As the month of Classic 900 Loving comes to a close, I thought it appropriate to present at least one of the rarer variants of the classic 900, the Finlandia. It later became known as the 900 CD. These cars are every bit a C900, but they’re 20 cm (nearly 8″) longer than the regular production 900. Used primarily for executive and government official transportation, many of these cars have customized rear seating (the early models used two front seats in lieu of a rear seat, complete with arm-rest storage) and many of them, as the name may suggest, were sold in Finland.

As best that I can tell, production of the Finlandia series officially began with a lengthened prototype Saab 99 in 1978. Initially, the design had a small windowed section spliced into the middle of a regular 99 five-door, as follows:

The small windowed section is a small portion of an additional rear door from a 99 welded to the full-sized door — and, to make the rear entrance as large as possible, the door hinge is on the leading edge of the splice!

Like the production cars, this prototype was built in the Valmet automotive factory in Uusikaupunki (Nystad), Finland. This is the same plant that would later produce the 900 convertible and other specialty Saabs.

Once the car was tested and ready, Saab engineers had come up with a more elegant way to use the car’s additional length: they added 10 cm (about 4″) in length to each door. All of the additional legroom went to the back seat, however. The front seats remained in the same position as in any other 900.

Most 900 Finlandias are built with the look of the standard 4-door notchback. However, many 5-door examples were built, especially in the early days of production.

Up until 1983, the stretched 900 was known as the Finlandia. Around that time, the designator ‘CD’ became more prominent. All cars were built with automatic transmissions.

I’m certainly envious of the leg room in this shot!

All in all, around 25 99 Finlandias and about 580 stretched 900s were made according to Paul Halliday.

You may find more on the 900 Finlandia here, here, and here.