Yet again at (Not-so) Honest Gary’s Used Car Emporium, Gary showed me this 1988 (guesstimate) Saab 900 Saloon. As usual, he tried to sell it but failed. But he thought (as usual) that somebody might like it. I liked it, but not enough to buy it, because it had no service history (sob). Sadly, both of us knew that there were many reasons to like this car. First, it was a 4-door sedan, which is usually harder to find than the 3 and 5 door counterparts.
Photo from spannerhead.com
Second, this car had a 5-speed stick and a relatively clean interior. “Who knows what it has been through” Gary said. I said “Yeah” in response.
Third, this car should have the lusty Saab B-series OHC Slant 4 without the unreliable turbo! Man, I really want this car now, but still not enough to buy it.
Shortly after sobbing about the Saab, two jobless yuppies came up to Gary and said “How much for the Scaab?” Gary whispered into my ear “Hey! Do you want to see me sucker some yuppies into a sale?” My response was “Yeah! When does it start?” Gary said “Now, and sit by the Oldsmobiles.” Watching the (not-so) hard sale was like watching an episode of Candid Camera. It was almost surreal.
When the Yuppies filled out all the forms, they gave Gary the down payment, and drove off in a cloud of blue smoke like it’s ancestors would. Happy trails, dumb customers. Happy trails to you.
Here are some other photos:
Another one:
I always thought the 900 had the ultimate hatchback, almost large enough to go camping in. Always loved that functional dash.
SAAB’s problem may be that the rest of the industry widely adopted their turbos, FWD, & aerodynamics, eliminating their technical niche. Same goes for Citroën, except for their oleopneumatic suspension.
Saab still had one thing the rest of the industry didn’t (excluding Volvo), all-around Sweedish quirkiness (best served with Julmust and Lutefisk).
Edward,
Was the car in question a 900 S? If it was it should have had a sunroof, power windows and alloy wheels, which the base 8-valve 900 did not.
I don’t think so, but a 900S would be nice. This does seem to have alloy wheels like a 900S but doesn’t have the sunroof.
P.S. I couldn’t find any good history on the Saab B and H engines over the Internet. I also couldn’t find any good photos of any base 900 motors (valve covers didn’t quite look right). Also, counting all the above factors in, I called it an OHC motor, not an SOHC or DOHC motor.
You could go camping in it actually: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toppola
I’ve always liked toppolas but haven’t ever found a toppola, let alone a Saab 900 or Saab 9-3 with one
I love the sunroofs on these, whoever designed those should have showed the rest of the industry how to build a sunroof or at least they should have copied it. You can find a 900 that has been setting for years and reach up and still open and close the thing!
I had a brief test-drive fling with a 900 Turbo in 1985. I fell under the car’s spell for a few days, but ultimately decided that a $12K GTI was a much more prudent move than a $16K 900 Turbo. Who knows if I made the right choice. Although I told myself that I would keep my first new car forever, I ended up keeping it for only two years before reverting to type with a 20 year old Mopar C body. This is my only Saab story (someone had to say it).
I had a 900S two door hatch for a few months, in between my 9000S and my 9000cs. It was okay, but without a Toppola, I wouldn’t want to camp in it. The noise plus (in my example) no working A/C and lack of back doors got me back into a 9000 pretty quickly.
Of course the convertible was a different story. If I had a dry place to put one for the winter, I’d have another in a heartbeat. I’ve had two, both times sold to people who simple needed wheels more than I needed an extra car.
Just counted. I bought my seventh Saab on Friday. Eeek!
Can’t imagine why one would buy a Saab sedan instead of the hatchback. Does anyone remember how the pricing worked? Were the hatches more expensive?
@David42, some people will just not buy hatchbacks. For example, somebody I know just hates hatchbacks & wagons & could never be coaxed into buying one, ever.
Sure, I’ve run into those folks, too. But in my experience, they’re not Saab buyers, either!
Strangely, this person who hates all hatchbacks & wagons happens to have a partial affinity to Saabs (I blame his Sweedish descent), but hasn’t ever owned due to the fact that this person is mainly a Chevy Fanboi because he worked in Chevy in the Hole for 30+ years.
He’s the perfect candidate for the Trollblazer!
(Too much wagon?)
He might actually like a Trollblazer (a la Atlas I6 & luxobarge options, please).
IIRC the 5-door 900 wasn’t available in the US from ’81 to the end of the “classic” 900, so it was 3-door hatch or 4-door sedan – Passenger convenience or cargo flexibility, pick one but you can’t have both.
I worked at a Saab dealership during the summer of 1989. We didn’t stock or order a single hatchback during that period. 900s were either very basic white four door sedans or turbo convertibles. The 9000s were all CD sedans with automatics. They were having serious quality issues at the time, but supposedly they were less problematic than they’d been in the ’70s. The 900 sedans were $17,515. That was about $520 more than a kombi coupe, according to Auto Trader.
Was a Combi Coupe 900 T16 or a 9000 Turbo with a 5-speed stick ever sold there?
Not during the three months I was there. 9000 CD automatics and white 900 sedans with hubcaps were the only non-convertibles. I’ve been trying to remember if the convertibles ever had manual transmissions, but I can’t. We were told to take convertibles to the local university campus and hand out brochures and cards. I didn’t do it, for many reasons. It seemed to me that June wasn’t a good time to expect mobs of over-privileged undergrads to be wandering around campus looking for something to ask daddy for. My social life even in high school was heavily dependent on my ability to pass myself off as a student at the university, and I didn’t want to be associated with the other car salesmen. Finally, I’d been warned by an experienced salesman and a friend in our shop not to joyride in any of the Saabs. They always had a built in major flaw or two that would need to be repaired before delivery if they were driven. Sure enough, a couple of cheeseball young salesmen took the flashiest turbo convertible to UVA and it came back on a hook. Tracing the wiring short that killed it involved removing most of the dashboard and interior panels, and they became personae-non-Grata with everyone except the manager that told them to do it.
I’ve always liked the 900 series of this generation. My friend’s father had 9000 Turbo but I couldn’t get into that car. Just too big and refrigerator like.