Ah, Saab. We miss you. The 21st century hasn’t been kind to the brand, after it was killed/sold off by GM to Spyker only to be sold to a Swedish EV startup that never did anything with it. Back when Saab was still in GM’s hands, it managed to make one of its rarest vehicles, a crossover called 9-4X. And someone in Oregon has been trying to sell one for the last two years.
We’ve gone over the history of the 9-4X before. Just to briefly retouch on it: it was a crossover put into production at the last minute as a replacement for the GMT360 platform 9-7X SUV. It rode on a premium version of GM’s Theta platform shared with the second generation Cadillac SRX. Power came from either a GM-sourced 3.0-liter V6 with 265 horsepower or an Opel sourced 2.8-liter turbocharged V6 with 300 hp.
But the 9-4X came at a weird time in Saab’s history, and production only lasted nine months. Just 803 were ever made, 673 of which were production cars.
One of those 673 has been sitting for sale at a most unexpected place in Oregon: a Saab dealer. For 711 days, Gary Small Saab in Portland has been trying to get rid of its 9-4X. It’s asking $26,995 for an example with 89,112 miles on it.
If that price seems high to you — and it is— consider this: That price is actually $8,005 lower than what the dealer wanted originally. When the 9-4X was first listed for sale way back in December 2021, Gary Small Saab wanted $35,000, which is more than the original MSRP of a base 9-4X when it was new.
So why would such a rare vehicle be sitting for over two years with no takers? Its rarity could be a problem; it’s a crossover with fewer than 1,000 examples from a defunct automaker that hasn’t sold a car in the U.S. in ages, which means there probably aren’t many people looking to buy one. It also means that getting routine service or sourcing parts after a minor fender bender could be tough.
But if that’s something you could live with, head on up to Oregon and Gary Small Saab. Take your time, too. I’m sure it’ll still be for sale for the foreseeable future.