My dad had a couple of SAABs that I fell in love with as a young adult. After working for a few years, my car died and I was excited to get my own SAAB. I switc

My dad had a couple of SAABs that I fell in love with as a young adult. After working for a few years, my car died and I was excited to get my own SAAB. I switched to BMW after my SAAB was written off by a distracted driver and SAAB was no longer in business. BMW has a lot of similar design objectives and delights, but it was still missing a couple of characteristics that made SAAB unique. Then I went to Volvo, who hired many of the SAAB engineers and brought over some of SAAB's character, such as the center console mounted ignition (which SAABs had as an homage to their fighter jet history). Volvo is doing a good job at their mission of safety and style, but they still haven't captured that same feeling that SAAB did (nor do I think they intend to). I feel like BMW is the closest experience I've had to a SAAB. I wish their quality was better, and/or they were priced similar to SAAB, but their engineers seem to want to delight their buyers in the same ways that SAAB did: thoughtful design, nice materials, and fun. FUN! Most people buy cars to get from point A to B -- it's a "tool". That's fine, but it's hard to find "tools" that are also fun; yet, it's magic when you do. That's SAAB.