A very interesting historical automotive moment came to light the other day on Twitter, and it’s right up the alley of Abandoned History. It was a short post that described a branding venture your author had never heard of. Specific to the Austrian market, the brand was called Sauber. It marketed an amalgam of domestic Nineties vehicles familiar to us all from across the Big Three. Let us venture into the Austrian importation mindset circa 1993.
Research netted little information about the cars we’ll discuss here today. Wikipedia managed only a singular two-word mention, and other sites and blogs have seemingly not picked up this subject in the past. Further digging netted one brief Facebook post from 2020 with some various brochure photographs, and a couple very old images on Flickr. If you happen to possess a full brochure from Sauber and are willing to send us some images, please get in touch!
The Sauber name is a familiar one to F1 fans, as a Swiss racing team founded by Sauber AG in 1970. Based in Switzerland and the UK, the independent Sauber became BMW Sauber, then Alfa Romeo Racing/F1, and is Audi F1 today. Crucially, the Austrian importer who created the Sauber brand used the same name, but was unaffiliated. A naming coincidence?
The enterprising Sauber of Austria saw an opportunity to import a full lineup of vehicles cobbled together from enticing American offerings. Sauber offered a basic economy car, a slightly more expensive “luxurious” family vehicle, a minivan, and a sports coupe. The interesting thing is how none of them were of the same brand origin. Ford, Mercury, Saturn, and Dodge were each involved separately, in what must have been bulk purchase orders and rebadging at the Austrian port of entry.
Forming the base model was the Sauber Teenager, the economy choice. The oddly named hatchback was available in three- or five-door guise. Marketing highlighted how affordable the Teenager was, and how it had driver and passenger airbags as standard. It also claimed it was an appealing and practical vehicle, with a 1.3-liter engine suitable for all driving conditions.
The rest of the world knew the Teenager as the Ford Festiva, or Ford Aspire in the US. The second generation of the Mazda-developed and Kia-built hatchback maintained the same underpinnings as the first generation, but applied a more modern looking body to replace the blocky Eighties look of the first one. The Aspire was available from 1994 through 1997 in the US as Ford’s cheapest model, and was offered through 2000 in other markets.
All world examples were assembled in South Korea at a Kia factory, and it was sold locally as the Kia Avella. Select 1.3-liter examples were then shipped to Austria for Sauber Teenager duty. The smaller of the two engines available, the 1.3 managed 72 horsepower.
Sauber’s family car was offered as a sporty two-door coupe, a four-door sedan, or a five-door wagon. Known as the Messager, the car delivered on all fronts! The ads stated the new model was a contemporary luxury sedan that was safe, with dent-resistant bodywork and crumple zones at both ends. Power was provided by 84- or 118-horsepower engines.
Domestically it was certainly not considered a luxury car when it was sold as the Saturn S-Series. Usually colloquially referred to as SL regardless of body style, the S-Series used different naming for its three body styles. Its sedan format (SL) was the most commonly seen, sold in first-gen guise from 1990 to 1995. The coupe (SC) also arrived in 1990, and it carried through to 1996 in its first generation. The station wagon (SW) saw the shortest run, and was sold from 1993 to 1995 with its original looks.
Saturn S-Series cars that were transformed into the Messager were built in Spring Hill, Tennessee at the Spring Hill Manufacturing plant (presently it builds Cadillacs and Acuras). Three different inline-four engines of 1.9-liter displacement were offered in the S-Series, the most powerful of which featured DOHC. Four different transmissions were also available, all developed and built by Saturn and exclusive to its cars.
For its largest family vehicle, Sauber offered a minivan. With its aerodynamic shape and a stylish light bar, the van promised usefulness for business, leisure, and family duties. It had three rows of seats that were adjustable to allow versatile cargo hauling. Airbags were standard, as was ABS.
It was Ford’s Mercury division that donated its minivan for Sauber usage, and was the only instance that Sauber did not rename the vehicle it used. Perhaps that was so because the Villager branding was not just a sticker, but was pressed into the front bumper of all examples. Developed in a joint venture between Ford and Nissan, the Villager used a Nissan body design, a Nissan engine, and was built on a Ford platform by Ford employees at Ohio Assembly in Avon Lake, Ohio. Today the plant builds cutaway chassis of the F-350, 450, 550, 650, and 750.
The first generation Villager and its sibling the Nissan Quest were available between 1993 and 1996 domestically, though the model lived on in China as the Yunbao YB6480 from 1995 through 2001. Examples shipped to Austria for Sauber were powered by the 3.0-liter Nissan VG30 V6. The same engine was the Maxima and 300ZX, the VG30 was modified for its Villager and Quest usage to have a non-interference timing belt.
Finally, Sauber offered an exciting sports car at the top of its range. With 316 horsepower from its V6 engine and four-wheel steering, the new S1 Twin-Turbo was a technological marvel. Marketed as a luxury sports car experience, the S1 also had many standard safety features.
Dodge made its appearance at Sauber dealerships via the twin-turbo variant of the Stealth. Itself a rebadge of the Mitsubishi 3000GT, the Stealth saw a shorter run than its Mitsubishi sibling (MY 2000) and was sold from 1990 to 1996. Assembled in Japan at the Nagoya Plant, the facility was renamed later to Okazaki Plant, and today manufactures the Outlander and its variants. The twin-turbo Stealth’s V6 was the hottest version of the 6G72 3.0-liter V6 used in many Mitsubishi and Chrysler products like the Dodge Dynasty. A four-speed automatic was available in the 3000GT and Stealth from 1992 onward, and in 1993 the manual option swapped from a five-speed to a six-speed.
The Sauber brand experiment was launched in 1993 or 1994 given the presence of the Saturn wagon, but the exact date is unclear. The company was particularly keen on oddly racy marketing with the Villager. Including imagery of birth control pills and a pacifier, the ad said “The Pope bans contraception. Thank goodness Sauber has the 7-seater Villager family car…”
With little remaining of the company’s existence anywhere on the internet, it can be certain the attempt at marketing American vehicles in Austria as Sauber fell flat rather quickly. There is no evidence the company existed more than one model year, or two at the most. Today all we have are a few forlorn images, and a company that’s most definitely Abandoned History.
[Images: Sauber, GM, Ford, Chrysler]
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