Saab 9-3: The Complete Story

The story of the Saab 9-3 is full of twists and turns, from its origins before the 9-3 name even existed to its unexpected rebirth as an electric vehicle decades later.

Bizarrely, the first-generation 9-3 was in essence the same car as the Saab 900 built between 1994 and 1998. Equally as bizarre, the second-generation 9-3 lived on well beyond the General Motors era, reappearing in 2013–14 and again from 2019 to 2022. In these later years its familiar Gen2 silhouette concealed an all-electric powertrain, now wearing the badge of new owner NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden) in place of the hallowed Saab Griffin. From 1998 to 2011, the Saab 9-3 was manufactured at the Trollhättan factory in Sweden, carrying the brand’s distinctive character into a new era. This book charts the 9-3’s evolution under General Motors’ stewardship, from the outgoing Saab 900 to the fundamentally similar first-generation 9-3, and on to the redesigned Gen2 model of 2002, this new model being built on GM’s Epsilon platform and featuring far more GM-supplied componentry. The Gen1 9-3 came in three guises: four-door Saloon (sedan), two-door Cabriolet convertible and five-door Hatchback. Its Gen2 successor offered Saloon, Cabriolet and SportCombi estate car formats, powered by engines ranging from the 2.0-litre petrol Turbo and 1.9 TiD diesel to the 2.6-litre petrol V6 and the 1.9 TTiD twin-turbo diesel. Stunningly illustrated with over 250 images – many previously unseen – Saab 9-3 includes specially commissioned photography of the high-performance Viggen model, factory archive images, an interview with heroic rallycross legend Per Eklund and a Foreword by Saab insider and photojournalist Kenneth Olausson. It recounts Saab’s final decade as a car manufacturer through the development of the 9-3 until its abandonment in 2011 by General Motors, and its brief rebirth as an electric vehicle under NEVS (National Electric Vehicle Sweden), which lingered intermittently until 2022.

Johnny Tipler is a motoring writer and historian based in north Norfolk. He has had more than forty books published on a variety of automotive topics, ranging from F1 racing cars and motorcycles to trucks and heavy equipment, plus driver biographies and legendary race histories. He writes regularly for a number of specialist car magazines, reviewing products old and new, interviewing famous drivers and industry figures, and reporting on international historic races and long-distance rallies.