One of our BBC Saab lads in Sydney, Hawkeye, recently sold a clothes line on Ebay. Yes, we have clothes lines here in Australia and nowhere near as many of those planet-killing electric clothes dryers that you northerners have

Anyway, upon chatting with the buyer, Hawkeye learned that the guy wasn’t bringing a trailer along to haul it back, but planned to just load it right up into his car.

“What kind of car?” Hawkeye asked.

“Saab” said the buyer. Naturally.

Hawkeye probably presumed this would be a 9-5 wagon or a 9-3 hatch with roof racks. Imagine his surprise when the guy turned up in a Saab 9-3 Convertible!!

Apparently both the car and the cargo got home without a scratch, and the buyer might even go along to the Sydneysiders’ next meetup at the Belgian Beer Cafe!

I tell ya, Hawkeye could just be the Unofficial Saab Ambassador to Australia, much like Robin M in the UK.

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How many other cars could handle a load of pumpkins, or a trip to Ikea, or haul a motorbike, a pub-full of beer, or a sofa, a lawn mower, or anything else you care to fit into its gargantuan rear deck………..and still look totally at home on the world’s most storied racetrack?

This Saab 900 Turbo (looks like an 85, just like mine but with a whale tail fitted) looks perfectly placed at the Green Hell.

BRING BACK THE HATCH!!

This photo is from Hans-Martin’s album. He took his red 9-3SS around the track the same day and it looked mighty fine, too. Hans-Martin’s the guy behind ViggenOnline and the red 9-3 is his new ride.

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How many pumpkins can you fit in the back of a Viggen?

The answer is at least 25 with room for four people and the shelf partition still in. I bet I could have fit 40 before the hatch wouldn’t close.

BRING BACK THE HATCH!!!

If Saab needed any prompting as to what people would like to see in a new, rightsized Saab 9-3, or a new model in the Saab 9-1 (if they’re going to go ahead with it) then here’s their cue.

How many other cars boast around 230hp, bucketloads of torque, a magnificent interior with the best seats in the business, and the ability to carry four people and 25 pumpkins?!?!

Build it and they will come.

Thanks again, RJ, for the email. And to Mason for taking the shot in the first place. What a car!

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From Riku1100s, a regular reader here at TS, comes the link for this gem. He was inspired by Swade’s musings about bears.

I love this clip! Why, for crying out loud, wouldn’t they have used this as advertising in North America??? You could have subtitled it in English, and used a tag line such as “Scandanavian tested, so you don’t have to.”, “Saab: It’s even bear proof.”, or “Saab saves lives — again.”

And, Saab, give it up. Bring back the hatch. The C900 hatch was the most versatile car that I ever owned.

Watch.

What makes my offence all the more grievous is that these come from my own back yard, right here in Hobart.

This is Anthony S’s Saab 900S, and like all the hatches before it, this Saab does things that other brands can’t. In this case, it’s transporting full size sofa chair.

Here’s the car in profile, sans the hatch-full, with Hobart’s guardian Mt Wellington in the background.

And here it is just doing what Saabs do.

Stick that in your Vorsprung durch Teknik!

We’ve been campaigning here for a long time now on tow separate things that seem to now be converging. One is the fact that most journos just don’t seem to “get” Saabs and their utility and quality in design. Second is the “bring back the hatch” slogan – one that really does need a quality T-shirt.

Some recent news articles seem to be pointing toward a pair of emerging trends that show Saab probably had it right all along.

The first article appeared in the LA Times and covers the fact that more and more vehicles featuring turbocharging are slated for a introduction in the near future.

….last week at the L.A. Auto Show, Ford Chief Executive Alan Mulally announced a major initiative to begin putting turbochargers and a related technology — direct fuel injection — on a large portion of its fleet in the near future, calling the move a “cornerstone of Ford’s near-term plan.”

Then there’s BMW’s recent move into turbocharging, all of the turbodiesels that will be coming to the US and a bunch of others.

Whodathunkit?

Saab would have. In fact, they already did. They started turbocharging 30 years ago and their specialty is the 4-cylinder turbocharged concept that a lot of these manufacturers are talking about.

The second article is in Swedish and appears at Auto Motor and Sport. It’s not an entirely new idea but Daniel R, the guy who emailed it to me, tells me that it’s talking about BMW in terms of a new hatch type vehicle that they might be developing.

BMW recently unveiled their X6 coupe concept that they’re saying will likely make production in the near future in a form very close to the concept. What we have there is a more sporting SUV that does indeed have a lot of hatchback characteristics.

The recent rise of the sporting wagon is another pointer to this anti-SUV trend and the 9-3 Sport Combi was recently referred to in one particular review as THE anti-SUV.

Saab discontinued the hatchback in 2002, though sort-of resurrected it in 2005 with the 9-3 SportCombi. In all the time that it’s owned the company, it’s seemed that GM never quite knew what to do with it’s offbeat little Swedish subsidiary.

Could it be that Saab had the blueprint for key vehicles of the future all along and GM just didn’t recognise it? Would it be a stretch to include GM in with that group of journos and others that don’t quite “get” Saab?

BRING BACK THE HATCH!!!

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Thanks to Gripen for the LA article.

In 1977, Saab thought enough of the hatch to feature the size and advantages of the hatchback style in their advertising. Advertising that actually sells cars, not Saab’s aviation heritage.

Click to enlarge.

Great stuff.

This isn’t a momentus BBTH entry, but it’s worthwhile all the same because in a very simplistic photo, it shows all the versatility of the Saab hatch.

Whilst this mower doesn’t trouble the load space of the 900 at all, the fact that it would trouble many sedan owners is almost a fait accompli. Too tall for the trunk? Too awkward to get into the back seat? And yet here in the hatch it looks small.

Bring back the hatch!!

It is better, but whether it’s good or not, I’m still undecided.

The Saab 99 Combi Coupe / Wagonback debuted in 1974.

The earliest hatchback that I can find came into being 36 years prior to our beloved 99. The 1938 Citroën Traction Avant Commerciale wasn’t exactly a wagon, since the rear axle and rear seats were so close to the rear opening. In the beginning, the Traction used a two-door arrangement, but in the early 1950′s modified the design to a single door.

Around the same time, Kaiser was making a hatch-back style car in the so-called “Vagabond” series which began production in the United States in 1949, give or take a year. Kaiser called this vehicle a “convertible wagon” because it looked like a sedan, but worked as a wagon when needed. I like this design (note the flat floor!), but I’ll guess that with the manufacturing practices of the day, this thing rattled like crazy and leaked like a sieve. On the other hand, with the gargantuan size of American cars in the 1950′s, this thing was bound to hold a ton of stuff.

I hear you say, “neither of these is exactly what I’d call a hatchback”. Well, I agree. I wouldn’t call the Traction a hatchback for one simple reason — it’s an upright design. It’s not a ‘modern’ hatchback. Likewise, the Kaiser is obviously a car designed from the begining was a sedan; the hatchback part was cut out later on.

In 1953, a small number of what we would truly identify as hatchbacks rolled off the assembly line in Gaydon, Warwickshire, England as the Aston Martin DB 2/4.

For me, this is the true grandfather of the modern hatchback. Sporting, yet practical. Small, yet accomodating. It embodies many of the characteristics that we love in the Saab hatchback.