Man Maths: Saab 900 Turbo 16S

My abiding memory is of the 16S’s exhaust note and gearbox whine. The exhaust had an almost Subaru-esque flat-four offbeat thrum to it, and the noise from the transmission was inevitably a sign of things to come. The gearboxes, renowned for their fragility, had to be replaced on every example, at great expense to Saab’s warranty department.

For non-Saab geeks, the turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine was a Triumph-derived 2-litre lump, canted over at 45-degrees and mounted longitudinally – a rarity in a front-wheel drive car – with drive going forwards and to the underslung gearbox via chains. It’s why the engine had to be canted: the packaging would have had designers snapping their pencils in despair if it hadn’t.

The slender upright dashboard, elegantly simply dials, Tonka-like push buttons, ignition barrel between the seats and chairs that looked flat yet held you in once the fury of the turbo was unleashed were all charming 900 traits, a car that could trace its roots back to the 99, which first hit the road in 1968. Or, if you weren’t a fan – and more weren’t than were, let’s be honest – they gave the car a whiff of visiting a great aunt’s bungalow, where time stood still.

Perhaps the most effective demonstration of the 900 Turbo 16S’s quirky appeal was the fate that befell the third in the Mills household. Dad drove into a factory car park, parked and reported to reception. As they signed the visitors’ book, his colleague tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Isn’t that your Saab driving out of the car park?’

Sure enough, it was. Some light-fingered individuals had staked out the place hoping a 900 Turbo would turn up at some point. How do we know? Because when the police recovered it, the car had been used in a ram-raid – all the rage during the 1980s. The appeal of the Saab? It was fast enough to outrun any police car, narrow enough (again, another sign of its dated platform) to fit between a shop’s security bollards, and its tough hatchback body withstood being rammed backwards at speed through the jeweller’s shop front.

These days a 900 Turbo 16S is a rare and – hopefully you’ll agree – welcome sight on our roads. There are a few on Car&Classic, while The Classic Valuer points to rising values, since 2020, and a median price of nearly £9500.

As we know too well at Ti, cars are about so much more than facts, stats and road test verdicts. The 900 Turbo 16S is no E30 M3, 190E 2.3-16 or Sierra Cosworth, but if a really good one came along, my man maths would kick into overdrive, attempt to rationalise such an emotive purchase and see me pay whatever it took to secure a really nice example – even if it meant selling off a child or two.

A good job, then, I haven’t set up any classified website email alerts for Saab’s wickedly anti-establishment 900 Turbo 16S. Yet.

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