My younger son and I took a road trip in the van last week, which took us out to Eastern Oregon, then north through Central Washington along the eastern side of the Cascades, across the Northern Cascades (Hwy 20), to the Puget Sound, Whidbey Island, Port Townsend, down the Eastern side of the Olympic Peninsula, and then back home via Olympia. The rivers were running strong, the wild grasses on the hills were as intensely green, the mountains were spectacular and the weather perfect.
And I even spotted some old cars, like this collection of Saabs, near Peshastin, WA. I pulled over and had a look. Just about every generation was to be seen, most not in very good shape. But they look happy here, in the old Saab rest home.
First stop was this fenced corral where there was a wide variety of Trollhatten’s finest.
What particularly intrigued me were two 99s, a model that has become essentially extinct on the streets.
Here’s one with the hood open, giving us a chance to look at its Triumph-based engine.
The 99 was quite a big deal when it arrived, the first new Saab since the original 92. The early version had engines actually built by Triumph, essentially half of a Stag V8. Starting in 1972, Saab built its own engines, a development of the Triumph design. This is one of the later ones.
The other on e is an EMS, which was the first overtly sporty 99, and a precursor to the legendary 99 Turbo. I’m not sure that the US version actually had more power than the regular 99, due to emission certification, but it did come with these fine alloys, a sportier suspension, this copper-metallic paint option, and a nicer interior.
That nicer interior is a bit less nice now, but once upon a time, this was a terrific place to sit and drive.
There wire also some newer GM-Saabs, and in the background is an old 96.
It’s a bit worse for wear, although not beyond possible redemption.
The hood was open just enough to get a peak at its raucous little Ford V4.
There was another 96 in the shed, and a couple of 900s outside.
And a Saab bus even.
Another 900.
A pretty messed-up 96 that was just a shell actually.
But the gem was this 95 wagon.
Very sweet. There used to be one in my neighborhood; I wrote it up here.
The column mounted shifter for the four speed had a reputation for being surprisingly direct and quick. Even the sports car Sonnet used that same column shifter.
This was an unexpected surprise, although not really, as rural folks with enough property often have a collection of old cars. but old Saabs? Well, this is Washington.
Surprising how well that Saab front end works on that bus.
Many years ago I met a Saab specialist who had a good collection of parts cars to keep his customer’s cars on the road as well as his own projects. On one of them an old 99 he did a sawzall-ectomy to the grill, bumper and firewall as well as removed the interior to make it into a house for the guard dog.
+1, either scale up the Saab, or scale down the bus a bit and it’s the perfect thing to get your kids to school in Washington State
Welcome back, I hope the rest of the trip was enjoyable
Such “collections” always intrigue – how and why do the cars gather like that? Has one family really used that many cars since the 1970s and never actually traded one in or away? Were they kept for spares, or for trading?
And the (daily?) driver seems to one of the older, less powerful models.
Fun find, fun to speculate………
Given the large number of wrecked ones, my guess is it’s a business where someone is buying them to repair and/or part out. I have an uncle who used to do something very similar years ago, except his specialty was early/mid 60’s to mid 70’s Pontiacs. And just like here, he somehow managed to end up with an old school bus in his collection too.
Here in Vermont, SAAB HEAVEN, large collections of Saabs used to be relatively common. If you own one, you are constantly on the lookout for another, and another . . .
Same with Peugeots and International trucks (who me? am I guilty of that?)
They are mostly gone by now.
I used to own the twin of that tan 95, same color, same year, same everything. That was a love/hate situation if there ever was one (and I believe the hate part is why you are motivated to hopefully try for the ‘next one’. I had two more (blue sedans) hidden away when I owned the tan one.
My parents had a tan 1967 95 from new when I was a kid. It took us all over the mid-Atlantic and New England. It was a good car for a camping family with small kids. Well, at least until it rained – if it got damp out it would often stall. I was 6 or so when it stranded us at a toll plaza on I95 in Connecticut the day before Thanksgiving. I also recall my dad turning out the lights in the garage and opening the hood, you could see little blue arcs here and there around the engine compartment. But it was a transmission failure that made it depart the family, to be replaced by a brand new 72 Vega kammback. (In a case of out of the frying pan, onto the griddle, of course it did have infamous oil use problem.)
I’ll take the silver 3-door to the right in picture #3, please. I don’t think it’s a turbo but it’ll do just fine with the 16v 2liter instead.
I just happened to have seen a 96 on the road this past weekend — passed by going the other way, so I wasn’t able to get photos.
I assume this is the sort of place where my former 1988 900 Turbo wound up. It had too many problems for me to deal with, and I sold (in about 1997) it to someone who worked at a Saab dealership who could get it fixed cheaply. But I assume the problems did not stop there. I loved my Saab, but reliable it wasn’t.
That EMS is quite a find — that’s one of those cars that I would turn around and follow if I ever were to see one again.
There is just something about Saabs that ends up being uniquely refreshing. The last modern 9-3 gets so much derision (rightfully so when new at that $), but they have a certain appeal. I scan for good deals for cabrios more often than one should. The original 99 is a gem; fun fact regarding these is that even though they had a very upright windscreen, CoD was still .37 (1968 no less!).
The windshield is curved, which acts much like a slant to help the air slip away. This also gave great visibility, like you can’t imagine from a modern car. The A-pillars were moved rearwards, offering a wider panorama of the road ahead.
Why can’t cars be more like this today? Well, supercars are, but curved windshields can’t be cheap to make.
SAAB Sonnett III went to floor shift. It wasn’t as good.
I test drove a new ‘99 EMS just before the Turbo was launched in the US, then drove a 99 Turbo bought by a co-worker a year or so later. Very appealing in many ways, but wasn’t crazy about the driving experience of either one. Which matched my experience a few years earlier when checking out a 96 2-stroke, and a decade later with a 900 I test drove for my Mom as a replacement for her 122S. So, I guess I’m not a Saab guy but I miss them in the market. Even the final GM cars had a unique presence.