Saab Automobile: Jet Engineers, the Elk Test and GM's Blocked China Sale

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Svenska Aeroplan AB, the source of the Saab name, was founded in 1937 to build military aircraft for neutral Sweden. In 1945, as demand for fighters faded, it started Project X9248, shortened to Project 92 because it followed the Saab 91 trainer, and gave it to aeronautical engineers, several of whom had no driver's license. The Ursaab prototypes led to the 1949 Saab 92, with front-wheel drive, a teardrop shape and a two-stroke engine that required owners to mix oil into the fuel, plus a freewheeling clutch so the engine would not starve of lubrication when coasting downhill. The 1960 Saab 96 sold nearly 550,000 units, and the 1978 Saab 900, with its hockey stick profile, sold almost a million.

Saab made seat belts standard in 1958, added headlamp wipers in 1970, moved the ignition key to the center console to protect knees, reinforced its A-pillars for the elk test, and studied more than 6,100 real accidents, but its small volumes could not cover those costs. After a 1969 merger with Scania, General Motors bought 50 percent in 1989 and full control in 2000, closed the team-based Malmö plant in 1991 and pushed badge engineering, producing the Subaru-based 9-2X and the Chevrolet Trailblazer-based 9-7X. GM put Saab under review in December 2008; Koenigsegg walked away, Spyker bought it in 2010, production stopped in April 2011, and GM blocked Chinese buyers by refusing to license its technology. Saab filed for bankruptcy in December 2011, and by 2014 NEVS had lost the right to the Saab name and Griffin logo.

• Marketing professors labeled Saab's devoted buyers, often architects, ad executives and professors, as snobs.
• The 1993 Saab Prometheus prototype replaced the steering wheel with a center-mounted joystick.
• Saab's self-repairing bumpers used a plastic honeycomb that slowly reformed after impacts under five miles per hour.
• In 1986 three stock Saab 9000 Turbos ran 100,000 kilometers at Talladega, averaging over 132 miles per hour.
• A Wisconsin salesman drove his 1989 Saab 900 over one million miles on its original engine.