Another shot from the Oregon Country Fair parking lot: These two cars have swapped their hatchbacks! Well, not literally, but it’s quite unusual to see a Saab 900 two-door sedan. Seems like they were all hatchbacks, including the five door versions. I don’t have ready access to the sales breakout on something like this, but when I see this body style, I instantly think “Saab 99”.
Now the Sentra hatch wasn’t that unusual, but the sedans and wagons did outnumber the hatchbacks by a healthy margin. And I haven’t seen one in a while. This is why I come to the Fair, to see something a bit different!
my friend’s 2 door hatch that rattled every time he hit a bump. my dad had the 4 door w/ 5 spd.- no hatch – that was the best car he ever owned. tight as a drum and it was the first fwd car that i drove that actually handled.
i’m writing about the saab 900 of course.
I don’t really understand the American aversion to hatchbacks. They have always been really popular in Canada due to their utility. The reason we don’t get a Civic hatch here is because it won’t sell in the USA. A real shame in my opinion.
Well my wife’s aversion to hatchbacks goes something like this. That is too much like a station wagon and that is too much like an old mother’s car. Of course that doesn’t apply to her SUV.
My personal aversion to hatch backs is a couple of things. I often times carry tools and such with me and I don’t want them either to be seen and thus a target for theft and if I get in an accident I don’t want to be hit in the head by a circular saw, floor jack or the like.
Oddly enough I refer to my little Escape as a wagon. And people that know me know that they are to never refer to my wagon as a “truck”.
I’m not one of those that buys a car to make a fashion statement. I bought my Escape because it best suited my needs, and seeing how it’s not a BOF, it’s not a “real” truck.
Maybe one of these days I’ll have to work on a COAL series…
The other thing to consider was the first hatchbacks we saw in great numbers with the subcompacts of the 70’s and 80’s which were the definition of penalty boxes. You did not drive one of those unless you had to, so in the American mind hatchback=penalty box. Also many sedans today have fold down back seats so you can still carry something larger or longer, and since many of them are split backs you can still carry another passenger back there. The majority of the early hatchbacks were a single seat back.
Damn! I must not be a Murican having driven a ’78 Rabbit for 16 years and now the owner of a 2012 Impreza 5-dr. Subaru maintains the conceit that this is a “wagon”, but it’s really a hatch.
And the Toyota Matrix trumps them both in utility! I wonder if anybody will wax poetic over the Matrix in 25 years.
Agree. This one looks to even be an AWD matrix! Dog slow (especially b/c they’re automatic only), but very useful. The XRS model is a hoot too! (uses the 2ZZ-GE 1.8L that toyota sold to Lotus for the Elise & Exige).
They make far too many of the pedestrian XR models to probably qualify as much more than a “Corolla wagon” 25 years from now. But once all the Mazda3 hatches have rusted away, there might be some appeal in these
i thought renault 12 when i saw the picture.
Hatchbacks are the biggest group of survivors here so I guess they sold best too mind SAABs didnt sell well at all and are quite rare sightings in any form.
Good Renault 12 reference!
I’ve been looking for this Saab via CL or eBay w/ very very very luck. Maybe i should focus my CL search to WA/OR ?
That’s little luck!
That is a 99, not a 900…