The Saab 92 is a 2-door coupé from Saab Automobile, built from 1949 to 1957, in a decade split by war, when civilian production stopped and restarted. Under the bonnet: 764 cc two-stroke I2. Sixten Sason drew it.
Where it came from
The Saab 92 was the first production car from Saab. The design was very aerodynamic for its time, with a drag coefficient (cx or cw) of 0.30. The entire body was stamped out of one piece of sheet metal and then cut to accommodate doors and windows. Full-scale production started December 12, 1949, based on the prototype Ursaab. All of them were of the Deluxe version. A standard version was advertised, but nobody was interested in buying it so no standard versions were produced. The engine was a transversely-mounted, water-cooled two-cylinder, two-stroke 764 cc displacement, 25 hp (19 kW) engine based on a DKW design, giving a top speed of 105 km/h (65 mph). The transmission had three gears, the first unsynchronised.
In order to overcome the problems of oil starvation during overrun (engine braking) for the two-stroke engine, a freewheel device was fitted. The suspension was by torsion bars. All early Saab 92s were painted in a dark green colour similar to British racing green. According to some sources, Saab had a surplus of green paint from wartime production of airplanes; "All the cars were painted bottle green, a colour that became something of a trade mark for Saab cars. The underlying reason was that the armed forces had bought large quantities of a green cellulose paint for camouflage painting. However, the paint did not suit the terrain and the entire consignment of paint was sold off. Saab bought it and that was why both the aircraft and cars ended up green." A total of 700 1950 models were made. In 1951, German VDO instruments replaced the originally-fitted American
Under the skin
Power comes from 764 cc two-stroke I2. It weighs 880 kg. It shifts through a 3-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2470 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Ursaab; its successor was the Saab 93; assembly was at Trollhättan (Trollhättan Assembly), Sweden. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Chevrolet Bel Air, the Porsche 356, the Citroën 2CV — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Saab Automobile catalogue sit the Saab 60 and the Saab 600.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Saab 92 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.