Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1997 Saab 9000 CS
With all the junkyard Saab history we've seen here, the Saab products born of the alliance between Trollhättan and Turin haven't gotten their due. Shoehorned between— and among— the Triumph-engined 900 Classics and the GM-era Saabs, a Saab developed in partnership with Fiat was built. This was the 9000, and I've found a late-production example in a Denver boneyard.
Saab began working with the mighty Fiat Empire during the late 1970s, resulting in a rebadged and mildly Scandinavized Lancia Delta known as the Saab-Lancia 600. That car's closest U.S.-market relative was the Fiat Strada, which lived on the same platform. The 600 didn't sell well and disappeared without leaving much trace, but the Fiat-Saab dealings led to the development of a new platform cooked up by Saab and Lancia engineers, with Giorgetto Giugiaro in charge of the styling: the Type Four.
There were four car models built on the Type Four platform: the Lancia Thema, Fiat Croma, Alfa Romeo 164 and Saab 9000. The 9000 was the first to hit European showrooms, in 1985, and it made its North American debut as a 1986 model. We never got the Thema or Croma here, but the 164 eventually showed up in the United States as a 1991 model.
The 9000 was much roomier inside than the 900 (which was a mid-1970s design based on the late-1960s Saab 99's chassis), though it didn't weigh much more.
9000 production continued through 1998, after which the Opel-related 9-5 took over. 9000 sales overlapped with the similarly GM-derived New 900, beginning with the 1994 model year.
