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I’ve been enjoying disovering more about the Saab Lancia 600 this week. Not only have we managed to unearth some more photos from out there in cyberspace (see below), but we’ve also found one for sale and today I’ll extract an owner’s story from comments (again, see below).
Click here to read Eggs n Grits’ story on the Saab Lancia 600.
TS regular, Eirik, has been storing up many different Saab photos over time and these include some images of the Saab Lancia 600.
And here they are….
This is the one we’re all used to seeing, which I believe to be the cover of the sales brochure.
And here’s some more images, as provided by Eirik:
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In Eggs’ original story, Tompa wrote in comments of his own experience with a Saab Lancia 600. The vehicle was provided to this father by his emplyer at the time.
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.
12 responses so far ↓
1 robin m
// Jan 23, 2008 at 8:54 am
This is a great write up, glad to see there were a few real ones around. Did you notice that all three were differant in one way or the other. 2 differant front grills, and the rear badges were not the same. Was that because ones a standard, the other a gl or a gle/gls I wonder.
2 WooDz
// Jan 23, 2008 at 10:10 am
I suppose this formed the grounding to continue the partnership with Lancia when development of the 9000 was considered.
What’s interesting to see is that although we like to think Saab was a stand alone vehicle manufacturer, the truth is really quite the opposite. We have ideas that the ignition should be mounted between the seats, however you can see that in the 9000 and in this case the 600 that it couldn’t be moved from it’s original position.
When I look at these pictures I can only think re-badge. And yet GM received so much flack with the 9-2x. At least they managed to get a the Subaru to look a bit like a Saab. The 600 in comparison was well… a Lancia.
I thought it was quite interesting to read that the reliability was of the usual Italian standard. I bet Saab tried their absolute best to drop their own 2.0i in there, before resigning to the fact that despite how good their engineering skills were, they just couldn’t work a miracle. Despite its shortcomings; I guess the 600 was a great little car and the driving style was probably very much in tune with what Saab required from the onset.
Even today I see more commonality between the 9-3 and the Alfa 159 then any other “closer” stablemate in GM’s lineup.
Maybe it’s the sports heritage, that engaged driving experience that carries over into the two brands that makes Alfa and Saab almost equals in their market segment. Cars that you just want to drive for driving sake. Just goes to show that when it came to platform sharing Saab knew who best to combine their talents with. Just as every car breaths the passion of their Italian creator, unfortunately it beholds their temperament too.
3 eggsngrits
// Jan 23, 2008 at 11:52 am
Eirik and Tompa: Great contributions!
I love this kind of stuff. The really unusual facts that make the world so much more interesting.
4 eggsngrits
// Jan 23, 2008 at 11:53 am
Oh, and that is one ugly little car. Oy.
5 craig
// Jan 23, 2008 at 12:18 pm
…heard /read something about this. One of the more tragic aspects of SAABs history.
6 robin m
// Jan 23, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Don’t look at it as tragic, this was the start of the making of the 9000 in a way.
7 Mag-X
// Jan 23, 2008 at 2:57 pm
It didn’t age nearly as well as the 900 and 9000 did it?
8 Saabotage
// Jan 23, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Interesting car to drive, I’ve driven the Integrale version several times, definitely a fun little car. I know theres the FWD and AWD difference, one of the funniest features was the power windows in front and manual in the rear.
9 papluh
// Jan 23, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Saabotage: It looks like in US you haven’t got some fine money saving trims from European car makers. Here you could fine the power/manual combination on some cars just few years ago … I think previous version of Audi A4 ( in base trim ) sold here was without power windows in the back…
10 Alvaro Isla
// Jan 24, 2008 at 6:34 am
The sad part of the 600 adventure is that if the product would had been little better, Saab might have gotten the delta integrale hifi version (same car but with turbo and AWD). That will allowed saab to get a AWD long before the turboX.
11 Anthony
// Jan 24, 2008 at 11:05 am
Just to add another piece to the puzzle – I believe Fiat had part ownership of Saab sometime in the 70s (I have a reference if anyone’s interested in a chart of car company ownership in the 70s). As Fiat also owned Lancia, that would explain things somewhat. If you look carefully, you can even see some Fiat technology introduced on Saab 99s part way through the model run – presumably after the deal was done.
12 Patrik
// Feb 11, 2008 at 10:58 am
The grey-ish looking one, dark blue originally, in the many pictures is mine. It is a GLE as guessed. It is currently undergoing restoration.