900 Mk2

All change. The Mk2 900 was significantly different to its aged but admired predecessor.

Now 50 per cent General Motors owned, Saab banished offbeat design (floor-mounted ignition excepted) for a far more homogenised package based on the dynamically insipid 1988-1995 Opel Vectra platform.

Body styles were limited to a three-door (called Coupe), five-door and, from late ’94, a two-door cabriolet.

Space, specifications – in S and SE guises – and body strength increased.

Engines were a non-turbo four-cylinder 98kW 2.0i (not Cabriolet), a 110kW 2.3i and Saab-first GM-built 125kW 2.5 V6 (five-door only), and a 136kW turbocharged 2.0t (SE Coupe only, from late ’94). All were mated to either a five-speed manual or four-speed auto gearbox.

In early ’95 small improvements arrived, as did a 96kW 2.0i engine and the controversial Saab Sensonic clutch-less manual transmission became an option on the 2.0t SE Coupe.

In September ’95 all 900s received a passenger airbag, better brakes, an alarm, quieter V6 engine, new colours and better specification levels.

Just over a year later, more comfort, new trim and improved driveability marked the ’97 900.

The 136kW 2.0t engine was added to the Cabriolet and disappeared from the Coupe.

In March ‘97 three new models called Talledega debuted: a 110kW 900 S 2.3i Coupe and two 136kW 2.3t turbo models – the 900SE five-door hatch and SE Cabriolet. The latter two offered the Sensonic gearbox as an option.

The 900 Mk2 continued until mid 1998 when it was replaced by the visually similar but substantially re-engineered 9-3.

A total of 273,568 were built.