holy E36 M3 what a sleeper!

replaced the totalled Rendezvous with another GM. a 2007 Saab 9-7x 5.3i. straight outta flo-rida, zero rust, need to oil spray it immediately.

holy crap what a wolf in sheep's clothing. aluminum 300hp 5.3, all wheel drive, and some big brakes. caught a red light on a 55mph road on the way home, i was completely taken aback when i put my foot down, the rear squatted, and it threw my head against the headrest. i looked at a trailblazer ss yesterday, bought the saab today, and am not sad at the 90 less horsepowers. plus, honestly, my wife doesn't need a 390hp monster daily driver, 300hp seems just fine. it put a smile on my face for sure. plus in a few years when she wants something newer guess what i get to have for a toy.

i gather pics are in order but it's dark so wait until tomorrow for those.

best part was $2400 out of pocket after the insurance payout for the buick, and i still have the buick to part out to make the cost even less.

Its a baby tbss with a Saab nose. They're rockets. I want.

found a couple pics from the listing.

i got a really nasty look when i suggested we take it to the ohio mile.

I like that!

My sister had one that I drove for a couple of months. She still misses it, and it only had the 6. The only annoyance I recall involved the console-mounted (because SAAB) ignition switch. I assume it was the victim of hurry-up engineering, because every now and then the key wouldn't come out of the switch. Let me tell you very sincerely: that can be majorly freaking annoying. The car wasn't "mine" for long enough to delve into it, but a quick google search suggests it might happen if (i) the lock needs lube; (ii) the lock, being oriented vertically, gradually accumulates spills, crumbs, and general ambient crap; and (iii) the key is clamped in the lock by a magnetic switch that activates when the battery is low, and can be released by pushing on a tiny button under the steering wheel. Of these, (iii) sounds like the weirdest idea I've heard all week. YMMV.

Very nice! I dont think I have actually seen one of those. It does look TBSS-ish.

Did you fly and drive to get it?

yeah console mounted ignition is goofy. 18's, sweet brakes, lower stance, on demand all wheel drive, and v8 roar are all plusses that more than outweigh the goofy ignition switch. so does the displacement on demand, the trip computer showed 21mpg for the trip home including my foot down launch to 60. in single digit temps.

Those. Are. Cheap.

In reply to ScreaminE:

Holy E36 M3, you're not kidding.

I dig it. Saab huh, wasn't aware these were available. But now ya done it, gotta do a search now. Not that I really need it but I do luvs some sleepers.

Nice find.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saab-9-7x-AERO-CARFAX-Certified-2008-Saab-9-7-X-AWD-AERO-6-0-liter-LS2-trailblazer-SS-motor-/121572335953?forcerrptr=true&hash=item1c4e46a151&item=121572335953&pt=US_Cars_Trucks

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saab-9-7x-Rare-Model-Low-Mileage-AWD-Clean-2007-saab-9-7-x-altitude-edition-1-of-500-5-3-i-sport-/111597216071?forcerrptr=true&hash=item19fbb66147&item=111597216071&pt=US_Cars_Trucks

CarKid1989 wrote: Did you fly and drive to get it?

guy in kent has a small lot and all he sells is florida cars and trucks. went to look, had my high school hoodie on from Walsh, he said "class of 84" and told me to go drive it and see how it felt. he left me alone, let me go over it for as long as i wanted, take it on the highway and hammer it, and i went in to make the deal when i was done. we bs'ed for at least an hour about all the old guys he couldn't believe were still teaching there when i graduated 14 years later. on top of that, he was giving me tips on the business of bringing southern cars up to sell as i mentioned it was something i wanted to try my hand in.

oh yeah, LSD rear.

My wife's Saab 9-3 sport-kombi is a pretty neat little beast. It's no 9-7, but with 255hp out of a turbo charged v6 it does great for nice pulls down on-ramps or between stoplights

Automatic transmission though

In reply to patgizz:

Good brakes on a GM truck? That's a first.

patgizz wrote:

CarKid1989 wrote: Did you fly and drive to get it?

guy in kent has a small lot and all he sells is florida cars and trucks. went to look, had my high school hoodie on from Walsh, he said "class of 84" and told me to go drive it and see how it felt. he left me alone, let me go over it for as long as i wanted, take it on the highway and hammer it, and i went in to make the deal when i was done. we bs'ed for at least an hour about all the old guys he couldn't believe were still teaching there when i graduated 14 years later. on top of that, he was giving me tips on the business of bringing southern cars up to sell as i mentioned it was something i wanted to try my hand in. oh yeah, LSD rear.

You bought that one at Street Motorsports? I looked at that a while back.

The 9-7 Aero is the TTSS clone. The trick with the ignition switch is to keep crap out of it though if it does start to stick a squirt of WD 40 or the like usually fixes it.

I guess I've been asleep. Never heard of them, but I gave up on Saab when GM took over.

At least with the goofy Saab key location, they don't fall out and kill you like other GMs.

Found that TBSSs aren't terribly expensive either; some were under $10,000 on Craigslist with nothing obviously wrong. Hmmmm..... wonder what it would take to disguise one as a base model?

In reply to MadScientistMatt:

I'd recommend just finding a 9-7 aero.....nobody knew those existed

Interesting. A dealership known for bringing cars north.
I just bookmarked his site: http://www.streetmotorsports.net

He has an Impala on there priced at more than what I paid for the rusty example that I recently bought but If his is genuinely nice, I could have gone up in price towards his asking price.

In your experience, how firm was he on the pricing?

yes Street MotorSports on 43. He's a genuinely good dude, a car guy at heart and not a salesman who knows nothing. At Jesuit schools they really hammer the "be a Man for Others" philosophy and it really shows in the way he conducted business, as it does with the way I treat my customers.

I tried to find an Aero but i could only find 4 for sale in the country, and they all had northern roots in their carfax reports. Trying to find an unmodded SS is like trying to find an unmodded miata amongst you guys. The SS I checked out had 96k, no mods, was well cared for, sounded a-freaking-mazing, but the bottoms of the back doors were rotting out at the seam.

Nobody knows about the Saabs. One dealer guy I rode with told me they were Explorers underneath, and one had no idea it was a GM until I popped the hood and she saw the GM sticker on the headlight housing. This was the 7th truck I looked at. 2 Buicks, 3 Saabs, and a TBSS. Saabs are harder to find than SS'ssesses. Add in that most of the Saabs are 4.2 inline 6 trucks, the V8 with zero rust AND looks like it was well cared for was needle in a haystack search up here in the salt belt.

Apparently all the women Carli works with think it cost a fortune. All it makes me want to do is find one for me and slap on the magnusson supercharger.

I'd definitely put it in the "performance truck" category with the power, how it handles, and how it stops. And at that, it may be the biggest bargain in the market. The acceleration puts my 454SS clone sleeper project to shame.

JohnRW1621 wrote: Interesting. A dealership known for bringing cars north I just bookmarked his site: http://www.streetmotorsports.net He has an Impala on there priced at more than what I paid for the rusty example that I recently bought but If his is genuinely nice, I could have gone up in price towards his asking price. In your experience, how firm was he on the pricing?

He had it priced at 8900, had dropped it to 7900 a while ago, and I did not pay that. I drove it home for what i offered.

He was very up front about how he gets cars and that he drives them for a while before they hit the lot to make sure nothing needs repaired.

This Saab is absolutely spotless. No surface rust on anything underneath, even the inside of the trailer hitch is still factory paint.

He also commented that there are far too few of us who care about how a car looks underneath just as much as how it looks on top. That's totally true, the TBSS I went to look at was that way. I told the guy every one I look at has rusty back door bottoms and he said "I think you'll be happy with how clean it is." Sure enough, first thing I did was open back doors and see all the bubbles and crust. I even looked at a 2008 Saab with 54k at the mercedes dealer for 15,791 and it had rusty door bottoms. He had it waiting out front for me so i could drive it, I opened the back doors and said thanks, not what I'm looking for. Mercedes salespeople seemed shocked that it had rust, or that I was that up front about it and just left.

ScreaminE wrote: Those. Are. Cheap.

They're not cheap to maintain, though. Anything that needs done seems to cost $1000, at least on the six cylinder models. OTOH a lot of this is NE Ohio rust problems that won't crop up for a while on a rust free Florida truck. Trans lines and power steering lines are regular maintenance items on "native" trucks (and boy HOWDY do they suck to replace - check the routing of them and you'll see why) and the brakes always seem to sieze/rust before they wear out. The brakes at least can be dealt with by treating a pad slide clean/lubrication as a maintenance item rather than waiting for it to get expensive.

Supposedly the magnesium rearend causes all sorta of havoc with bearings spinning but I haven't seen it yet.

They are very nice driving trucks. Probably the best driving "midsize" SUV out there. I had been thinking of the SS for a long time, mainly because the SS came with a 14 bolt rearend and not the magnesium 10-bolt, and I'd tow with it, and Internet horror stories had me spooked. (But again, haven't seen failure in real life and we've quite a few customers with them)

BTW - if you really want obscure - I saw one of those up here with Florida plates with an Isuzu badge on it! Probably only came with the 6 though. Called the Isuzu Ascender - I had to google it, as I couldn't remember the name.