Two months. Wow. That’s a little hard to take, for sure.

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