How I got bitten...

So, how did I get the SAAB bug?

Well, my dad had three of them in his life. The first was a dark red 5 door 900 turbo - registration PLW 454W. I have many vivid recollections of this car, the turbo implementation in particular was savage! I can still remember the kick up the backside as it kicked in while overtaking etc. - that was fun!

As you can see from the photo on the right, that car also had massive rear headrests!

He sold it in 1985 and PX'd it for an Austin Montego estate, B331 PLY, which was a terrible car!!! It had several things go wrong with it in the short time he had it, namely a bearing problem on the drivers side front wheel which meant the car whistled and whined horribly when you went around any corners. Despite having it "fixed" several times, the problem never went away, and so...

1987 came around and he returned to the SAAB camp with E79 FLX, a dark grey 9000SE turbo automatic. That was a beautiful car! Leather, Walnut, Trip computer, the first car I'd ever seen with climate control... She was also very fast (175hp and 201 lb-ft) although it wasn't quite as uncouth in the delivery as the 900 was! One fond memory of that car is my dad deciding on the day we picked it up that since it needed running in, the best way to do that was to get on the M25, stick on the cruise control, and go all the way round several times! This was 1987 remember, before the M25 turned into a car park! Anyway, half a day later and the car had loosened up nicely... Well, that was his excuse for spending all afternoon behind the wheel anyway!

That was the first car we had (this is a sign of it being in the 80s!) which got fitted with a car alarm! The in car audio system of E79 FLX was totally over the top - 3 DIN units, tape, CD, and pointless 15 band equalizer. It was a very nice Blaupunkt system. Anyway, one day in Wandsworth and the car was broken into in a big way. The ACC unit was destroyed, the walnut dash needed replacing (which funnily enough at the time was the most expensive bit to be fixed!) and a new audio system was fitted. If I recall correctly (I was only 12 at the time!) it was a £3,000 insurance claim! Ouch!

During that time we had a caravan as well, and so the 9000 was really battered over several family holidays through France and the rest of Europe, with a ton of caravan behind her! Consequently by the time my dad got rid of her in 1993, at 90,000 miles, she was on her second turbo, second gearbox, and the exhaust manifold had gone on several (loud) occasions!

She was part exchanged in 1993 for a white 9000CSE (2.3l non-turbo) - however we sold that one as my dad passed away about a fortnight after delivery. I don't have any photos or other details of that one, although I do remember being a bit disappointed that it didn't have the turbo and wasn't as quick as E79 FLX had been!

Having grown up with those two SAABs, I'd had a hankering for one for years! It wasn't until May 2003 that I bought my first, N932 HOR, a '96 9000CSE 2.3 FPT auto. The Tardis!