During its more than 60 years as a car manufacturer, Saab became known for building robust and practical cars that work well as everyday cars in our Nordic climate.
Even today, it is common to see examples of the brand’s later models, such as the 9-3 and 9-5 or even the 900 and 9000, in everyday use in many parts of the country. The question, however, is how long this will last.
By now, even the newest of the Saabs has reached the age of over 10 years, and wear, rust and accidents have begun to take their toll.
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A shrinking stock
According to statistics from Car.info there are currently just under 205,000 Saab cars registered in Sweden, which only corresponds to around 2.8 percent of the Swedish car stock. In total, there are currently roughly 7.2 million cars registered in Sweden
In comparison, the other Swedish national brand Volvo accounts for a whopping 19 percent of the cars registered in Sweden, with just over 1.38 million copies.
The register at Car.info stretches back eight years to January 2016, and at that time there were roughly 338,000 Saab cars registered in Sweden. This then corresponded to roughly 5 percent of the cars registered in Sweden, which at the time amounted to roughly 6.5 million cars.
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A third has been scrapped
Anyone who is quick at mental arithmetic can quickly calculate, based on the numbers above, that in the last eight years a whole lot of Saabs have been scrapped or exported.
More specifically, over 124,000 Saab cars have been scrapped in Sweden between January 2016 and March 2024.
That is an average of over 15,000 cars a year, and means that the Saab stock has decreased by a third in eight years.
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Saab 9-5 is mostly scrapped
The most scrapped model is the first generation Saab 9-5, with over 57,000 examples of the model having gone to the crusher. The second most scrapped model is the Saab 9-3, followed by the older 900 and 9000 models.
A further 10,600 Saabs have been exported during the period. The most popular model for export is the Saab 9-3, followed by the 9-5, 900 and the classic 96.
In other words, the Saab cars are disappearing from Sweden’s roads at a rapid pace. The question is whether fine examples of the 9-5 and 9-3 will one day be as desirable as other older Swedish family cars such as the Volvo 240.
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Top list: Most common Saab models in Sweden