Saab History

Day of Remembrance – 1985 Saab 9000 MPV

Saab 9000 MPVMinivan Project - Saab 9000 MPV

For the 30th anniversary of the Saab 9000, the former project manager Gunnar Larsson revealed that Saab secretly explored a Minivan project.

Here’s a quick recap: from 1983 to 1984, the American supplier ASC was in competition to design a 900 Convertible against Saab’s own design studio. After winning, ASC was involved in its development and, during a visit, Gunnar Larsson discovered there the final development of the future best-seller, Chrysler’s K-Car (Voyager, Caravan, Town & Country).

Back in Sweden, Larsson asked Saab’s head of coachbuilding Dick Ohlsson if something similar was possible based on the final 9000 model. Ohlsson agreed it would be.

Continue reading after the ad
Saab 9000 MPV
Saab 9000 MPV

A small team of 7 people was secretly created and the design studio headed by Björn Envall proposed this 7-seat mock-up based on the 9000 Turbo 16 in May 1985.

In his presentation, Gunnar Larsson explained this design development probably lasted around 2 months before being stopped

And, and here’s design vision, how a designer imagines a modern Saab minivan:

Continue reading after the ad

Source: Calle Carlquist from Vi Bilägare  & Car Design Archives

Goran Aničić
the authorGoran Aničić
For over 15 years, Goran Aničić has been passionately focused on Saab automobiles and everything related to them. His initial encounter with Saab cars took place back in 2003 when the first Saab 9-3 and sedan version were introduced. At that moment, he was captivated by the car's Scandinavian design logic and top-notch engineering, and everything that followed stemmed from that first encounter. Later on, through his work at the editorial team of the Serbian automotive magazines "Autostart" and later "AutoBild," he had the opportunity to engage more closely with Saab vehicles. In 2008, he tested the latest Saab cars of that time, such as the Saab 9-3 TTiD Aero and Saab 9-3 Turbo X. In 2010, as the sole blogger from the region, he participated in the Saab 9-5ng presentation in Trollhättan, Sweden. Alongside journalists from around the world, he got a firsthand experience of the pinnacle of technological offerings from Saab at that time. Currently, Goran owns two Saabs: a 2008 Saab 9-3 Vector Sportcombi with a manual transmission, and a Saab 9-3 Aero Griffin Sport Sedan from the last generation, which rolled off the production line in Trollhättan in December 2011.

1 Comment

  • I have Saab 2002 9 3 140,0000 miles nd I m looking Maintenance Repair manual. My Saab cuts off after running for a while.

Leave a Reply