This was my first foray into running a modern(ish) car as a daily driver, the idea being to
relegate my 122S Volvo to part time use.
From what I remember, I found it in the local Autotrader, and even though it was a bit of a trek, I hauled myself upto Oldham in Manchester to inspect
this Swedish beauty. I wasn't too disappointed either, especially bearing in mind that it was 12 years old. The body was overall in good nick, and mechanically
sounded as sweet as a nut. The turbo kicked in with the required oooooommphhh, so as per normal when viewing a car, I bought it. Next day I went back, used £20s
burning a hole in my back pocket, and brought the 3rd 900 Turbo back to base.
In hindsight this was probably the best compromise I have had - it was big enough to carry mountains of junk, was quick enough to have some fun, and was well built
enough so as not to offend my critical eye. Thats not to say life was always plain sailing of course.
On one of my Goodwood jaunts, I coasted to a halt from 85mph on
the side of the M27. A quick dig around soon highlighted the lead which had fallen off the fuel pump. Another more irritating trait was its random desire to cut out, then cut back in
again a few seconds later .. or sometimes not cut back in at all ... serious aggravation, finally traced to a duff ignition module on the n/s inner wing .. ahh the joys of modern cars.
Even more alarming was the day I lost myself in a cloud of steam, caused by the head gasket blowing in spectacular style. Not having much free time (we were tidying up the new house)
I foolishly entrusted it to a local yokel country garage. Never before have I seen such lame handiwork, their reassembly following a head skim was appalling, old gaskets being reused and blocking
the exhaust and inlet ports, leaky exhaust, and so on - and their customer service defied belief. At least that taught me to avoid this place in future - I carted the car back home and reassembled
it myself, properly. From then on it was fine.
Early on in my ownership, probably c1997, I left it parked outside my girlfriends pad overnight. Next day I came out to it, and the hatchback was wide open and someone had nicked some stuff out
of the back .... this was the day we'd decided to go out for the day to North Wales, but things had not been helped by the family of motley cats which had taken up residence in the car overnight, leaving
some very distinctive smelling 'calling cards' to greet us with in the morning. I don't think I ever did fully shake the ransid smell of mangy moggy from the upholstery.
The only other highlight of my SAAB ownership came later that same year. Usually with SAABs of this era you have to put the thing in reverse before you can remove the ignition key. However mine was a bit worn.
Normally I'd park in gear anyway, but one day I forgot, just relying on the handbrake, which operated on the front wheels and was at best marginal. So, one day in September I parked as normal in the work
car park and sauntered into the office. 2 hours later, as I was downing my 3rd cup of coffee machine sludge, a security guy came over and asked if I owned the white SAAB parked in the far carpark. I was thinking that
maybe someone had broken into it or something. But no. Alas as the front discs cooled off, the handbrake relinquished its hold, and the car trundled down the slightly sloping car park, in to the back of a parked car!
Fortunately it missed the new Mondeo and Laguna parked close by, but sadly it had managed to impale itself into the back of a shiny new Porsche 968 Club Sport.
And not just anyone's shiny new Porsche, but the Managing Director's no less! And to put the icing on the cake, someone had parked in the space I had involuntarily vacated!
So it came to pass that cap in hand I went to speak to him, and explain the rearrangement that the
SAABs hefty bumper had made of his shiny body coloured rear bumper. In actual fact his bumper was only scuffed, but he wanted it replacing anyway, so my insurance company
foot the bill of £1,500.
I kept the SAAB til 1999, when I then replaced it with another complicated modern, this time in the shape of a BMW.
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