Comments on: The Saab Smell. A personal tale of odour by Lance Cole

By: Thor Carlson

Thor Carlson — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 02:49:00 +0000

I haven’t owned a 2-stroke SAAB for nearly 20 years, yet I can still conjour that smell up in my mind and, sitting in a stroker immediately brings it all back. No 4 stroke SAAB ever had that sweetness. The 3 C900′s in the family are all pungent in different ways, but I put that down as much to age as anything else. If those seats could talk…

By: Jose Baars

Jose Baars — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 22:40:00 +0000

My wife and I have called all our Saabs lovingly ‘Smelley’. We still do, although now for sentimetal reasons.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:37:00 +0000

Scott Hamrick is right. When my ’01 9-5 was still new my brother got in one day, took a big whiff and said “smells like JC Penney in here”. LOL, I love to retell that story. I never thought it smelled like a department store, but I always loved that smell. And even after ten years on a hot summer day after it’s been sitting in the sun when I get in I get a faint whiff of that new Saab smell. Ahhhh, wish Saab bottled that.

By: Rudolf Weidmann

Rudolf Weidmann — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:38:00 +0000

great, witty article and I must admit it is true. I own two classics: a 900S from 1993 and a 9000 from 1991 and they both have a distinctive smell of the described SAAB-aftershave lol !

By: Tomáš SobikSaabik Vojtíšek

Tomáš SobikSaabik Vojtíšek — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:48:00 +0000

I love this Saab smell, it’s the same type of smell like in old planes! Really!
New Saabs ( from NG900 ) haven’t got this smell, but some pieces with nice leather ( like my 9-3 SE Sport ) have got wonderful leather smell whole 12 years!

By: David Knorr

David Knorr — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:05:00 +0000

I never smelled antifreeze in an airplane like my Saab 9000 heater core leaks (replaced twice) with repair procedure on par with an airplane landing gear repair. I still love my Aero ’97 and wouldn’t trade it for another car. The long life of the car is a testament to it out living two heater cores I guess.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:48:00 +0000

A lovely read, and I’m very thankful I got to read it. I was not with you at the time of trollhattansaab, I only started reading SaabsUnited when things started to look dangerous a few years back.

From my own experience, with a not-so-sensitive nose, I think the 9000 also had a similar smell, but way less than in the old 900. I also think it was even less prominent in the newer of the 9000′s we’ve had in the family.

I’m tempted to do the research of all things possible that was used in Saab’s but not in Volvo’s at different times in history. A chance guess is that it has something to do with seat stuffing, since that is the most obvious difference when you take a seat in those cars.

Furthermore, here in Sweden we also have both Scania and Volvo coaches, although not many left from those years, that might show the same phenomena. Intriguing, indeed.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:32:00 +0000

Oh my gosh, all My Saabs has a distinctive smell which, I’ve have to admit, I loved. I also flew quite often on smaller commuter planes. Although I didn’t know the saab plane models, I always knew the instant I stepped off the jetway and into a saab plane- it had that SAME smell. I always attributed it to the leather seats inthe car and the leather seats in the plane comeing from the same source, but now that I think about it, not all my saabs had leather seats yet they still had the “Saab smell”.

If they could bottle that, I’d buy it.

By: Scott Hamrick

Scott Hamrick — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:22:00 +0000

The only problem with this article is that the OG 9-5 does indeed have a smell. It smells like crayons — especially on a hot day. I had many a passenger tell me so.

By: Emmanuel Shipstone

Emmanuel Shipstone — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:16:00 +0000

I don’t think there is an airplane smell in Saab. It does have a new car smell when it is new. But the shifter and gague cluster and vent adjustment are aero inspired.