We pass them every single day. When driving, the steering wheel puts them right in your face. We all know that we drive a SAAB, BMW, Volvo, etc… but do you actually know where these names and logos have come from? All these manufacturers have been around for decades, if not centuries, so over the next few weeks I want to take a closer look at where the spiffy badges on our cars actually came from, starting with SAAB.
The famous(ly not good) ad campaign GM started in 2003 brought to light the fact that SAAB started out building airplanes. The story of the first SAAB ever built being designed and put together by a group of aeronautical engineers without drivers licenses isn’t fiction.
Even if that is the case, only the name (and as hard as some people try to tell you, the night panel display) still remain from the prewar remnants of a company that has done a lot of changing. The name stands for Svenska Aeroplane Aktiebolaget (or Svenska Aeroplane AB, SAAB AB), or Swedish Airplane Corporation, which sort of makes writing out the history a little redundant. Regardless, there it is. So if you ever type out SAAB, don’t forget to put it in all caps. You’re not shouting; it’s an acronym.
For a while, the SAAB logo even had an airplane in it, which is a great tattoo idea if you’re into that sort of thing. The cars carried this badge through the SAAB 99, when the plane was dumped and succeeded by just a pure written ‘SAAB’ emblem. In the mid 80’s, well into production of the new 900, a logo to reflect the relationship with Scania-Vabis was made, featuring the historic Griffin from the Skane coat of arms. The heavy truck/bus company had been using the griffin since the beginning of the 20th century. The SAAB-Scania badge would live for a while, going on both SAAB cars and planes until the divisions became independent in 1995. Scania took the griffin for their new logo, and Scania was dropped all together after 1999 from all SAAB cars.
Most recently, the company has gone back to just using the SAAB word mark, and NEVS is continuing in the tradition by using it in a roundel. So now, hopefully when you look at the SAAB badging on your car, you can catch a whiff of the history and evolution the brand has moved through since its pre-war beginnings. Next time: BMW’s ‘propeller logo’ may not be as transparent as you may have originally thought.
