Some 12 years later, that model is only just about to be replaced.

"I think that the bureaucracy within General Motors was the main obstacle to getting the right products out onto the market as quickly as possible. We were put down on the priority list, frankly speaking," he explained.

That view is shared by 62-year-old Börje Rahm, who still works eight hours a day at the plant, five days a week.

"We had a lot of ideas about engines with lower fuel consumption but they got stopped," he said.

His colleague Paul Aakerlund, the local president of IF Metall, the Swedish metal workers union, told AFP that GM was more interested in having the latest technology for its German brand Opel.

Rahm, currently Saab's longest-serving employee after 47 years of service, says the automaker lost some of its identity when GM bought out the rest of it in 2000.

"In the beginning, you had the feeling of being part of a big Saab family, but once GM took over more and more that disappeared. There was a real community spirit when I first started working here," Rahm said.

A father of four, Rahm joined Saab in 1962 as an errand boy at the age of fifteen, before graduating to the assembly line and later the technical development department.

"A lot of things have been much better of course, GM did a lot to improve the factory and improve working conditions," he said.

Rahm is confident the company can be turned around and steered back into profitability.

"Of course," he says with a smile. "I am convinced Saab will live for another 50 years."

Saab employees say the US auto giant made mistakes, but many are more upset with the Swedish government's handling of the sale.

Stockholm has refused to follow Washington's lead in putting money directly into its auto industry as they fear it could end up in the pockets of GM and Ford, owners of Volvo Cars.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt turned the heat up further in late May when he said Saab was in a "difficult and vulnerable position."

"Why say something like that?" asked Bäckström, "It doesn't help anyone. Are they trying to lock down Swedish industry totally so we all end up serving coffee and cleaning houses?"