Affected by the world economic crisis, General Motors had to sell Saab in 2010, but before that, it tried to boost the sales of the Swedish brand, and one of the vehicles that received an update was the 9-3 Cabrio.

While it was still under GM's control, Saab introduced a new generation of the 9-3 in 2002, while in the following year, it unveiled the convertible version.

Saab introduced the second generation of the 9-3 lineup in 2002 based on GM's Epsilon platform shared with other European products, and in 2003 it unveiled the open-top version for it.

Saab used its former 900 Convertible underpinnings when it made the 9-3 Convertible since GM owned them for barely a year before the car was unveiled.

The Saab 9-3 range was introduced in 1998 as a successor of the 900 series. It was offered as a hatchback, a coupe, and a convertible. It was developed and produced under GM management.