the SAABaru could have been a good idea with some real budget. Oh well…
SAAB – Starting out smelling and rattling like a DKW (“born from…”). Ending up smelling and rattling like a Fiat Ducato van.
Personally, as an alternative to M-B and BMW, I miss Rover much more than these Swedish troll cars.