My not easy way to Saab
Hello dear community blog, then I would like to line up in the series of Saab Story narrators and my not easy way to the first and so far only Saab reveal.
We wrote the year 1986 and I was in summer on the way to the outdoor pool in Hildesheim, a city that has not been noticed by Saab activities so far. As it is the way 12 year-old boy is, you automatically look at the parked cars on the roadside until my eyes caught on a Saab 900 convertible.
There I stood, saw for the first time a Saab in the dubious color gold metallic and could not do anything with the car. The car had something appealing and repellent at the same time and did not go out of my head. At home I had to tell my father about a Saab - what kind of car is Daddy?
The answer was sobering - this is an expensive Swedish car that doesn't last long ... Despite this sobering answer, I stood fascinated in front of the golden car every time I went to the swimming pool for years.
When the car stopped parked near the swimming pool, Saab also disappeared from my automobile horizon for many years. After I switched to sales professionally, it was inevitable that I saw so many Saab on the highway. I liked the Saab 9-5 with the chrome frame, if it was not chrome ...
Cliché moderately I drove just the typical models of German suppliers, which are just for field workers on the fleet providers and gave me little thought about other vehicles that would not have to order anyway.
This changed suddenly in January 2011. I saw the 9-5 NG on the road and was blown away ...
So the "disaster" took its course and woke the Saab fan in me. I researched the net, went to some very nice dealers and "stumbled" on the Saab blog, which I visit today almost every day. The more I studied Saab, the more I had the desire to own one. Since I was professionally reoriented and hired by a Scandinavian employer, it was very close now finally to implement the great desire in the form of 9-5 NG and for my wife had synonymous something new ago, so squinted at a 9-3 SC.
But there you were again, the problems in life that you do not necessarily expect. The offered at a dealer vehicles were suddenly not available, for others, it did not look better ...
Actually, the Saab Story would have been almost over for me, but the reports of Tom on the blog left the Saab Flame continue to blaze for me. I found it rather annoying, as I finally get closer to my dream car and then go out at Saab the lights.
Defying reason, I continued to search, at least for my wife. After all, buying a company car from a bankrupt bank was more likely to end, but at least it became another Swedish brand. But there was still the need for a vehicle for my wife. But how should I teach my wife to buy a Saab?
There was unexpected support from a car show being filmed north of the English Channel with 3 whimsical presenters and nothing better to do than drop a 3 BMW against a Saab 900er.
The survivability in the Saab was much larger, so my wife agreed to buy.
Just where to get one in the desired requirement with automatic, roof railing and light leather?
After several months and some disappointing visits, we found our copy near A7 at a major leasing dealer. A Saab 9-3 SC in black Bj12 / 2008 with desired equipment and only 38.000km. A leasing returner from a pharmacist from the south who has been our loyal private car since 2012. Apart from a totally distorted track and the typical spring breaks on the front axle, it still runs perfectly.
Only "unfortunately" makes the blog again for consideration, this perhaps against a 9-5NG to swap. And I hope that I can write something later ...
And so I now have to admit that Tom & the blog team can do what only a few retailers do - to build brand loyalty and that with a brand that has fallen into a deep slumber ...
Thanks to Thomas for his Saab Story! This is one of our exclusive Saab boarding files on the journey. Do you also have something to tell about Saab?
Then please be patient ... Because the deadline for submitting our Saab board files was the 31.12.2017. Missed appointment? The next action will definitely come. Before that, however, we are going to release some Saab stories from the year 2017!
Unfortunately, that's Saab-specific. Because there is unfortunately a large number of people among Saab drivers who always talk about the great innovations Saab has brought onto the market, they really know everyone! On the other hand, they are not even able to change a lightbulb because it is technically too "demanding". I know some! People who offered good used Saab engines at a reasonable price and then gave them to the recycler because the “price-conscious” Saab clientele asked for a guarantee and free delivery (at 150 € for a B202 with 120tkm), and no, the sellers did not do it professionally saw this as a service to the Saab community. But at some point you don't feel like it anymore.
According to my observation, there are two types of buyers at Saab: Those with technical expertise who are not interested in either a mileage, the number of previous owners or a checkbook. They buy and pay for the condition. Since one can call his ideas and then discussed with technical expertise if and how the price is in order. With such people you can buy and sell wonderful cars.
Then there is the new car driver who needs something new every two to three years and finds a 9-5 or 9-3 with 150tkm is “a bit much”. They suddenly realize that it is now time to buy a 9k / 9-3I and think the parts can be selected according to the same criteria as an annual car but only want to pay for the used car. Either you pay for the car of the year (which a few actually do, then you might get one of the rare 9k / 9-3I with <100tkm from first hand in the museum condition) or leave it. Then you can still get a very good vehicle, even if not one with which you win the price for the fewest kilometers at the next meeting.
I can no longer follow ...
1.) I also have an old (even a significantly older) Volvo (with 460.000 km, if the speedometer is correct at all ...) and 2.) I don't see the statistical significance ...
How can one conclude from a single Volvo sold and little more SAAB experience that the buyer or driver is “on it”? Especially since the personal experiences with the SAAB drivers are apparently not homogeneous, but rather ambivalent ...
So there are SAAB drivers with more and those with less technical expertise. AHA! ! !
And at which brand would that be demonstrably different? ? ?
At Volvo? Ha Ha Ha! ! !
I have a very good friend who has his Amazon's piston return springs readjusted and the bulb of the carburetor interior lighting changed ...
And what is a SAAB or Volvo driver, if you have both? ? ?
Even Tom (a SAAB blogger) has already made positive comments about at least one Volvo ...
Dear Daniel,
I think that you want to fight a problem here, which unfortunately you are pretty much alone with. I believe it does not exist the SAAB DRIVER you construct. And that's just as well.
If people decide for one or the other SAAB, although they would be open to other things, then this decision is worth much, much more. The article under which we are disputing here as readers is headed as follows: “My not easy way to SAAB”.
That's all, is not it? ? ?
How representative is it to have sold a Volvo without problem? A! Maybe price, color and condition were correct, but not at Saab? I've never had a problem in recent years selling a Saab. There were only nice contacts and a Saab gets you going better than a Golf or other mass-produced.
Of course, it always depends on the one, to meet the right buyer. Because that's all it takes.
Sorry if that sounded too patriotic!
Of course, not everyone needs to find everything great with SAAB. I did not want to express that.
It was still only about the topic "The transfiguration and devaluation of Saab cars in the public media of some countries!"
This is also the basis of your problem with selling a used Saab, for example. Because people still believe the previous “negatives”. And so don't even look at the improved “positive” obituary!
How is the SAAB so “special” in Germany? In our neighboring country, the Netherlands, it is something completely everyday!
Probably the Netherlands have communicated Saab quite differently as a car brand.
Of course, there will be less there too. But how big must have been the number of Saab in NL in the 90ern, if you see loose 10 per day today? And why did so many Dutch people buy a Saab and Germans did not?
Is that really only personal taste?
Or do we start again with the basic topic?
You don't have to apologize, everyone can have their own opinion. The “non-German” car in the local car press is badly received is undoubtedly correct. That's why I don't read the notebooks anymore.
I did not write that Saab as a brand or the vehicles are special, but the potential buyers clientele. Since you have little desire to sell such a car, but rather there is equal to the export.
It's just annoying when you offer a 15-20 year old Saab for sale which is in a really very neat condition (not a museum piece) somewhere between 3500-5000 € and then self-proclaimed "Saab fans" report that unasked the ear is bloody chatting how great the brand is etc. only to find out at the end that 200000km are too much for them, 3rd hand is at least one too many and you are actually looking for a black vehicle and not a silver one. I then ask myself whether a new Golf might not be a more suitable car, and there are friends or psychologists who need more talk.
For other brands, the buyers know more what to expect for a price or whether the state of the price or vice versa.
So when my wife last sold an old compact car or a bike, it was exactly the same. Maybe the buyers are as cheap and used vehicle in general as that? Or at least tend to like that? Maybe that's not SAAB-specific?
A certain price level attracts a certain clientele. And if, as Daniel writes, the price segment is 15-20 years ... then it is particularly bad. High mileage, low price + plus the typical EOL age. But it gets better. At the latest when 25 years or more are reached and the H mark and the classic status beckon.
My (purely rhetorical) questions aimed precisely at these answers. Thanks for that.
Daniel's experiences are anything but brand specific. Not every SAAB driver in this price segment is looking for it. Many pay above average for the maintenance of existing or desired SAABs.
Maybe he would have figured it out on his own? But a few clear and plausible words don't hurt. I think it's great that any clientele with any budget is interested in SAAB. If it were different, I would be sad ...
Well, then the Volvo guys are probably different "on it". Last year I offered a 15-year-old S60 for sale, so not a classic or collector's vehicle, on the contrary. Number of previous owners? No idea was a vehicle originally from Switzerland, was not in the papers, mileage? 337tkm. Condition top (which is not evident from the “data” at first). Surprisingly, demand is quite high. The current owner came by, did a test drive, was thrilled and paid the price without negotiating, which was okay for both of us. In the meantime the car has cracked the 360tkm without defects or major investments and we are still loosely connected.
Mr. Hürsch,
On the one hand, there is the bias that was generated by the targeted disinformation we mentioned.
On the other hand, it is usually fear of partial lack, changes, or lesser acceptance, as an induvidialist.
To properly understand Saab, you can only if one drives, or informed in the right places.
We still have a lot of education to do in society! Only then can we save the last Saab, the scrap yard or the export to the east.
It's not about whether others “don't understand” the brand. If I don't like the curved windscreen or the short wheelbase on the 901, for example, it doesn't really matter whether Saab thought about it, or whether it was intended as an echo of its own origins in aviation. I don't have to decide what others should like to see as beautiful or technically great. Anyone who does not share my opinion has not understood the brand is a bit short. Saab thought something about many things, that's right. But other companies have that too, just because you don't think their ideas are so great doesn't mean that Saab did everything right and the others did everything wrong. There is enough that Saab has only solved suboptimally.
It also has nothing to do with education that Saab vehicles are being pressed or driving east. The Saab clientele is largely, let's say something special ... you notice that at the latest when you want to sell a used Saab.
Great post, read with pleasure. !!
Oh I can understand all of this well. Once infected, it's really hard to break away from the brand. My almost 19 year old 9-5 3.0t has been driving around the area as a winter car for 4 months. In order to get it really winter proof, a lot had to be invested. Now that he's already in a good position, I find myself moving this “outlaw SAAB” (he's not liked everywhere in the community) all the time. The 9-5 Aero station wagon (just retracted at the age of 12) is slowly getting angry and already has cobwebs on the exhaust. A good friend of mine has now also caught it. He was given a 900 turbo two-door in not very good condition in front of the door for nothing. He sent me an email with photos showing the usual rust on the left rear wheel arch. Since he had no particular connection to the SAAB brand to date, he wanted to offer it for around 750 EUR. Of course I couldn't let that go and suggested that he turn the “slightly” rusty 900 turbo into a project. Lets see how it goes on. In any case, he has refrained from selling his products. At the moment he is in a brooding phase (I know that) and the brooding phase is usually followed by a more or less protracted creativity phase. Look here for parts, there look for parts, get offers and and and. The end result is then often a passably renovated old or youngtimer with intake manifold injection and therefore without any major problems with fine dust.
Nice story.
The guys from Top Gear are positively insane. Their relationship to SAAB and SAAB drivers is latently schizophrenic. The pendulum beats wildly from admiration of one quality or another to ridicule and scorn and back again ...
But a similar relationship with SAAB is known from German motor journalism.
Well
Only viewed without pink red glasses ...
It was not all good that Saab did!
All these experiments, for example the car without steering wheel, cost a lot of money and brought nothing.
I find the assessment more honest and neutral than that of many German journalists.
Besides, the translation is more than deficient. In fact, the three Britons praise Saab much more than the German version shows!
The Western Europeans had a much more open connection to Saab anyway than the conceited Germans.
And just this case test and other accidental, have prevented me to try it once with a Munich.
Nothing protects you more than a Saab!
I meant Top Gear in general and not this episode specifically.
As in Germany as well, the current SAABs at Top Gear have been downed rather *.
Posthumously, SAAB is suddenly very great and the motor journalism with praise not so stingy. So here too. Commenting on the structure of an old 900er and the then time-consuming development of an 9000 in retrospect, can now no longer boost the sale of SAAB new cars.
* For example, there was an episode where a “racing driver” drove the 9-5 AERO over the standardized Top Gear course against the clock. The disastrous result (slower than many small cars) was happily rolled out by the moderators and 100% attributed to the car. The studio audience arched with laughter.
The sg racer obviously did not get along well. Ideal place? Hahaha. Including emergency braking on the outer edge and outside of turns! Every Swedish policeman would have been cleaner and faster.
It's nice that the brand is receiving more recognition and fairness posthumously. Better (too) late than never ...
Oh so ok.
I agree with you!
Such as the pointless test: Saab 9.5 Aero against the Harrier! That would probably not even have a Formula One race car made!
But that's the way the journalists are.
For the German engine press I remember a TV report on the 99 Turbo, in which the moderator has mentioned neither the excellent safety, nor the driving potential.
Instead, the high prices blaspheme. And he could not handle the car properly.
Yes exactly. The Royal AF vs. “Born from Jets” and the messed up lap time were the same episode if I remember correctly. It wasn't nice to make fun of SAAB and the slogan. But also positively crazy. A harrier! Just top gear.
The chants and tombs on SAAB are much nicer than the current tests of their time.
In youngtimer tests, a 9000 AERO suddenly has endless power and that already (almost) from the very lowest speed cell. When it was up to date, people liked to write about a turbo lag and praise the German vacuum cleaner. And not because they offered an excellent view of the AERO taillights ...
Maybe you just need a little longer to understand SAAB? Unfortunately too long.
To be fair, there was a problem on both sides. Saab often had ingenious and innovative solutions. Only one communicated this hardly or not at all. Also I experience after 26 years again and again things I did not know before. And yes, it takes longer to understand the brand, but who takes the time?
@ Tom:
Does both sides mean, between SAAB and the journalists? That's probably so. One already has the impression that one did not capitalize on SAAB communication. Not with GM either. The trolls liked to do their thing.
That with the journalism I still find annoying. For example, if a continuous text more or less the opposite of the also printed data (such as the passage of an 9000 AERO) has claimed. Since more money would have flowed and SAAB more ads must turn?
Very nice story, makes you want to put mine on paper ...
With the springs there was / was a remedy in the form of deer. Right from the start in the convertible and no problems. I had not heard anything on 9000 and 9-5 yet.
Hello Thomas, I feel very close to myself and my way to Saab (http://saabblog.net/2015/05/30/liebe-auf-den-ersten-blick-2/). A very nice story, even with the chrome glasses I feel the same way. Fortunately, I did not need to convince my wife first. She said that when she decides on the purchase of a car and also pays, then the most economical mobile subset is sought. Thus it was clear to him who cares about buying a car, who decides and who pays
Unfortunately, I can only confirm the "typical" spring break. I already had 2x in about 15 years (1x Saab 9³ SC and 1x Seat). In both cases, the workshop had only said that this is nothing unusual today. For the workshops perhaps not, for me already very and actually not understandable (probably true to the motto: "What long thinks, brings no money").
One read already more about the spring breaks on the front axle of the 9-3 II / III. But also seems to be a * big * topic with other vehicle manufacturers.
Is it. Across all brands.
Saab 9.3 convertible, year 2006, spring break at approx. 130 000 km. Typical according to Saab workshop.
I am also pleased with every new Saab fan, but I can not quite follow some of his account of his Saab. He writes: Except for a totally distorted track and the typical spring breaks on the front axle, he is still running perfectly.
I wonder what he means typical feather breaks, I do not know that there are such things as typical breaks that should occur more often if not always ?? That with the track is still understandable, a pothole too much or a curb too high and too fast up or down then the track is already adjusted. Who can say a little more about the typical feather breaks?
Nice story!
.... and the 9-5 NG is really a chic and “different” sedan (although I actually don't like sedan that much) ... you can get really weak later!
And Hildesheim baths are not so bad!
PS:
I have also believed for a long time that Tom worked with dealers / workshops / suppliers / Orio & Co. is under a blanket !! 😉
To a large extent, he is also “to blame” for the fact that I bought my last Saab in 2014 and still like to be in this “quirky Sweden”.
(Without him I would probably have been sitting in a “boring” VW or Audi for a long time now.
Pooh - pig! 🙂
I don't quite believe it. In Bremen you already had shining eyes when you saw the Saab 😉 You didn't need a blogger ...
: )
... well, a very, very, very little bit (because without your help I would have either gone to the wrong address or most likely would not have left my provincial nest in the first place).
But you are actually right - the main culprit, of course, is myself ... I “fool” finally got myself into the presentation vehicle there!
After that I almost had sore muscles in my face with a delighted grin. 😉 ;-(