'Growing up' as a Saab nerd - Selling my affordable dream car to get reliable transportation

Long time lurker/reader, first time I'm making a thread on here. I've come to enjoy the community here more than most other online communities I've been in over the past couple of years. Time to join in on the fun!

I’ll start with a short introduction of me, and I’ll go from there. I’m Reier, I live in the Amsterdam area (in The Netherlands), and I’ve been working in the Saab community since the start of my professional career nearly 8 years ago. I’ve been a petrolhead all my life, had a brief phase where I didn’t really care when I was a teenager, but got sucked back in HARD after I got my driver’s license. I got in touch with the Dutch online Saab community, made a bunch of friends through there over the years and managed to find a job through those connections, develop myself, start my own business, etc. 

My personal car ownership career started with an extremely basic Saab 900 GLS, which meant it had a 2.0L 8v carburated engine, four speed gearbox, manual steering, pretty much nothing. Over the course of two years of ownership, I swapped in a five speed, did a bunch of suspension stuff, and mostly went broke on maintenance and gas for it. 

It took me to Sweden and back for the Saab Car Museum Festival in 2017, and shortly after I was offered a 900 with a 16v turbo drivetrain at work, a trade-in with a failed clutch master. And not any 16v turbo 900; it was an Edwardian Grey threedoor, with AC parts, an OE sunroof, and the most 80's interior they ever offered for these; RED ALL THE THINGS. It was pretty much my 'affordable dream car'. Of course, I couldn’t say no, and promptly managed to sell my first car to get my hands on the turbo 900. That was my only car for the past five years, and I spent pretty much all the time and money I could spare on that thing trying to make it the best I could. That car really tought me to think about how I use the car and what things work for that purpose, instead of just jumping on the hype train and throwing ‘cool’ parts at it. I ended up going through multiple suspension setups, messing with the head, cams, the APC system (80’s electronic boost control), intercooler, exhaust, brakes, wheels/tires, pretty much nothing remained untouched, and got the car to a point where I was probably 90% ‘done’ with it. All I really wanted to add to it was swap in a more modern management system to get the car running just that much smoother. After that I could really only think of restoration work that I'd probably never get to.

First two pics I ever took of it;

That 90% point was basically this past summer. I’d driven the car about 100.000km over the course of five years, knew EVERY bad thing about it, and was constantly noticing things becoming worse at a rate I just couldn’t financially (and emotionally, lol) keep up with anymore. Around the same time, I was offered an awesome job at a Saab specialist shop about 95km away from home. This meant my average yearly mileage would jump from around 20-25k km to 50-60k km a year. Not something I was ready to do to my poor old 900, and definitely not something I was prepared to do on gasoline (which is very expensive in Europe). I made the decision to, somewhat reluctantly, sell the 900. I’d had my fun with it, I did way too much mental gymnastics trying to figure out a way to keep the car and get something decent to eat the miles, but I quickly realised I just don’t have the funds for that right now. And realistically, with other life goals I have, I might not be in that position for a long time to come. Luckily, I texted a few friends, including my old boss, and managed to sell the car back to him for a deal that made both him and me happy. 

How it looked in it's final form;

(man did it look cool with the box on the roof)

It was time for me to get a more reliable, ‘grown up’ form of transportation. But, what does a Saab nerd working at a Saab specialist shop get when it’s time for a more modern, reliable, ‘grown up’ form of transportation?

You guessed it! I bought me another Saab!

Sweet looking Saab! Never seen that interior before 

In reply to amg_rx7 (Forum Supporter) :

Thanks! That interior was only offered very select years. My car was a Swedish market version for 1989 that got this combo of interior/exterior

Now, after selling my 900, I suddenly found myself in a position where I didn’t have a car anymore. With only three days left until I’d start my new job, which required me to drive there every day. Whoops!

Luckily, at the same time I was figuring all this out, one of my friends decided he too was done with daily-driving older Saabs and wanted a more modern one. He bought something and wanted to offload his old daily ASAP. Luckily for me, this car was 10 years newer than my 900, much more ‘robust’ and way more of a highway cruiser than a Saab 900 ever will be. And, important detail, it ran on LPG. For you Americans; As far as I know, LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) is a byproduct  of the production of gasoline. Most refineries just burn it off, but in Europe it’s actually a relatively popular fuel for cars. It requires installing an entire secondary fuel system into your gas car, and requires about 10-20% more fuel to deliver equal energy as gas does. The interesting part here, is that taxes on gas and diesel are very high, but taxes on LPG are nearly non-existent. This summer, I was filling up my car for €2,20/L for gas, when LPG cost only €0,75/L. In The Netherlands, converting to LPG means you’ll pay higher road taxes, but with the HUGE difference in fuel price it’s pretty easy to earn that back. Anyway, this LPG car I’m talking about was my friend’s old 1997 Saab 9000, with 617k (km’s) on the odometer. I figured it’d be a great way to fill the requirements short term and would allow me time to search for something more sustainable, as I can’t imagine using such a high mileage old car for 200km a day commutes.

Added about 8000km to the odometer in the span of two months, which it did pretty much flawlessly. Although I never really felt confident in it, it was the type of car that had only ever had oil changes and fix what’s broken. Never any preventative maintenance, no engine or trans rebuilds in its past, it still even ran it’s factory shocks and springs all the way around. It was fun for a bit, but it made me realise I really wasn’t the type for this kind of car.

Enter, the grown-up Saab. I honestly wasn’t even looking at these, because the diesel versions of them never got a six speed and they’re relatively heavy. I wanted something smaller and more economical. But I’m weak, I grew up on the back seat of three of these, and this one was way too cheap to pass up. I present you; my 2007 Saab 9-5 SportCombi.

It’s Smoke Beige metallic, has a black leather interior, and has pretty much everything I wanted in a car and nothing else. Stuff like heated seats, a decent stereo, HID lights, auto-dimming mirror.. It has it all. I also prefer these with a manual. The 1.9 Diesel engines in these really was an afterthought very late in the life of the 9-5, so they just bolted the old five speed transmissions to them (both auto and manual). The result is that gearing is way short, and in auto form they’re barely any more economical than the gas powered cars. In manual form, although gearing could be a LOT taller, it’s decently fuel efficient for the size and weight of the car. 

Over the course of the past three months, I’ve put about 17k km on the odometer of this one. So far I’ve only really done catch-up maintenance, like any cheap used car requires. I do have some plans for it though, and I’ll take you along with me over hopefully the course of the next couple of years!

excellent thread! 

my dream was a 9-3 blue viggen. 

never had the emotional fortitude to put up with its unreliability however 

Cool wagon. Posting to follow along with updates. 

Welcome ......my last SAAB was a 1973 99L the best winter car EVER I've had running summer tires in 4-6 inches of snow in NE Ohio......this wagon ROCKS!!!!!.....does it have a turbo? and what else did they use that motor in????

That's a nice clean wagon!  I also have the Saab affliction.  My current commuter is an '01 Aero sedan which does about 80mi/128k daily, I'm kind of doing a durability experiment with it to see how many miles I can rack up before the salt kills it. I also have an 04 wagon which will eventually be running again (balance chain failed).

We never got the diesel in the US, looking forward to learning about about it here!

Im a Saab fan also. I had a 2006 9-3 2.0T with over 300k miles. Other than coil packs I found it to be quite reliable.  I'll be following your thread. 

Thanks for the positive feedback! It's been a while since I've done any more extensive writing on a forum, especially in English. Feels good to get back into that.

@759NRNG; It does have a turbo (fun fact; the 9-5 never got any non-turbo engines). It's a Fiat/Alfa Romeo 1.9 JTDm engine that's been used extensively by both the Fiat group and GM in Europe, comes factory with 150hp. I have a friend and colleague who does nothing but tune Saabs, so basically the first day I showed up at work with it I had to hand in the keys to him and he put a tune on it. Should make close to 190hp now.

These diesels are pretty robust engines, Saab just didn't really put much effort into putting it in the 9-5 since it was an older platform. So the 9-3's that got this diesel engine got it with a veeeeeery tall geared six speed manual or auto, making it very efficient. The 9-5 just got the same ol' F35 the gas cars got, didn't even do anything with gearing. I think 65mph is about 2350rpm..

Luckily, since I've been working with these cars for a couple of years now, I know them/the typical issues like the back of my hand. I'll try to dig through my photos to get some evidence of the stage 0 maintenance run I did on it and post an update later this week :)

An Edwardian Gray SPG is very high on my want list, but seeing how prices are going probably not going to happen now.  We have three SAAB's in the driveway, an 02 9-5 Aero manual, an 05 9-3 ARC vert manual and a 10 9-5 Aero.  I did just trade my oldest, 19, the 02 9-5 for a 2005 MB C230 Kompressor with a manual.  My first non SAAB DD in over 20 years.

There's still plenty of 900's to go around for 'normal' money, don't be too scared off by the couple that did crazy numbers at auction. While not as cheap as when I got in mine, I'm convinced at least over here you can still get into a basic 900 turbo with a manual for under 5k. Something with the SPG kit and stuff is above 5 usually but below 10 you should be able to get into something that you can at least drive and work on. Engines are super reliable, relatively easy to work on, gearboxes are the weak link but if you drive with mechanical sympathy they typically last pretty long.

Finally I have some time to get you guys up to speed with what I've done to the car so far. It's good to document this stuff, in looking for pics (which I seem to have forgotten to take most of the time) I found some things I already forgot about, whoopsie..

To me, step one when buying a used Saab 9-5 with any sort of miles is doing a major service, replacing the rear two front subframe bushings and replacing the rear trailing arm bushings. The front subframe is hung under the car mounted in six rubber bushings. The rear two being pretty close to the steering rack, they take most of the wear and are usually very worn out on higher mileage cars. The rest rarely need replacing, so I typically leave those alone. Another common issue, which affects driving manners and tire wear, is the rear trailing arm bushings. Very commonly torn or at least very loose. Both the front subframe bushings and the rear trailing arms got updated to poly bushings. In these positions you can't really tell comfortwise, but you can really tell in steering precision. Just these four bushings do a LOT for most 9-5's I've been under. The major service consisted of oil and filter, cabin air filter and the air filter. Fuel filter looked very recent so we left that. Also did the front sway bar endlinks because those sounded like they were done, and when removing them they pretty much fell apart with barely any effort.

After the suspension work, I took it in to get a wheel alignment. As expected; driving manners changed just how I wanted them to. This 9-5 is back to being the stable, relaxing highway cruiser I've known them to be. Time to put miles on this thing and see how it does, or at least that was the plan. Of course, I can't just keep sitting still, so when I was approached to do a head-unit install for a customer on a 9-3 about a week after, I ordered a head-unit for myself as well. I LOVE finally having a car that I can do this stuff to, after doing a lot of these for customers;

Cheaped out and got the wired carplay model, hooked it up to the cable that comes out of that iPhone cradle mounted above it. Brodit/ProClip phone mounts are ugly as hell, but they work AWESOME.

Only a week later, I was driving home one late saturday night and the car surprised me..

Luckily, it's a diesel. And while it does require some electronics to function, it doesn't need all that much. I got an extra battery from a friend the next morning, and drove the car to work (a Saab specialist workshop) with all electronics I could turn off turned off. Made it fine, probably could've done it on the single battery (but swapped them half way just to be sure I'd make it). The next morning, I had a colleague swap in a rebuilt alternator and it was back to working order again.

Since buying the car I've driven it about 20.000km, it's actually time for its second oil service in the next couple of weeks. Other than the alternator failing on me pretty early on, I haven't had issues with the car. I replaced the starter because it made a noise, I did the thermostat because I'm not used to how slow diesels warm up (didn't change a thing, so that was probably not needed lol), and I replaced a couple old yellowed out bulbs. I've been enjoying the car a lot, and I hope it remains the reliable daily it currently is!

The only other change is that my friend hooked me up with a killer deal on one of my favorite sets of stock wheels for these, with great winter tires. Perfect for what I needed, since I'm planning to move to 18's in a few months, and my old wheels had bald summer tires on them that would loose air. 

I'll update when something happens with it again! It's time for a service soon, I wanna look at the engine mounts, because I think one or two are bad, and I need to replace the shifter linkage since it has a ton of play. I really want to get into suspension work, since it's all the original stuff, but we'll see when I can get to that..

My wife is from Norway, so we regularly go back to visit. I thought that I'd see lots of Saabs and Volvos, but while there are lots of Volvos on the road there, Saabs are extremely rare. 

I'm enjoying this thread, it's good to see someone keeping these unique cars going.

Text-only update here; finally decided on what I want suspension wise and parts have been ordered.

Koni Special Actives, Aero spec springs and new strut mounts, bearings, bumpstops, dustboots etc for the front. New OEM Nivomat 'leveling kit' for the rear in the same Aero spec. Basically a self leveling rear that doesn't need electronics. The shocks are the expensive part in this setup, but pricing my options (koni's with 'normal' springs + all the included hardware vs the leveling kit new) it really is only about a €100 difference between the two setups. I figured since I drive most of my drives alone, but also pack the car full of people + their E36 M3 every once in a while it'd be nice to not have it on the bumpstops for those drives. I should have everything in by next weekend and be ready to install it. Might have to see if I can convince one of the Saab mechanics in my network to do it for me while I do stuff for them that's more up my ally..

A little over a week ago I managed to get all the pieces together in order to refresh the struts/shocks and springs. Last monday I assembled the front struts, since I bought everything required to assemble them outside of the car. I usually manage to have someone with actual wrenching experience/skills/professionality to watch over my shoulder when I work on stuff other than infotainment, so this was a first for me to get these all pieced together and assembled alone. Managed to do it all correctly in only two tries! LOL

After work hours, my colleague helped me out fitting everything to the car. To my surprise, the rear shocks came without dust boots. Apparently those have gone NLA a couple of years ago from literally everybody who made them, and finding a universal or common alternative has proven to be a challenge so far. I'll figure something out eventually, the shock body is bigger than most typical rear shocks, so the old boots wouldn't fit, running this without any protection kinda triggers my OCD tho.

Had the car aligned by a shop local to my work that apparently is at least as OCD about their stuff as I think I am. Somehow they managed to get everything but front camber (non-adjustable) identical left to right. The new shocks and springs feel AWESOME, and the car drives straight as an arrow. I'm super happy I with the upgrades.

Of course, I managed to fire the parts cannon without ever diagnosing a noise in the suspension. I convinced myself it sounded like it had to be a strut mount, but after doing all this maintenance/upgrading the noise is still exactly the same. Looks like it's time to do the sway bar bushings all around as well. The bolts that hold the fronts in the subframe commonly snap, turning a 30 min job into a 4 hour ordeal. I didn't dare trying to get those replaced before I left for a ski trip to Italy.

1100km in ± 12 hours last saturday. The car performed great, still pretty economical even tho I had five people + gear for a week in the car and the box on the roof. It just makes a little bit of noise on bumpy stuff, I'll tackle that when I get back.

Oh, and just to record for my own memory; oil change @ 320k km. That's about 22k in 5 months, right on track for my expected 55k km a year.

One of the few things I used to get the purchase price of the car down back in october was the whine in fifth at highway speeds and the sloppy shift. For some reason, pretty much every manual 1.9 diesel Saab 9-5 develops this issue, and I knew I would be able to buy a brand new box from Sweden for relatively affordable when the time came. I'm a nerd with access to the stock levels in the warehouses, so I kept checking prices and stock numbers somewhat regularly ever since buying. When I got back from Italy, a trip that the car did flawlessly, I went through my work's inbox just to see if I'd had missed anything important/worthwhile. In there, I discover an email from Hedin Parts & Logistics (the company that took over Orio, which was formed out of Saab Parts AB during the bankrupcy in 2011/2012), mentioning a stock reduction sale on some physically large items that don't move fast. Valid only one week (of course, the week I was away). One of the items in that list was the manual transmission I'd been eyeing, knowing I'd have to buy one at some point, with a 50% discount! I had missed the deadline, but figured it was worth an email.

Just a few days later, a pallet arrived at work...

My car is currently on the lift with the transmission on the ground. I figured, since the clutch felt fine and I didn't notice any flywheel rattling, I'd just swap the trans and do the clutch and flywheel at some point down the line when it became an issue. Of course, everytime I gamble something like this, it ends up going south. Flywheel is at a point where it's not worth leaving it be, so I took home the loaner car and am picking up a new clutch and flywheel on the way to work tomorrow.. Whoops!

Basically since buying the car I've been keeping my eyes open for two very specific sets of 18" wheels. A couple of months ago I finally got lucky on one of those sets.

They're 18x8 ET41 wheels made for Saab tuner Hirsch, a Swiss company. Pretty rare wheels in the world of Saab stuff, and they were offered as a dealer installed accessory when the 9-5 was new (the 'Dame Edna' variation, or second facelift for MY2006). Got them in a cool deal with my work, and had one straightened and all painted in a color extremely close to factory. Fresh set of tires on them as well, after getting unlucky on the last couple sets of used tires. Went for All-Seasons this time, figure I can pay for some of the cost of this upgrade by selling my old wheels. Hankook Kinergy 4S 2's in 245/40R18. 

Enough words, time for the pics!

Love all the SAABs! Even though it was often considered a GM and not really a SAAB, I loved our 9-5. It is one of 2 cars in my past that I wish I could have back.

In reply to reiernumans :

Wheels look great 

Hirsch stuff is crazy rare in the states, those wheels look great.  I just sealed a deal on an 86 900 Turbo 3 door manual for my mobile son. Can't wait to get it home and start working on it. 

Aaron_King said:

...  I just sealed a deal on an 86 900 Turbo 3 door manual for my mobile son.

As opposed to your stationary son? LoL 

Did you mean middle son?

Yep, I hate typing on my phone. 

Thanks for this thread - that 900 was a looker, but the wagon is awesome as well.

Completely forgot to check in here again, lol.

Thanks for the compliments!

@Aaron_King; that's awesome. If you have any questions or have trouble sourcing parts you can always hit me up. I know a bunch of guys with wayy too many 900 parts.

@JY_Rat; thanks. I feel blessed that the new owner of that 900 is basically completing the project the way I wanted to do it but couldn't afford. Really cool to see it take shape, hope he works on it again soon :)

Passed the 340.000km mark about a week or two ago, so I just ordered all the parts to do timing belt and waterpump, figured it wouldn't hurt to change the serpentine belt and its rollers/tensioner while I'm at it. Now just to find the time to do the job!