bought a SAAB, knock on wood

[davestlouis]

My darling wife was looking for an interesting car, tried to find a VW New Beetle, got disgusted with the high asking prices, iffy reliability and crappy car lots. I stumbled on a 1996 SAAB 900s convertible, and took a look. Dark green, black fabric top, tan leather, 112xxx miles, 5 speed, normally aspirated 4 cylinder. This was the first model after GM took over, and while structurally there's a lot of Opel, it still has the traditional SAAB 4 cylinder engine, turned transverse, with traditional distributor and wires, soft leather, the seats and headrests are of the traditional SAAB shape, neat car. I didn't pay much, so even if it falls apart, I don't feel bad about it. I took it to a hose-it-down-yourself carwash, and it didn't leak, which beats the dickens out of the 87 BMW convertible that leaks from every crack and crevice. I suspect it'll be like any other European car, I'll chase all sorts of weird little issues, but nothing catastrophic. Wish me luck.

[alabbasi]

good luck

[PaulC]

A friend of mine bought a new 2001 9-3 convertible that I drove fairly often. I liked it for its year-round versatility in the Northeast. Biggest pain was that the trunklid would be accidentally unlocked with the keyfob remote. The trunklid was so heavy that it would never appear ajar, but a safety interlock would be activated that prevented movement of the top. PITA.

[davestlouis]

Thank you, I appreciate it. I must commend you on the threads pertaining to the work you have done on your W108 and W116 cars, although those moss-covered Triumphs were more than I could have dealt with.

[davestlouis]

Paul C, you snuck a message in there on me, my last post pertained to alabassi...by the way the trunk lid is a heavy SOB, not sure why.

[alabbasi]

Originally Posted by davestlouis

Thank you, I appreciate it. I must commend you on the threads pertaining to the work you have done on your W108 and W116 cars, although those moss-covered Triumphs were more than I could have dealt with.

Thanks, The moss covered triumph is gone and so are the moss covered Rovers (what the hell was a thinking?). Now my only British car is an MGB roadster which is fine by me.

When I first moved to the US, I owned a 92 900S Convertible. It was a great cruiser but very very slow. It felt like it was a bank vault.

I think the later GM models were not as solid but more conventional (transverse engine instead of backwards etc) as they were built on the GM European fwd platform (same as an opel vectra).Still they look nice enough and should go pretty fast with the turbos

I always wondered whether the E30 would have been a better convertible to own. . I'll be able to ask you in six months.

Join the saab network on http://saabnet.com. It's a very active enthusiast site.

[Matt L]

Turned transverse? Not backwards?

I'm not sure when they turned the engine to sit left-to-right, but the old backwards engines were great.

[davestlouis]

The last of the Classic 900's were 1993 convertibles as I recall, with the backwards engine...made clutch work a breeze, but timing chains could be a little problematic. I had a 1990 900S hatchback, non-turbo, and it was a strange item, even the way there really was no rocker panel was weird, the doors cut way under the car, so you stepped across a narrow, flat floor to get in. The seats really are well thought out for normal driving, not a whole lot of lateral support though.

If I had a better E30 for comparison I'd feel better about doing a head-to-head, but I bought my E30 for $400, have put maybe $600-700 additional into it, and while I drive it frequently, it still has some issues...it has 220xxx miles on a broken odometer, and it looks better than it is. Another $1000-1500 in suspension and exhaust work would make a much better driver out of it, and $3000 worth of upholstery and top work would make it a nice driver that was pretty too...that would be a lot of money to have tied up in an automatic 325ic with all those miles on it.