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During 9000 loving month, I bring you the saga of the 9000’s step sister.
You all probably know that the Saab 9000 has sister automobiles in the Fiat Chroma, the Lancia Thema and the Alfa-Romeo 164. Sisters because they were developed together in a joint project with Saab, Lancia and Fiat engineers sharing the engineering and testing of the new platform. The Alfa differs from the others in the group in that it shares only the chassis and some of the interior. The Fiat, Lancia and Saab are similar enough that even specific body parts interchange easily among them. They are sisters in every sense of the word.
Then, there was the step sister. A Saab adopted just to give it a home in Sweden. A Saab to whom they wouldn’t even give a ‘9′. I’m talking about the Saab 600. Or, the Saab-Lancia 600.
It seems that during the negotiations that lead to the joint creation of the Saab 9000, Lancia expressed the desire to seriously enter the Swedish auto market once and for all. It seems that Swedes were not keen to drive small Italian cars, and who could blame them? Up until then, Italian cars were known for artful design and rust. And lots of each. The designs could seem overwought, especially by Swedish standards, and those Fiats and Lancias simply couldn’t withstand the wet and cold weather that abounds in Europe’s Northern climes.
Saab agreed to help. And thus the Saab 600 was born.
The Saab 600 was little more than a re-badged Lancia Delta, but it seems that Saab did hold sway over some portion of the car’s engineering. Of what part, I’m not sure, however, it is known that the Delta and the 600 didn’t completely disintegrate at the first sign of snow or cold rain as the preceding Italian cars did. However, we do know, perhaps more importantly, that the Saab 600 was a front-driver, keeping intact Saab’s insistence that front wheel drive was (and is) superior to rear wheel drive for passenger cars.
The Saab 600 was available with a 1500 cc engine and in three levels of trim. It seems that none of the later high-performance versions of the Lancia Delta ever saw a Saab nameplate attached to them. That’s a shame since the Lancia Delta and its performance stablemate, the Lancia Integrale, fared well on the rally circuits, winning a total of six championships. The Integrale was available with a turbocharged 1600 cc version of the base engine that made 165 bhp coupled to a unique all-wheel drive system that gave the car the additional grip necessary for hard driving.
Another unique aspect of the Saab 600: it was available only in Sweden.
Here’s the only known photo of a Saab-Lancia in captivity. Not really; it’s just the best one that I could find. Enjoy.
Swedes: Saab 600 anecdotes are welcome in comments.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Tompa
// Apr 19, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Saab 600 GLE… And my dads hate/love relationship to it.
My dad worked with computers since the mid 60´s. And since the company he worked for was DATA-SAAB (Yes they were into computers too) it was natural that the companycars all were Saabs.
)
The Data-Saab company was sold to Univac, joind with Sperry in the early 80´s. Sperry got rid of Univac and in the mid 80´s Sperry joined with Borroughs and formed a company you all probably know.. UNISYS. I promise that the point is comming soon…
From the start my dad was an exec and therefore drove a companycar and the fun thing is, that even if the execs, service techs and and all others that got to drive companycars, could choose other brands when Data-Saab was sold to Univac… Nobody, NOBODY chose anything but Saab. That was until Unisys more or less forced people to drive other brands. All because they worked in close relation with the government and it would look bad if they only favoured Saab. I think one guy tried Volvo but went back to Saab. Some others chose Opel and Ford but Saab was still the car in favour for the most of them. (They even had office chairs made from Saab seats
NOW ON TO THE SAAB-LANCIA 600….
My dad wanted to try a smaller car and one that got better milage than the 900 and the 600 looked like fun. I remember that when dad came home with the sweet new car I was in ecstacy over it! It looked great, had a darkblue metallic paint and the seats had a black and white checkered pattern.
The interior was fresh and modern, the rear seat was cosy and there were readinglamps in the c-pillar. All and all a very nice ride! Alot of neighbours came over to have a look, admire and talk to dad about the car.
My dad loved the 600…. for 2 weeks… then the first tow of the car was made. then another, and another, and another. The car spent most of it´s time at Saab. After two months the engine was replaced because Saab couln´t find the problem to the overheating of the first engine. My dad got the car and had driven it for one week when i overheated again!!! He was fed up with the car and Saab actually took it back. But although the car gave my dad alot of problems he still had loved the car for its apeal but mostly for it´s handling. It was a real asphalt hugger, the engine was high rev and fun like many italian engines are. Dad went back to the car that he could rely on to take him were he wanted with no worries… The 900. Our darling 900 was back, this time a silvermetallic 5d 900i. One day he came and got me from school because my bicycle had a flat tire. He put the bicycle in the boot and closed the hatch, turned to me and said. :- Son, I know that you liked the 600 because that it was something new and had a different look… But it couldn´t do that. (Bring the hatch back!)
Quite many of my dads collegues tried the 600 and they also had a hote/love relationship with it. Many of the 600´s were returned to the Saabdealer on warranty claims and traded in for a 900.
My dad had problems with overheating and so did most of my dads collegues. But one guy nearly caused a serious accident with his one due to poor build quality. He was driving up to Stockholm and had tied the hatch down because he had to much thing in the boot. All of a sudden the hatch comes loose!!!! The drivers behind him must have had guardian angels watching over them because nobody was injured.
But although the 600 was a crap product, it somehow captured it´s drivers harts and they couldn´t hate it dispite of the problems.
/Tompa
2 eggsngrits
// Apr 20, 2007 at 1:01 am
Tompa, thanks for the story!
Two months. Wow. That’s a little hard to take, for sure.
3 Emanuel Dössegger
// Oct 29, 2008 at 8:54 am
I just got a plastic-made scale model of the SAAB Lancia 600 GLS (made in finland like most of the SAAB and VOLVO plastic scale models)! I think it’s nearly as hard to find as the real 600.
Greetings from Switzerland
Emanuel
4 swade
// Oct 29, 2008 at 8:58 am
Photos please, Emanuel