Guest Article: How Saab became more than just a car to me – the story of owning my Saab 9-3 Aero, my 9-3 Turbo X and my 9-5 Aero 🖤

Finally – the first article on my page focussed on late Saab models! This was overdue. It is also going to be an article in English language since its author, Julian, is from the US. I am very thankful for Julian’s contribution since I have been truly fascinated by Saab models ever since the 1990’s. With this, I am happy to hand over to Julian from Miami who has a lot to tell us about his experiences with Saab and the Saab community he grew along the way!

This is Julian from Miami. And my Saab story started almost by accident.

At the end of 2020, the lease on my Alfa Romeo Giulia was coming to an end and I convinced myself that I could live with my Honda S2000 as my only car. I live in Miami, after all. The weather is good, the top goes down, and for a moment I thought a roadster as my only car sounded like a great idea.

It did not take long for reality to set in.

As much as I loved the S2000, having only a two-seat roadster is not particularly practical, even in sunny South Florida. I needed something I could use every day, run errands in, travel in and generally not have to think twice about.

So I started looking. I had three requirements:

1. A V6 engine,
2. a manual transmission, and 
3. something relatively inexpensive.

I had always liked Saabs from afar. They were different, a little quirky and clearly designed with a philosophy that did not always follow what everyone else was doing. But I had never seriously thought about buying one.

That changed when I found out that the 2006–2009 Saab 9-3 Aero could be had with a turbocharged V6 and a manual transmission. Suddenly, Saab was on my list. And almost immediately, I found one.

There was only one small problem: It was in Seattle. I was in Miami.

Naturally, I decided the reasonable solution was to buy the car sight unseen and drive it across the United States.

My First Saab: A 2006 Saab 9-3 Aero V6 Turbo

In December 2020, I became the owner of my first Saab, a 2006 9-3 Aero V6 Turbo with a manual transmission.

I always describe that car as the famous phrase “don’t meet your heroes,” except completely in reverse. The Saab was never really one of my heroes. I was not expecting some life-changing experience. I simply thought I had found an interesting, comfortable and slightly unusual daily driver.

I was very wrong.

The drive from Seattle to Miami was roughly 3,500 miles (around 5,630 kilometers) – and the car surprised me almost immediately. It was faster than I expected. It had much more torque than I expected. It was extremely comfortable for long-distance driving and far more fun than I had imagined. Most importantly, it just worked.

That trip threw almost everything at the car: cold weather, snow, mountains, altitude, desert, long highway stretches, and finally the heat of Florida. The Saab simply carried on.

No meaningful problems. No drama. No moment where I regretted buying a car on the opposite side of the country and immediately trusting it with a cross-country drive. By the time I arrived in Miami, I was no longer someone who just happened to own a Saab.

I had become a Saab person.

There is something difficult to explain about these cars until you spend real time with one. They are comfortable without being boring, practical without feeling ordinary and quick without constantly trying to prove it.

Once I started noticing all the little Saab details and the different way the cars were engineered, I was hooked.

The „Turbo-X promise“

A couple of years later, life changed and I moved to Spain. Eventually, I decided to sell the 9-3 Aero.

It was not an easy decision because that car had completely changed the way I looked at Saab, but before letting it go I made myself one promise:

If the right Saab 9-3 Turbo X ever came up for sale, I had to buy it.

By then, I knew enough about Saab to understand what the Turbo X represented. It was the ultimate version of the 9-3. It had the turbocharged V6, all-wheel drive, the electronic limited-slip differential, unique styling details and a rarity that makes it genuinely special (there are only 2,000 world-wide).

I wanted the best 9-3 I could possibly own. I also knew I might have to wait.

Buying a 2008 Saab Turbo-X while being in Croatia

Fast forward to the summer of 2023. I was in Croatia with a group of friends and we were about to spend almost a week sailing. While waiting for some of the group to arrive at our Airbnb, I was doing what I often do when I have time to kill: Scrolling through Bring a Trailer.

And there it was: A Saab Turbo X.

Only 24,000 miles. A collection of spare parts. And, as if that was not enough, a number of Hirsch Performance parts already installed.

My immediate thought was simple. This is the one.

There was just one complication. I was in Croatia and about to disappear onto a boat with my friends for six days.

I checked when the auction would end and realized it would finish on the same day we returned to the Airbnb. Since Europe was several hours ahead of the United States, I set an alarm on my phone. My agreement with myself was simple. If the alarm went off and I happened to be free, sitting somewhere with enough time and internet connection to take the auction seriously, I would bid.

I also established my absolute maximum price. Not one dollar more.

Then I went sailing and basically forgot about the car. Six days later, we were back at the Airbnb.

Everyone was exhausted and pretty worn out from the week. We were all sitting around, recharging before dinner and doing basically nothing.

Then my alarm went off. I looked at my phone and immediately remembered why I had set it. The Turbo X auction.

A promise is a promise. I opened Bring a Trailer and started bidding. Eventually, I ended up in a bidding war with another buyer. The price kept climbing, but I stuck to the maximum I had decided on before the trip.

Then the other bidder stopped. The auction ended.

I had won.

And the final price was exactly $250 below my absolute maximum.

So there I was, sitting on a couch in Croatia, tired and probably still recovering from the previous six days, suddenly the owner of a 24,000-mile Saab Turbo X. It remains one of my favorite car-buying stories.

Preserving the Turbo-X

I moved back to Miami in 2024, and I still own the Turbo X today.

The car is in exceptional condition, and because of its mileage, specification and Hirsch pieces, I see myself as a caretaker of it almost as much as an owner. This is where some enthusiasts may disagree with me.

You always hear people say, “Cars are meant to be driven.” And I agree.

I do drive the Turbo X. I enjoy it, take it out and let it stretch its legs. But I do not use it for commuting, grocery store parking lots, daily errands or unnecessary long-distance travel. There simply are not many Turbo X examples left in this kind of condition, and I feel some responsibility to preserve it.

I want to enjoy the car while also making sure someone can still see a really nice Turbo X many years from now and understand what one was supposed to be like.

Of course, that created another problem:

I needed a daily driver.

And by this point, there was absolutely no chance it was going to be anything other than another Saab.

The Saab 9-5 Aero

While living in Spain, I had the opportunity to drive a Saab 9-5 Troll R owned by a very good friend of mine.

He sadly passed away last year. He was an incredible person, someone I respected greatly and someone from whom I took a lot of inspiration. Driving his 9-5 stayed with me, and it helped convince me that a 9-5 Aero would eventually be the perfect companion to the Turbo X.

So once I moved back to Miami, I started looking. And looking. And looking some more.

I wanted a very specific version. It had to be what many of us call the “sharktooth” 9-5 Aero, the 2004 or 2005 model with that distinctive front bumper. And ideally, I wanted another manual.

Finding the right car proved extremely difficult. Eventually, I came across a 2004 Saab 9-5 Aero automatic that made me reconsider. It had only 54,000 miles. It had virtually every option I wanted, including ventilated seats, which in Florida are about as useful as an automotive option can possibly be.

It also had the relatively rare rear spoiler, and the overall condition and specification simply looked right. The more I looked at it, the less I cared that it was automatic.

There was, however, one problem. You may already be able to guess it.

The car was about an hour north of Seattle. Again.

Apparently every Saab I want to buy lives somewhere near Seattle.

Luckily, that year’s Saab Owners Convention was being held in Portland, Oregon. I had a friend living in Portland whom I could visit, and another friend in St. Louis who could become a stop on the way back. Suddenly, buying another Saab on the opposite side of the United States started sounding completely reasonable.

So I bought it. Another Saab. Another road trip from Seattle to Miami.

Seattle to Miami, Round Two

The 9-5 was fantastic.

And I was even able to spend part of a day at the Saab Owners Convention in Portland and see an incredible collection of Saabs before starting the long drive back toward Florida.

Just like my first 9-3 Aero, the 9-5 Aero handled the long journey beautifully. Until the final day.

Our last leg was Nashville to Miami. At around 7:00 on a Sunday morning, I merged onto the highway. Maybe ten seconds later, a large rock came flying toward the car and hit the windshield and roof with enormous force.

The windshield shattered.

About an hour later, I stopped to inspect the windshield from outside. I got back into the Saab and went to put the automatic into Drive.

Nothing happened.

The gear selector moved. The transmission did not. The car stayed in Park. So now, at roughly 8:30 on a Sunday morning somewhere in Tennessee, I had a shattered windshield, a dented roof and a Saab that apparently had decided it was done traveling.

Luckily, the problem turned out to be wonderfully simple.

A tiny twenty-year-old rubber bushing in the shifter cable had failed. My friend and I figured out that he could manually apply pressure to the mechanism while I moved the selector into Drive.

It worked.

For the rest of the trip, every time we stopped, we repeated the same procedure. It was ridiculous, but it worked. And somehow, once again, the Saab made it all the way back to Miami.

From Saab owner to Saab enthusiast 

By this point, Saab had become much more than just the cars themselves.

When I bought the Turbo X, I had already created an Instagram page called Saab Enthusiast.

At first, the idea was very simple. I wanted somewhere to showcase the Turbo X, share all the strange little details and engineering quirks that make Saabs different, and hopefully introduce the brand to people who had never really paid attention to it before.

There are so many things about Saab that even general car enthusiasts do not know. Night Panel. The center-mounted ignition. The unusual cup holders. The focus on safety. The understated turbocharged performance cars. The little solutions that made you realize Saab was often thinking about things differently.

What started as a small Instagram page grew far beyond what I expected.

Today, Saab Enthusiast has become a global community across Instagram and Facebook, bringing together Saab owners, former owners and general car enthusiasts from around the world. We share rare cars, Saab quirks, history, road trips, technical information and, most importantly, the enthusiasm that still surrounds a brand that stopped building cars years ago.

Our motto is simple: Keep Saab Alive.

That idea eventually led to the creation of my Saab Enthusiast merchandise store as well. My goal with the store was never simply to put Saab-related graphics on random clothing. I wanted to imagine the sort of enthusiast merchandise you might still be able to walk into a Saab dealership and buy today if Saab were still producing cars.

Something that feels connected to the brand and its history.

Something enthusiasts can proudly wear to a cars and coffee, a Saab event or simply in everyday life.

You can find the community at @saabenthusiast on Instagram, Saab Enthusiast on Facebook and at saabenthusiast.com.

Keep Saab alive

It is funny to think that none of this was planned. I did not spend years dreaming about owning a Saab. I simply needed an inexpensive daily driver with a V6 and a manual transmission.

That search led me to a car in Seattle.

That car led to a cross-country road trip.

That road trip led to me falling in love with Saab.

Then came the Turbo X.

Then another Saab from Seattle.

Then another cross-country road trip.

And somewhere along the way, a simple interest in an unusual Swedish car company became a community connecting Saab enthusiasts all over the world.

Saab may no longer build cars, but that does not mean the brand is gone.

The cars are still here. The stories are still here.

And most importantly, the people who love them are still here. So we keep driving them, fixing them, talking about them and introducing them to the next person who might never have considered owning one. That person might even be looking for an inexpensive V6 manual daily driver.

You never know where that can lead.

Julian, thank you so much for the story about your fascinating journey in the world of Saab. 🙏

We’re all happy to see the Saab Enthusiast community grow further – keep enjoying your life with Saab! I suppose I’m not the only one who, after reading your story, starts browsing the web for late Saab Aeros currently on offer in my region. For whoever wants to have a look: Here is the Saab search link on mobile.de I am currently using… 😉