The official Saab website has an interesting history lesson from the first car made in 1947 through to modern times. It was named the 92001 URSaab and unlike unbelievably looks similar to their modern day cars, certainly the shape is similar.
What this history lesson does not tell you is that Saab started as an Aircraft manufacturing company and in fact Saab stands for Swedish Aeroplane Limited which was started in 1937 according to wikipedia.
Although Saab still makes planes, it is focused around the military market rather than commercial, although it has made structures for Boeing and Airbus.
However ot is the motor production that SAAB is known for by the masses and is currently owned by Spyker after being bout off General Motors, where there were often crossovers between European Opal cars and Saab.