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Junkyard Gem: 1983 Saab 900 Turbo 4-Door Hatchback

I've been finding quite a few interesting Saabs in Colorado car graveyards lately, including a 96 and a 99 (sadly, a discarded example of a Saab 92 has eluded me — at least in the United States — so far), and now it's the turn of the factory-hot-rod Saab that gave car shoppers more horsepower per dollar than anything they could buy from Germany at the time: the 900 Turbo. I found this car a few weeks back in a yard just south of Denver. Saab sold the original version of the 900 in the United States for the 1979 through 1993 model years (after that, the 900 name went on a car based on the Opel Vectra and closely related to the Saturn L-Series), and the early 900s looked very much like their 99 ancestors. Saab was an early adopter of turbocharging, and so the 900 Turbo was available here for the entire 1979-1993 sales run. This engine, a 2-liter slant-four derived from a 1960s Triumph design (and first cousin to the engine used in the Triumph TR7), was rated at 135 horsepower in 1983. That was big power for a small car in the Late Malaise Era, and it gave the 1983 Saab 900 Turbo a power-to-weight ratio similar to what you got in the Mitsubishi Starion and Porsche 944 that year. Electronic fuel injection finally made turbocharging work well for everyday driving (though the Maserati Biturbo stuck with blow-throw Weber carburetors all the way through 1986 in the United States), and it wasn't long before TURBO became a magical word. Yes, by 1984 you had Ozone and Turbo break-dancing while Ice-T makes his film debut. A few years earlier, with the (carbureted) Turbo Trans Am's not-so-stellar reliability on display, Boogaloo Shrimp's character would have been assigned a different name. Though it's possible, based on the fact that at least one 1980s boombox was built from a Saab 900 dash, that Turbo's name was inspired by Saab. Saab should get credit for doing so much to push turbocharging into the daily-driver mainstream. You could get a three-speed Borg-Warner automatic transmission in your new 1983 Saab 900, but it added 370 bucks (about $1,075 in 2022 dollars) to the cost of the car and made it much less fun to drive. This one has the 5-speed manual; I assume the E next to fifth gear stands for "efficiency." The five-door 900 Turbo listed at $16,910 with five-speed manual, which comes to about $49,055 today. A new BMW 528e cost $23,985 that year ($69,580 now) and offered just 121 horsepower.

Greetings from Trollhattan. I'm Emily, but I'm not a Saab.

What’s Swedish for “never give up”? Saab, apparently. The fondly-remembered car company formerly called just that — and now named NEVS — is only a shell, employing just a limited crew in the land of trolls. But itÂ’s got something to sell, and that something seems like it's really something. ItÂ’s called Emily. The Emily GT exists as six prototype electric cars, according to NEVS, with a combined horsepower rating (per car) of 484 powered by an enormous 175-kilowatt lithium-ion battery thatÂ’s good for 600 miles of range. In development almost since Saab's demise — the company, once owned by General Motors, was closed down in 2010 — the Emily is a very real product and needs a real sponsor, according to NEVS CEO Nina Selander, speaking to Carup. “It is for sale, it is also a joy to be able to show it. It should be allowed to live on, itÂ’s too nice, too good and too modern a car for nothing to come of it. Interested parties are welcome,” she said. Photos of the car show a modern, forward-thrust profile with handsome lines, a look similar to the last Saab 9-5 and VolvoÂ’s S60 (must be a Swedish thing) and a fashionable, sci-fi-ish interior. A hopeful engineer on the project estimates that the car is less than two years away from some kind of series production, but according to the modest NEVS website, the company is currently in “hibernation” even as it continues to solicit buyers for the Emilys. Said Peter Dahl, the Emily project manager, “Many have asked us what we have been doing for 10 years. We have developed 13 different car projects, this is one of them.” Related video: Volvo Saab Automotive History Electric Future Vehicles Classics

NEVS announces 200 layoffs as it says Saab restart will 'take time'

For a fleeting moment a few weeks ago, the news from Saab-owner National Electric Vehicle Sweden appeared almost positive. The company had its reorganization plan approved (a day after it was denied), and the automaker was actually showing a real, running vehicle, albeit one with a top speed of 75 miles per hour. But those tiny crumbs of potential goodness have been swept away because NEVS has announced layoffs of as many as 200 factory employees in September "due to lack of work."
Workers probably shouldn't get too eager to return to the factory either, because company's "decision to re-start production will be further delayed" by an unspecified amount of time, NEVS says in a press release. To begin assembling cars again, the company needs to find long-term funding and a new majority owner. Those seem like two very steep hurdles for the embattled automaker to clear.
Despite not producing cars since May, NEVS still claims it's negotiating with a new owner, possibly Mahindra, but according to Reuters, the Swedish company owes about 400 million kronor ($56 million) to creditors. According to its layoff announcement, getting rid of these workers is one step in the business' reorganization plan to be presented on October 8. Scroll down to read its full release.