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I have several and there are a few differences between years. The first most obvious is the 1985-1987 have front wheel emergency brakes and true wheel studs with lug nuts. Not a bad thing necessarily, just limits your pool of spare parts and replacement saab wheels. The 1988 and newer uses the same wheel bolts and alignment pin that all of the four bolt 9000s use. That means you can get wheels from the junk yards off up to about 1997 9000's it you want or need to. With that said, I have three 1987's and they are great.
The 1987 turbo is oil cooled only (unless upgraded), the 1988 and newer is both water and oil cooled, as are all of the 1988 and newer 9000s. Much better for long life and low maintenance.
Most hate the passive (motorized "mouse") shoulder belts, they are a maintenance hassle and generally weird to use. Several of the 1988's had them (maybe 89's too not sure), some folks do a R & R changing them to full manual. The 1990 is, I believe, the first year with the air bag in the steering wheel. If that is important to you start there. No drivers side airbag however. Also has ABS brakes.
The 1990 and newer non-turbo has the 2.1 block, said to have issues with head gaskets. I have one and haven't had a problem yet, but I think the original owner went through the problems. All of the turbo cars have the same 2.0L (really 1985cc) engine block, but do have different bosch injection units over the years.
Trim on the Turbos was always black. Non-turbo (base model and the "S") models had real chrome external door handles, fake plastic chrome window trim on the front and rear windows with real metal chrome corners, real chrome door key surrounds. The plastic always turns mold/black and looks like hell, especially with the real chrome corners as a contrast. Later years, 1990 (maybe the 1989) non-turbos went to the all black scheme, much nicer. The door pulls and window trim match.
The earlier years had a base model, "S" model, and the Turbo. Early year base models had crank windows and base interior.
The automatics are no longer available as a rebuilt from SAAB directly, you have to have it rebuilt and/or installed elsewhere. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it has caused resale value of 900's with autos (and moreso with a bad auto) to come down. On the other side, the 5 speeds almost last forever, and the clutch pressure plate and all the rest can be replaced without removing the engine or transmission. SAAB 900 guys will say, "well of course" but most inline engines need to be split. You either drop the transmission, engine, or both. Includes just about everything else. Net Net is it's less costly, and you can even do it yourself, to change a clutch.
Colors - the solid colors did not have a clear coat. Black, red, blue no clearcoat. The metalics had a clear coat. Rose Quartz, Citroen Biege, and others. paint will need more help and wax, but I have a red convertible. no clearcoat and needs more maintenance, but the wife likes the color...
Headliners sag and need to replaced on just about any year. It's an indicator of how much it was in the sun or how much heat it got. The foam backing separates and the cloth sags. You can DIY or a shop would cost $150-250 to replace it.
With all that said...
If it were me I'd check in the following order:
NO RUST! Not anywhere!
NO body damage. minor shopping cart dents and stone chips ok...
5 speed
1989 or newer
if 1989 or newer then turbo is a must (avoids the 2.1 block)
Engine compartment - check for fluid leaks
Interior condition - dash seats carpet doors headliner etc.
I like leather-your choice(1990 and newer can have power seats w/memory)
Milage on the car. 100K is not a big deal.
If you find a car that meets your minimums... drive it. see if you can be the first to start it in the morning. cold start check here. let it idle and open the hood, let it warm up. listen for extra noise. when you take it out don't go to the freeway at first. poke around a low speed and get it heated up. you want to see the gauge get to about 40% or so and not much more. The cooling fans should come on at over 50% or so (plus or minus). What you are looking for is, the gauge is working, the fans come on (and don't sound funny), and then it cools down. When you are at freeway speed (65 or so) the fans should not have to come on. The temp should be something less that 50%, 35-45% is great. This shows several things, cooling system is working, and the car most likely hasn't had an overheating episode. cars that overheat have current issues and most of them will blow a head gasket soon. search the boards about this.
Does the Airconditioning work? Has it been converted to R134? Evidence of R134 conversion is the valves on the compressor. With the engine off, remove one of the caps on the compressor (similar to tire air cap) and see if it has a pin in the middle - just like the one on the tire where you put air. The pin means it's R12, no pin means R134. Many say that R134 conversions don't work as well (cooling) as R12. Some conversion aren't done properly. Besides changing fittings and flushing the system some say that the receiver dryer should be replaced. My personal experience is while R12 is expensive, a good sealed system will keep a charge for many years. So I've kept to the original setup on a per car basis.
So drive the car, check how it stops, how it accelerates, shifts, the windows, the lights, the windows (if the switches are intermitant they are easy to either clean or replace).
Also remember to twist the air control knob on the dash and see that the air moves around as it should AND check all four fan speeds.
Open and close all of the doors, trunk, hatch. you are looking for smooth closing and opening without binding or sticking. signs of either body work or sprung hinges.
Also, there are convertibles, two door with a hatch, and four doors.
That's a personal choice for you to make.
Since you did a water pump you are capable of doing a brake job too so don't let pad or rotors detract from an otherwise good car. That's about $130 or less in parts and a Saturday afternoon. Ball joints and tierod ends are also fairly easy to do. If you are doing the brakes ball joints are the next step in...
I'm sure I left something out...
good luck and welcome back!
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