1976 Saab 99 in yellow

Apologies as usual from me for not remembering where I found these photos on line for this post.  That is the result of a late night google image search while being too tired to remember to make notes and cite the sources of the images. 

The Saab 99 pictured above is similar though not identical to one of 2 Saabs I looked at as used cars for my first car purchase back in the 1980′s.

If I recall correctly I looked at 1972 and 1974 Saab 99′s, one yellow, and one orange.

Saab 99 combi in orange

Both of those 1st Saabs I looked at buying were the 4 door variants rather than the combi shown above.

One of the other Saabs I looked into buying and test drove, though too new and expensive for my first car budget was a newer Saab 900 GLE or Turbo, though I recall it being a 5 door and cardinal red, I can’t recall with certainty whether it was a turbo or non-turbo, and which Saab wheels it sported.

Whatever the case, these images are representative of the cars I looked at for my first purchase.

I recall not wanting to bring the later model Saab I test drove back to the used car dealer that was crazy and kind enough to trust a teenager like me with it.  It was a car I fell in love with and wanted to own and drive quite badly.  Alas, these were not to be my first car.

Finally I come to my dream and the post title.  Last week I awoke from a dream that the “present day me” was somehow contacted by a (fictional) person, not someone I actually am acquainted with in real life.

This person, I think his name was Dave, as if the name of an imagined person in a dream matters, reminded me that I’d purchased one of those first Saabs I looked at, the yellow one, to be specific, and that I’d paid in advance for a total restoration of the car, and now, nearly 30 years later, the car was ready for pickup!

I am not posting on this blog as often as in the past, but I am still a die hard Saab fan, and wistfully think that we may never have cars I adore as much as the 7 Saabs we’ve owned, 4 of which are still here.

But this dream had me believing that there were 8 Saabs we’ve owned, one of them a classic 99 in a classic 1970′s color.  I could not believe how excited I was in this dream and when I woke up, thinking that we had another classic Saab to love.

A little bit of reality mixed into the dream was of my idiot brother, a mechanic, meeting with me and the person who restored this dreamy Saab of mine, telling me and the Saab mechanic that Saabs are notoriously unreliable.  My well intentioned brother hammered into my head that every car I bought was bad, save for those I purchased later in life that were more in line with his liking, such as American made cars and trucks, which by the way, in reality, were far less reliable than the Saabs we’ve owned and quite dreadful vehicles.

The Saab mechanic and restorer in my dream laughed at my brother with me, not unlike the real life mechanic friend of mine back in the 1980′s who asked “who the hell worked on this car?”, later adding  “Don’t ever let him work on your car again!” (after my brother tuned up and royally screwed up one of my Volvo’s).

My brother’s tune up had my Volvo which WAS running fine before the “tune”, barely running, gasping and sputtering.  From that experience (my first tune up with my brother) I learned both how to and how NOT to tune a car, adjust valves, etc.

But my dream was just a dream, and seemed odd to me to be dreaming of old Saabs, though if you know me in real life, not so strange nor my first dream about Saabs.

I want for nothing more these days, practically speaking, to hear that the people of Trollhattan have jobs again and are designing building something.  Heck if it isn’t turbo charged cars, or electric cars, let it be something, anything.  I agree with Tim from SaabsUnited.com that whatever they build it would be world class.

So this is what a Saab fan like me dreams of; discovering that we own yet another Saab that allows us to keep on driving these amazing machines for years to come.

As much as I admire the new features of more modern cars and still to this minute dream of buying one of the remaining new Saab 9-5′s in our area, with the high tech features and most modern safety, I still lust after a simple older car like the Saab 99.

I’m thinking I will always be a Saab guy.

Best wishes as always to the people of Trollhattan for their decades of work for the brand being rewarded with new and stable jobs… and SOON!!!!

Swedish Car Day 13 2012

A reminder to New England Saab and Volvo owners that the 13th Annual Swedish Car Day is to be held Sunday, August 26th 2012 at the Lars Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts.

 

Another site I enjoy seeing around the house, is the red twins waiting to be driven.

My wife agreed when we drove them both recently, following one another to and from oil changes, that it would be fun to drive them like the Saab Performance Team since they are matching red Saabs.

OK we don’t do stunts in our Saabs, at least not of the type the old SPT managed, but you might catch us doing a little serpentine routine with our Saabs when no one else is around.  

I pass by the 99 or see it often enough in our garage that I might take it for granted or not notice the car.

However, I DO notice the 99 (and Viggen) every time I pass and think… I wish I were out here to drive one of them.

If you look closely you can see the Viggen behind the 99 (next to it).  If anyone other than me cares, I’ll be shocked!

1978 Saab 99 Turbo

Pictured above is our 1978 Saab 99 Turbo.  For me, this car is a bit of a time machine.  One of my early cars was a ’78 99 EMS.  I loved that EMS and it is surrounded by wonderful memories of being college age and having a far more care free life than we have as middle aged folks with jobs, a mortgage, etc.

Everything from the lines of the car to the sound of it turning over and starting, to its engine idle sound, exhaust sound and the unique smells inside this classic Saab bring me back to being a younger guy who LOVED driving his Saab.  The 99 EMS went everywhere from the woods of New England to the shores.  I reveled in being out on the roads, having fun even in the worst snow storms that left other vehicles crippled or unable to hold the road.

I’m mentioning this yet again because I’ve just finished reading another post I enjoyed on Saab vs. Scepticism.

For readers unfamiliar with our history of owning Saabs, I’ll mention that we’ve owned a 1978 99 EMS, a 1993 900 Turbo (classic style), a 1994 900 SE Turbo, a 2000 Viggen, nearly identical 2002 9-3 Turbos and the 1978 99 Turbo.  You can check out our Saabs, sans the 99 EMS on the flickr link on the right side of this blog.

On more than one occasion I had the pleasure of driving several of our Saabs in the course of a day, going from the 99 Turbo to 93 900 Turbo or to the Viggen.

I marveled at the similarities between the first 99 Turbo and the 93 900 Turbo as well as their differences.  The 99 is what I think of as pure machine.  A raw, man meets machine kind of driving experience.  The 99 is quite comfortable to ride in and drive, but when you can climb out of that 99 Turbo into the last of the “classic” 900 Turbos (the 1993) you see astonishing differences between the two cars, even though I thought of the ’93 900 Turbo as the last grandchild of the 99 Turbo.  The 1993 had plush but firm leather seats, a nice stereo system, power versus manual sunroof and windows, air conditioning, etc. and a much more refined feel while still retaining a 99 Turbo feel as well in terms of driving.  The 1993 had a more powerful engine and Turbo which made the old 99 seem slow, but I adore both cars.

1993 Saab 900 Turbo 3 Door

Flash forward yet again, or in our case, park one Saab and climb into another and I’m thinking of how much I enjoyed our 1994 900 SE Turbo.

It really didn’t look or feel as much like the 99 as the 1993 900 Turbo, yet it was still a Saab and every bit as fun to drive.

The 1994 made the 1993 seem slow, and less luxurious, with its even better sound system, climate control and advanced safety, the 1994 NG (next generation 900) was quite a leap forward from the one year older 1993.

1994 Saab 900 SE Turbo

Flash forward again, or rather, park the 1994 and climb into our 2000 Viggen.

Once again I marveled at the differences between all of these fine Saabs.  The Viggen is perhaps the most luxurious and sporty of our Saabs (I know there are even more delightful 9000 and 9-5 models out there), but I’m focusing on what WE own.

Our 2000 Viggen December 9, 2011 003

Once again, behind the wheel of the Viggen, I marveled anew at how refined the Viggen is.  Incredibly comfortable seats (for most people, though not for some of varying sizes and backside widths), an incredible sound system and all of the creature comforts 2000 offered (no satellite navigation, etc.), and an even more powerful engine and turbo.

For me the Viggen is like the 99 Turbo on steroids, and mind you, we kept our Viggen stock save for a genuine Saab exhaust upgrade (we have not replaced chips or reprogrammed anything to deliver more power than when the car left Sweden).

These are my rambling thoughts.  They are things I still appreciate about the Saabs we’ve previously owned or still own.

I am thinking of and writing about them simply because of the article linked above.

I share the sense of how impressive it can be to go from a classic Saab you own and love, to a modern Saab, and revel in the pleasure of owning one of these fine cars.  I too share the sadness these days of knowing, every time I climb into ANY of our Saabs, that these MAY be the last Saabs we ever own.

I do hope the people of Trollhattan have the chance to once again show the world how cars SHOULD be made.

OK, now I am itching to go start the Viggen and take a drive to nowhere in particular.

P.S. While I am promoting other Saab blogs I enjoy (or a blog by a former Saab employee), let me suggest you also check out Swadeology.

Steven Wade has a nice variety of articles including two recent posts I appreciated about the do’s and don’ts of social media for car companies.  Great stuff.  I only wish that Swade had been able to see Saab thrive along with his coworkers at Saab during their last run.

Unlike the chap in the Dos Equis beer commercials (are those only in the U.S. and Canada?), I am the LEAST interesting man in the world.

My excitement originates in a drive in a Saab, and today in particular, in our oldest, the 1978 99 Turbo.

Due to scheduled maintenance on our “Red” 2002 9-3 SE (oil change and removal of snow tires, yes in July, I am way behind on that!), I needed a Saab to drive today and chose the 99 Turbo.  “Red” was not actually due for an oil change but the snow tires needed to come off so I can enjoy some Pirelli action on dry pavement

I didn’t have as much fun as the car is capable of due to choosing to drive it to a business appointment, but the appointment offered the all important criteria to me of private parking with no chance of getting dinged or dented; I mean the car, not me, I’m already “dinged”

The 99 performed admirably for an old car that doesn’t get started or driven enough.  However my drive reminded me of why I’d actually consider selling the 99 and even our Viggen.  I’ve come to hate driving, at least where we live, and we don’t often get out to where I DO enjoy driving anymore to warrant letting these cars sit and get dusty.

The 99 saw freshly paved roads but that meant loose tar, etc. making me cringe about tar getting on the car.  Fresh line paint was also being applied to the roads I was on which were just paved – more worries about messing up the finish on the 99.  Yes, I’m nuts about the car, and you’d be lucky to own one of our Saabs if we sell it! 

So even without modern creature comforts like AC on a hot summer day, the 99 was a fine and fun ride.  It ate up nasty roads that haven’t been paved in far too long and ate up corners on highway that make every other car feel like it’s going to lose control… and with windows and sunroof open, AC wasn’t missed.

On the subject of windows and sunroof I’ll add mentioning that the 99 is amazing at keeping air flowing around you yet still allowing the lighting of a celebratory cigar while on the highway with windows and roof open.  Something about the aerodynamics of the 99 is fantastic.  I recall with my 99 EMS keeping it ridiculously well waxed to the point that friends could not sit on the hood at our local beach (thankfully) and as well I didn’t need windshield wipers in a lot of rain conditions if I was moving as the rain simply blew off the waxy EMS.  I even drove with windows and roof open in the rain, snow too, and again as long as you were moving you didn’t get wet unless it really rained heavily.

Enough of my babbling about the 99.  It was a fun day in the car in spite of traffic, road conditions, etc.

I snapped a few mobile phone pics and a video after getting home while the 99 Turbo cooled down.

I’ve placed obnoxious “watermarks” on the photos to demonstrate how annoying I find them on other sites.  How’d I do?  Are they obnoxious enough?

If anything in this post is interesting it may be the following.  I love driving every Saab we’ve owned and think it or say it aloud after nearly EVERY drive in them.  However the Viggen and 99 Turbo provide something different or more special than our other Saabs.

You can see it in the video.  I could not hold the camera phone still no matter what I tried.  I get adrenaline shakes from the car.  Not because of anything terribly exciting that happened on my ride, but because the car just makes me that excited, etc.

Below are the original video and then the version that youtube offered to “fix” for me which does some weird stuff to the car and its shape.

Hoping you have an equally exciting set of Saabs to enjoy wherever you may be.  I’m also hoping that NEVS lets the people of Trollhattan design and build something worthy of the Saab name that I’d like to own in the future!

 

 

I love everything about this car including the exhaust noise both idling and while driving.  Tunnels and “Jersey barriers” which bounce the exhaust sound back at me while driving are particularly appreciated by my ears.  No it doesn’t have the unique burble of a 900 Turbo but the 99 Turbo is neat.  Even the electric cooling fans you hear as I shake my way around the nose of the car sound cool to me.