Launched in 1979, the 900 evolves from the 99, and takes Saab into the '80s. With a coefficient of drag of 0.40, it is barely less gawky than the 99, but boasts some of the best ergonomics in its class, in the best Saab tradition.

It is also quick. With its all-around disc brakes and well-weighted steering, the five-door 900 Turbo derives from the 99 Turbo, sticking with that car's slant four-cylinder motor (developed from an original Triumph design), and turbocharged by the popular Garrett AiResearch T3 unit.

The blower gives the 900's 2-liter motor the punch of a 3-liter, which makes the dumpy Saab pretty swift, point-to-point. However, in the years to follow, Saab will remain unconvinced that it can cut it as a performance car maker and, every so often, will sell the Turbo on the strength of its emissions and fuel economy as much as its grunt. A pity, given its Saab's rallying history.

By corollary, as BBC Top Gear's Quentin Wilson once pointed out, the 900 was a car with an immaculate image. "900s are driven by upright, decent professional types, who cherish them, service their Saabs on the dot, and don't drive like psychopaths, which is they making stonking secondhand buys.

"Not only can a good Turbo muster 125 mph, it quietly exudes an image of taste, restraint, discrimination, and new age niceness.

"Built like a Merc. Safe as a Volvo. And so much cooler than a BMW.

"Instant respectability, for a few grand."

The 900 Turbo Convertible was, and is, the slowest depreciating of them all.

At launch, American models get rather lighter steering, although the ride remains Euro-harsh; too harsh for many, despite rear seats made by Swedish furniture maker Dux, using (Saab says) five times the number of springs of other car seats.

Saab asked Americans, in its advertising, "how dare we call the new Saab 900 one of the most beautiful cars in the world, what with its wrap-around windshield; pointy front end; sloped rear end, and just plain all-around strange looks?" The commercial, bolstered by the tag-line, "the most intelligent car ever built," went on to explain that Saabs were styled in such a way so as to maximize aerodynamics; that the wrap-around windshield and higher seating position maximized visibility, and that, underneath, the car was a "beautiful collection of thick steel beams; pillars; cross members; floor plates; side plates, and so forth."

Concluded Car and Driver, "the 900 Turbo sedan is still, first and foremost, a Saab - a touch eccentric, maybe, but screwed together as tightly as a Mercedes and full of drive-me vitality.

"And if it's a little more stylish now, that only serves to make a good thing even better" (Car and Driver, January 1981).

In 1980, Saab introduced APC (Automatic Performance Control), permitting compression ratio to increase from 7.2:1 to 8.5:1, improving throttle response; fuel economy, and tolerating a wider range of octane fuel without engine damage through pre-ignition.

Compression increased to 9.5:1 in 1981, although U.S-spec models were limited to 9.2:1, producing 10 horsepower less than their European counterparts.

Two turbocharged engines were offered: a 145 brake horsepower (@ 5,000 rpm) 8-valve 1,985cc four-cylinder with 173 foot-pounds of torque (@ 3,000 rpm), and the 16-valve, 175 brake horsepower Turbo 16. At launch in 1983, the latter would make the Saab 900 Turbo 16S - also known as the Aero - the world's first car with a turbocharged 16-valve engine.

A 115-horsepower, normally aspirated model was also available.


When Saab under General Motors launched the 9³ in 2003, boasting 200% improved torsional rigidity, Saab enthusiasts weren't happy. It could not, they said, be a true successor to the 900; there was no hatchback model.

A quarter century earlier, Saab saw a similar reaction when it produced a 900 sedan for 1981. Car and Driver spoke of heresy, suggesting that the form follows function ethos of Saab had been compromised.

"Saabs, we are perenially told, have long, tapered snouts; wraparound windshields; hatchback bodies, and ignition switches between the front seats that lock the transmission because, well, they work better that way," wrote Rich Ceppos (Car and Driver, January 1981).

Ditching the hatch had permitted Saab to trim the rear roof crossmember, as part of a weight loss program that reduced the sedan's weight by a hundred pounds over the 2,800-pound 3-door model.

Cargo was not limited to the trunk, as the rear seats folded flat.


In 1981, reacting to rumors that Fiat and Saab might tie up, Car and Driver dubbed the 900 "the last car designed wholly by Saab" (Car and Driver, January 1981).

Future Saabs, it said, would be developed by Lancia. This, the magazine figured, would be the only way to make the Saab business work. After all, Saab had sold just 75,000 cars, worldwide, in 1980.

As it turned out, General Motors bought 50% of Saab at the end of the decade.


Four years after GM took a stake in Saab, a new 900 emerged, based on the Opel Calibra/ Vauxhall Cavalier. The public loved it, and the 900 was back-ordered by 3,000 units at launch.

900 was refreshed again, for the 1998 model year, now wearing the 9³ moniker. Saab claimed 1,300 changes.