Saab Automobile AB is a currently inactive  manufacturer of automobiles that was founded in Sweden in 1945 when its parent company, SAAB AB (soon to be Saab AB), began a project to design a small automobile. The first production model, the Saab 92, was launched in 1949. In 1968 the parent company merged with Scania-Vabis, and ten years later the Saab 900 was launched, in time becoming Saab's best-selling model. In the mid-1980s the new Saab 9000 model also appeared.