Saabblog.net: Action winter quarters

I like old sheet metal ... especially if it's from Saab. If a Saab 900, a Saab 9000 or a 9-3 of the first series appears in one of the online portals - and it is still first-hand - then the big brooding begins. Usually common sense wins, because we already have four Saabs in our fleet and the 9-5 has to give way for a new Saab project. Usually…

A few weeks ago, a Saab 9000 CS appeared in Munich, almost 20 years old, so a classic car. First-hand with less than 100.000 kilometers on the clock. First-time 9000ers can be found again and again, because the clientele was highly Saab-loyal and could do little with the successor, the Saab 9-5. The weeks passed, and the Saab was still for sale. The price was lowered, and somehow the Swede did not go out of my mind.

Okay, no turbo, no leather. For sunroof, cruise control, continuous checkbook, the proven 2.3 liter and a blue velor interior. With the engine I had already made 1992 acquaintance. I had just changed my job and ordered my first Saab. Since it took a while until delivery, I got from the dealer 9000 CS with just this engine. The weeks with the 9000er I still have a positive memory, the engine is quiet even without turbo and pulls through well.

And how about the blue velor? At the end of the 90s I got a white Audi 100 with a blue interior from my employer at the time. Somehow I always liked bold colors and I liked the combination. One more point for the Munich Saab ...

The impetus to act was a friend who - presumably annoyed by my Saab stories - said I should "finally buy the thing" ... "before he becomes a winter car somewhere". Winter car! In my mind's eye I saw the Saab plowing through snow and ice, unloved and neglected, eaten by road salt. After 20 years, the cultural heritage was already rolling and as a Saab member it is a species worth protecting. Can that be?

So the following plan was developed: buy the Saab, prevent it being abused as a winter car. Then over the cold season put away in a dry hall and in the spring looking for a Saab fan who knows how to love and appreciate the Ersthand 9000er. Sounds good, right? As it is with plans. They sound good, but they are sometimes unrealistic. However, I suppressed this at that time still successful. Only my family, who knows me better than myself, will have guessed what's going on.

Time to act. The contact with the seller was made quickly, pictures sent back and forth, data exchanged. I've probably bought too many cars in my life. Buying a car makes you distrustful. I was in pouring with a good friend years ago to buy a Saab 900 Turbo. The seller had praised the car in the highest tones, and also the ambitious price spoke for a neat, good car. On site was a rusty, oily cart. A situation that every used car buyer knows, and it was not the first, completely pointless, road we'd taken in search of a beautiful Saab.

The pictures of the Munich 9000 were too good and somehow unbelievable. In addition, there was a comprehensible stamped checkbook. The Saab had really got its inspection every year and every four or five thousand kilometers of fresh oil. After I got photos from absolutely all perspectives and despite intense searching did not want to show any real damage, there was only one thing to do. Let's go to Munich!

So flight booked at my favorite airline, with the crane, and with friend Achim on in the Bavarian state capital. What we expected there I will tell tomorrow.

Text: tom@saabblog.net

Image: saabblog.net