The Way of the SAAB

We all have our reasons why we love Saab. But it’s harder for us to explain to the non-converted when asked about it. You might point out some specifics such as design, quirky features, technical innovations, … But one never feals like you got the message across, you didn’t really get to the bottom of it. That got me thinking – why do I actually love Saab?

I’m not a car guy, at least I wasn’t before I discovered Saab. Actually, I only got my driver’s license when I was around 25 years old, and couldn’t care less about cars at the time – I was driving my dad’s 1998 Seat Ibiza 1.9 SDI for a long, long time. I never even thought about changing it or desiring any other car, not once did I lookup used cars ads (now I do it almost daily, looking for “new” Saab find, even though I own a bunch of them).

Then, one sunny and quiet Sunday morning in Belgrade, I was cycling through New Belgrade city blocks, enjoying time alone, and in a narrow backstreet stumbled upon a strange looking parked vehicle, in a abandoned-like state – it was a white 5-door Saab 900 from around 1985. I stopped to make a break and inspect it a bit. The car captivated me for some reason, I couldn’t take my eyes of it. I looked at it from different angles, peaked inside, noticed a couple of quirks – but I fealt like I couldn’t really grasp the entire vehicle. I took a couple of shots with my potato phone camera, got back home and started digging into Saab.

A fighter jet maker producing regular cars? Highly unusual I thought. I was always a big fan of aviation, especially fighter jets. The reason being that a bunch of us kids from the suburbs of small Serbian towns (I was born in Šabac) got hooked on fighter jets and air-defence systems, which were deployed in the woods right in our backyards during the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. My second thought was – cars made by “geeks for geeks”? I doubled down on reading. Going through history, model evolution, press releases, video ads, you name it. I was hooked.

Long story short, I was lucky enough to be able to get in contact with the owners. It was an elderly couple who bought it brand new, but they were getting through divorce and getting through “custody battle” and hence decided to sell it because they couldn’t agree to whom the Saab should belong. But the asking price was too much for me, and I had to pass. Fast forward couple of years, I bought my first Saab. And soon after the second, … and third. And so on. In the process I was always reading and exploring, immersing myself in the Saab world.

So, after all these years of intense and active interest, I inherited “traditional” Saab values (which I will try not repeat here) and formed some personal opinions on why Saab matters to me. This I will share in hope to inspire some similar soul out there.

So, we all know when it comes to Saabs it’s not about absolute horsepower, top speed, or sharp cornering. It’s not (just) about pretty looks. It’s not about latest and greatest (unnecessary) gizmos. And it’s really about all of these at the same time – but those traits are consequences of a purposeful and prudent design, not the design goals on its own. On the other side, it is all about practicality (utility), fun, and alternative no-nonsense approach. Let me try to explain – but beware, when it comes to design thinking I’m an amateur (like in meaning of the original French word – devoted enthusiast, think radio amateur) – so take everything with a grain of salt.

Every product design is essentially a “multi-objective” design exercise, and as such always involves a compromise. One should never optimise just a single metric, especially not profit. That’s how it should be, and hopefully will be sometime again in the future. The end goal (merit) of a design is the function (utility) for a given need and, if the design is good, evoked emotion from using the thing.

To accomplish that one has to do what is necessary, go extra mile. This is given. Love and passion has to be part of the design and build process. This is true in architecture, computer design or design in general.

For starters, just to mention a couple of traditional Saab values we all know: Practicality and versatility; Intelligent performance; Quirkiness. This is not an exhaustive list, and I’m not going to delve into this, but rather I’ll try to dig a bit deeper. Let’s focus and speculate how we got to these values in the first place.

A. Resilience (perseverance). Failure is blessing in disguise, a lesson really. Do it despite the odds, reminiscence of “David vs Goliath” story. Finish have much stronger and more appropriate word for this – Sisu. We Slavs from the Balkans also have a word for that – Inat. Proud defiance and persistence against all odds.

Note: There are subtle and important linguistic differences between the words mentioned. I’m sure other cultures have similar ones, but that’s not our focus here.

B. Novel (alternative) approach. Turn disadvantage into unique approach or advantage. Some of the best Saab solutions are created out of a necessity, due to lack of some resources. You can find your favorite example from the rich Saab history, I’m gonna pick the latest one – instead of just closing the Saab Museum because of the needed roof renovation, “Saabers” inside decided to convert this into unique opportunity to showcase the entire museum collection and more summer expo called “The Box”.

Fun quote: “If it’s not going right, turn left”.

C. Emerging beauty. Practicality and functionality first – prudent design with purpose in mind. Everything should have a purpose. Aesthetics comes almost as a consequence of the design, as an emerging beauty from functional patterns.

D. Evolution, not revolution. Stay focused on the real design goal, and your core values. Do not chase the latest trends, nor push fancy gizmos without a reason.

 

So it’s really all comes down to values. A set of values constitutes a new philosophy. We love history for a reason, even though there is no rational reason to do so – we are interested in understanding the background story, the inner motivation and so on, so that we could use it in our daily lives. We ought to use this philosophy as a “north star” – to continually inspire and improve ourselves in small steps and subtle ways.

Car is a mean, not an end in itself. Car enables mobility. Car gives you independence. Car is a symbol of freedom. And Saab gives you a character. If we were to characterise Saab, it would have a Sigma personality. It attracts unconventional people and builds us as independent personas. Underdogs with alternative paths. Rebels with a cause.

Furthermore we ought to evolve and combine the core values (resilience, intelligence, novel approach) to become anti-fragile. Not just survive, but thrive – become better after the setback. Like Nietzsche said, “What doesn’t kills you, makes you stronger”. Just keep moving forward, but inspired and with intelligent approach. Better every time, every day.

All good things come to an end. Where one story ends, another one begins. SAAB will be reborn. SAAB might not to be a car in a new life, at least not in a traditional sense. But somehow related to automotive industry, providing innovative mobility solutions within the future intelligent transport systems. We have to be patient, wait for a better time, and in the meantime cultivate the Saab heritage and values. And “work” on ourselves taping on to the SAAB philosophy – inspire, tune and tweak our personality. We are the Saab philosophy. Be You, be the independent thinker. Saab is a way of life, an eternal well of inspiration. Move on. Keep walking. Move your mind.