‘Twas a time not all that long ago that 100,000 miles on a car was a big deal and many didn’t even get that far. That however ended in the mid to late 1970s at which time breaching 200k became a fairly big deal but achievable, especially in something like a Mercedes with a diesel engine or maybe a Volvo and nowadays that’s more or less expected and seen quite often. The 300,000 mark though is harder but still not overly difficult to find, the biggest hindrance to it perhaps not just mechanical woes but also the simple time and age factors. And anything over 400,000, that is an occasion surely worthy of note, especially in a vehicle not used for commercial use but as a simple daily conveyance. And in a Saab? Well, most people might be shocked, yet that is what we have here in the form of a 1986 Saab 900S 16valve in Rose Quartz. Let’s explore!
I came across this four door sedan version of Saab’s evergreen 900 series late last year while in Albuquerque, New Mexico (which is in the United States as their license plates will have you know). It certainly didn’t look like a 400k’er from a distance, nor did it do so from up close. In fact I had to make sure it wasn’t a Canadian import with a metric gauge, but nope, it’s the real deal.
It had only been there for a day or two and already some parts were being picked off it, showing the enduring appeal of this now 40-year-old (not so) virginal car and the line from which it stems. Good parts from a survivor are always in demand, but the grille with 400k worth of road wear might not be the first item on one’s mind… The headlights do a good impression of an almost Don Knotts befuddled look as if wondering how did it get here…
And I wondered the same myself. After all, what does it really take to pile 422,755 miles on a car? Sure, there are plenty of vehicles with more miles on them, such as a full size heavy duty diesel truck, but those seem to be on the go all the time just piling on miles. Or maybe a Toyota Tundra with a million miles in a decade or so, but usually it’s some courier type of deal where the engine never actually cools down for years on end and is mostly driving at 75mph in top gear back and forth across the country. No, this one averaged about 11,000 miles a year which is normally commute stuff for most people.
If it were me, I’d be having the turbo version, and as a 3-door hatch, after all I had my first taste of the sweet, sweet thrill of turbo power courtesy of a high school friend’s 1979 900 Turbo 5-door. What a thrill! And I’ve been back to the turbo well many times throughout my life, with no negative experiences in regard to them or their longevity. However I can readily admit that a more basic version of the same powerplant without the heat and stress of forced induction might go a little further. Also, the sedan version of the 900 in S trim (denoting the 16valve engine) might attract a slightly more mature and genteel driver than a rip-snortin’ turbo hatchback.
The Rose Quartz Metallic paint is also a hue (a medium graphite with a hint of purple/red) that while I don’t find unattractive would never have chosen for myself before I reached 40 years of age. So I’m going to take a rude guess that this was purchased and owned by a middle-aged person who appreciated quality and a few quirks, perhaps even a lady. Base price for the 900S sedan in 1986 was apparently $16,295 which equates to around $48,000 in today’s dollars which seems about right as far as what today’s version of this car might bring were such a thing possible. (Note the 8-valver was about 20% less costly and the turbo about 20% dearer.) Albuquerque is a college town (okay, city) and Santa Fe is under an hour away, so there were/are plenty of people about who might appreciate quality and a few quirks along with having the funds to acquire, care for, and keep a Swedish Stallion in their stable.
And in their own stable it surely stayed its entire life, as there is nothing that will kill a car faster than passing it down to kin, whether one or two generations removed, or even worse, selling it for peanuts after it reaches around the 200k mark. It will be subjected to neutral drops, curbstrikes, top speed runs (whether born of curiosity or perhaps a desire/need to escape the long arm of the law), and a significantly reduced maintenance and repair budget with an inverse relationship to the amount of food, drink, and perhaps smoke consumed (and spilled) inside. Only a single conscientious owner can wring this kind of lifespan out of any car as far as I am concerned and even then most will get bored (me, for instance) well before this sort of milestone is reached. Note that this car was donated to a charity who then auctioned it to the junkyard indicating that it in fact did run at the end of its tenure with its private owner who, if my guess above was correct, would be in their 80s at the end of their tenure with it.
Yes there are a couple of things undone here and some sort of nesting took place as well, but this and the preceding photo indicate an engine bay that doesn’t seem too difficult to work with, especially once the basics are understood. Saab’s 2-liter inline 4 traces its heritage to a Triumph engine, was installed in this engine bay backwards to convention, and in this 16valve form generated 125hp and 123lb-ft of torque. Today that seems inadequate but also recall that this car, solid as it is renowned for being, only weighs about 2800 pounds. You can be solid without weighing multiple tons, it just takes skill and out of the box thinking (or maybe even not out of the box, Volvo comes to mind of course as well). So perhaps just skill…
The trunk, though smaller than the storage unit dimensions of the hatchback, is still plenty roomy and deep, and here there is a full size 15″ spare shod with a relatively recent studded Hankook winter tire. While most would think Albuquerque is hot all year round, it is not, and does see snow in the winter given it is at 5312 feet of elevation (32 feet higher than Denver). Summers do get hot (but it’s a dry heat, uh-huh…) but on average it’s relatively mild. A set of winter tires on this front-wheel drive chassis will easily get anyone where they are going.
I knew that Saab had farmed out its production of the 900 Convertible to Valmet in Finland, but somehow suppressed the knowledge that many other Saabs including this particular one were also produced up there in Uusikaupunki instead of Trollhättan, Sweden. Valmet started as a joint venture with Saab all the way back in 1968 and has built cars for them all along while also building cars for Talbot, Simca, Lada, Opel, and more recently Porsche (Boxster) and Mercedes. Saab however divested themselves of ownership in 1992.
I really have no idea if this Saab spent all its life here in New Mexico but wouldn’t doubt it. Even after Saab’s automotive side folded back in late 2011, there was always a good base of specialists that knew the cars inside out, especially in areas with academia as well as the arts. We still have a Saab specialist where I live (another college town) and there seems to be no shortage of customers as the cars inevitably age and presumably also try to exceed the 400k mileage mark…
Finally making our way inside we see that tell-tale bastion of careful and conscientious ownership, the red interior. It almost never seems to fail, owners of cars with red interiors generally have visibly better maintained and taken care of cars. Here we even see a set of tire cable-chains, perhaps the owner lived up a hill and the studded tires alone weren’t enough, who knows. It looks like someone removed the radio before deciding they didn’t want it after all.
But look at this! If this doesn’t convince you of Saab’s material quality, then nothing will. Even Mercedes’ vaunted MB-Tex generally doesn’t hold up for 40 years and this many miles. And this is velour! Sure it’s a bit matted down and somewhat faded but there are no tears or rips and the cushion doesn’t even look collapsed.
You sit upright in a 900’s seats, like you’re getting down to business at Uncle Sven’s kitchen table. And with a good view out the front and sides you can make excellent time in a Saab, driving and interacting with a machine as an extension of yourself rather than half laying down on a metaphorical couch in front of a further metaphorical television just waiting for the next fast-food trough to appear a few offramps down the freeway as is the case with too many vehicles both today and in the past.
This was a 5-speed car, likely a reason it survived for so long, and the ignition switch is clearly visible here where the Swedish Gods intended it to be. (Volvo apparently missed that day of Sunday school). My high-school buddy’s ’79 900T had the same color and material interior and I’ll tell you it was exceedingly comfortable, safe, warm, and perhaps even womb-like in this color. I don’t know how I would have felt with the blue interior option…
The back seat isn’t forgotten about, it’s just as comfy back here, maybe even more so. Note also the big head restraints and the comfy arm rest. Only the lack of cupholders gives away the era of the car, but that’s why one has two thighs.
No, not a Robotaxi without a steering wheel, but likely someone needed a 400k mile one that was in better shape than their own, perhaps their Saab has 500,000 miles on it! The dash has everything on it that’s needed without having to look down to reach anything, and lookie there, the power mirrors have two separate toggle switches, one each on either side of where the wheel was. You can twiddle both little knobs at once, but please not while driving.
Someone needed the tachometer but thankfully left the speedometer so that we can marvel at the odometer number. But even without the tach, the speedo face seems to have indicators for shift points at around 32, 62, and 93mph. You’re having a good drive if you are holding out for that last shift until 93mph. The turbo models had a boost gauge grouped in with the temp and fuel gauges, but otherwise they look the same beyond a higher numbered speedo. Nice and clean layout and typography, the bottom is partially covered up only because whoever removed the tach took it all apart and didn’t put it back together, I roughly placed it back for photos.
There are no awards in the junkyard for highest mileage, best interior, most interesting history, or for guessing what put a car in here. But there is always time to celebrate an achievement; and for a car, being a faithful companion for an absurd number of miles must count for something deep down in that metal frame draped with plastic trim, comfortable upholstery, and a view over the hood. I guess that’s what I’m here for, to give some of these friends of ours a last fifteen minutes (or 1500 words) of recognition. So long, my Swedish friend and new aquaintance, and may parts of you live on for even longer yet. Skol!
My ’83 Turbo required a transmission rebuild every 70k miles and I babied that thing. I kept the car for 200k miles but the third transmission blew at that time and I sold it.
When I bought it a guy at work saw it and told me he had previously owned a late 70s EMS and said he loved it except the transmission blew up prematurely.
There were other flaws that annoyed me. The valve which controlled the flow of coolant to the heater would fail every 3rd year or so. The valve looked like something off a rocket engine and the cost was high and it was tucked up under the dash and an all day job to replace. It would leak after 3 years without fail. SAAB never changed the design.
I can confirm that with my two 9000s. Why couldn’t these Nordics build a reliable heater? My transmissions were manual, but they harbored two hidden flaws. The clutch slave cylinder was replaced on that same three-year cycle. Worse, inside the transmission was a little 50-cent plastic gear that spun the speedometer cable. It broke as I was driving home from a major exhaust system replacement. The only way to fix the speedo and restore cruise control was to dismantle the whole transmission, for a thousand meaty and beefy 1990’s bucks, so I sold my last SAAB as fast as I could.
I broke one of those nylon speedo gears on my FIAT 127 by driving too fast downhill!
Replacement involved removing spare wheel, unscrewing cable, fishing out broken gear and replacing, reattaching & repositioning spare wheel. Took about that long…
They really were lovely to work on. Weird that the 9000 wasn’t the same, really.
I suppose the SAAB’s layout does cause inherent difficulties and suppose that the company was simply too damned poor to fix some of those things it should have fixed. Maybe that was actually part of their undoing
Ooh, you rekindle memories of the brief and torrid love affair I had with a black 3 door Saab Turbo in 1985. That affair ended when I decided that I could not afford the only version I wanted, and I ended up with a similarly trimmed and equipped VW GTI. But I certainly remember the thrill of that turbo kicking in.
Poor Saab could never catch a break. Volvo had Irv Gordon, who got a million+ miles out of his car. It seems to me that the owner of this car could have become Saab’s version of Irv, if only he or she had shown just a little more dedication. Seriously though, I’ll bet the chain of events after the initial donation would break the owner’s heart. It would mine – to have a super high mile but cared-for car that becomes no longer cared-for, and with no alternatives because of its probably having a negative market value to almost everyone. A most excellent find and tour, sir!
I would have chosen the same color if I was buying a Saab in 1986, not only for being attractive and unique (not falling into any obvious hue like “red” or “brown”) but also because that’s the only one that was offered with a red velour interior IIRC, on either the 900 or 9000, and would only be available for another year or two before red disappeared from Saab interiors for the last time. I’ll never understand though why Saab stopped selling the 900 four-door hatchback in the U.S. after 1980 which was so much more practical than the sedan that replaced it, and more attractive too. The hatch, besides the huge door opening, had a zero-liftover luggage area and split-flat-folding rear seats, all missing from the sedans. You could still get a 900 two-door with a hatchback, but then you lost the utility of rear doors.
Saab’s radios from this era (as well as those from several other brands) required punching a four-digit code into it if the battery had been disconnected for a long time before it would work again, which may explain why it wasn’t taken.
“…that’s the only one that was offered with a red velour interior, if I recall correctly, on either the 900 or 9000, and would only be available for another year or two before red disappeared from Saab interiors.”
It might be a market-specific thing. But in the country where I live, this red velour upholstery in the 1986 model year could be combined with five other paint colors. Besides the rose quartz shown, it could be combined with white, silver, and all three (!) red paint colors available at the time.
When I first saw that console-mounted ignition switch that eventually became a famous Saab trademark/quirk, a GMC tilt-cab truck that I helped load up one time in the mid-1960’s immediately came to mind. The ignition switch was also located on a panel between the seats. I also saw this feature on similar International tilt-cabs in later years.
My favorite color combo, subtle and classy. 300-400k is not at all unusual, our ice-blue ’87 900 8 valve shows 260k, burns no oil, but the speedo has been broken for years so well more than that. My favorite SAAB expert in VT says any well maintained engine can go 300+, it’s always the manual trans that does them in. Oddly 1 fix is to retro-fit a 4 Spd, which was a stronger box, our ’73 99 never had an issue. Also there is/was a guy in RI who sells hardened gear sets that will stand up to racing, a permanent fix. Will never understand why they didn’t fix that chronic and rather significant weakness. Other than the usual niggling Euro electric problems (but better than our Volvos in that way) just very solid, safe and durable cars. No one could afford to build a body that strong now. It’s still quite solid after almost 40 yrs in the NE US, 25 of them with us.
Now we’re debating whether to transport our ’87 baby to CO, it won’t be cheap and it does need some non-major work, we did re-do the trans 10k ago, it’s good. We may consider giving it away to a true believer. Son #2 has his ’82 Turbo out there, a solid project under construction .
“Debating whether to transport our ’87 to CO, it won’t be cheap”
Sounds like a perfect Father/Son roadtrip opportunity for the upcoming three day weekend!
Too bad that Saab didn’t make it to Vermont before it met its unfortunate donation. Up here, that thing would easily make it through another 100K (with or without the rodent nest). Of course, the circumstances I an referencing would be if the car had somehow been transported here once it had its initial 300K or so in NM.
Which is exactly the circumstances of my 300K+ Volvo. It spent its first 250K in Albuquerque, and then was donated to charity (the National Rifle Association, if my records search is accurate). Fortunately, my car wound up at the auction on the right day to be caught by a caring eBay-er…who ended up selling it to me. Otherwise, it’d probably have met a fate much like this Saab. (the Saab’s interior is in better shape than my Volvo’s was, and some might say, is). My heart aches over “charity donation” cars as I think the vast majority of them wind up at the junkyard. Not that there’s anything wrong with junkyards or cars being disassembled for usable parts, but I’m pretty sure that many of these cars’ former owners believe that their held on to and cared for vehicles are headed off to be useful transportation for someone…and not to the crusher.
There are lots of Saab mechanics in Albuquerque. I used one – Independent Vehicle Service – that also works on older Volvos and Mercedes (and apparently has for many many years) for my pre-purchase inspection and wellness check before driving the Volvo to its new home 1/2 way across the country. Maybe it crossed paths with this Saab at some point over the years.
In which case a frozen tear is being shed for its Southwest cousin.
There are indeed many “donation” cars in the junkyard. I suppose the upside is that at least their parts can go toward keeping someone else’s car (or multiple cars) going for a while longer or from meeting the same fate, maybe it’s even a better than a 1 to 1 net swap.
It would probably upset me to see my donated car in the junkyard (or featured as a Junkyard Classic?) if I wasn’t aware of it heading there, but I can also see how very few people that are truly in need of a vehicle to rely on would be well served by a 250k Volvo or 422k Saab that chances are would be needing something or many things sooner rather than later. It’s like whenever there’s a big natural disaster, half the donations by well-meaning people are of stuff that is of zero use to someone just trying to clothe themselves and rebuild their home a tthat moment, often the stuff seems to be whatever crap didn’t sell at the most recent garage sale!
I don’t think it takes much to outbid a junkyard at the auction where these things are sold, while they usually aren’t public auctions most dealers won’t bid much for something with this much “life experience” and I think it mostly ends up being the opening bid that takes them. Our Jaguar wagon for instance I’m virtually certain was auctioned to the little roadside dealer I got it from for only a couple of hundred dollars, so the $2000 I offered him to take or leave it was a good return even if far less than his “asking” price. At the time we got it, it certainly didn’t look much (or at all) better than many cars I see in the junkyard. The subject Saab really did look good though, the body damage that is visible was most likely inflicted by the big Volvo lift trucks that move the cars around none too gently.
Höhö – I love this subtle kind of humor.
I browse CoPart, and bought a vehicle there a few years ago – they do seem to end up with a lot of the donated vehicles. I’d guess half of the donated vehicles are complete, but derelict vehicles of marginal value – restorable, usually, but often with no one interested in restoring them. Such vehicles are lucky to move under their own power again. The vehicle I bought had obvious (but fixable) body damage – but what put it on the salvage market was most likely a destroyed (and undisclosed) input shaft bearing. Surprisingly, it moved under its own power still (while making expensive noises). It’s a chance you take, but bad on CoPart – if it had been properly evaluated and listed, I’d have waited for the next one.
Like JPC above, I had a “brief and torrid love affair” with a Saab – in my case, a 1988 Turbo. In my case, that car bled me dry with little but expensive repairs, and I sold it (with lessons learned) with about 120,000 mi. Oh, and I sold it to a Saab salesman, who liked to work on cars, and could get the bigger stuff (like the transmission, which was on its way out) fixed cheaply.
I have loads of respect for someone who could keep one of these cars going for 400,000 miles. And this car’s condition is remarkable for its mileage.
Oh, and one detail I’d all but forgotten about was that wretched “Shift Up” dashboard light. I guess it’s quaint by today’s nanny standards, but goodness that was annoying.
As for these Rose Quartz Saabs, I recall the mom of a high school friend of mine had a 900 sedan identical to this one, but an automatic.
I also noticed that upshift indicator light in the photo, and appreciated that it actually had a picture of a gear shift on it! In most cars, they were usually just something dumb like a big old orange/red arrow.
Surprisingly to me, it doesn’t seem like anyone here on CC has done an article about those things (I call dibs if I’m right, but I fully expect to be wrong). I remember them for being the scourge that they were and had them on several cars in the 1980s through 1990s. I guess I just got so used to ignoring them that I didn’t realize that they’re mostly gone nowadays.
My ’19 VW Golf has an upshift (and downshift) indicator on the dash. If the car thinks you’re in the wrong gear, it will light up 4–>5 or 5–>6, or 6–>5 sometimes. In normal driving it just indicates the gear the car is currently in, as with many cars with automatic transmissions. I haven’t driving many recent manual-trans cars so don’t know if this type of indicator is commonplace.
Our 2015 Golf has the same indicator. It determines the gear by rpm and road speed … if you coast with the clutch in (or in neutral) it goes blank. I’ve never noticed a downshift reminder though.
My 2004 CTS-v had 1-4 skip shift, but a liberal application of force to the accelerator bypasses it. It only kicked in for me in parking lots.
Oddly enough, my Saab is the only car I remember driving that had one – probably because it annoyed me so much. I can’t even recall if my father’s early-1990s Saab 9000 had a shift up light.
I associate these as having originated with Volkswagens – as in Rabbits. And I’m sure my sister’s 1990 Golf had one, but it must not have left much of an impression on me.
I look forward to reading your History of Upshift Lights article. Happy researching!
I went car shopping with my then in-college daughter and she fell in love with a ’92 Saab turbo, unfortunately with the sales guy close by. So after paying too much, she drove it first from Vancouver (WA) to Chicago, then after graduation to D.C.
A couple of years later, she called me in tears with the news that the transmission was gone and repairs were too expensive. “Put a too-high price on it and advertise it as a West Coast car, ” I said. She did and it was snapped up by a local mechanic. She still talks about how she loved her first car.
It might be of interest to mention that Saabs were not only manufactured in Trollhättan and in Uusikaupunki, but also in Malmö and Arlöv.
The eleventh digit of the VIN indicates where a particular car rolled off the assembly line.
1 = Trollhättan line #1
2 = Trollhättan line #2
3 = Arlöv, Sweden
5 = Malmö, Sweden
6 = Uusikaupunki ( = Nystad), Finland – Saab 90 + 99
7 = Uusikaupunki ( = Nystad), Finland – Saab 900
Some people say, the Saabs made in Finland had the best assembly quality …
I never knew that. I just checked the VIN from my old 1988 900, and it was manufactured in Finland. Learned something new today!
SAAB’s velour was my favorite seat material ever. Not only was it durable and warm in winter, it created plenty of friction with your clothing. That kept me snug and in place during spirited cornering, without the confining side bolstering in other performance cars. If it were still an option, I’d pay more for it than leather!
The condition of that driver’s seat, door panel, and the pedals suggest much of that nearly 423k may have transpired on the highway, perhaps a long-distance daily commute or even longer-distance frequent business travel, which would go a long way (no pun intended) to explain how it reached that mileage.
Your comment about 100,000 miles once being a remarkable brought back a memory. When I was fairly young a friend of my father’s drove a Borgward Isabella. This would have been around 1960. They certainly were not common in Toronto, in fact it is the only one I remember seeing. He lived in Orillia and worked in downtown Toronto so he had an unusually long commute for the time, about 85 miles each way. My dad told me that he made it to 100,000 miles with only regular maintenance, no repairs. This was seen as a remarkable accomplishment.
In the early days, you could write in for a commemorative watch if your Isabella passed 100,000 Km! They were regarded as very robust. Perhaps its the Nordic name, or Bremen is too close to Göteborg & Trollhättan?
How times have changed. I understand it was that manufacturers had to guarantee emissions performance for 100,000 miles that made modern cars so much better than the old stuff that was generally knackered by 80,000.
Hmm, the rims look to be in excellent shape and are still on the car. Out my way the original rims are never seen with the car after it arrives they are removed. Where they end up I have no idea but I have never seen them.
Here in Houston we have *two* shops that still work on Saabs…one way in the northwest corner and the other central west. I needed some work done on my 9-3 and went to the central west location (biking distance for drop off and pick up), but alas they now only handle Volvos. But they did recommend a place a mike away which by its name (it has Racing in it) I would have never guessed they work on Saabs. Nor does their website broadcast that.
Anyway, I went to visit them, and their yard had 10-12 Saabs scattered about and well as other European fare. I gave them a chance and was beyond pleased with their reasonably priced repairs and recommendations. There were even a couple of “no longer available” parts that they’ve either developed work arounds or could 3-D print. I’m pretty impressed overall….
Seems a shame, high mileage but looks to be in very good nick overall .
I see the paint is still glossy and reflective .
I’ve been to that yard ad they had an interesting array of classics as well as the usual impounded / wrecked beaters .
-Nate
Saabs are interesting vehicles that never quite struck a nerve with me, but I knew a few people back when that were all about them. In my neck of the woods, they took a special commitment because parts and repair were hard to come by (and I doubt there’s a shop left in Billings that would even consider working on them now). They definitely had their strengths, and while I doubt this example eclipsed 400k on nothing but regular oil changes, I’m not surprised to see it.
I’m always interested to see vehicles with big mileage on them (250k is just getting started these days). You always wonder – when the reason for it hitting salvage isn’t obvious – what brought it there, and how much of an effort extracting more miles would have been. Maybe the engine or transmission locked up, but sometimes it’s grandpa’s pet that nobody cared to mess with after he passed. You know there are a few that could have gone another 100k+ with just a little effort – but not many shade-tree mechanics willing to even try these days.