R.I.P. Saab

Quirky, weird, different. That's what Saabs were all about. The very first car I borrowed from an automaker as a journalist was a 1984 Saab 900 Turbo. It was a revelation to me, having been brought up with a series of very mundane domestic cars. The Saab was FAST and FUN with an aromatic leather interior that really fit your body contours, and of course, an unmistakable chunky shape that was unlike any other car. Saab obtained its highest sale volume in 1986, and it has been on a steady decline since then.

There was some hope that after the GM bankruptcy in 2009, that Swedish Automobile CEO Victor Muller could pull off a miracle and get Saab back on track, but it wasn't mean to be. Saab was declared bankrupt by a court on Monday. A new 9-5 was trotted out to the press last year, but it wasn't different enough to create much of a sir. There are just too many good cars out in the marketplace now; it's harder and harder to stand apart.

My wife's car is a Saab 2000 9-3 convertible that my daughter now drives. Even back then, Saab was beginning to slip into conformity thanks to the badly-managed GM ownership that eventually killed it. I'm sorry to see Saab go, even if it was only a ghost of what it once was. There are just too many vanilla cars out there.

Some automakers have taken up the 'different is better' gauntlet, including Subaru, VW and MINI, not to mention Nissan with their weird but somewhat lovable Cube and Juke vehicles, and the brand-new Fisker performance hybrid.  Let's hope there will always be cars that have distinct personalities that are also fun to drive.