Saab 99

Saab 99 at a glance

Project Gudmund: Saab's step up in size

Work on the car began on 2 April 1964 under the code name Gudmund. Saab had built small two-stroke and V4 cars since the 92, whose beginnings we cover in our Saab 92 story, and the 99 was a larger, more conventional four-cylinder car. In February 1965 Saab signed a contract with Standard-Triumph in Coventry for the engine. Sason, the company's long-time designer, died in April 1967 and did not see the production car.

The two-door was shown to the press almost a year before series production, and Saab lent dozens of cars to private drivers for everyday testing. The first production cars followed in autumn 1968, and 4,190 were built that year. The full company story, from aircraft to the end of car production, is in our Saab history.

Engineering for Swedish roads

The engine was mounted lengthwise, tilted 45 degrees, with the gearbox under it so that the unit sat close to the bulkhead. A fully synchronised four-speed gearbox with a freewheel drove the front wheels. Double wishbones located the front, and a light rigid rear axle used trailing arms, a Panhard rod and coil springs. ATE disc brakes on all four wheels worked through diagonally split circuits with a servo, and the handbrake acted on the front wheels until Girling brakes replaced the system in autumn 1974.

Safety was part of the brief. The steering column had a collapsible joint from the start, headlamp wipers were standard in Sweden from 1970, and 1972 brought an electrically heated driver's seat and plastic bumpers that took 8 km/h impacts and kept their shape. Inertia-reel seat belts followed in 1974, and the body had crumple zones front and rear.

From Triumph to Saab engines

The British-built engine proved unreliable, so Saab bought the licence, reworked it and from 1972 made its own 2.0 version, the B engine, in Södertälje. The sporty EMS of 1972 used Bosch D-Jetronic injection; from 1975 K-Jetronic took over.

The 1.7 E from autumn 1969 could be ordered with a three-speed Borg-Warner automatic. The original 1.7 reached 145 km/h, took 14.5 seconds to 100 km/h and used about 9 l/100 km; the EMS reached about 170 km/h.

Combi Coupé and the 99 Turbo

For 1974 Saab added the Combi Coupé, with a longer rear overhang and a lifting tailgate: 1.84 m of load length and 1.5 cubic metres of space. A five-door version appeared at Geneva in March 1976, and the 1977 cars gained larger indicators and a new dashboard.

The Turbo was shown at Frankfurt in September 1977. About 100 pre-series cars were built that year and sales began in January 1978. A Garrett turbocharger, Bosch injection and a 7.2:1 compression ratio lifted the 2.0 to 107 kW (145 PS) and 235 Nm, with boost from about 1,500 rpm. A four-speed gearbox was fitted at first and a five-speed from 1980; production ran to 10,607 cars by 1980. Autocar timed the three-door at 8.9 seconds from 0 to 60 mph and noted torque steer and heavy steering at parking speed, while Motor praised its roadholding and stability in 1980.

In 1979 Stig Blomqvist won the Swedish Rally in a works three-door Turbo, beating Björn Waldegård's Escort. Motor Sport called it "a win for the first time by a turbocharged car".

How the 99 ended

The Saab 900, built on the 99's structure with a longer nose, went into production at Trollhättan in summer 1978. The 99 saloons continued at Arlöv and Uusikaupunki, and from summer 1982 only the two-door 99 GL remained. In spring 1984 the Saab 90 replaced it: the 99's body with the rear of the 900, 4.58 m long, a 2.0 engine with 74 kW (100 PS) and a five-speed gearbox. About 25,000 were built until 1987. The story of Sweden's other car maker of the period is in our history of Volvo.

Saab 99 today: what to check when buying

Auto Bild names rust on the wheel arches, sills and the bottoms of the doors as the main body problems, along with a headlining that comes adrift. Gearboxes can become noisy. On a Turbo, the turbocharger suffers if the engine is switched off straight after hard driving without idling to cool, so ask how the car was used. Mechanical parts such as turbos, brakes and suspension are easy to find; body panels and trim for early cars are harder, and Auto Bild suggests searching in Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark. Early Triumph-engined cars carry the reliability record that pushed Saab to build its own engine.

The Turbo is the most valuable 99. Hagerty UK quoted in July 2022 about EUR 10,000 (GBP 8,500) for a good 99 Turbo, about EUR 16,500 (GBP 14,000) for a very well presented car and more than EUR 23,600 (GBP 20,000) for concours examples. The car is listed in our Saab catalogue, and more European cars of the period are in our classic cars section.

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