At home on long journeys. The SAAB 9000
The worry of an automotive defect, it is omnipresent in my subconscious. Shaved spur gears. Timing chain breakage. Failure of the gasoline pump in the Swedish wasteland. Cable break on the TDC sensor. Let's leave that.
One reads a lot and half knowledge from the net is not conducive to the concern. Especially for an amateur screwdriver and technical autodidacts.
Man of constant sorrow - Alison Krauss & Union Station
My 9000 is an everyday car. I have no other automotive redundancy. After the Talladega pilgrimage to Trollhättan, I thought if he could make it and get us home safely, on his own axis, maybe then, a new mission. Older Swedish metal again, either a first or second generation 9-5 estate car or, more than ever, a VOLVO. Thank you for the new knowledge about the 850. (Thanks Tom)
Why these doubts? It's getting harder and harder for me to keep the 25-year-old 9000 entertained and mobile. Is it basically okay to expose an 25 year old swedish exotic every day to the stress of the A3 in the Rhein Main area? Ok in the sense of economic, but also in the sense that the passion is a real, real time eater?
Claim and no alternative, these are the terms for me when I SAAB and my 9000 define.
They lurk behind every corner.
The own claim to keep the 9000 running, but to invest again. But to leave everything in its original state and - as far as possible and your own abilities allow it - to do it yourself. And if you can't do it yourself, go to the SAAB service in Frankfurt, because only original is legal.
No alternative, because (for me) everything else is not mobile passion. No matter if it is another SAAB, chrome glasses or a 9-3 sports suit, there is nothing tingling with me.
No alternative, because he would have to be gilded already. 9000 driving is not always economical.
I still have a word for you on 9000. Automobile nonconformity.
Back to the concern. It was and is my wife who persuades me with confidence. Why should the 9000 (as the SAAB in the family-internal linguistic usage is not intended for the public) not bring us safely through Sweden? He is holding on, the whole journey through Sweden and also back home. (You had almost everything repaired (or repaired and spent a fortune)). She calls the dogma, what I carry with me, a self-confirming prediction. And I should stop it.
And you're right, it does not do justice to the 9000. He does not deserve it. We are now almost two weeks on the road and are just before Trollhättan. And what is broken? One of the two bulbs of license plate lighting. It must have failed on the trip through Sweden, mid-September 2016 has put down the 9000 a flawless HU.
The 9000 works like clockwork, as Olle Granlund wrote about the three Talladega 9000. Whether on the long route, on crunchy, winding, long-visible country roads, on gravel roads, deep through Swedish forest and lake landscapes.
Do not stop believin - Journey
For the statistics and to complete my last post. Throughout Sweden I have not seen any other 9000 1991 or earlier. General 9000 density so far: Less than ten pieces. It dominate 900-II and 9-5 model years to September 2005
But, SAAB is omnipresent in Sweden and they drive. At the IKEA Museum in Älmhult. As a very well preserved 900-II in the trend color brown. Or as an exhibit in the Motor Museum of Motala
Feeling that every fourth car is a SAAB
Finally: the 9000 has mapped two thousand kilometers on its DCC instrument yesterday since it left its Hessian homeland ten days ago. Two thousand kilometers, yes and further? Where's the punch line?
There is none. I am the happiest 9000 driver in Sweden. Because he drives without grumbling and growling.
Because a SAAB is there to drive, not to stop.
Have a Little Faith in Me - Joe Cocker
Next stop: Trollhättan
I don't quite understand why this article is being written. The Saab 9000 is a completely normal everyday car / youngtimer. It is neither particularly exotic nor particularly “special”. Front-wheel drive layout, bread and butter rigid axle at the rear. It is very reliable, similar to German vehicles of its time. Qualitatively mixed (you can sometimes see the GM red pen; especially in the interior, the haptics and quality of the materials; especially where you can't see them, it rattles properly ...) it doesn’t match the German competition approach.
But, as I said a normal car. Relatively easy to repair. Average. I do not like Saab drivers and garages making the car into a great science. To hang the exotic stamp for him.
Fix an old jaguar. Or a Maserati Biturbo from the 80s. Or even a 126 Benz with its complicated Bosch K / KE jetronic. that's more like great science ...
Anyone who drives such a snazzy and extremely rare 9000 Turbo S in public every day deserves proper support - the car should be taken out and kept, especially because it contributes its (and an important!) Part to the traffic backdrop.
Another make would go down much faster - a 9000CC with spoiler kit is what I probably turned around the longest.
Worthy Saabansbraten.
Thanks, Thanks, Thanks, the 9000 and I feel flattered. Soon more on the way and of course from Trollhättan.
Greetings, Thorsten
The color of the MY98 900 II is not chocolate brown, but copper bronze.
I have my 2 before 4 Mon. SAAB (9-5 2.3t combi 2002) bought. However, the NEN has a new engine. My last 19J. old 900 has taken a dealer with kissing hand.
At that time, I stepped out of the ADAC, because I never lay down with SAAB.
Unfortunately, these cars are not built anymore because they were just too good.
I do not like the scrap of today
Hello Thorsten
Nice report, thanks. 2 questions remain open: 1) How many miles did your 9000er run? 2) Waiting for the resolution to the black Talladega 9000er?
Also drive a 9000 as a daily driver, but from 1992. I have already been to the festival in Trollhättan 3 times with him. Gives from Switzerland about 4000 km. So don't worry and enjoy your 9000, Daniel
Hello Daniel,
Thank you for your feedback signal! My 9000 has 199.000 miles on the clock, I had thought that we would crack the 200.000 miles with the roundtrip through Sweden, but we will return by ferry and therefore it will take place in the hometown at home. Unfortunately, I do not have any prior owner documentation to write anything more about the accuracy of this mileage or about any replacement scenario for the transmission or engine.
The resolution to the car no. 4 is in the next post, until then I wish you also a relaxed and confident dahingleiten in the best car SAAB has ever built.
Greetings, Thorsten
Thanks for the article! Wanted to comment recently wg. the Saab density in Sweden; which in my view (I live in Sweden) has become much smaller in recent years (where have the cars gone, maybe some have been sold to Poland, I am also often there and I often see Saab 9-3 and much less often 9-5). Of course you can still see Saabs, mostly 9-5 or 9-3. Even when it was still Saab Cars, it was not so good for the company in Sweden, the market share was getting smaller and smaller and the 9-5 NG could not change it (sold also not very good). Anyway, there are still people who keep older Saabs like the 9000 in good condition. And I imagine that costs a lot of time and energy. Would be interesting to read the car sometimes own article!
Good evening Arndt,
Thanks for your comment. I like to write something about the 9000 in a separate article, in general, I hope that I can stimulate the interest in this unexciting model with the series of contributions something. Greetings, Thorsten
Don't drive yourself crazy 3 years ago I bought another 901 with soft turbo. The next day after the delivery, I drove through light snowfall with good summer tires to the city, where I have lived since then. On the way back it was pitch black, still light snowfall. The trip went back and forth over 15 km. On the way back I had to run up a mountain serpentine. No problems, although this 901 had been standing for 1 year or more. The seat heating did the rest, making the journey as usual pleasant for me as the driver. The next day he got an oil change and WR came on it ...
Hallo,
For almost 50 years I've only had Saab's and now my last copy is almost over due to the negligence of the previous owner. And while I would have wanted to do more doctorate on Saba. So my only interest is in the future. Will there be another “restart”? I heard something about a new model in 2017 but I would like to have more information about it so that my hope stays in life.