I think that almost every country with a major stake in the auto industry has their equivalent of the timeless Volkswagen Beetle (okay, purists…Type 1), a car that is small, practical, and well-known to everyone who lives in that country. England has the Morris Minor (or perhaps the Mini Minor), Germany of course has the Beetle, Japan could point to the Toyota Corolla, and Sweden may choose the Saab 96, a cute-ish little Beetle-like car with all the Scandinavian charm a buyer could want and enough quirks to make it cool. Barn Finds readers Barney and Curvette both liked this 1968 model, being sold on craigslist in Portland, Oregon, enough to send it our way to share it with you. With little rust and a $6,100 price tag, I know I’m hooked.
It was a transition year in 1968, as Saab buyers could choose from the last of the 44-horsepower two-stroke three-cylinder, the engine that made Saab famous for winning rallies with the inimitable Erik Carlsson behind the wheel (and creating a thin blue haze wherever it went); however, one could also select the 1.5-liter V4, which was based on the engine from the German Ford Taunus. It was a four-stroke design, which means that buyers could not only forgo the time-honored task of adding two-cycle oil, but they also got an extra 29 horsepower to boot, so it’s little wonder that the original owner of this Saab chose the four. The seller says that it has a true 45,000 miles on the odometer, and you can take that as you will.
The seller says that they bought it with a friend ten years ago, but the friend handed the car off to the seller, who says that aside from a crack in the windshield, the car is basically ready to go. The interior isn’t perfect (there are some cosmetic defects here and there, including a chunk out of the dash pad), but it looks complete and usable. Notice the column-mounted shifter; this car has a four-speed manual on the column, something that might take a minute to get accustomed to for those of us who have driven a three-on-the-tree.
As a Volvo owner myself, I should deride this Saab as the competition, but I just can’t do it. The 96 was (and is) an efficient, unique, and lovable little car, and although many buyers might want the two-stroke engine because that’s what these Saabs are known for, I can’t help but think that the V4 is a more practical proposition for modern driving. I have a sticker on my closet door that one occasionally finds on the side window of an old Saab that says the following: “Made in Trollhättan by Trolls.” Any company that slaps that sticker onto their bread-and-butter sedan has a sense of humor, and who wouldn’t want to be a part of a community like that?
I know this sounds crazy, but if I could have just one more car before I die, it would be a 4 stroke Saab 96 wagon. Stop me if you heard this one( aw heck, it’s late and I can’t sleep) When I was just a lad, maybe 11 or 12, brother 13 or 14, my folks had friends in Franklin, Mass. and they had Saabs. They had a 93 2 stroke, that wasn’t running, and a new ’68 96 wagon with a V4. We got the 93 running and drove it all over their expansive yard, fogging for bugs along the way. One reason they smoked so, was oil wasn’t what it is today, and many were run on moms 3&1 oil in a pinch. It was the 2nd time I shifted a column 4 speed, the 1st was a Ford Cortina we rented in Israel. The difference between their wagon and the 93 could fill a book, they were that much different.
I don’t think I’ll ever get that Saab, not with surprise $700 past due hospital bills coming in,,,from 2 years ago! Nice,,,
I never thought I’d catchn you out, Howard, but the 96 wagon was designated 95. I share your desire to have one. It was a purely rational and practical design with real charm.
Aaron, it takes a big man to admit his secret admiration of the opposition. In the land of the SUV this efficient little machine stands out. I have never driven one but would love to.
I remember walking by a house with a Saab of this generation on the way to elementary school in the mid/late 1960’s when we lived in Rockford, Illinois. I also remember seeing an Isetta 3 wheeler, Renault dauphine in the neighborhood. The chef’s kiss was a Mercedes Gullwing under an apartment carport when we lived in an apartment there. Cool find!
Oh I just had to stop you read this one. My very first car in 1979,was a 1973 Saab 96,V/4, 4 speed on the column. That car was built like a tank, but at 16, I still managed to break things here and there. Kinda like an AMC now, I was probably the only one for miles who owned a Saab
OMG! 😲 ANOTHER Saab story! 🤮 I’m once again On to VERSAILLES in my Town Car! 😁 🤣 😂
If you look at a cutaway drawing of the early 50s SAAB 93, you have all the ingredients of what became the Eurpoean small car. Monocoque for basic strength and safety, aerodynamic, good handling FWD for dynamic safety, 4 speed, modern suspension and brakes.
Though a 2 stroke was a credible option in the early 50s (and retains its fans today) that element of the design was the one which did not survive long term. If only SAAB had gone with a conventional 1300 fourstroke from the first…..even when forced to go that route, I don´t see that Ford´s Taunis V4 was the best choice available.
In the middle 70’s when I lived in Colorado Springs, a work associate had one of these, a 2 cycle about 1970 model. He used it to make sales calls in SE Colorado, all the little towns out to the Kansas and New Mexico borders. It was always breaking down. Twice I had to take my truck and a tow dolly several hundred miles to haul him back to C. Springs because, for some reason, there was a marked scarcity of Saab repair facilities in those little 500 to 1,000 population towns. Nobody out there had ever seen one before!
Having owned a 95 V4 I can attest that it was a very strong motor
(just fine at 70 with the overdrive on). Handled great swallowed huge amounts of stuff, comfortable on trips. Once I didn’t have the money to fix a radiator leak and drove it to my job after topping it up-for about a month. The water would slowly leak out and I would arrive at work just as the temperature gauge hit the red line. I did this repeatedly (aah,the folly of youth!). Still ran great when I sold it. That’s a stout motor!
The post is gone, not a surprise with that price on it. I was trying to look to see if another Saab design was included, like it was on my 1969 version: a Window shade in front of the radiator controlled by a chain under the dash through the firewall. When it is really cold you can raise the shade, reducing the amount of air being pulled through the radiator so the engine stays in a useful heat range to keep your feets warm.
Northern New Hampshire did get a bit chilly, we had some winter weeks below zero F, high temp was -10 so this design helped.
And yes, Howard, I would still be tempted by a nice 95 wagon, not sure if my housemate would approve, I might have to sleep in it if I came home with a surprise like that.
I bought a 1970 Saab 96 from the original owner about 30 years ago. I paid $800 for it. The car was pretty much perfect, except it didn’t run. I got it running immediately (thank you, starting fluid!), which prompted the seller to complain that he’d sold the car too cheaply.
I got the car for my daughters, who were both in high school. They promptly dubbed the car “Sadie.”
They loved the fact that none of their peers had ever seen a car like Sadie. In our somewhat affluent community, teens were driving Honda Accords and occasionally BMWs when they were first licensed.
I still miss that lovely little car.
These were great little cars: versatile, rugged, practical, and relatively economical to run. We had several through the years (rust eventually got each one in turn), and loved them. The V4 engine was, of course, a Ford engine, and a fair number of them found their way into forklifts, portable generator sets and welders, hay swathers, and other industrial equipment. An all cast iron engine with a gear-driven camshaft was the norm for industrial engines of that era, and that’s exactly what the V4 was. I believe SAAB chose it for its dimensional interchangeability with the two stroke, since it was very short from front to back and required little modification of the engine compartment. I’ve got a couple of these engines around and if I were younger, I’d transplant one into my 642 Bobcat, to replace a quirky Mitsubishi in-line 4 which is definitely not of the same quality as the V4!
v-6You could fit a 2800cc Ford V-6 in one of these. Same engine family. Funny thing about Saabs; I had four 99’s in the seventies, and for a car that came from Sweden, they had the worst heaters ever. I had to block off the whole radiator with cardboard in winter to get any heat out of all four of them. Fun cars with lots of problems.