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Comment by jackconsidine | Hacker News Reader

TIL Saab was an aerospace company. My Dad had a '98 Saab. It had an "S" button on the shifter. It stood for "speed". When we were 7/8 years old we'd beg him to press it and it would speed up 10mph. I got my license in 2011, immediately took that car onto the highway and pressed the S button.

Nothing happened. I went home and read the manual. S stand for sport. It keeps the engine in a higher gear than normal for quicker response

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Yeah I remember we had a family friend and they had a Boost button in their Saab. I don't know if it literally said Boost but in my memory it does. We begged him to press it but he told us it was extremely dangerous and would cause flames to shoot out the back. So of course we begged him even more...

You could argue that the “Swedish Airplane Inc.” (Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget, SAAB) also does cars.

Where is the B from? (S)venska (A)eroplan (A)ktiebolaget and the B? from (b)olaget?

Aktie Bolaget (stock firm)

Well… they did cars. Saab hasn’t existed as a car brand since 2016. They split from Saab aerospace in 1989.

The centerpiece of their advertising campaign at some point was "born from jets" with fighter jets flying in the background.

Here's the best example of that I know of, which is a full lineup of all their vehicles, with prices.

https://youtu.be/7WZ-D_HT3y8

Saab made great cars and is part of core childhood for all swedes age 40+.

Same with other companies as well. The first time someone mentioned they drove a Skoda I was wondering how many MPG you get in a howitzer.

Aerospace and defence!

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