SO WHAT are we to make of Saab going? One less premium brand to take on the Germans (and, more recently and happily one should include, Jaguar).

I have to say I am deeply saddened. I always had a great affection for the brand. They had brought so many new things to the world. Swedish style for one. But here’s a list – sounds commonplace now, but not at the time: lightweight turbocharged engines; anti-lock brakes; powerful headlights that worked; exceptional real life safety; comfortable seats designed to support; spacious, solid, dependable, likeable, characterful cars (well, before they were rebodied Vauxhalls).

Much of this we take for granted now. But Saab was truly class leading in many of these areas. And it typified the brand. Cars made by Swedish engineers – a breed that liked competition and fast cars, but took responsibility for the safety and the environment as part of the brief.

I have many memories of Saab, which I’m going to rehearse in a rather cathartic sort of way I guess.

I’d always adored the 99 and 900 turbo. But when I first joined What Car? back in 1986 I was sent to America to join Saab for its long run at the Talladega race track. It was to prove that their new ‘type four’ executive hatchback was really up to the task. To say it was a big ask for a wet-behind-the-ears motoring journo was an understatement. I felt out of my depth, but the Saab guys never made it seem that way. I remember belting round the tri-oval with rally legend Erik Carlsson at a 148mph average who was saying keep it flat! (not easy with the car on the bump stops through the scary banking which curved over your head and all sense of direction lost).

And then there have been many of the great Saab mds and staff I’ve met and known – approachable all: Allan Smith, Bryan Hatter, Will Edwyn-Jones, and latterly Jonathan Nash, not forgetting marketing boss Geoff Acton and product planning supremo Gary Axon.

I was actually responsible for suggesting to Bryan Hatter that Saab should make a business special of its 9000 model that should feature air conditioning (a luxury then) and other business type niceties. To his credit Bryan went with my suggestion – while threatening all sorts of bodily harm if it went wrong – but it didn’t. I’ve enjoyed a dialogue with Bryan to this day.

Then there was some of the consultancy work I’ve done with the guys in Trollhattan, the town where they make Saabs. Lovely people, open and generous. It was really fascinating pulling out facts and figures from some of these brilliant engineers who thought nothing of the great work they were doing – but which the world needed to know.

Or the Saab canteen – a mesmerising place full of lovely Swedish grub and recycling facilities that were everyday to the Swedes but were years ahead of where the UK was – still is.

Nor should I forget my red model Saab 96 of 1963 Monte Carlo rally winning Erik Carlsson. Or his Signature in my Saab book. Or, indeed, his prodigious appetite for oysters.

I was rather hoping that Saab could have survived and added to this rich history of memomories. Not now, clearly. Memories they shall remain. But good ones. Memories of Saab. And not the GM version that latterly brought the brand to the brink. And, eventually, over the edge. And into oblivion.

A look back at the best bits