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One-off 1997 Saab 900 EX prototype headed to auction

An obscure and fascinating part of Saab's history is looking for a new home. The one-off 1997 900 EX was built in Norway to celebrate the company's 50th birthday, and while it was not approved for production it shows what a sporty, 900-derived coupe could have looked like. British auction house Bonhams explains that Per Ekstrom, an auto body expert and enthusiast according to The Drive, worked closely with Saab and Norwegian road authorities to create the 900 EX. His goal wasn't merely to create an eye-catching coupe that's pretty to look at but impossible to drive; he wanted the model to be street-legal and drive like a regular-production car. The auction description notes that the 900 EX was built by experienced professionals with Saab's blessing and that the process required between 3,000 and 4,000 hours of work. The end result is stunning. While the headlights and the grille create a strong visual link between the EX and the second-generation 900, which enthusiasts often refer to as the GM900, the roof line has been lowered by nearly three inches and the body has been considerably widened thanks in part to 9000 CS-sourced front and rear wheel arches. We're told that the rear window comes from a 900 Cabriolet's soft top and that the hatch is a modified panel sourced from a standard 900, though pictures of the back end haven't been released as of writing. Bonhams describes the build quality as "exceptional" and says that the panel gaps are better than those seen on many modern cars. It adds that the red and gray paint (which is a tribute to the combination often seen on the 900 SPG) is original and "in close to perfect condition."  The interior is largely standard 900 fare. There's wood trim, leather upholstery, a three-spoke steering wheel, and the big knobs and buttons that characterized Saab models for decades. The brand designed the switchgear so that it could be easily operated by someone wearing gloves. The odometer displays about 141,600 kilometers, which represents approximately 88,000 miles, though Bonhams pegs the engine's mileage at around 154,000 kilometers (roughly 95,600 miles). Most of the miles were reportedly added before engine ended up in the EX. Speaking of the engine, power comes from a 2.3-liter turbocharged four-cylinder sourced from Saab's regular-production parts bin and tuned to send 220 horsepower to the front wheels. It's bolted to a five-speed manual transmission.

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.

Saab plant reopens, production to resume by year's end?

Saab is gearing up to start production of the 9-3 again in September, two years after the last exampled rolled off the assembly line at the company's Trollhättan factory, Aftonbladet reports. Saab's new owner, National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), a Chinese-Japanese consortium created solely to buy Saab, says that the model's parts supply is the bottleneck in the production process, understandable since many of Saab's suppliers closed after it stopped production two years ago. The automaker also needs to establish a new dealership network. It is not entirely clear where Saab will market their new models, but North America is not expected to figure into their plans, at least initially.
Almost 400 factory employees are reportedly back working at Trollhättan, and Saab is looking to recruit 180 workers to help with production, presuming the factory can overcome its supply issues and go back online in the fall.
The new 9-3 is understood to be something short of an all-new car, a revision of the old 9-3 that started production in 2002. It will reportedly be offered initially as a four-door sedan and two-door convertible, and it will have a turbocharged engine, according to NEVS, which we expect will be a four cylinder. An electric 9-3 could come as early as next year. Turbocharged engines are part of Saab's DNA, NEVS Vice President Mattias Bergman has stated, and future Saab models will have them - despite the automaker's planned progression toward electric vehicles. The 9-3 will get small facelifts over time, says Mikael Östlund, a press officer at NEVS.