Cathy Blinken, 51, a sourcing expert with
Citigroup
living in Rutherford, N.J., on her
Saab
collection, as told to A.J. Baime.
Growing up, my brother was older than me so I traveled the country alone with my parents in a 1969 Saab 96. I grew up in Colorado Springs, and from 5 years old on, I have memories of going to Los Angeles a couple times a year to visit my grandmother and my uncle. We went to Arizona, to Utah. Any weekend and holiday, I was in the back seat going somewhere wonderful—always in that 1969 Saab.
In that car, I learned how to road trip, how to read maps and the lyrics to all the Tony Orlando and Dawn songs. Then, my father would drive that same Saab 96 to work every day during the week. At the time, few people had even heard of Saab.
The Blinken family’s 2008 Saab 93 and 2001 Saab 93. The Blinkens own five Saabs.
I learned how to drive a manual transmission in that Saab 96—in a snowstorm, at night. When I went to college, I took it with me. Eventually, I wasn’t in a position to take care of it, so I gave it to my uncle in Los Angeles. But I never lost the memories.
The soul of the Saab, to me, is born from airplanes, as Saab is a Swedish company known for aircraft and military manufacturing. They’re quirky cars from Scandinavia, and I love the engineering. [Saab cars were built from the postwar years until 2014.]
Years later, when I had a family of my own, I was ready to buy our own cars and I knew how to find them. I got my family hooked on Saabs, and today we own five of them. For my own, I knew exactly what I wanted: A five-speed 2001 Saab 93 convertible, black with beige interior. We found the perfect car in South Carolina, and went down there to get it. My family bought it for me for my 40th birthday, in 2010.
After her kids were grown, Ms. Blinken knew exactly what she wanted for her dream ride: A 2001 Saab 93 convertible, black with beige interior.
David Blinken with the family’s 2008 Saab 93. A fly-fishing guide, he is known to carry his equipment in the back.
My husband, David, is a fly-fishing guide, so his car—a six-speed 2008 canary-yellow Saab 93 convertible—always has a fly rod in it. We have two sons in college that drive Saabs, and we have two other kids who borrow our Saab station wagon whenever they want. All of them took an interest in driving manual transmission cars, inspired by our Saabs. My convertible I drive from May to October, and the station wagon is otherwise my daily driver.
I put a license plate on my 2001 Saab playing off the old Budweiser “wasabi” commercial: “Wazsaab.” I recently acquired multiple forms of the license plate for the other cars: “Wozsaab,” “Wuzsaab,” etc. And we have another one that reads “Saab4vr.”
And what about the 1969 Saab 96 that I grew up with, that got all this started, and that I gave to my uncle when I was in college? He restored it perfectly. To this day, he still has it, and it still runs. Wazsaab!
The canary-yellow 2008 Saab in profile.
Ms. Blinken’s black 2001 Saab 93. ‘What I drive, how I drive, and what I listen to,’ she says, ‘was shaped by my childhood, in my parents’ 1969 Saab.’
Write to A.J. Baime at myride@wsj.com
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