10 Common SAAB 9-5 Problems – eEuroparts Jul 06, 2015The first generation 9-5 was SAAB‘s flagship model when it was released in 1997 (as a ’98) in Europe, and 1998 (as a ’99) in the US was the successor to the SAAB 9000, which sold very well by Saab standards, and production continued through 2009 when they released a new model under GM’s supervision final worldwide production numbers of the gen1