chicagotribune.com's view

One of our myriad bosses professes to love his Saab, the head-over-heels, rather-drive-a-Saab-than-eat-or-breathe passion, a longing that possesses the chap to don a beret when he slips behind the wheel, which tells you 1) how Saab can rattle some folks’ gray matter, and 2) why we moved offices to the suburbs and put 30 miles between us and that boss.

But we digress.

Our passion for Saab, regular readers may recall, is somewhat less than that of the boss. Saab is different, to be sure. Novel, out of the ordinary, but when a car is delivered to test, Saab isn’t the one we want to hop in to cruise the rest of the day.

Then came the 1997 Saab 900 SE turbo sedan, typically bleak in styling appeal, but a newfound friend on snow-covered roads.

What a pleasant performer. Don’t get us wrong. This isn’t one of those slap-you-in-your-seat performance machines that gets the blood rushing to extremities it usually bypasses.

But when the roads got tough, the little front-wheel-drive Saab got tougher. The snow was deep yet we traveled out the drive, down the street, up the hill, through the intersection, along the ramp and on to work. Those around slipped. Saab clung.

Wouldn’t want to drive one every day (and there’s no chance on God’s earth that a beret will ever replace the company chapeau, a Cubs hat), but this car was a pleasure to drive.

It isn’t one of those zero- to 60-m.p.h. sports sedans in which you slap the gearshift lever down a notch or two to gather a head of steam coming out of the curve. Rather, it’s a hauler that offers a sense of security as it serves as an ally on the road.

As is typical of Saab, the daffy engineers continued putting the ignition switch in the floor between front-seat passengers. Should you want to do something really stupid, like remove the ignition key and take it with you when you depart the car, you must put the lever in reverse before the car’s brain allows youto extract the key.

You’d think once General Motors purchased the Swedish automaker sense would prevail. Hmm. GM? Sense? Surprising the switch wasn’t moved to the windshield. But we digress again.

The Saab 900 proved a nimble, agile, rather alive little performer. It’s a practical machine in which function is more important than fashion. You may not get from one point to the other faster than those around you, but you’ll get there when the others detour in search of an easier route.

We liked the road-gripping 16-inch tires, the effortless shifting 5-speed that’s even more user friendly than Honda’s, and the power sunroof that opens to allow sun and fresh air into the cabin, but not directly into the eyes and onto the head of the passengers.

A gripe, other than the ignition, is rear-seat legroom is a tad tight.

The Saab 900 SE turbo we tested starts at $30,995. Only added charge was $525 for freight.

At that level it competes with Catera, which is a more stylish, more luxurious, more comfortable long-distance cruiser that doesn’t require a beret.