i always found saabs kinda neat but never enough to go much further then cursory examination. i assumed that like the old mercedes benz cars the money was spent on things you couldnt see.
anyway those guys sound like assholes (how on earth do you even scratch a car and a watch up that badly anyway) but hey free air king
the dominoes branded ones amuse me even if the pizza is awful
Stick your head under the hood of the next (classic) 900 you see. The engine is in there backwards, with a primary chain just aft of the radiator fan driving the gearbox, which is bolted to the bottom of the engine forming the oil pan, that sends power to the front wheels through a transmission adapted from a rwd platform in a Saab-specific case. All of that so the Saab engineers could use the double A arm front suspension they wanted.
I've had several transverse 9000s and 9-5s as daily drivers over my driving career. It makes the interior packaging easier/better. It's nice to have the weight over the drive wheels in Cleveland winters in my specific case.
After moving on to some rear wheel and longitudinal all wheel options lately, I realize what I've been missing.
I loved Saabs and how the Swedish turned their noses up to their corporate overlords when developing cars. They were safe with an unbelievable high strength structure that would never ever be seen in any GM product.
Your story is one of Karma. People get what is coming to them.
I once had an old friend tell me that the steel the Swedes used to make Saab bodies was of better quality than what the Americans and Japanese were using, at least in the 80s when Saab made a car worth owning. I never did any research to corroborate the claim and have instead accepted it as truth.
Based on what I've seen of rusty Saabs, I can easily accept it.
Building old cars out of better steel, rather than taking the time to engineer more strength into a structure with the common steel grade, is SOOOO North European.
I always thought SAABs had the same problem as the second-generation Charger: the windshield was far too upright for the rest of the car.
But beyond that, the styling of the 900 was always off-putting to me the same way English cars are. They're weirdly-proportioned, fat-looking, awkward things, like they were designed by an autustic 15-year-old who knew nothing about cars and had no sense of style.
There was a Cadillac Saab dealer in West Chester PA that had 30-35 Saabs at the end of production. The floor plan bankrupted the dealer as no one would buy a new car from a company that no longer existed. GM sent a team in to try to save the dealer as West Chester is a high income town for executives that work in Philly but would never live in Philly. Ended up having to sell the real estate the dealership sat on and open a one car showroom Cadillac store in an abandoned Saturn store. The real end came when Cadillac demanded money for the great EV conversion, the dealership went dark. Epilog: the original Cadillac Saab property became the used car lot for the Mercedes dealer across the street.
I purchase My First Rolex ™ - a Daytona, naturally (stainless steel, black dial) - as a bonus gift for myself in 2017. At that job, bonuses were paid on the last day of February. So I executed the wire and had it on my wrist within the first few days of March.
Enter the “Chirish” weekend in Chicago shortly thereafter, which occasioned the propitious inaugural encounter between Sherman McCoy and his oft-referenced, extraordinarily corpulent Trustafarian friend who later moved to Charleston. Rather than wear green and drink outside in the snow, he and I were ensconced within Biggs Mansion, the private cigar club where he was a member.
We were in the sitting area just in front of Seinfeld and Steve Harvey in this clip, by the fireplace:
In addition to smoking cigars all day, we were drinking. A lot. In fact, I was matching him drink for drink, and he was both a heavy man and a heavy drinker (at the time).
Around 1 AM, it was time to go home. I had to have help shuffling down the stairs and into an Uber.
I woke up around the time the sun was setting on Sunday afternoon: Terribly hungover and confronting the reality that I had at least 10 hours of work to complete before 9 AM on Monday. I surveyed the damage: I had my keys, obviously. I had my glasses, and they were undamaged. I had my wallet, as well. And yes, my phone.
But where was my Rolex Daytona? The Rolex Daytona that I had purchased about two weeks ago for more than $11,000 and not yet insured?
It was nowhere to be found. I thought, “well, there’s hardly any way I can ask my new … ‘friend’(?) … if he might know where my Rolex could be.” He might very well be wearing it right now!
After snoozing, and showering, and napping away the hangover, I opened my refrigerator in hopes that I might have some bottled water to drink … and realized that there was only one thing within my appliance:
My Daytona, which I had left there for some reason the night before. Some time later, I mentioned this to my friend and he said:
“Oh yeah, you told me you were going to do that - “for safekeeping” - when you were essentially crawling down the stairs at Biggs.”
RE your partner: The firm I work for is owned by my father, who is the third generation of our family to own the business since it was started by his grandfather 75+ years ago. Myself and my brother are his only employees. It has been our goal (and the goal of the generations before us) to finish each fiscal year with as little profit to show as possible. I'm still waiting for the year we're tripping over so much cash that we have to lease some swanky cars.
RE the Saab: those 9-3s were awful cars. I owned a 2000 9-3 Base in about 2007, and even 17 year old me knew it was a turd. That being said, my high school girlfriend's dad accused me of being a drug dealer based strictly on my ownership of the thing at my young age. Later, I had a 99 Viggen. I'd bought it to flip thinking it needed an engine, got away with just putting a cylinder head in it. That car was quick, and quite pretty to look at, but still ultimately the same turd as the first one just in a prettier wrapper. Everything that GM had a hand in at Saab was garbage, despite Saab's best efforts to put a positive spin on what they had to work with.
RE your partner's new partner's treatment of your Saab: I once detailed a 900 NG for a friend that I swear could have been a stand-in for your car as described coming out of the storage locker. Never seen a carwash, interior used as an ashtray. Sadly, my version of the story does not include the Rolex come-up.
I got accused of being a drug dealer for buying a CPO 2014 Lincoln MKS in 2017.
It's not my fault the racist bitch who though this drove a gen. 1 Nissan Versa Sedan.
As far as Saab, it died an ignominious and effective death of poor stewardship and outright neglect under GM, but would likely have died a quicker death had GM not purchased it. No one else wanted it and was willing to write a check. Fiat expressed some interest, but walked away pretty quickly. Ford, Toyota, Renault, Peugeot-Citroën, and BMW were only casually interested and never seriously considered it. As I understand it, GM only bought Saab in a fit of pique after losing the bid for Jaguar to Ford, as it wanted a premium European brand (which Opel and Vauxhall were not).
Right. Meanwhile, I happen to know that her brother—who I was sort of dating at the time—has since resorted to selling his, erm, *assets* on Grindr.
And she had the nerve to judge *me.*
I believe my purchase price on that Lincoln was $22,900, with 29K miles and a dealer-sponsored FoMoCo ESP that made up nicely for the fact that said dealer tried to lie about it being certified when it wasn’t. A new Civic spec’d to my liking would have been more expensive, let alone a new Accord.
i always found saabs kinda neat but never enough to go much further then cursory examination. i assumed that like the old mercedes benz cars the money was spent on things you couldnt see.
anyway those guys sound like assholes (how on earth do you even scratch a car and a watch up that badly anyway) but hey free air king
the dominoes branded ones amuse me even if the pizza is awful
Stick your head under the hood of the next (classic) 900 you see. The engine is in there backwards, with a primary chain just aft of the radiator fan driving the gearbox, which is bolted to the bottom of the engine forming the oil pan, that sends power to the front wheels through a transmission adapted from a rwd platform in a Saab-specific case. All of that so the Saab engineers could use the double A arm front suspension they wanted.
I think you mean because transverse engine setups are wrong*
I've had several transverse 9000s and 9-5s as daily drivers over my driving career. It makes the interior packaging easier/better. It's nice to have the weight over the drive wheels in Cleveland winters in my specific case.
After moving on to some rear wheel and longitudinal all wheel options lately, I realize what I've been missing.
I loved Saabs and how the Swedish turned their noses up to their corporate overlords when developing cars. They were safe with an unbelievable high strength structure that would never ever be seen in any GM product.
Your story is one of Karma. People get what is coming to them.
I once had an old friend tell me that the steel the Swedes used to make Saab bodies was of better quality than what the Americans and Japanese were using, at least in the 80s when Saab made a car worth owning. I never did any research to corroborate the claim and have instead accepted it as truth.
Based on what I've seen of rusty Saabs, I can easily accept it.
Building old cars out of better steel, rather than taking the time to engineer more strength into a structure with the common steel grade, is SOOOO North European.
I too am a big believer in not showing much profit on the books. Perhaps less by design than your previous associate.
While I admit that "Night Panel" was somewhat a gimmick, I actually DID find it useful on many long drives.
Night panel mode, much like the A/C oscillation button in a few of my Mazdas, should come standard on every car.
I always thought SAABs had the same problem as the second-generation Charger: the windshield was far too upright for the rest of the car.
But beyond that, the styling of the 900 was always off-putting to me the same way English cars are. They're weirdly-proportioned, fat-looking, awkward things, like they were designed by an autustic 15-year-old who knew nothing about cars and had no sense of style.
so its like a tesla then
Yeah, especially the Model X.
Exactly. The styling of the 3 and the X have always reminded me of Saabs.
There was a Cadillac Saab dealer in West Chester PA that had 30-35 Saabs at the end of production. The floor plan bankrupted the dealer as no one would buy a new car from a company that no longer existed. GM sent a team in to try to save the dealer as West Chester is a high income town for executives that work in Philly but would never live in Philly. Ended up having to sell the real estate the dealership sat on and open a one car showroom Cadillac store in an abandoned Saturn store. The real end came when Cadillac demanded money for the great EV conversion, the dealership went dark. Epilog: the original Cadillac Saab property became the used car lot for the Mercedes dealer across the street.
Ironic that the demise of the brand was such a SAAB story.
Thank you, thank you
I'll be here all week
Rolex story:
I purchase My First Rolex ™ - a Daytona, naturally (stainless steel, black dial) - as a bonus gift for myself in 2017. At that job, bonuses were paid on the last day of February. So I executed the wire and had it on my wrist within the first few days of March.
Enter the “Chirish” weekend in Chicago shortly thereafter, which occasioned the propitious inaugural encounter between Sherman McCoy and his oft-referenced, extraordinarily corpulent Trustafarian friend who later moved to Charleston. Rather than wear green and drink outside in the snow, he and I were ensconced within Biggs Mansion, the private cigar club where he was a member.
We were in the sitting area just in front of Seinfeld and Steve Harvey in this clip, by the fireplace:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ-jL7w4DwQ
In addition to smoking cigars all day, we were drinking. A lot. In fact, I was matching him drink for drink, and he was both a heavy man and a heavy drinker (at the time).
Around 1 AM, it was time to go home. I had to have help shuffling down the stairs and into an Uber.
I woke up around the time the sun was setting on Sunday afternoon: Terribly hungover and confronting the reality that I had at least 10 hours of work to complete before 9 AM on Monday. I surveyed the damage: I had my keys, obviously. I had my glasses, and they were undamaged. I had my wallet, as well. And yes, my phone.
But where was my Rolex Daytona? The Rolex Daytona that I had purchased about two weeks ago for more than $11,000 and not yet insured?
It was nowhere to be found. I thought, “well, there’s hardly any way I can ask my new … ‘friend’(?) … if he might know where my Rolex could be.” He might very well be wearing it right now!
After snoozing, and showering, and napping away the hangover, I opened my refrigerator in hopes that I might have some bottled water to drink … and realized that there was only one thing within my appliance:
My Daytona, which I had left there for some reason the night before. Some time later, I mentioned this to my friend and he said:
“Oh yeah, you told me you were going to do that - “for safekeeping” - when you were essentially crawling down the stairs at Biggs.”
Alright, NOW tell the story about your 911 GT3 keys, since I'm honor-bound from repeating it!
I don’t remember enough of THAT story to recount it.
But I appreciate you NOT telling it either. To protect the innocent.
Sir, you were the only innocent person in that story.
RE your partner: The firm I work for is owned by my father, who is the third generation of our family to own the business since it was started by his grandfather 75+ years ago. Myself and my brother are his only employees. It has been our goal (and the goal of the generations before us) to finish each fiscal year with as little profit to show as possible. I'm still waiting for the year we're tripping over so much cash that we have to lease some swanky cars.
RE the Saab: those 9-3s were awful cars. I owned a 2000 9-3 Base in about 2007, and even 17 year old me knew it was a turd. That being said, my high school girlfriend's dad accused me of being a drug dealer based strictly on my ownership of the thing at my young age. Later, I had a 99 Viggen. I'd bought it to flip thinking it needed an engine, got away with just putting a cylinder head in it. That car was quick, and quite pretty to look at, but still ultimately the same turd as the first one just in a prettier wrapper. Everything that GM had a hand in at Saab was garbage, despite Saab's best efforts to put a positive spin on what they had to work with.
RE your partner's new partner's treatment of your Saab: I once detailed a 900 NG for a friend that I swear could have been a stand-in for your car as described coming out of the storage locker. Never seen a carwash, interior used as an ashtray. Sadly, my version of the story does not include the Rolex come-up.
I got accused of being a drug dealer for buying a CPO 2014 Lincoln MKS in 2017.
It's not my fault the racist bitch who though this drove a gen. 1 Nissan Versa Sedan.
As far as Saab, it died an ignominious and effective death of poor stewardship and outright neglect under GM, but would likely have died a quicker death had GM not purchased it. No one else wanted it and was willing to write a check. Fiat expressed some interest, but walked away pretty quickly. Ford, Toyota, Renault, Peugeot-Citroën, and BMW were only casually interested and never seriously considered it. As I understand it, GM only bought Saab in a fit of pique after losing the bid for Jaguar to Ford, as it wanted a premium European brand (which Opel and Vauxhall were not).
I would honestly love to know more insider details about how that all worked when all the euro brands were being bought/sold.
Sometimes I sit and think about what could have been if GM got Volvo and Ford ended up with Saab instead.
"I got accused of being a drug dealer for buying a CPO 2014 Lincoln MKS in 2017."
Of all the things I want to go back in a time machine and see, this is top ten.
"LADY, THIS CAR HAS ALREADY SUFFERED 47% DEPRECIATION!"
Right. Meanwhile, I happen to know that her brother—who I was sort of dating at the time—has since resorted to selling his, erm, *assets* on Grindr.
And she had the nerve to judge *me.*
I believe my purchase price on that Lincoln was $22,900, with 29K miles and a dealer-sponsored FoMoCo ESP that made up nicely for the fact that said dealer tried to lie about it being certified when it wasn’t. A new Civic spec’d to my liking would have been more expensive, let alone a new Accord.