Saab 900

Saab 900 at a glance

Why Saab lengthened the 99

Instead of an all-new design, the 900 kept the 99's structure and added a longer front with more room for crumple zones. It grew slightly in every direction except height, and Björn Envall's team gave it a new nose and dashboard; Classic Car Weekly still praises its driving position, control layout and long-distance seats. Production began at Trollhättan in summer 1978, while the 99 carried on at other plants. The 900 kept the front-wheel drive that Saab had used since its first car, the 92 of 1947, and it was the last Saab developed entirely in Sweden; the 9000 of 1984 shared a platform with Fiat. Saab's path from aircraft to cars is told in our Saab history.

Engines and the turbo programme

At launch Europe had four versions: the GL with a single carburettor, the twin-carburettor GLs, the fuel-injected EMS and GLE, and the Turbo with a Garrett turbocharger. The B engine gave way to the lighter H engine from the early 1980s, and in 1982 Saab added Automatic Performance Control (APC). Its knock sensor let the engine adjust boost to fuel quality, so Turbos could run on different octane grades.

The Turbo 16 of 1984 brought one of the first mass-produced 16-valve turbo engines. Wikipedia gives 9.5 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h and 202 km/h for the eight-valve Turbo, and 8.5 seconds and 217 km/h for the Turbo 16 S; Auto Bild measured 8.7 seconds and 210 km/h for the 16 S, so figures vary between sources. In 1979 the German Turbo was the most expensive four-cylinder car on sale there. US cars of 1979 used lower ratings: 86 kW (115 hp) for the injection model and 101 kW (135 hp) for the Turbo.

Saloons and the convertible

A four-door saloon joined the hatchbacks for 1981, and a two-door saloon, built only by Valmet, followed in January 1984. The 1987 facelift brought the sloping "slant front" nose.

The convertible came from the US. Robert Sinclair, head of Saab in America from 1979, asked for one, and the American Sunroof Company engineered the roof mechanism using many Buick parts. A prototype stood on the Saab stand at Frankfurt, and the first production cars reached customers in 1986. Valmet in Finland built them, the first 400 went to the US, and by 1986 buyers faced a 12-month wait. In 1988 Saab made 288 SiS convertibles, one for each American dealer, and the classic convertible outlived the hatchback by a year.

Aero, Carlsson and other special 900s

The 1984 Turbo 16 S, sold as the Aero in Europe, the SPG in North America and the T16S in the UK, added a body kit to the 16-valve engine; 7,625 SPGs went to North America over six years. Auto Bild put its German price at DM 43,500, DM 5,000 more than the standard top Turbo of its time. Britain had two exclusive models: the Carlsson of 1990-1992 with 138 kW (185 bhp) and the Ruby, 150 cars with the Carlsson engine. The long-wheelbase CD, built in Finland, was 200 mm longer than the standard car. The US Commemorative Edition closed the run with 314 Turbo hatchbacks in 1993 and 500 Turbo convertibles in 1994.

The 1994 900 and the end of the classic

The classic 900 ended on 26 March 1993. Its successor, also called 900, arrived for 1994 on GM's GM2900 platform shared with the Opel Vectra, with a transverse engine, and was renamed the Saab 9-3 in 1998.

Saab 900 today: what to check when buying

Hagerty UK lists the areas to inspect: door bottoms, the fuel filler, sunroof drain channels, the battery tray, the front bulkhead, the windscreen surround, the underside of the fuel tank, the rear crossmember, jacking points and suspension mounts. Classics World adds inner and outer sills, floorpans, front chassis rails, wishbone mounts and the boot floor, and warns that the Turbo 16 S side cladding can hide corrosion.

Blue smoke at start-up points to a worn turbo, and a failing APC unit causes rough running. Exhaust manifolds crack and studs break, neglected engines blow head gaskets, and the timing chain needs replacing at about 125,000 miles (200,000 km). The manual gearbox is the weak link on hard-driven Turbos: listen for layshaft-bearing noise and watch for it jumping out of third or fourth. On a convertible, check that the electric hood works and that water stays out; Hagerty puts a new hood at about GBP 1,200.

More Saabs are in our Saab catalogue, and other European cars of the era in our classic cars section.