5 years ago.. World Premiere new Saab 9-5 sc

Photo from tella, Dragan Mitrovic, http://ttela.se/ekonomi/saab/1.1130171-varldspremiar-for-9-5-sportcombi World Premiere at the Saab Factory in Trollhättan for the all new Saab 9-5 Sportcombi 2011-02-23, 11:30 am. Press and 3 800 Saab employees were shown the new cars. There was also a speech by Saabs vd Jan Åke Jonsson and Spykers Victor Muller.

5 years ago was a very exciting and important year for Saab. It was now it would be proved if Saab has come to stay or not. Now we know unfortunately how it went and the new Saab 9-5 Sportcombi was to be salvaged for scrap metal and one preserved for Saab Museum.

However, the creditors were standing in line to get their money back so everything that could be sold was to be auctioned off. That also included the test cars such as 9-5 Sportcombi. Some were in such poor condition they were not considered to be safe and could not be sold. The Swedish Transport Agency had already decided from the beginning that they were only test cars and would not be allowed to be registered legally and therefore not be driven on public roads. KVD had the great “honor” of holding in some of the auctions all sold prices are listed in the 9-5 Sportcombi directory, https://9-5sc2012.com/saab-9-5-sportcombi-2012-directory/.

Who would come to the rescue and save this fantastic car? Someone from Sweden one could assume but that was not the case. The salvation would come but from Germany? Thanks to Markus from Autohaus Lafrentz in Kiel he managed to get the 9-5 sportcombi road legal in Germany and Germany also being a part of the European Union all other countries… or one might think so. Read Michel´s entry about The Saga about #17. How he got his car road legal in Sweden. https://9-5sc2012.com/the- story-about-17/ Which had also featured on Jalopnik, http://jalopnik.com/how-i-made-this-saab-9-5-sportcombi-prototype-road-lega-1471197722 The only exception proved to be in Norway when #10 was allowed to be registered because some unique Norwegian legislation about the rarity of certain cars.

Still today there is one owner having trouble with importing his car. This owner is based in the U.S and they will not allow the car entry not even as a museum exhibition car. So I guess we in Europe could be very happy! #31.

5 years ago… Saab released a new gallery of photos of the all-important 9-5 SportCombi, which the company expect to sell in greater volumes than its four-door counterpart in many European markets. The more practical variant of the 9-5 series will be offered with a similar mix of turbocharged diesel and gasoline motors with sales scheduled to start in the Fall of 2011.