1991 Saab 900 Turbo Hatchback Mechanics Special. Clean, Rust Free on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 1989 Saab 9000 Turbo

Saab got a lot of sales out of its 99 and 99-based 900 models, but a bigger and more modern car became necessary in order to compete with other European manufacturers in the executive-car market. This car was the 9000, and examples are getting very hard to find nowadays. Here's a 200,000-mile turbocharged 1989 Saab 9000 in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service wrecking yard. Other than Mercedes-Benzes and Volvo 240s, I don't see many junkyard 1980s European cars with better than 200,000 miles on the clock. The owner or owners of this Saab loved it enough to keep it in nice shape for a good 30 years, and it drove more than 7,000 miles on average during each year of its life. The engine is the same 160-horsepower turbocharged Saab H that went into the 1989 Saab 900 Turbo. This engine is descended from the Triumph Slant-4, which Americans knew best as the power under the hood of the Triumph TR-7. Members of this engine family remained in production from 1968 through 2009. It has the five-speed manual transmission, which was starting to become an unusual transmission choice for U.S. car buyers by 1989 — even in Saabs. The Scania badging on Saabs went away after 1995. I see plenty of Saab 900s during my junkyard wanderings, but 9000s aren't so easy to find in the big U-Wrench yards in 2018. I'm not sure what's going on with the fabric in this car's door-panel inserts. Saab went with the same ignition-switch location as everybody else with the 9000, rather than the "traditional" spot between the front seats. Naturally, Saab purists were so outraged by this that they ordered another round of surstromming and swore to stick with their two-stroke 96s for the next 30 years. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Ballet in 3 acts for 8 SAAB 9000 Turbos. Featured Gallery Junked 1989 Saab 9000 Turbo View 18 Photos Auto News Saab Automotive History

What car brand should come back?

Congratulations, wishful thinker! You've been granted one wish by the automotive genie or wizard or leprechaun or whoever has been gifted with that magical ability. You get to pick one expired, retired or fired automotive brand and resurrect it from its heavenly peace! But which one? That's a tough decision and not one to be made lightly. As we know from car history, the landscape is littered with failed brands that just didn't have what it took to cut it in the dog-eat-dog world of vehicle design, engineering and marketing. So many to choose from! Because I am not a car historian, I'll leave it to a real expert to present a complete list of history's automotive misses from which you can choose, if you're a stickler about that sort of thing. And since I'm most familiar with post-World War II cars and brands, that's what I'm going to stick to (although Maxwell, Cord and some others could make strong arguments). So, with the parameters established, let's get started, shall we? Hudson: I admit, I really don't know a lot about Hudson, except that stock car drivers apparently did pretty well with them back in the day, and Paul Newman played one in the first Cars movie. But really, isn't that enough to warrant consideration? Frankly, I think the Paul Newman connection is reason enough. What other actor who drove race cars was cooler? James Dean? Steve McQueen? James Garner? Paul Walker? But, I digress. That's a story for another day. Plymouth: As the scion of a Dodge family (my grandfather had a Dodge truck, and my mom had not one, but two Dodge Darts – the rear-wheel-drive ones with slant sixes in them, not the other one they don't make any more), I tend to think of Plymouth as the "poor man's Dodge." But then you have to consider the many Hemi-powered muscle cars sold under the Plymouth brand, such as the Road Runner, the GTX, the Barracuda, and so on. Was there a more affordable muscle car than Plymouth? When you place it in the context of "affordable muscle," Plymouth makes a pretty strong argument for reanimation. Oldsmobile: When I was a teenager, all the cool kids had Oldsmobile Cutlasses, the downsized ones that came out in 1978. At one point, the Olds Cutlass was the hottest selling car in the land, if you can believe that. Then everybody started buying Honda Civics and Accords and Toyota Corollas and Camrys, and you know the rest. But going back farther, there's the 442 – perhaps Olds' finest hour when it came to muscle cars.

2014 Saab 9-3 officially relaunched, reborn

Saab is officially building cars again. Production of the 9-3 Sedan has kicked back off in Trollhättan, Sweden, and the first example is reportedly earmarked for the company's museum. Initial sales are targeted for China, although Swedish customers will also be able to buy new Saabs built in their country right away, too. It isn't immediately clear if the model will be available in the rest of Europe, let alone in North America.
The initial run of 9-3s will be powered by a 220-horsepower, 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder before an electric model joins the range next year. There are no Biopower or XWD all-wheel-drive models presently in production. And while the lion's share of the 2014 9-3 is a carryover from the pre-bankruptcy car, there are some changes, including a new anti-whiplash seat system and a "greater number of non-GM parts," reports SaabsUnited.
"I am very proud of the dedication and the focus that NEVS management and employees have demonstrated over the year that has passed since we became owners of the plant in Trollhättan, and who have made this possible. Swedish expertise along with Japanese technology around batteries and new lightweight materials and our Chinese group's focus on green technology is our strength for the future," said Kai Johan Jiang, the founder of Saab's parent company, National Electric Vehicle Sweden.