A useful video tour for those missing Trollhättan this summer
While the Saab Car Museum’s regular building in Trollhättan is closed for roof and skylight renovation, its collection has been moved to Nova Arena under the temporary exhibition name The Box. The move has created a very different museum experience. The cars are placed more densely, the hall is wider, and the display includes several vehicles that usually remain outside the standard museum route simply because there is not enough room.
That is what makes the latest video from Hoojies Garage worth watching. The channel is run by Hååjie, a Swedish automotive enthusiast whose videos usually move between cars, motorcycles, repairs, reviews, and workshop observations. In this case, his walkthrough is not a formal museum presentation, but that is part of its value. He walks the floor as a knowledgeable visitor, stopping at cars that even regular Saab Car Museum guests may not have seen before.
For Saab enthusiasts who cannot travel to Trollhättan before The Box closes at the end of September 2026, the video works as a compact substitute: not a full archive tour, but a well-chosen look at the unusual material now visible inside Nova Arena.
Table of Contents
The development cars tell the better story
The first standout is a Saab 900-bodied test car from the early 1980s, identified in the video as a development mule connected to the Saab 9000 program. Its body may look familiar at first glance, but the engineering underneath points away from the production 900: a transverse engine layout, a different front suspension arrangement, and the kind of practical packaging work that usually stays hidden behind factory doors.
That is exactly the type of car The Box makes easier to appreciate. A museum can always display a finished 9000, but a mule explains the messy route toward it. It shows how Saab tested layout, structure, and packaging long before the production car became a showroom object.
Another essential stop is the joystick-controlled Saab 9000, one of Saab’s most unusual drive-by-wire experiments. Instead of a steering wheel, the car used a side-mounted joystick linked to an electronic and hydraulic control system, with secondary controls relocated around the driver. It belongs to the same research period in which European manufacturers were studying future safety systems, driver assistance, and electronic control interfaces. Even today, it looks extreme, but it also shows how far Saab was prepared to go when questioning basic cockpit conventions.
The oddities matter too
The video also moves through the badge-engineered corner of Saab history, including cars tied to the GM period. The Cadillac BLS is the most familiar example: a Saab 9-3-based Cadillac built in Trollhättan for the European market. Nearby, the Subaru-related material is even more curious, especially the SUV mockup connected with the aborted Saab 9-6X idea. It is not a car many Saab enthusiasts wish had entered production, but it belongs in the story because it shows the commercial and corporate pressure Saab was under in the 2000s.
Among the earlier design studies, the green Saab 99 estate prototype is one of the most interesting cars in the video. Saab eventually chose the Combi Coupe direction instead of a more conventional wagon profile, and this prototype makes that decision easier to understand. It is one thing to describe the 99 hatchback as a smart Saab solution; it is another to see the alternative parked nearby and realize that the final production direction was a deliberate choice, not an accident of styling.
The same applies to the visibly stretched Saab 99 development car, identified in the video as a mule related to tougher U.S. crash requirements before the Saab 900. Its proportions are awkward because they were not meant to be elegant. They were meant to solve a regulatory and structural problem. For enthusiasts who know the classic 900 nose so well, this mule adds useful context to the transition from 99 to 900.
Sonetts, convertibles, and the cars outside the usual route
The Sonett section is another reason to watch the video closely. Two mid-1960s Sonett prototypes appear side by side, representing different design routes before Saab settled on the production Sonett II. One is linked with MFI, while the other is associated with Saab’s own design circle and carries a more direct Saab identity in its front treatment. Seeing them together makes the production decision easier to read than any written summary can.
The walkthrough also catches several smaller but valuable museum moments: the lightweight Saab-built caravan made from fiberglass shells, a gadget-filled car nicknamed the “James Bond car,” a small electric prototype with Saab 99-like cues, and a lineup of convertible prototypes including roof and cover treatments that never became familiar production solutions.
None of these cars needs to be presented as a lost masterpiece. Their importance is simpler: they show the unfinished work behind Saab’s finished cars. They show ideas that were tested, rejected, reshaped, or absorbed into later programs.
That is why this Hoojies Garage video deserves a place next to the official The Box coverage. It does not try to turn the temporary exhibition into a polished promotional film. It simply walks through the hall and pauses where the collection becomes most revealing.
For anyone already planning a Trollhättan visit, the video is a useful preview. For those who cannot make the trip this summer, it is one of the better ways to see why The Box is not just a temporary storage solution, but a rare public look at the Saab cars that usually wait behind the museum’s visible story.
Watch the Hoojies Garage walkthrough of The Box below:
