Compared with the Range Rover it never managed to be as good on as off the road

Compared with the Range Rover, it never managed to be as good on as off the road. If it was capable off-road, on-road it rolled a bit on corners. Then there’s the only slightly exciting model in the shape of the ML500, which is quick but thirsty.How much? Motorhouse 2000 had a 55-registered ML350 automatic at £28,999, which was retailing for a hefty £34,150. Off the road, the traction control system was surprisingly effective at getting the M-Class out of muddy trouble. Build quality certainly got better in the last few years, when the vehicle was revamped, and that meant that the dashboard became easier to useand well laid out. Standard equipment included a super-efficient air-con system, alloy-wheels traction control, and a selectable four-wheel drive system.

And if you all you want is a high-rise people-carrier with a posh badge, then surely the old M-Class will do?

What’s good about it? Well, you can get plenty of people on board, up to seven, and lots of drivers respect the all-wheel drive 4-ETS system Mainly, though, it’s all about the badge It provided an upmarket alternative to the old Range Rover. Many enthusiasts dream of another Sonett – a sports coup?hat would revitalise the company, yet most know that it would, in light of recent dictates from Saab’s owner, end up being a General Motors marketing lash-up.. When is it going? Actually, it has gone, and you can buy the all-new M-Class right now. It is apparently nicer to drive, although the fixtures and fittings are not much more upmarket than the old M-Class.

A one-off soft-top was also created.The Sonetts also had a strong following in Britain and Europe. From 1966 through to 1970 the pert little Sonett II evolved with typical Saab product-development. In 1968 it gained the V4 engine from the Saab 96.But, by 1970 the car was looking odd, with scoops, engine bulges and stylistic fiddlings: only 4,000 were sold.So Saab commissioned a revised Sonett. This Sonett III was a long-nosed coup?ith overtones of Italian exotica – as penned by the Milanese designer Sergio Coggiola.

Saab did however get its own in-house artist Gunnar Sjogren to style much of the new Sonett’s plastic body-details.The spec included moulded seat-pans, and trim items from the Saab 96 and 99 ranges – including the alloy wheels from the 99EMS. The Triumph-style flip-top bonnet of the Sonett II had gone, and, despite the addition of the new Saab corporate grille and US-style bumpers, the Sonett had an elegant style and sold well – notably in the eastern seaboard states of the USA. The Sonett III survived until 1974, with the final cars mostly being sold in racing colours; many remain in use and for sale at cheap prices in California today. In the USA Sonetts scooped up many sports-car racing wins in the 1980s, with Jack Lawrence and his tuned V4 injection Sonett proving that the it might not have rallied, but it could race. Given that it had a plywood rear floor, the “MFI” tag seems apposite, but it became the Sonett II.Premiered at the 1966 Geneva motor show, the two-stroke-engined car had a steel chassis with conventional tubular reinforcements. Draped over the top was a delicate looking fibreglass shell with an early use of a large, wraparound, glazed rear window.

Saab decided to push a coup?nto production, yet the Catherina design was not chosen: instead the work of Bjorn Karlstrom with another Swedish aircraft company named Malmo Flygindustri was taken up by Saab’s management Karlstom’s car was called the MFI 13. By this time Sason had designed another pretty, fibreglass, Italianate coup? the Catherina – that showed the world a lift-out, stowable, targa-style roof for the first time. Saab management let the geniuses get on with it, without actually being officially involved. On seeing the Sonett, Saab whisked it off to become an official motor-show prototype of their new sports car: the ultra-light Sonett could do 130mph from 57bhp.Despite various plans and projections, and despite a great reception from press and public – including in America – Saab’s exquisite little car never made it to production life: At one stage Jensen were to build the bodies in the UK, but Saab faltered. Only 6 were made before the idea died.But, in 1966 the idea of a sporty Saab coup?ame to the fore again.