AP Spotlight: 1970-74 SAAB Sonett III

Car of the Week is back, and in honor of the recently inked deal between GM, Saab, and Dutch sports car maker Spyker Cars NV, Automotive Playbook's Car of the Week is a sports car from SAAB's past - the 1970-74 Sonett III.

As the name suggests, the Sonett III was the third iteration of SAAB sports car. The Sonett I, or 94, was sold from 1955-57 and equipped with a 748cc two-stroke inline-3 producing all of 58bhp in a car that weighed around 1200lbs, good for a 99mph top speed. The car got its name from the Swedish expression sa natt, meaning "so neat". But only six examples were built before SAAB canceled the project in early 1957.

The Sonett name lay dormant for another 9 years, until the Sonett II, or 97, was produced beginning in 1966. Intended as a racing vehicle, the little Sonett II competed well in contemporary Sports Car Club of America races, with its light weight and spunky two-stroke 841cc "Shrike" Inline-3 engine driving the front wheels. Criticisms by the motoring press - during the burgeoning muscle car era - had mostly to do with the car's lack of grunt, as well as its "homemade styling". After only two years, SAAB corrected the former problem by licensing Ford's German Taunus V4 engine. And, as befits legendary Swedish sensibility, changed the name from Sonett II to Sonett V4. But they made the styling problems worse because they had to redesign the hood with a rather unsightly bulge down the center to accommodate the much larger 1.5L mill.

Seeing that they'd made the already quaint-looking SAAB's styling worse, the company contacted Italian designer Sergio Coggiola, who helped pen a whole new body to ride atop the Sonett chassis. Debuting in 1970, SAAB called the car the Sonett III, and threw in an enlarged 1.7L V4 engine to give the car its highest-ever top speed of 103mph.

With its flat, low nose, slot-type grille opening behind which auxiliary lights peeked, and manually retractable headlights, the Sonett III took a fantastic little sports car and made it an endearing head-turner. And since the great majority of these cars were earmarked for the American market, where SAAB's traditional column-shifted manual transmission was seen as an anachronism, SAAB improved the Sonett III by offering it in America with the shift lever on the floor between the seats.

So modified, and armed with a low price tag, SAAB pitched the Sonett III as an avant garde and thoroughly sensible sports car. Its exotic styling met with low weight to give inspiring performance. Yet its front-wheel-drive and small 1.7L V4 made it excellent in snow, safe, and economical to drive and service. However, in an era of 440 Six-Pack Road Runners, GTOs, Torino Cobras, and Javelin AMXs, most Americans just didn't see the little Swede's appeal through all the hype and tire smoke the American muscle cars were generating. So sales never did take off like SAAB had hoped.

By the 1973 model year, the muscle car era was rapidly ending. With soaring car insurance rates and hugely restrictive government emissions and safety regulations taking effect. And the Sonett III was affected by them, as well. In order to comply to the new Federally-mandated bumper rules that stated that all vehicles had to wear bumpers that could withstand a 5mph impact with no damage, SAAB tacked unsightly rubber-covered beams to the front and rear of the Sonett. These gave the car an ungainly look.

They also added plenty of weight to the vehicle, which penalized fuel economy, the power-to-weight ratio, weight distribution, and therefore handling. What the government required SAAB add to the sports coupe in bumpers, they demanded SAAB take away in horsepower in order to get the engine to comply with ever-tightening emissions regulations. And sales subsequently fell through the floor and into the basement.

In October 1973, the OPEC Oil Embargo hit, which sent fuel prices skyrocketing overnight. Sitting in long lines at fuel stations became the norm for Americans until the embargo was lifted in March 1974. This had a catastrophic effect on the sales of any vehicle with sporting pretensions. But that wasn't all. Additional regulations that required vehicles to run on unleaded fuel and carry catalytic converters, was about to take effect for the '75 model year. At that point, SAAB decided that their stylish, sensible little sports car had been compromised enough. And with such poor sales, they couldn't justify the financial investment to make the Sonett III comply. So they threw in the towel after the 1974 model year ended and ended production.

Finding a SAAB Sonett III today is, of course, a challenge. While their engines are simple, their bodies are fiberglass, and their chassis were treated with plenty of rustproofing, they are far rarer today than when they were new. I have only ever seen two in person. But if you have a hankering for Swedish practicality, sexy Italian styling, and the desire to never pull up next to someone driving something identical, the 1970-74 Sonett III might be worth the arduous search.