English

Saab was featured on the latest Top Gear episode which aired on February 26, 2012. It is quite long and features some of the history of the brand and the good and bad of some of the features and cars.

James May and Jeremy Clarkson drive a Saab 92, 99 Turbo, 9-3 and 9-5 in this episode. They drive the latest Saab 9-5 towards the end and make these remarks:

Jeremy: So this is it. This is the last ever Saab. That we're in right now.
James: Yeah.
Jeremy: This is the final chapter. I really liked the way they did things.
Jeremy: I am going to miss Saab.
James: It is a sad day.
Jeremy: It is sad.

Unless there is going to be a new buyer of all of Saab's assets ...

Saab ANA in Trollhattan completed the last 47 Saab convertibles that were left on the assembly line when the factory was shut down last year. Some of the cars are the limited Independence Edition which was introduced almost exactly a year ago during the Independence Day celebrations.

These Saab 9-3 convertibles (or cabriolets as they are called in most of Europe) will range from 250.000 to 600.000 kronor in Sweden (28.000 to 68.000 Euro). Some of them may be exported to other countries and there are left-hand and right-hand drive models.
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Two-stroke engines bellow their meager 70 horsepower accompanied by a howling gearbox. Lollo Uhlin smiles somewhat lyrical when he leads his Saab 96 through another curve.



It's the second time Lollo Uhlin arranged this ice racing on the Acksjön lake between Ekshärad and Hagfors In Sweden. There are 14 cars on the lake, but I can promise that it could have been a hundred. But then it's going to be too big of an event to arrange.

- The great thing about these cars is driving edge. There is nothing like this, he says, and slams into a new gear.
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There are some pictures on Flickr of this event in Moscow in 2009. These events with the Saab Performance team are not unique but the quality of these pictures is exceptional.

I have never seen the Saab Performance Team myself so I can only imagine what these events are like by looking at the pictures and videos. Hopefully, the Saab Performance Team will be able to entertain Saab enthusiasts and prospective new Saab owners again in the future.

You can find the set of 12 pictures (including larger size) here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/arshamb...7622294866141/



A few videos


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Form the dust jacket:

THE SPIRIT OF SAAB is the spirit behind a range of exceptional cars built by people who are themselves exceptional: unique men and women full of creative spirit, to whom only the best is good enough.

THE SPIRIT OF SAAB means not only the genius of the cars and those who make them but also what radiates from the many entertaining episodes that make up their history. The essence of these is captured in this book which is itself . . .

THE SPIRIT OF SAAB - fascinating account of

• the small beginnings from which a great enterprise evolved
• the minor details that led to huge decisions
• the triumphs and the setbacks
• the top drivers

...

This is the third part of my Saab 9-4X owners review. I currently have about 6,000 miles on the odometer and I still love every bit of this fantastic Saab.


The Saab 9-4X weighs a hefty 4,400 lbs with the 3.0i engine. The Aero is even heavier and can tip the scale up to 4,700 pounds. I owned a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer for a couple of years and it had the typical ride of an SUV. Heavy, pretty slow, vague steering, an engine that ran out of breath beyond 4K rpm and a bit of a mushy suspension. So my expectations of a crossover with similar size and weight were not that high.

While it still ...

• New warranty product (Saab Secure) announced
• Saab GB Service Plans from last year honoured at participating dealers
• New Saab Authorised Repairer appointed in London

Following Saab Great Britain Limited entering Administration on 29th November, 2011 and Saab Automobile A.B. filing for bankruptcy protection on 19th December, 2011, the Administrators for both companies suspended the processing of all new vehicle warranty claims.

With no further public statement clarifying the warranty position from the Administrators since 19th December, 2011, Saab Automobile Parts UK (trading as Saab Parts UK) has developed a flexible warranty product called Saab Secure ...

• New Parts Company set up in UK
• Service & Repair network established
• Servicing continues as normal
• Saab Service Club open to all Saab Owners

Saab Automobile Parts UK Ltd (trading as Saab Parts UK), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Saab Automobile Parts A.B., commenced trading in the UK on the 1st January, 2012. This newly formed company has been set up to provide on-going supply of genuine Saab Parts and customer service packages.

With an established and extensive network of 87 Saab Authorised Repairers spread across the UK, customers can be confident of Saab’s highly skilled team of technicians having the experience and expertise to service and repair their cars ...

Anders Tunberg has been writing about automobiles for many years. His admiration for Saab culminated in this book, a story of how the 9-5 came to be. With the cooperation of Saab, he explores the philosophy, design, structure, and other aspects of how a car is created and shaped and moved into the market.

From the dust jacket:

How do you go about creating a new automobile? When do you begin and how? What do the customers demand, what can the manufacturer offer? Is driving a car a matter of simply transportation, economy or environment? Or is it all right to tempt the driver with power, performance or design? What makes me like one car over another?

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We want to share some exciting news about two new additions to SaabWorld: New Gallery image software and Saab Media Archive

SaabWorld Gallery

We recently installed new software for easy sharing and viewing of your images. We already have the SaabWorld Garage where you can upload images and details about any of the the Saabs you own. This new Gallery software takes Saab image sharing to the next level. You can share

More pictures of your Saabs
Events like club and local meets, Saab conventions
Rally and other motorsport events
Saab museums
Saab at auto shows

Any image related to Saab has a place in the SaabWorld Gallery. You can create your own albums and add your pictures to the main ...

Although reported a day or so earlier, it has now been officially confirmed that the Saab museum cars will be publically displayed in a museum.

Saab's bankruptcy administrator attorneys issued a memo on January 13, 2012 informing the public that the Saab Car Museum in Trollhättan, which had closed at the end of 2011, was to have its more than 100 car collection liquidated. The administrators solicited bids from the public as well as for the entire museum collection as a whole. The deadline for submitting a bid was only a week later, on January 20th. The City of Trollhättan submitted a bid for the entire collection but that the bid was reportedly too low compared to the sum of individual bids.


Saab Bilmuseum

The Delphi Law Firm, which is sharing administration of bankruptcy, has sent e-mails to individual ...

From Shaw Saab:

Greetings!

It is with profound sadness that I announce we will be closing after 44 years in business as an exclusive Saab dealer. My father started the business June of 1968 as one of the founding Saab dealers of this quirky, but safe little brand. The bankruptcy of Saab Automobile AB (Sweden) has forced this hand. As hard as we all tried (and you have no idea), it was impossible to sustain this business any longer. We will be closing the doors next Friday, February 3rd at 6:00 PM.

Words cannot describe the array of emotions we are all experiencing right now. Everything from sadness and anger to pride and hope. Although I can sit here and play the 'blame game', or let you know how I really feel -- I will limit ...

Several PDF files of the Saab Magazine have been added to the Downloads section. We already had the 2009 English edition available and now have three new English editions: 2010-01, 2010-02 and 2011-01. There also are two 2010 editions in German. More languages will be added soon.

Saab Magazine in Downloads

You have to be a registered member to download files. Registration is easy and only takes a few minutes.

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Fouriertransform, Innovatum and individuals from Saab Automobile’s former management team have decided to start a jointly owned engineering company, LeanNova Engineering, which will deliver complete development projects to the automotive industry. At the same time, Fouriertransform and Combitech AB have entered into a letter of intent that makes it possible to eventually integrate their initiatives in Trollhättan to a jointly owned engineering company.

In order to preserve and strengthen the automotive expertise in Sweden and in Trollhättan, Fouriertransform, Innovatum as well as leading individuals from Saab Automobile have decided to start a jointly owned engineering company that will sell and deliver complete development assignments to Swedish and international automotive clients. The demand ...

Despite Saab's setbacks, Oscar Karlsson refuses to abandon the marque. He is only 16 years old, but he is already the owner of five Saabs!

- There is something special about Saab. The cars have a soul and I like that.

Love for Saab is deeply rooted among the Swedish people. We love the little automaker that for so long has contributed with their innovative technologies and their slightly different design. Oscar Karlsson from Torsby really love the cars from Trollhättan.

- Yes, I was only twelve when I got a Saab 9000 that was owned by my Dad. ...

This is a Dutch documentary made by Godfried de Vries and Leo Alexander Schlangen. As the title suggests, it is all about the Saab 900 and its main designer Björn Envall. This documentary was filmed by George van Wensveen and was made in the summer of 2010 when they visited with Envall in Sweden.

It also features other members of the Saab 900 team. The documentary shows 10 of them were invited to Envall's home and they had not seen each other since 1993, the last year of the Saab 900.

In the video, Envall notes "We never understood we should make profit with the car. We know dealers made profit, factories made profit but we never talked about it. We didn't have the big pressure on doing a new color every year or a new car every 5 years. We have done the utmost with our resources.
". And that says everything about the essence of the brand and perhaps its ultimate downfall.

Envall was the main designer at Saab in the 70s and 80s. The Saab 99, 900 and 9000 were created ...

The reports and pictures of the "We are Saab" worldwide event at former airbase Valkenburg in the Netherlands are slowly starting to appear. According to a report from a Dutch newspaper (De Telegraaf), there were 1600 Saab drivers and a total of 3800 people that showed up today. There were many Saab traffic jams in the area.

Victor Muller was at the event and spoke a few words. As this speech was in Dutch, we are providing a translation to English to share with our worldwide SaabWorld visitors.



Speech by Victor Muller:

I flew to the Netherlands just for this event. I am here today to personally thank everybody. It's amazing what Nic, Stefan and their team accomplished in the last months, or weeks I should say. ...

On the weekend of January 14-15, 2012, there were about 100 gatherings and convoys around the world in support of Saab. "We are many, we are Saab" was coined as the motto. In Seattle, there were several gatherings.

The largest gathering was organized by the Northwest Saab Owners Club meeting in Fife, near Tacoma, Washington, USA. A convoy then drove two to three hours south to Portland to join a meeting at Atomic Auto. In Seattle, there appears to have been one or two smaller gatherings, of which I participated in one.

As mentioned on Facebook, Saabsunited.com, Outside Saab, and Saabworld.net, there was also a meeting what was described as starting in the Target parking lot, which is a large ...