Black Forest meeting …… .twenty years after …… ..
In many Saab circles it was rumored again and again! Saab caravan on hard shoulder on French motorway. Closed roundabouts, destroyed green plants at Baden's landladies, Rastatt Castle. Wonderful tarte flambée from Gerd and his lovely helpers, and lots of drinks.
Old Saab 900 in its purest form and mostly in excellent condition. Still facts or legends?
I was there. The above is true. So a Black Forest meeting was decided at the Karlsruhe Stammtisch 20 years later on September 25th, 9.2021. Fortunately there were still old mailing lists and so you could invite them.
So on Saturday, September 25th, 10 a.m., meeting point in Forbach, in the middle of the Black Forest. The parking lot was full, mostly old 900s in all variations. There were even some participants with the original Saabs from September 2001 among them.
Very sustainable. That would be something for today's green marketing.
Everyone has gotten older, some with their Saab, some have not been seen in ages, others again and again at meetings and at regulars.
A well-known Saabler even traveled from Kiel (was also there in 2001). It started, what a soundscape in the Black Forest nest. The old divas mumbled on, the drivers grinned inside and it was narrow, bumpy, winding over the Rote Lache to Baden Baden and across there. I was nervous that we would all lose, but the trip through the fine city went well in a convoy.
Further west to the old drawbridge in the style of the Eiffel Tower (rivets and steel girders) near Rastatt and we were in Alsace.
The Super U First stop in Seltz to get food.
Then you saw the hungry and thirsty women from Saab together with Saab people rushing into the market to get tasty food for the picnic.
We continued on well-built, empty country roads, in which you could see the Saab snake in wide curves, via Rödern, Seebach to Hunspach, one of the most beautiful villages in France.
There is a nice parking lot at the cemetery, which is very worth seeing (Cemetery anyway, and today the parking lot too).
So, the old boxes parked, everyone was thirsty and hungry. Garden chairs, picnic blankets and glasses out, plus the delicacies from Super U and there was munching, drinking and gossiping in the best weather ...
So the time passed.
Then hood diving! For the ignorant, the opening of the huge Saab hoods with examination and control of the normally covered. The cleanest engine compartment came from the Allgäu, the dirtiest will not be revealed. Time passed again, everyone chatted and drank.
The early evening came, and it was decided not to go to the vintage car flea market in Hördt, or to make a round of curves in the Northern Vosges.
But…
Have a nice finish drink and drive the same way back over the railway bridge to Forbach in the beautiful Black Forest. There in the district Lungenbrand in the traditional economy for Ox enjoyed another hearty dinner.
Then you heard the rumble of the engine again and a final wave from panoramic windows. That's it
Not quite. Only 140 km driven, 25 Saabs, most of them older, 42 passengers, and of them 5 or 6 who were there in 2001 and still have the same Saab.
That Saturday in September wasn't bad.
Reads great. Many thanks to the author.
The “Roadbook” is charming and was definitely worth a photo. If no graphic artist created it, then probably someone with a design background? In any case, someone with style.
The sustained participation in the same Saab as back then is also cool. It's very Swedish. At least it was once. Until the 1990s, I always saw sprightly men and women there driving 20 to 40 year old cars with great pride. Obviously well-kept first owner. No disposable items, but something that, for once, had been indulged in many years ago.
This attitude has earned the Swedish auto industry a reputation for long-lasting products. It's a shame that that is no longer a criterion today. I don't believe for a second that hectic model changes, a higher frequency of consumption, scrapping premiums & Co have relieved the climate and the environment in the last 30 years. And I don't believe for a second that it will be fundamentally different from now on, that we can now really (EV) consume the world in a healthy way - the more, the earlier and the faster the better ...
I miss this reverence for goods that have already been produced, which at that time probably did not follow any environmental considerations. It was just logical - more or less natural, that one encountered a high level of effort with long-term appreciation. This seems to me to be more urgent today than ever before.
Preferably 3 "thumbs up". Speaks to me from the heart. Talking to 2 colleagues again yesterday, both of whom bought an EV with the rhombus from the PSA group. "The batteries are guaranteed for 8 years!", but the two do not intend to drive their EV for that long. "Let's see what's in 3 years". And my 9000 1998 CSE is now approaching 320000 miles and still driving. But like me, it is “from yesterday”. But with EV you feel "sustainable and environmentally conscious", you "save money too" and "in 3 years we will be technically even further".
Give you 3 thumbs up too. For the long-cherished 9000 CSE alone. But also for what has been said ...
I know exactly this attitude you described from parts of my environment. In fact, one person has declared the 3-year cycle to be the principle and the upper limit not only for cars. Espresso machine, television, washing machine or whatever ...
Everything is thrown out after 3 years (cell phones and laptops every 2 years) - for fear of defects and for fear of missing out on participation in technical progress. That is certainly an extreme example - it is already manic - but in rudiments you can find it one way or another under many roofs and in many heads.
The fear of neglect is a powerful driving force behind consumption. This fear is rarely logical or justified, but it works. You can only get from A to B in the latest car and only on the youngest and largest TV with at least 4K resolution can you even guess a picture. That the old favorite DVDs that are watched up and down on this one don't even begin to keep up?
For free ...
You'd definitely be missing out on something if you weren't one of the first to buy the latest and hottest shit.
I fear that the entire sustainability debate suffers from this misconception.
Really nice event, gladly again
Now I stood on the hose for a while and had to research the bridge. In my head there was a drawbridge at a castle to be pulled up, sometimes there is also on rivers, ... ok, meant the bridge where the train goes over it, ... in my head a railway bridge! 😉 Although no train is running here, the rails are still partly there. Nice that the old riveted arched trusses have been preserved.
With old SAABs on the bridge there is double sustainability! Nice event!
Greetings to the Black Forest!