You always knew where you stood with Swedish cars. Volvos were sensible, staid, and dull. Saabs, on the other hand, were stylish, quirky and cool.

Volvos were what the Leadbetters drove in The Good Life, Saabs were what Erik Carlsson drove as he conquered all before him on the world rallying circuit.

Saab is simply one of the greatest car brands of all time.

And sadly it looks like it is a brand that is set to be consigned to the history books after the Swedish courts blocked a last-ditch plea from the firm for creditor protection. Unions may now force the firm into bankruptcy to enable their members to be paid.

It would be a black day indeed for devotees of this magical brand. For the thousands of Saab fans across the world, driving these eccentric, aircraft-inspired cars is the closest most of us would ever get to flying a plane.

Saab 92 – the firm’s first production car in 1949

The wraparound cockpit, the airline-style seats, those strange aviation-influenced features such as the “black panel” which shut out non-essential information at night, the ignition key on the transmission tunnel made Saab a brand like no other.

The 900S Coupe I bought in 1999, and the 93SE Convertible that replaced it in 2003, are without doubt the most dependable and the most rewarding cars I have ever owned. After 11 years of Saab ownership I had only one regret – that I hadn’t bought one earlier.

Svenska Aeroplan Aktiebolaget – Swedish Aeroplanes Ltd – made its first foray into the car market in 1949, and the world had never seen anything like it. With no experience of building cars before, the company had to draw on what it had learned from building planes, and the teardrop shape of the Saab 92 was unlike anything else on the road.

The same basic profile was retained until 1980, when its last incarnation, the 96, finally ceased production. Erik Carlsson’s 94 dominated the world rallying scene during the 1950s, but it was not until 1960 – when the company started exporting the 96 – that would-be motorsport heroes in the UK could get a taste of the action.

Yet while the quirky, bug-like 96 – and its sister estate model, the 95 – built up a loyal following among its devotees, it was the much more conventional 99 which transformed Saab from a small producer of idiosyncratic cars into the darling of the fashionable social-climbing set.

The 99 was the first all-new Saab in 19 years when launched in 1968, and with front-wheel driver, a wraparound windscreen and a sweeping “hockey-stick” waistline it certainly stood out from the crowd.

Along with the BMW 2002 and the Alfa Romeo Giulia, it could be said to have invented what is now known as the “compact executive” car. The 99 Turbo, with its white Inca alloy wheels and blistering acceleration, vied with the Audi Quattro as the iconic performance car of the 1980s.

The 99 of 1968 – the first new Saab in 19 years

To many people Saab will always mean the swish soft-top, and when the achingly beautiful 900 Convertible arrived in 1986, it instantly became the must-have car among the beautiful people of Kensington and Chelsea.

And while fashionable soft-top customers are notoriously fickle, they stuck with Saab – even as recently as 2005 the Saab 93 continued to hold the spot as Britain’s biggest selling executive soft top.

So what went wrong?

Part of the problem was scale. Saab sales were always confined to three main markets, Britain, the United States and its native Sweden. Against much larger rivals such as Mercedes, BMW and Audi, it was always going to struggle to keep its costs down.

To counter this, it borrowed more and more heavily from the General Motors parts bin, which marked a decline in build quality – plus a loss of the distinctive character which represented Saab’s unique selling point.

The last-generation Saab 93 saloon and estate was unremarkable to look at, having lost the swoopy curves of the earlier models, and the interior fell well short of what people had come to expect in an executive car.

The sad thing is that Saab appeared to have recognised the need to return to the individuality of old days with the new 95, which could never possibly be mistaken for anything else.

What happens next is anybody’s guess. Saab bosses have been given a September 29 deadline to mount an appeal against the court’s decision. The Chinese may step in, either with a rescue package or, more likely, with an MG Rover style lift and shift buy-out. Or the brand could disappear completely, and the tiny number of new 95s that have made it onto our roads could become prized collectors’ cars very quickly.

To a Saab lover that is unthinkable.

A world without the quirky, wind-cheating cars from the Scandinavian winter wonderland will be a poorer place.