Saab Convertible: A Car for Optimists Who Don’t Wait for the Sun

There is a particular kind of driver who doesn’t wait for perfect weather. While everyone else is closing windows at the first cloud, they’re dropping the top and switching on the heated seats. Norwegian automotive magazine Motor summed them up in a headline that needs no translation: «Sure folk kjører ikke cabriolet» — grumpy people don’t drive convertibles.

In a long, warm portrait of open-top enthusiasts of all makes, one family immediately caught the attention of every Saab person reading it. Kjetil Urheim from Sandefjord, a long-time employee of paint manufacturer Jotun, and his daughters Ida and Mari are the proud custodians of two Saab Cabriolets – maintained with the same care others reserve for family heirlooms.

“The Convertible Is Pure Happiness”

When Kjetil Urheim recently relocated to Dubai to head up Jotun’s local division, he immediately felt something was missing. The company car – a modern, comfortable, perfectly functional Audi – simply had nothing to say to him. Then he met a French helicopter pilot who, as it happened, drove a Saab Convertible. Kjetil borrowed it for a while. And felt immediately at home.

“The company car, an Audi, didn’t speak to me. The convertible is pure happiness.” — Kjetil Urheim

That line – the convertible is pure happiness – isn’t marketing copy. It’s the considered verdict of a man who has been buying and selling Saab Cabriolets since 1997, for whom the car is somewhere between a passion and a core part of who he is. While Kjetil test-drives a striking yellow Saab 9-3 Aero V6 on the sun-baked streets of Dubai, weighing up whether to add it to the collection, back in Sandefjord daughters Ida and Mari are keeping the Norwegian examples alive – starting them up, driving them, and carrying the family tradition forward.

Kjetil also has some sharp technical observations about the car he loves. He recalls that the Saab Cabriolet was tested in the early 1980s against a conventional steel-roofed car to measure how quickly each interior warmed up from freezing temperatures – and the Saab won, thanks to its double-layer fabric roof.

The early examples also carry that famous exhaust note, felt most strongly around 1,750 rpm, which came about through a manufacturing imperfection in the manifold. It was so musical, Kjetil smiles, that he has never understood why Saab didn’t simply keep it on purpose.

“I think the Saab cab has avoided the typical ‘hairdresser’s car’ label that sticks to some other convertibles. It tends to be chosen by doctors, architects, engineers — people who are genuinely interested in Saab and in cars.” — Kjetil Urheim

That may be the most telling observation in the entire interview. The Saab Cabriolet is not a pose. It’s chosen by a different kind of driver — one who knows exactly what they’re driving and isn’t interested in impressing anyone.

Nordic Blood: Why Saab Drivers Drop the Top Earlier Than Anyone Else

The Urheim family’s story from Norway is far from isolated. It is, in fact, part of a global pattern that Consumer Reports editor Jim Travers documented back in 2009 and that SaabPlanet revisited: owners of Saab Cabriolets spend more time driving with their tops down than drivers of any other convertible. While others wait for 25 degrees and blue skies, Saab owners are out at 10 degrees Celsius with the heated seats cranked and a scarf around their necks.

The theory is simple: the car’s Nordic roots have rubbed off on its owners. Or perhaps Saab people are just made of sterner stuff. Probably both.

Three Friends, Three Red Saabs, One Town

In the English town of Formby, near Liverpool, one of those coincidences occurred that sounds invented but isn’t. Vincent O’Brien (81), Charles Richards (75), and Jane Hughes (69) separately discovered they each owned the same car — a red Saab 9-3 Convertible, identical shade, identical spec, all three kept in showroom condition.

Vincent was having a coffee outside a village café when Charles approached him and asked about the red Saab parked across the street. It turned out Charles owned the same model — and that a woman nearby owned a third. The trio founded the Formby Red Saab Convertible Club and stayed in touch through WhatsApp. For Charles and Vincent, the red paint was no accident — it’s the color of Liverpool FC. Jane received her car as a gift from her late husband in 2010 and has turned down every offer to sell it since.

“They are both wonderful individuals, and it’s incredible to think that we might have never crossed paths if it weren’t for our shared passion for these cars. Owning a sports car as an older individual wasn’t about appearances for me; it was about the sheer joy of driving it.” — Charles Richards

Stories like this are not unusual in the Saab world. They are, in fact, the rule.

One Hundred Saab Cabriolets in One Place: Harz 2024

What happens when Saab Cabriolet enthusiasts find each other? They build a community. The Saab Cabrio-groep Nederland, founded in 2018, now counts nearly 2,000 members drawn primarily from the Netherlands and Belgium. In the spring of 2024, the group organized a record-breaking gathering at the Nationalpark Harz in Germany – almost 100 Saab Cabriolets in one place, a scenic drive through the park, and the kind of camaraderie that no new car can manufacture.

The group is led by three dedicated Dutch enthusiasts: Catharinus Lahaise (who lives in Sweden), Ron van Dorsten, and Peter van Amen. The annual gatherings keep growing, and each one draws in new faces alongside familiar ones.

The Used-Market Reality: What to Know Before You Buy

Romance is one thing; practicality is another. A thorough and refreshingly honest used-car analysis of the Saab 9-3 Convertible was brought to us through the German Automobile Depression channel, which SaabPlanet covered in October 2025. Reviewer Jochen didn’t hide a single weak point — worn microswitches, aging plastics, electrical quirks — but the conclusion remained firmly positive: this is a car you can actually drive, not just preserve.

The 9-3 Convertible was engineered as a cabriolet from day one, not cut down from a coupe as an afterthought – and you feel that in the body’s coherence. The 2.0-liter turbo four uses a timing chain rather than a belt, which eases maintenance anxiety considerably. The electro-hydraulic roof system, driven by roughly seven electric motors, still operates as intended on well-kept examples. Clean cars trade around $6,000, while project cars can be found well under $2,500.

The message echoes through every Saab Cabriolet story: you are not buying a faster or more modern car. You are buying something that simply feels right.

A Car for Individualists – From Trollhättan to Dubai

The Saab Cabriolet was positioned as an exclusive model from the very start – turbocharged, 16-valve, deliberately limited in reach. That decision has paid off in steadily appreciating values. As Kjetil Urheim puts it, most automakers have one model that carries the entire brand’s reputation on its shoulders. For Saab, that model is the Cabriolet.

A car born in Trollhättan, driven by doctors and architects along Norwegian fjords, connecting three strangers in Formby, drawing helicopter pilots in Dubai, and sustaining a community of 2,000 members in the Netherlands — that is not just an automobile. It is an identity. A philosophy. And perhaps, as Norway’s Motor magazine put it so well, proof that optimists are simply a different breed of person.

Grumpy people, after all, don’t drive convertibles.