1999 Saab 9-3

The U.S. was the largest market for the 1999 Viggen with only 420 delivered to our market. All cars were Lightning Blue 5 speed 3 door manual transmission cars. 
We sold and serviced this example to one of our Saab collectors who drove it only 10,000 miles in 10 years.  .Looking for something unconventional, eccentric? One of only 426 Lightning Blue 9-3 Viggens produced in 1999 for the U.S. Market is currently offered by Swedish. Here's a machine that hides its ignition switch in the cup holder. Here's a machine with a teeny four-cylinder engine hooked up to a turbocharger the size of a Shop-Vac. Here's a little three-door hatchback that looks like no other car on the road. Here's the Saab 9-3 Viggen.

We are dealing with the last of the throwbacks--the last mass-produced passenger vehicle on earth that stays the course, refusing to yield to bourgeois fashion and show-off technology. The 9-3 Viggen is now the latest hot-rod version of the Saab 900 first introduced in 1994, and it now offers an impressive 230 horsepower from its 2.3L turbocharged four-banger that has been a part of the Saab inventory since Eric the Red left for Greenland.

Face it, Saabs are an acquired taste, like single-malt Scotch and reggae. Slip behind the wheel of a Viggen, and find a chair-like leather seat, a chin-high instrument panel and windowsill, and a shifter and ignition switch located in a pit below your right hip. Sniff the distinctive odor of buttery-soft Saab leather, and you can be in only one place on the planet.

It goes not exactly like its Swedish-fighter-plane namesake, but it's plenty quick enough to get it into the high-six-second range from 0 to 60 mph and to tie for first in this group from 0 to 100 mph and to be the winner from 0 to 120 mph (where the wonderful Whoopee Cushion turbo shows its muscle).

Once the shifter is mastered and the chassis is understood, one can fairly fly in a Viggen. Imprudent throttle punches in slow corners can produce nasty lunges of torque steer, but once straightened out and with the turbocharger in full play, the Viggen is definitely a hoot to drive.
It's cool that Saab has refused to accede to so-called contemporary styling and such nuances as four-wheel drive, naturally aspirated V-6s, or a swoopier, more aerodynamic body style. In a world of automobiles that only small boys and hard-core automotive writers can tell from one another--think Japanese cars--the Saab steadfastly clings to its roots.
For the unrepentant Saabistas and for those who have not forgotten George McGovern and the plight of the snail darter, this is a source of pride and comfort. For others, it is quaintness that is rapidly descending into obsolescence.
Get it while you can.  What other passenger car came with a Viggen Flight Academy two day driving event and dinner with Saab Management at Road Atlanta Race Track.   This is a great buy for a fun collectable Saab.