Anybody own a Saab, or used to?

[FinanceDude]

Just curious, my neighbor just bought a clean 2002 9-5 Sport Wagon....looks sharp..........

 

[trirod]

My wife and I own 3 Saabs. We have a 1995 and 1998 9000 for daily driving and she has a 1992 900 convertible for summer fun.

I love Saabs. I don't think any other car has that combination of utility, performance and safety. Also, Saabs seem easier than most brands to get in manual transmission form, and neither of us can stand driving an auto.

I really hope they keep going under their new owners, but since my newest Saab is 12 years old, I guess I don't have to worry about it for a while.

And yes the 9-5 wagon is very sharp. That will likely be my next purchase.

 

[RunningBum]

I've owned 2.

In college I had a 1976 99 when I was in college and it was a piece of crap, but I did buy it used and fairly cheap. The odometer gear must've been chipped and didn't record miles correctly. The clutch went bad. The U-joint went very bad. The ceiling header material sagged badly. I loved the look and utility of it but it wasn't a good car.

Then I got a new '86 900. It seemed a bit heavy and clunky to me. The speedometer was 10mph off and was fixed under warranty. A connection to the fuel injection system come undone twice, once stranding me on the DC beltway 200 miles from home, but thankfully 2 miles from a Saab dealer. I recall taking it to the dealer a couple other times for other issues, and it was a pain since it was way across time and I really got to resent the car. We dumped it after a year and I never considered one again. I got fooled twice, shame on me, and I don't know what the saying is if you get fooled three times, but I wasn't going to find out.

I'm sure I just had a certain amount of bad luck and there's no way they'd have stayed in business for so many years if all of their cars were like that. But that's my story.

 

[JOHNNIE36]

My son had a 2005 Saab and he thought it was great. He has a tendency to really check things out before he buys and the one big asset he stressed was safety. It's well known as a very safe car. It also was a stick shift but required premium fuel. I couldn't see the added cost for the premium fuel. That would keep me from buying one.

 

[rescueme]

My former company (owned by many during the almost 30 years that I was there) was owned (upon my retirement) by a company that was based in Sweden.

I did have the privilege to work with many Swedes in my later years of employment, and I was well aware of the two major brands of vehicles (Volvo/Saab).

Actually, in my work, I had the opportunity to tour the Volvo plant (Gothenburg) more than once during my "on-site" work there.

What was interesting (working with the Volvo folks - which at the time was owned by Ford - US) were the number of people who owned a Saab car.

Their reasoning (upon my question)? For the price, and the "value delivered", they thought the Saab was a better value.

Not to say that Volvo was of no value. It seems that Ford (US) incorporating many of the manufacturing processes of Volvo (Sweden) has moved them into a current period of progress in sales.

Hey, who knew? Ford didn't progress by copying the Jap way of doing things, but rather the Swedes?....

 

[travelover]

My first car was a 1967 model 96, but that might not be of any help in this discussion.

 

[calmloki]

My first car was a 1967 model 96, but that might not be of any help in this discussion.

Major car envy here. What an outstanding machine! For those not familiar:
YouTube - My 1967 SAAB 96
Super-duper ice racing bizzaro-mobile.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

GM didn't do any favors for Saab after they purchased the company. At one point they were being built in Japan by GM. Up until about 2001 or 2002, they were decent cars, but I would not recommend anyone buy one built after that. Their innovation ceased and the engineering and manuacturing process was truly neglected for a long time, and now Saab is in sad shape.

 

[haha]

I was hitching up in Maine near Mt Katahdin, trying to get where I could catch a bus to Boston. A pioneer ER type who lived up there picked me up in a Saab 96. 2 cycle, smoking exhaust, whole thing. I thought it was so cool, at the time my ride was an old straight-8 Pontiac with sheet metal that I had screwed onto the floor so I didn’t see the street flying by underneath. I was afraid to take it out of the city.

I decided that if I ever got the opportunity, I'd buy a Saab. 4 or 5 years later I did get a red one. I wanted it mainly to go up in the mountains around LA during winter to x-country ski. I bought it from Louis L'Amour. My GF at the time was working in a Safeway in Pacific Palisades, and saw the car advertised on their bb. We called, went up to his house, met him, took a drive and bought it. I had no idea who he was, but he told us he wrote western novels.

It did go well in the snow, but overall I thought is was a pretty crappy car. I eventually replaced it with a Citroen DS, another pretty crappy car but indestructible and much cooler to drive around in. Meanwhile I bought a Volvo for when I actually had to get somewhere.

Ha

 

[calmloki]

... replaced it with a Citroen DS.....

Ha

Maaaan - didn't that have adjustable from the cab suspension? Like you could raise the ride height, put a block under the body, lower the ride height and change a tire? So many cool cars from back when - also semi-lusted after the 2CV (?) with manual crank wiper capability....

 

[haha]

Maaaan - didn't that have adjustable from the cab suspension? Like you could raise the ride height, put a block under the body, lower the ride height and change a tire? So many cool cars from back when - also semi-lusted after the 2CV (?) with manual crank wiper capability....

Tha's the one. Absolutely beautiful car, waay over engineered- the crankshaft and main bearings were huge. Hydraulic suspension, integrated with the brakes- and I think that was the source of many little bothers as they aged. They also had poor paint.

I still see some restored ones around here. They still look really modern and cool, unlike so many older cars.

Ha

 

[Westernskies]

I have always remembered a quote from many years ago in a Car and Driver magazine review:

"a Saab will never stab it's owner in the back"

 

[TromboneAl]

We liked driving our Saab 900 that we had in the 80's, but it was much too expensive to maintain. Little things would go wrong and would cost big bucks to fix. For example, $503 (in today's dollars) to fix the stuck cabin heat knob.

 

[grumpy]

My hard luck story on the '84 Saab I owned is too long and sad to tell in detail. I'll just report that I sold it the month after the one year warranty expired. It had been towed back to the dealer 11 times in the first year. I tried to get my $ back under Maryland's lemon law but the dealer fought me in court. My previous car had been a '67 Volvo that was great. When it came time to replace it they were priced out of my range so I figured another Swedish car, the Saab, would be a good bet. I definitely lost on that one.

 

[braumeister]

When I lived in Colorado back in the 70s, I remember that the police in Aspen drove Saabs. Based on the amount of snow they get around there, I always thought that was a pretty damn good recommendation.

 

[73ss454]

Heh, com'on FD, you were in the car biz. If you're asking if it's a good car, I know you know the answer.

 

[FinanceDude]

Heh, com'on FD, you were in the car biz. If you're asking if it's a good car, I know you know the answer.

Never dealt with Saabs, we never saw them. Seems like they depreciate fast but a lot of folks drive them forever.........kinda like Subarus are today........

 

[TooFrugal]

We had a Saab years go. It was always breaking down and the repairs were very expensive. I'd never get one again after that experience.

 

[TromboneAl]

P.S. Our Saab stabbed us in the back.

 

[Westernskies]

P.S. Our Saab stabbed us in the back.

Vi gjorde vårt bästa ...

 

[dt123]

I had an '82 900 Turbo back in the early '90's. I am a mechanical engineer and proficient auto mechanic and restorer, so I did all the work on it myself.

The Saab was interesting to work on, and at its age it needed a lot of attention. It was my daily driver car. It needed frequent repairs and I was doing some mild modifications and restorations as well, as sort of a project. The Saab dealership was just a mile from my w*rk location, and all the parts guys knew me by name. One time they gave me a free Saab cap and calendar. Things were getting a little out of hand at that point.

I had been more of a truck, Mercedes, and military vehicle restorer up to that point, and the 900 Turbo was thrilling to drive in comparison. Spooling up the Turbo yielded a blast of acceleration, and the thing was maneuverable as heck.

It all came to an end one day when I tried to drive it under the side of a city bus. I was not looking where I was going, or going where I was looking, if you get the drift. I am living testimony to the crashworthiness of Swedish cars. That was the end of my using hobby cars as daily drivers. In a moment, a lot of time and an impeccably running car was wasted. Since then I just drive newish, boring Toyotas daily and do my project driving on weekends.