More love for Saabs......
Discussion
My car history started with an Austin Metro 1.0L and has risen to include various products from the Fatherland. However this post is all about my relatively newfound love for Saabs as daily drivers.
It started with the need for a decent presentable diesel estate car to do a 120 mile daily motorway commute in March 2013 - I ended up with a reliable, but hardly fast 2003 Saab 9-5 2.2 TID Vector Estate that I trekked down to Plymouth to buy. The car attracted me for several reasons - FSH, a slightly unusual colour (Sea Blue), a factory fitted towbar (I'm not a "shed dragged BTW) & chain drive rather than a cambelt. With 105k on the clock & a new MOT, I paid £2350 for it & it was different/better value than the equivalent age/miles default Audis/Mercs/BMWs.
When I looked through the history of the car, its first owner was a Norfolk based Lord (whose name was v.similar to a Captain in BlackAdder!) & who'd had it looked after by the main dealers during his time.
It was a sound car, though after 2 months I was itching to improve the wheel finish so a trip to my friendly wheel refurbisher made it look like this whilst I was experiencing my first ever trip to LM13.....
The towbar on the car was only used twice, once for trekking down with a 4 wheel car trailer to buy a GTV V6 without letting on to MrsC (too much time surfing the forums and YouTube clips of sports exhausts on these caused this & unnecessary encouragement from supposed "mates") and to tow a little trailer to the local tip.
It was my daily driver for 15 months (& 35k miles), during which it averaged 45mpg & as much as 50 mpg on a couple of long motorway runs 2 up with little luggage on board. SWMBO laid claim to it & I took on running her Volvo D5 - she needed the versatility of an estate for hauling our 2 Terriers around & for chucking her horse "stuff" in, & with the exception of some suspension bushes & rear discs/pads (oh & a front bumper spoiler/fog lamp from an unsuccessful battle with a badger!) it didn't need anything other than changing the fluids.
Ultimately after 26 months & 45k miles my next Swedish steed came along as SWMBO got herself a job with a company car & proclaimed I needed a newer/more presentable car!!!! - I sold the 9-5 after a full days efforts cleaning/polishing & removing copious mud externally & horse/dog hairs internally for £1175 via PH classifieds (2.6p per mile depreciation for those interested in such things). The 9-5 never let me down & was sufficiently impressive that I bought a 2007 9-3 TID 150 Sportwagon with the newer front end nose.
The 9-3 is a FSH car bought in April 15 from a Saab specialist Nr Rugby with known Saab history (serviced by them for 2-3 yrs previously including belt/water pump/clutch) & it came to me with 115k on the clock (bought for £3.8k with new MOT on it & at the time the cheapest one within 100 miles of home). I've done 9k in 6 months so far & serviced it (with A/C regas), x4 tyres, new Bluetooth/MP3 radio, the usual wheel refurb as they were scabby (in smoked silver this time), tinted the windows from the B post back (dog friendly for sunny days), new carpet mats throughout & a full size spare wheel/tyre (I bagged 2 OEM refurb'd "round" rims locally on fleabay for £60!)
My plans were next to change out the number plate bulbs for LEDs, replace a recently cracked front fog lamp & get a set of winter wheels/tyres for the first time in my driving history to try & keep ahead of the reported winter Armaggedon being reported!
Fleabay came up good again with a set of 4 OEM rims (all straight & true again) for another £60 including tyres, & they too have just been treated to a full refurb in Satin Black before being wrapped with new winter tyres fitted earlier today. The rims were heavily corroded (see before/after below) & I'd have cursed their condition every time I washed the car if I hadn't sorted them out
Courtesy of even more PH surfing
I'm also looking at dechroming the front grills, possibly fitting some shorter springs to close the gap between the top of the tyre & the arch, & maybe fitting some wind-deflectors on the side windows (I know they maybe contentious on this forum) but I leave the windows slightly ajar when the cars parked up & my Terriers onboard & I'm bored of wet seats when it rains!) Apparently the deflectors are supposedly also "cool" with some of the younger motorists (well that's what one of my mates said, who doesn't have them 
)
If I'm sensible, I'll run the car hopefully to 180-200k miles which will see me get my £s worth from it & the money I save from not changing it frequently I can then put into a more PH worthy sports car (I'm glad SWMBO doesn't frequent the forum, nor understand the concept of "man maths"!) as the Alfa has led me towards all sorts of other potentially ruinous ideas......
The 9-3 now on its "winters" awaiting a decent clean whilst it's still quite warm/dry
It started with the need for a decent presentable diesel estate car to do a 120 mile daily motorway commute in March 2013 - I ended up with a reliable, but hardly fast 2003 Saab 9-5 2.2 TID Vector Estate that I trekked down to Plymouth to buy. The car attracted me for several reasons - FSH, a slightly unusual colour (Sea Blue), a factory fitted towbar (I'm not a "shed dragged BTW) & chain drive rather than a cambelt. With 105k on the clock & a new MOT, I paid £2350 for it & it was different/better value than the equivalent age/miles default Audis/Mercs/BMWs.
When I looked through the history of the car, its first owner was a Norfolk based Lord (whose name was v.similar to a Captain in BlackAdder!) & who'd had it looked after by the main dealers during his time.
It was a sound car, though after 2 months I was itching to improve the wheel finish so a trip to my friendly wheel refurbisher made it look like this whilst I was experiencing my first ever trip to LM13.....
The towbar on the car was only used twice, once for trekking down with a 4 wheel car trailer to buy a GTV V6 without letting on to MrsC (too much time surfing the forums and YouTube clips of sports exhausts on these caused this & unnecessary encouragement from supposed "mates") and to tow a little trailer to the local tip.
It was my daily driver for 15 months (& 35k miles), during which it averaged 45mpg & as much as 50 mpg on a couple of long motorway runs 2 up with little luggage on board. SWMBO laid claim to it & I took on running her Volvo D5 - she needed the versatility of an estate for hauling our 2 Terriers around & for chucking her horse "stuff" in, & with the exception of some suspension bushes & rear discs/pads (oh & a front bumper spoiler/fog lamp from an unsuccessful battle with a badger!) it didn't need anything other than changing the fluids.
Ultimately after 26 months & 45k miles my next Swedish steed came along as SWMBO got herself a job with a company car & proclaimed I needed a newer/more presentable car!!!! - I sold the 9-5 after a full days efforts cleaning/polishing & removing copious mud externally & horse/dog hairs internally for £1175 via PH classifieds (2.6p per mile depreciation for those interested in such things). The 9-5 never let me down & was sufficiently impressive that I bought a 2007 9-3 TID 150 Sportwagon with the newer front end nose.
The 9-3 is a FSH car bought in April 15 from a Saab specialist Nr Rugby with known Saab history (serviced by them for 2-3 yrs previously including belt/water pump/clutch) & it came to me with 115k on the clock (bought for £3.8k with new MOT on it & at the time the cheapest one within 100 miles of home). I've done 9k in 6 months so far & serviced it (with A/C regas), x4 tyres, new Bluetooth/MP3 radio, the usual wheel refurb as they were scabby (in smoked silver this time), tinted the windows from the B post back (dog friendly for sunny days), new carpet mats throughout & a full size spare wheel/tyre (I bagged 2 OEM refurb'd "round" rims locally on fleabay for £60!)
My plans were next to change out the number plate bulbs for LEDs, replace a recently cracked front fog lamp & get a set of winter wheels/tyres for the first time in my driving history to try & keep ahead of the reported winter Armaggedon being reported!
Fleabay came up good again with a set of 4 OEM rims (all straight & true again) for another £60 including tyres, & they too have just been treated to a full refurb in Satin Black before being wrapped with new winter tyres fitted earlier today. The rims were heavily corroded (see before/after below) & I'd have cursed their condition every time I washed the car if I hadn't sorted them out
Courtesy of even more PH surfing
I'm also looking at dechroming the front grills, possibly fitting some shorter springs to close the gap between the top of the tyre & the arch, & maybe fitting some wind-deflectors on the side windows (I know they maybe contentious on this forum) but I leave the windows slightly ajar when the cars parked up & my Terriers onboard & I'm bored of wet seats when it rains!) Apparently the deflectors are supposedly also "cool" with some of the younger motorists (well that's what one of my mates said, who doesn't have them )If I'm sensible, I'll run the car hopefully to 180-200k miles which will see me get my £s worth from it & the money I save from not changing it frequently I can then put into a more PH worthy sports car (I'm glad SWMBO doesn't frequent the forum, nor understand the concept of "man maths"!) as the Alfa has led me towards all sorts of other potentially ruinous ideas......
The 9-3 now on its "winters" awaiting a decent clean whilst it's still quite warm/dry
Edited by MrC986 on Monday 26th October 16:55
Paul S4 said:
Re the Alfa...are those 17 " Teledials by any chance ...?
My Alfa 156 would suit a set of those instead of the standard 16s, but I understand that the 17s are very rare !
Yes & there's a set on Bumtree when I looked earlier for about £160. They are though easily buckled I'm told (I had 2 like this when mine were refurb'd).My Alfa 156 would suit a set of those instead of the standard 16s, but I understand that the 17s are very rare !
griffin dai said:
Nice pair of SAAB's there, and pretty rare in that blue. Not feeling the Diesel engines though, that's the Devils urine!! You need the V6 
Sadly 25-35k miles a year makes my motoring in a petrol car expensive - I've also got my Alfa V6 to scratch the petrol itch, which it does v.easily with a very vocal sports exhaust for dry weekend trips 
John Boy 616 said:
If that was a 2.0t petol and aero it would be my perfect car currently.
Looks very smart
I'm surprised at how rare manual petrol aero estates seem to be....autos were obviously a popular company car which is why most on sale currently seem to be "2 pedal" versions! If you're after a saloon, then it's a different story for the older cars as it appears there's normally plenty of manuals around & they offer great VFM.Looks very smart
exgtt said:
Nice cars! How do you find the 2.2 vs the 1.9?
The engines are chalk & cheese although my comparison isn't ideal given its not in the same model of car....the 9-5 2.2 TID was nose heavy, noisy on cold & had a 5-speed box. The 9-3 1.9 TID is quieter, easier to drive, & if I'm inclined, could be remapped easily to 180bhp. I did look at a TTID at similar money when I bought my 9-3 but the condition of the car didn't give me confidence to take the chance just for the extra power (the difference seemed to be about £1k between similar condition 150 vs 180 TTID cars at the time). I would have bought a 1.9 9-5 estate if there were any around in my budget when I was looking, but they are rare cars.Edited to add....so far the 1.9 has been trouble free on the EGR issues & needing a decoke although the 2.2 seemed quite susceptible to it, especially when Mrs C used it for lots of short journeys
Edited by MrC986 on Wednesday 28th October 08:46
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