Learn Me '07 Saab 9-3 manual trans

Upcoming this week at my local salvage auction is this '07 Saab 9-3 w/ manual trans.  

https://www.iaai.com/Vehicle?itemID=32400583&rowNumber=9&loadRecent=True 

Seems to just need a replacement front bumper cover which can be had used, in black, for $100.    The orange just appears to be orange duct tape.  What is the white?  Is that a washer reservoir (no big deal) or is that a busted coolant reservoir (could be a bigger deal)? 

Are these cars fun?  I've never had a Saab but have always been intrigued  y them.  Seems that '07 was the last year before a GM redesign so hopefully this one would be more Saab.  Most notable it seems that '08 got the big knob, GM corporate radio.  This '07 still has a very Saab dashboard.  

My goal would just be to buy it cheap, fix it inexpensively, play for it for a little while and then offload it for a profit (or no loss.)   I know these car are not worth much.  Even the insurance company on this one has given it a pre-accident value of $2,663 and estimated damage at $2,914.

It's not the coolant reservoir. which looks like a big bulb 

looks like it is the washer fluid reservoir and it may even be not broken

 

Cool on washer fluid. The going price on car-part looks to be $10-$45 so could be a multi part purchase from where I get the bumper cover. 

I had an 03 9-3 auto as a DD for about 2.5 years.  It drove nicely , good highway car, good MPGs.  Easy to wrench on for the most part. With good tires it was great in sno w/rain.  Parts prices were super cheap, its all GM underneath, no need to buy SAAB or even Uro brand etc.  You can get 95% of what you'd need at the local parts store. The only annoyance is that it seemed to chew through front axles. (Maybe I should have sprung for non cardoness...)  Edited to Add:  The interior is still very SAAB in these, but its only skin deep.)

The cars and parts are cheap enough so as to seem like theyre good flip candidates, but its getting harder and harder to sell manual trans cars to casual buyers.  Meeyotter and other cars with enthusiast followings are the exception.  You could probably get this one into sellable shape quickly and cheaply, but you might have to sit on it for a while before it sells...

My dad gave us an 05 vert stick with 250K or so miles on it last year.  I have been chasing throttle position sensor gremlins since we got it.  I have a cheap scanner in the car and will clear the codes when it comes on.  Other than that it has been entertaining to drive, puts a smile on your face when the top goes down.  My dad drove it from Canton to San Francisco before he gave it to us without issue and my son and I took it to Sebring this year and it ran great.

The Saab to GM transition happened fully in 2000, this car is essentially all GM. You can make them fast, really the 9-3SS is kind of a watered-down Cobalt SS turbo in a vaguely European wrapper, but they don't have the character of the legacy Swedish platforms.

yeah on the manual.  In the Uber Goober only people over 50 admit to having ever driven a manual and a lot of people haven't even seen one in action before.  Sadness.  If its cheap enough keep it for the cool factor even if it is a GM product at that point in SAABs epoch. 

Otherwise because of resale value/chances I hate to say it because of the manual wait for one of the old ones and definitely keep one of those.  

Yeah, those are my big concerns that Saabs are probably hard to sell and manual trans in non-sporty cars are definately hard to sell.    In similar vein, a manual trans Saturn Ion is near impossible to find a buyer for but a Saturn Ion Redline has a niche following and some desirability to its sporty-ness. Therefore, the question here is, "is the Saab 2.0t a sporty car?"  I think the answer is that it is not sporty enough.  

Oh yeah, this '07 does seem to have the big single knob radio shared along the entire GM brand in that era.  To me it just cheapens the whole thing to really expose the Pontiac G6 it is underneath. 

Of course, this will then come down to price and condition.  I'll see the car Monday and the bidding is Tues.  If I can find that the car has some exceptional quality, be it either exceptional condition or exceptionally cheap then this could be a possibility (but not that likely.)  

While researching Saab asking prices on CL, I did come across this 5.3L version that is not too bad of a deal. 

Saab 9-7x w/5.3L asking $3,500 w/ 140k    A lot of oomph for the price.  

Speaking of Pontiac G6, this week also has this:

https://www.iaai.com/Vehicle?itemID=32302043&rowNumber=21&loadRecent=True

And, on car-part.com my local JY is showing a trunk lid in black for $175.  Also, 3 hours away there is a silver one for $150.  Might be worth the shipping/travel to save on the painting

The Saab would make a good gastropod entry.

SAABs are difficult because if you need a loan, many lenders will refuse to loan for an orphan vehicle (same for Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Hummer, and Mercury).  Some insurers won't touch them, either.

The hood on that 9-7x is a unicorn, they are normally rusted out.  It's a different part from a Trailblazer, and it is not available new.  Due to being a rust problem, it's also not generally available used.  In any kind of collision that damages the hood, the vehicle ends up being totaled or tied up for months while a part is sourced.... insurers don't want to deal with that, and lenders don't want to deal with cars that can't be insured.

The 93SS should be easy enough to sell on saabnet or similar I would think.

I always liked the looks of the G6 coupe/cab.  Not enough to involve bodywork at this stage in my life though.

That SAAB Trailblazer thing is criminally underpriced given the occasional good things I hear about them.  Buy that.  Even though I'm not a fan of Suddenly Uncontrollable Vehicles much less Cute Utility Vehicles with occasional exceptions for rarity/oddness/it's a Suburban. 

I was behind a 9-7x yesterday.  First one I've ever seen in Canada.

Carry on.

I have one. Great car.  Except if it is the 2.0 turbo they have soft valves that will required a complete head rebuild somewhere between 90-120K  Cost is between $2,000-$3,000 if you don't do it your self.  This is really only a problem in the cold weather and on initial start up.   It will eventually get ot the point where the car will not start if it is under 30 deg.

In reply to dean1484 :

Oooh, scary. This one is 120k so either it has been done or will need to be done. It also gets genuinely cold here.

I don't need a $1k car with a $2k problem.

On a warn day, what should I check for to tell if this has been done yet or not? 

If that engine is the one that is an Ecotec relative, it's not really all that difficult to R&R the cylinder head.

Ecotecs also have "valve problems" but it is mainly due to them not being strong enough to withstand being beat on by the pistons after the forward timing chain guide breaks after the chain beats on it a lot due to the engine being "trained" to run 3 quarts low on oil.

These get valve cupping and looses the seal to the seat. This was a problem with this motor. It was used in the Cadillacs and I think in some other GM cars of the time.  There is a two part YouTube video a guy did of the complete replacement. It looks like a diy job just a lot of stuff has to come apart. There is also some “special” clamp things used to hold the cams in place during the install. There are three different colors each for a specific generation of the motor. These things are not cheep and has been the main reason I have not fixed mine yet. And my daughter is using the car this summer. She is off to college this fall and I am going to tear in to it then and see just how much of a job it is.  

Other than this it is a great car. It is surprisingly quick. Steering  is really good. It has a very high ratio rack in it. 

I like driving it. A great around town car that can carry a bunch of stuff and is fun in the twisty bits

oh. Turning off the TC in the rain is just stupid fun. Obviously SAAB thought was a good thing as the TC button is very prominently placed by the steering wheel. 

Streetwiseguy said:

I was behind a 9-7x yesterday.  First one I've ever seen in Canada.

Carry on.

We had one. Still would if it wasn’t a gm product.  All the saab stuff was cool, the gm parts were lame.  Unfortunately that was most of it.  

Patrick said:

Streetwiseguy said:

I was behind a 9-7x yesterday.  First one I've ever seen in Canada.

Carry on.

We had one. Still would if it wasn’t a gm product.  All the saab stuff was cool, the gm parts were lame.  Unfortunately that was most of it.  

I think your reply sums up the problem for the OP.  He could have a car you can't buy parts for, other than all the GM parts that kinda make it not-a-Saab.  

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

It's more or less a Trailblazer with the ignition lock cylinder in the center console.  Some nicer interior bits, but jeez.

Trailblazers drive very nicely - they're the least scrody large SUV I can think of - but they are maintenance nightmares, constantly eating stabilizer links and bushings and front end parts and brakes and, if you're lucky, whoever is servicing it keeps adding fluid to the front diff because they all heave from the driver's side seal after the axle support bushing fails.  If you're not lucky, the bearings get wiped out from being run dry.  It does not look fun at all to R&R the front diff, have never had to do one because the trucks would get scrapped after the diff went bad.

They do drive very nice, though. 

In reply to John Welsh :

The one my dad gave us has never had the motor opened and has lived its whole life in Ohio, mostly around Cleveland.

I just got done looking at it. An amazingly clean/neat interior. Not a single crumb or speck of wear or dirt. 

First preset on the radio was public radio and everything else was adult easy listening. 

Some exterior wheel well rust indicative of a Cleveland market car.  Very good tires. 

The on board computer told me the wash fluid was low and the right turn signal was out. Ha. 

Maybe

I placed a bid on the Saab.

Here is my bidding logic:

I predetermined a max bid that I am willing to go to. Prebidding ends at 8:30am.  I set my phone alarm for 8:29.  I first placed a pre-bid for $100 less than my predetermined max.  That bid was quickly trumped and I was not the high bidder. When trumped, bids escalate at $25 increments and you have to bid in $25 increments. I then went up the $100 and I was still not the high bidder but the max bid was the exact of my bid.  This tells me that my max bid that I just put in was the exact amount of the previous bidder's max.  In that case, since he bid first, he is the winner at that price.  For kicks, I then upped my bid by $50 (or 2 bid increments.)  This made me the high bidder by one increment and leaves me still one more increment ($25)  of safety.  When the auction goes live, if someone bids up by 2 increments ($50) then they will be the winner.  

I would say that it is highly likely that someone will in fact outbid me when the auction goes live.  I am okay with that since I have actually already bid up more than my initial predetermined max . 

If I win this Saab, my all-in price will be $673.  My goal then is that I can have the car back on the road for $1k.   

The auction starts at 9:30 and given the Saab's lot number it will probably go live just about 10:30am