2005 Saab 9-3 Linear Sedan 4-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Son surprises mom with her dream car, a 1973 Saab 99

Often, it feels like the news is just a never-ending stream of one depressing headline after another. It can be so liberating to see something positive and uplifting every once in a while. Just look at the ecstatic expression on this mother's face after receiving her dream car from her son. Mom has some seriously quirky taste too: she isn't after a muscle car or a two-seat droptop; instead, it's a 1973 Saab 99 EMS in a very '70s shade of copper at the top of her wish list. According to the video, it took her son about a year to track down this hunk of Swedish steel and save up the money to purchase it. Though, judging from his mom's reaction, it was worth every penny. She puts together what's going on with the Saab pretty quickly and immediately starts swearing at her son – out of love, of course. If you're feeling a little blue, consider this a much-needed pick-me-up. Watching the unbridled joy of someone getting something that they always wanted just feels wonderful.

Saab 9-3 production has restarted

If you're one of the small cadre of Saab drivers, first of all, kudos to you. Because as Top Gear pointed out, Saab drivers are among the most intellectual drivers out there. Secondly, we've got good news for you, because the 9-3 has officially resumed production at the Trollhättan plant in Sweden.
For those of you who may not have followed the story, a quick refresher: Founded in 1947, Saab Automobile AB was an independent automaker until 1989 when General Motors began the decade-long process acquiring it. Unable to make it profitable, GM sold Saab to Spyker in 2010, but that Dutch automaker proved unable to make a go of it, either, and finally shut it down a year later. Much of Saab's assets were acquired by National Electric Vehicle Sweden, which in turn is partially owned by the Chinese city of Qingdao, which pledged to get production back online by the end of the year.
NEVS has apparently made good on its promise, bringing 600 workers back to the factory to resume production of the 9-3 much as it was when a workforce of 3,500 labored on it and its stablemates prior to the bankruptcy. The reborn 9-3 will be sold in Sweden and in China, with an electric version to bring some other updates sometime next year.

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