1973 Saab 95: A Rarity Near Downtown Davenport

NOTE: An oldie but a goodie. Transferred & mildly updated so you don’t have to go to the depressing website it was originally shown on. Bwa ha!

Saab. Another victim of incompetent management and the trend to trash interesting vehicles and offer combovers for fat people. They had such a dedicated fan base for years, but lack of funds meant only two “real” Saabs were built over its existence prior to acquisition by GM: the 92/93/95/96 and the 99/900. Once the General got their hooks into the tiny, quirky company, all bets were off. They still looked like Saabs–more or less–but they were more an Opel in a Saab suit after 1993 (though a few Classic 900 cabriolets were sold as ’94 models, the last were built in March 1993). I still used to see a “classic” 900 here and there in town (damn few since approximately 2016, however). So you can understand my excitement when I found this cool 95 (no, NOT 9-5) wagon thanks to a tip from my dad.

So what was the 95? Well, it was basically a 96 wagon. Think Volvo 244 sedan vs. Volvo 245 wagon. Instead of the cute little airplane-without-wings look of the 96, the 95 longroof got squared-off rear flanks and, believe it or not, a rear-facing third row seat! The first ones appeared in 1959.

Early 95s got the three-cylinder two-stroke engine, just like their sedan counterparts. Despite their light weight, most two-stroke Saabs had a rather leisurely 0-60 time of around 24 seconds.

image: seriouswheels.com

But Saabs were a big part of racing in the ’50s and ’60s, especially with Erik “On The Roof” Carlsson, and with the proper tuning and mechanical bits, the 95/96 could cut that time to 15 seconds and below. I just love this picture. “Crap! I’ll remember that curve next time!”

In 1967, however, the 95 (and 96 sibling) could be had with the new Ford Taunus-sourced V4 engine. Displacing 1.5 liters, it produced 55, 60 or 65 horsepower. In a 95 wagon with seven Swedes aboard, acceleration might well have been as bad as a VW Type 2. Yes, these things could be had with a third row seat, believe it or not. Yikes.

Well, seven people in a 95 probably did not happen too often, and besides, the 95 and 96 were nice, light little cars, with a 98.4-inch wheelbase and an overall length of 169.3 inches. In ordinary circumstances, they could be right zippy with an experienced driver aboard.

A stock 95 or 96 GT850 two-stroke could go naught-60 in 18 seconds, and a 95 with the later 1.5 or 1.7L V4s could do about the same. Tuning could bring that down considerably–check out this site with vintage Saab 0-60 times for proof.

Like Volvos, Saabs of this period were not really luxurious, though they weren’t cheap. They were, however, very VERY different from most cars of the period in the U.S., where most folks bought Ford LTDs, Plymouth Gran Furys and Chevrolet “Capreses.”

It took a special sort to buy a Saab in the ’70s, and if you lived between Green Bay and Nashville back then, you probably wouldn’t have seen too many of them–perhaps none at all. Unless you happened to live in a college town. Yes, true to the stereotype, many professors and college types saw the appeal of unusual European rolling stock.

With St. Ambrose, Palmer College of Chiropractic and Augustana College in the Quad Cities, there were probably a few of these about in my neck of the woods back then. Indeed, some English professor in Davenport might well have purchased this Mini Me wagon new. Strieter Lincoln-Mercury in Davenport sold Saabs for quite a while, finally giving up on the marque in about 1999.

Oh yes–did I forget to mention that these mini-wagons had fins? Well, they did come out in 1959. And quite subtle fins they are, for the time. The Saab fins held forth on 95s all the way to the end of production in 1978. U.S. imports ended after the 1973 model year.

image: griffinmodels.com

One interesting thing I found while researching this car is that in certain European markets, a panel van variant sans rear seat was also offered. While they were never officially imported to the States, I wonder if any made it into the country as Saab dealer parts haulers?

Back in summer 2013 my dad told me he saw a cool old Saab on River Drive, just east of downtown Davenport, near the Isabel Bloom complex. A couple of days later I went over to see if I could find it and had no luck. As Dad had seen it in a parking lot and non the street, I thought maybe it was an office worker’s mode of transportation and he/she had left for the day, as it was early evening when I went searching for it. I mentally filed it away and promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward about three months. I was in traffic and spotted this well-kept 95 and promptly forgot about where I was heading. Holy crap! Your author parked rather dangerously and leapt from the car, leaving the driver’s door hanging open.It was only after I had taken several pictures that I realized I was in the part of town where Dad said he had seen an old Saab…oh, this is that car! For some reason I pictured a 99 when he told me about the car he spotted. But a 95 was so much better.

These things just aren’t seen in the Quad Cities—or really, even Des Moines or Chicago. At least not since the early ‘80s. It really made my day to check this little wagon out–the first 92/3/5/6-model Saab I’d ever seen in the metal.

One final note: in spring 2024 my brother Andy saw what HAD to be the same car on his way to work. It wasn’t at Isabel Bloom, but was parked not terribly far from where I originally saw it, up in the McClelland Heights neighborhood. I drove up that following weekend to see if I could get fresh pics, but no soap. Nice to know it’s still kicking around, making its surroundings SO much more interesting than the usual leased Equinoxes, Odysseys and CR-Vs, ha ha!