Woo! Straight through the MOT ... again!

pjgh

pjgh

Joined
Thursday September 26, 2013
Location
Halifax, Republic of Yorkshire
Dropped off at my mechanics for MOT and it passed ... again, without advisories or issues.

Third year running!

Just a service afterwards and back in my hands this evening ...

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Not at all bad for a 15 year old car :D
 
You might have done. I don't "do" Facebook, but we're a fairly well knit community and my car is known to be a shiny one.

Cheers! I like it.

About 5 years ago, it replaced a long standing, all consuming love affair with my dream car which had to go to pastures beyond. After seeing the Tony Scott advert for SAAB back in the mid-1980s, I was sold. In fact, that advert got him the gig for Top Gun! You know, hanger doors open, SAAB plane glides out, powers up the run way and launches over the top of a SAAB car?

I wanted one ever since seeing that and about 15 years ago, I got my dream car - a pure white 8V (miles classier than the 16V, faster and more powerful in practically all conditions other than over 120 MPH) Aero styled 900 with whaletail spoiler, black leather and finally fitted with my all time favourite SAAB wheels, the Super Inca. For many years I drove that car daily, long distance, short distance, fun driving, shows, all sorts ... absolutely loved it!

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... but that day came and it had to go.

In comes this lovely Red Dwarf, which I cleaned and polished up to the nines and it's a beast! Hirsch Performance tuned and styled, lowered, turbo, exhaust and a further 55 BHP on top of the standard 250 BHP. It's a monster :D
 
I've always liked Saabs, particularly the non-GM ones.

Someone I used to go to the gym with (an old boy) had a mint 99 Turbo which he'd owned from new. He sold it for a song but I was too young and skint to buy it. That was a real bargain.

Nice choices, Paul Your white one is drool-worthy.
 
Cheers, chaps!

Yes, that white one Paul ... quite an obsession.

VERY few old 900s around now. Funnily enough, I did see one just today: black ragtop, just like Mrs used to have. L reg, so most definitely one of the very last of the proper 900s. Convertibles continued into 1994 while GM tooled up for the NG900 as a ragtop. 1993 marks the end of the "Classic" 900 otherwise.

My mechanic has just bought a 9-5 Aero, a little newer than mine but not the Dame Edna. He's had one before and very much missed it when he sold it on. Prior to that, it was 900s ... old ones, my white one being one if their (the Garage) old ones.

Lovely cruisers, the 9-5s. The 3.0 diesel (same lump as the Isuzu Trooper) is a good one for distance. Good spec even on the sub-Aero. V6 not worthwhile, being a mere 200 BHP, but if you get one in a Griffin, you'll have a fine car. For me, the Aero was the spec I wanted. What did Clarkson say? Something like when you stamp on the loud pedal, it's the closest you'll get to standing on a land mine.

Good sized cars, too, certainly as big as 5 Series/A6, if weight/size is a concern for towing ... and there's three genuine seats in the back or a foot wide central arm rest so the kids don't squabble about who gets to use it.
 
Same for my red beast a couple of weeks ago- never to my knowledge failed an mot.

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It's a IS300 Sportcross, yes, that's right a 300. It came with a Supra GT 3L engine as standard. Very rare and very quick :icon_razz:

Oh, by the way love the Saab Paul! I nearly bought a 9-3 aero convertible a few years ago (a 2004 model) Bought an SLK320 (2001) instead. Huge mistake, a rusting electrical nightmare of a car....great engine though, but not a patch on the Lexus in reality.
 

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Nice car Paul, also congratulations for passing the mot straight away. I like Saab, much nicer than Volvo, however the latest ones looks nice but GM/Vauxhall underneath but still looks good.
Saabs will always be remembered as a car with their own character because they are finished before entering that rebadged Vauxhall stage.
I hate to see the cars with their special characters being taken over by bigger companies and just to make it profitable, loosing all the important characters. As we see in Alfa Romeo, Citroen etc..
Luckily Saabs will always be remembered as Saabs not a rebadged Vauxhall.
Also I just noticed that, your car is actually a Somerset car. Number plates finishing with YA YB YC YD are all registered in Somerset.
 
Yeah, they're built on the same "platform" (Epsilon) ... as in the floorpan of my 9-5 is the same as the Vectra, but that's where the similarities stop ... other than having four wheels, of course. Common parts between SAAB and Vauxhall are not at all common. Dash layout is pure SAAB, inherited from the 9000 (and 900 to some degree), seats are pure SAAB with the SAHRS system and design awarded headrests, shape is pure SAAB (again, inherited from the 9000) and the engine is pure SAAB, B235 developed from the B202 back in the Classic 900 days.

Here it is mid-winter parked up next to my mate's 9000 CD:

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... you can see the evolution.

The car was born and raised in Humberside, coming over to me in its twilight years. I've got the sales history from first owner. Perhaps a previous owner had a custom plate and this was given to it after that plate was removed? Dunno. Humberside, though ... through and through.
 
Just watched "For the Love of Cars", the SAAB 96 episode.
I genuinely didn't realise how well engineered these cars were.
What fantastic engineering and design went into them.
Amazed and a shame they are no longer...
 
World firsts in all sorts of things you take forgranted today ... heated seats, side impact bars, headlamp wipers, the list goes on, not to mention getting turbocharging to work with the use of an integral wastegate, thumbing their nose at BMW who just kept blowing cars up with their experiments.

These cars are so well engineered, there is a saying amongst mechanics that when you're working on a SAAB, if you're finding it difficult, YOU are doing it wrong.

Funny to think the company was formed by something like 30 airforce pilots, with roughly only half of them holding car driving licenses.

The museum in Trollhattan is absolutely fascinating, opening your eyes (even a massive SAAB fan) to all manner of minutiae and detail that is often overlooked.
 
Gawd, I don't know ... about 160,000 and maybe 8000-10000 a year. Seems about right given length of ownership.

Serviced annually (after the MOT) and used all weathers, snow particularly as SAABs are great snow cars. It's lowered (Hirsch Performance standard), so when the snow is more than about 4 inches, it turns into a snow plough :D Not so fun on those two winters where temperatures rarely rose about -5 and the slushy build-up between tyre tracks had turned to solid ice ... then it was an impromptu ice-breaker :( Still, front skirt and bumper spoiler lip are still there.

I've no plans to change the car so hoping to get it to 200,000 and beyond ...
 
Saab used to own Scania trucks as well, although I didn't drive a lot of scanias, they are really good and popular. I can't comment on the their fighter jets as I don't know much about them.
Their latest model with the funny headlights, reminds me the character with glasses in Thunderbirds are go.
 
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