1985-1998 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
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I now have a '97 9K Aero 5 spd (118K miles). Since Nov. 2003. Had to sell my dear '91 9K CDT (175K) to Salvage - it was suffering from a unsolvable overheating problem but driveable until Jan 2004 when a ball joint that I had been neglecting (I had the parts but not the time to fix) snapped and bent up the front right fender, door etc. I think the overheating was a cracked head because the car always tested good on compression but would inexplicably overheat in the first 15 minutes of driving and then settle back down. The overheating would push all the antifreeze out of the reservoir cap and I would have to refill antifreeze every three days. I changed several thermostats etc. etc.
The transmission had delayed engagement from running low on fluid from a leaking shaft seal two summers before. The roof liner was loosening and some of the seat movements had stopped working. Then in Dec. 2003 the neighbor's teenager backed his minivan into the rear left fender and created a big dent in what was otherwise a perfect body.
So I decided to give up and let it go. People who are new to Saabs pls dont misunderstand this as a disaster story. I had this car for 10 years after buying it used at 3 years of age and 63K miles. I put 110K on it myself. It was the most satisfying car I have had.
One of my best memories and my introduction to what these cars can really do was on a trip in 1996,between Buffalo NY and Detroit using the route through Canada. Customs photographs your license plate and notes the time when you cross through into Canada and when you leave on the Michigan side. On this particular trip, enforcement in Canada seemed especially low and so I took the car up to 100 mph and set the cruise there. Traffic was light so I was in cruise at 100mph for one whole hour. Had a narrow escape when a car behind me got pulled over and ticketed but didnt get a ticket myself. When I crossed the border into Michigan the customs agent at the checkpoint asked "What is the purpose of your visit, other than breaking the land speed record?". All this with my wife and two small children in the car.... they slept through most of the 1 hour at 100mph and later when I asked my wife how come she hadn't cautioned me, she said "It was quiet and comfortable and I didn't feel unsafe". That's a Saab for you. True story.
Of course, the rest of the story is that when I came back home and boasted about it to my car-nut friends at work, one of the responses was: "you idiot, you had your family in the car... what if you had hit a deer... you would all have been killed instantly" Of course he was right and that is why I have never done that again.
But its also why I bought another Saab!
posted by 146.209.1...
, Tue, 27 Apr 2004 16:47:42
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