The Saab 9-3 was a compact executive car produced by the automaker Saab in Trollhättan, Sweden from 1998. The convertible version was manufactured in Austria by Magna Steyr until 2010, when it was moved to Trollhättan. The 9-3 shares its GM Epsilon platform with the Opel Vectra, and with the Cadillac BLS, which was made on the same assembly line up until 2009 in Sweden. The 9-3 is currently Saab's entry-level model; between 2005 and 2006 in North America, the Subaru Impreza-based Saab 9-2X was its entry-level model. The car was badged as 9 starting in the 1999 model year, when they... revised the naming strategy of their small car to match that of the larger 9 . Saab consistently advertises it as 9-3, pronounced as "nine three". The Saab 9-3 was launched in 1998 for the 1999 model year essentially as a rebadged 2nd Generation Saab 900 , and succeeded by a redesigned 9-3 for the 2003 model year. It is not to be confused with the Saab 93, pronounced "ninety three", which was a car produced by Saab from 1955 to 1960. The first generation 9-3, a substantially improved 'new-generation' Saab 900 was launched in 1998 for the 1999 model year.
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