My mom just "loved" oddball marques and we lived in a Navy town, and the sailors always bought Eurocrap when they were stationed in Spain, Italy, whatever and then we (the taxpayers) paid to have it shipped home when they rotated back to the land of the giant PX...

So I learned to drive on at 12 on a 1966 Saab Model 96, 3 speed on the column, 3 cylinder in line 2 cycle 2 door sedan. The only "cool" thing was it was the "rallye" edition so the dash and the steering wheel were burl walnut, the gauge set was Smiths speedo and tach (yup a tachometer in a car that couldn't go 60 mph down hill!), no radio, a soft clutch and a radiator that was the size of a box of Saltines crackers (in FLORIDA no less-before Prestone 50/50!) plus it was Front Wheel Drive...

So I couldn't outrun any of my friends cars, hell their kid brothers could beat me to the 7-11 on their Banana bikes!, I had to carry a case of lawnmower oil in the trunk, the engine made that gawd awful "Ring a Ding Ding Ding" when you shifted...

At 15 I had a Jr. License and the only good things were the Saab got 35 mpg when gas was 28 cents a gallon so I could drive for a week on a 10 gallon tank, there was a HUGE storage bin under the back seat , so 2 friends could hide and save 1/2 the ticket price when we went crusin for chix at the Midway Drive In on Atlantic Blvd and the front seats folded down to make a bed with the back seat - so guess where I lost my youth...

Oh yeah, it rolled over very well, which I proved racing a guy in a 240Z on a dirt road in St. Johns county. The FWD made the front wheels claw the dirt and the ass end would sling out in the curves and I felt like Robert Mitchum in "Thunder Road"! until I hit a deep rut and she rolled over and over and over...me and my buddy Earl flipped her back on the wheels and noticed the roof wasn't even dented and none of the windows were busted...HMMMM...maybe Mom won't notice?

Anyway I learned how to fix the trans axles and couplings that weekend before Mom got back from the beach...

She went a bought a Puegot...then a Citroen DS19...then a frikkin Opel Manta...then a SUNBEAM...then a Vauxhall...and finally a ROVER with a Huuuge Ford Vee 8 under the hood (not the 351? maybe the 302?) ..

So I have NEVER owned a Saab since. The backward engine in the 900S plus the ****ty cooling system (rad against the firewall???) not to mention a tranny that grenaded every 25K miles...

I was hoping the Chinese or the Indians were gonna buy Saab so we could laugh as they made a GM car worse than GM ever could!