An old buddy of mine from the intern days drove out from Greensboro to Kannapolis to meet yo boys from MSIMA. Coming from Germany, he needed a slab to drive to work over his latest internship. And thus, the Saab 9-3 (‘vert!). Also, he is very German, but zis will come into play later.

With that outta the way, let’s get into the Swedish soap bar of a convertible.

Saabs have always look kinda odd to me. They’re really hit or miss, either looking weird in a cool way, or just kinda weird in a weird way. Like those badge engineered Subarus that tried to pass as Saabs under big daddy GM: is it cool or is it window into an alternate universe where the game Automation is used as an industrial tool? This one? Well it’s a shape I’ve seen before, but that’s probably because it’s a year older than me. Oh how time flies.

Ya just look at it and go “yeah, that’s a Saab”. Top up or down, it’s weirdness persists. The front is early-2000’s conservative sporty, and the rear… well… look at it up there. It’s a thick one, a badonkadonk, a rotund caboose, even a steel dumpy if you will. God, does it has an ass somehow. Anyways, the weirdness works, although I do prefer the non-convertible 9-3.

Now, what is this thing?

Well, underneath it’s a “GM2900 platform”, which started life as a Transverse-FWD generic chassis for GM’s European and South American divisions to play with. Then Holden got a hold of it in 1990, followed by Saab and finally Saturn in 2000. The Saab NG900, 9-3, and 9-5 are all based on this platform, with the 9-5 using a variety of it until… uh 2009?! Oh and a Chinese company called Beijing Automotive Group Company (BAIC) used it from 2012 until 2016 in the world renown “Senova D70”. So yeah, this stupid thing has been around for a while. The 9-3, however, parted ways with the “GM2900 platform” in 2002. I guess the Swedes just don’t appreciate engineering greatness like the Chinese do.

You know, the engine doesn’t have an easier past. In the front of this U.S. market Saab is a 2.0L turbo, called the B204L ECOPOWER, aka a Saab-H engine! This iteration had OBDII and Saab Trionic T5.5 fuel injection! I know, I know, gripping shit here. It also has a new chain drive system so it’d fit in the 90’s Saab 900, the car this 9-3 succeeded. Funny note, this engine family started in 1981, as an evolution of the Triumph slant-4 from 1968, and its still being produced under, guess who, but BAIC, as of writing this article in 2024. Some poor schmuck is out there in his 2016 knockoff Passat-Elantra chimera looking abomination riding on a late 80’s GM platform powered by an old Saab motor, who’s linage you can trace back to 60’s Triumph.

I long to be the person I was before I learned all of that.

Anyways, enough about what this stupid thing is. Let’s drive.

You walk up, the car’s shear length looming over as you enter. With the roof down, it seems oddly long. Then, to turn the car on, put your key in here:

And yes, if you wanted to start or remove the key, it’s gotta be in reverse. Funny spot for ignition though. Anyways, backing out then moving the fairly slick lever into first, we set off!

Aaaand it’s a car. I’m sorry to upset you, but I wasn’t able to really find limits here. I was told to shift at exactly 3400 rpm for peak efficiency, as the shift light so helpfully indicates. However, for funzies, I could hit 4 0 0 0 R P M ! Told ya my friend was overwhelmingly German. He also met an enthusiastic Saab enthusiast, who informed him that this car in this spec from that year, is rare. So, like a c5 Corvette owner, this little 9-3 is his baby. However, we will persist.

So, the 2.0L turbo makes around 185 hp and 194 ft-lb. Do you feel it? Well, it moves fine. This 9-3 is probably still near its 7-point-something second 0-60 promise. And honestly, this 9-3 isn’t leaving you yearning for much more after 24 years of use. However, it does it in a drama-less affair. Some noise, a bit of a woosh, and you’re off to beat some, I don’t know… a CVT equip Civic maybe? There’s a little boost gauge in the dash, although it doesn’t tell you much boost you actually make. But hey, when you get on it, you can be satisfied telling your passengers that “WE’RE IN THE RED” when asked about boost.

Anyways, that stupid thing aside, the car feels solid. The Saab 9-3, get this, is perfectly happy to cruise around town with the top down. So much so, that you can probably forget you’re in a Saab. Remove the Saab logo and you could be in a number of “buy this instead of an e36 328i” type cars. However, some things do stand out. For one, hey there’s a CD player! Now that’s late 90s-early 00’s luxury! The rest of the interior is fine, old man tan leather and misc plastic all around. The shifter is also nice to use, even if the clutch and bushings show some wear.

But out of everything this car does well, the steering genuinely stands out. Good lord how I missed a time when it seemed that people actually gave a shit about steering feel. It demands you use both hands, and rewards you with direct communication. And it fucking should. I’m tired of cars with numb steering. I shouldn’t have to put a 2018 BMW M3 into comfort mode steering while letting the rest of the car be in race or whatever just to get feel that’s “passable”. It’ll still be numb, but it’ll at least the weight isn’t stupid. The way this 2000 year old Saab steers makes daily driving actually enjoyable.

“Oh but it’s too heavy and weighty and talkative for a Luxur-” SHUT IT. If I’m paying for some sporty “luxury” (whatever that means), I’m paying to feel the damn road and let the car talk a bit. Luxury means comfy, sport means it better make me feel something. If the exhaust is mute, then it better make up for it somehow. I’ve heard these things can torque steer bad, I didn’t feel anything but I also wasn’t able to drive it hard enough to tell.

Anyways, the Saab 9-3 Convertible. It’s an odd car, but it’s a Saab, you expect weirdness. Maybe if I took it out on some backroads, more incompetencies would surface outside of “it’s a kinda dull powertrain” or “why does this convertible look funky”. But from what I gathered, it’s a pretty fun “little” thing that comes from a time before cars became numb. You can tell that it comes from both a group of people who designed fighter jets in how sturdy and logically laid out everything is, but also how those same engineers have to fight GM corporate every step of the way.

Remove the top, arm out the window, enjoy the road feel, and cruise to your hearts content like a boomer to a diner on a Sunday evening. It’s a car that just makes you feel good about life in the moment.