A sedan works currently, but a hatch would be much easier and comfy for the animals. I take them with us a lot. Miami is pretty dog friendly- you can take them to a lot of places.

A coupe would not work- I don't want ot try to coax them to jump in that little space from the folded back front seat to the back.

The reason I drag my feet is I have time. We are going month to month on the accord lease now that it is up, and our payment on that is stupid low, so I can watch and wait for something close to ideal.

I had a 2000 5-dr Viggen, sold it for $5500. It is a very fast car on the highway. Going around turns is a little harder, its very easy to spin the inside whel. Torque steer is significant. The dog fits in the hatch area perfectly. The seats are very comfortable, though there is not a lot of room in the back.

The wheels bend very easily. Also, the front spoiler is very low - need to be careful on driveways and especially in parking lots with those concrete stops.

Our biggest problem was getting it serviced. Dealer was expensive and did not seem particularly competent. Not many independent shops work on Saabs.

-David

My Viggen was my second favorite SAAB.

First was my 91 SPG. Great car. Not quite as fast but handled great.

Carried a washing machine in the back once.

Don't take this too personally, but older Saabs are some butt ugly cars IMO.... Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. :D

eh......:D


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1242690633.jpg


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1242690648.jpg

This is a Viggen:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1242698800.jpg

I don't know what you're looking for...

I have been looking into purchasing a Saab 9-3 Viggen, preferably in Lightning Blue. However, since this will be my only car, I would also like to have the 5-door model (just for practicality reasons) despite the fact that I like the 3-door's looks much better! (I could deal with a 3-door if I absolutely had to! haha!) So, my question is: does anyone out there know if a 5-door Viggen in Lightning Blue exists? I've only ever seen one picture of such a car, but I don't know if it was a repaint or not... And if this car does exist, how rare are they, and where could I (if at all possible) find one?

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My first car was a 85 900 turbo. They were just figuring out the whole high engine output/ front wheel drive thing. Did a little research on the Viggen and the way they "fixed" the torque steer problems with higher horse power front wheel drive cars was to electronically limits the revs in the first few gears. ??? Doesn't seem like a great solution for a sports car.

They didn't limit the revs, they limited the max torque in first and second.

Not noticable. Trust me, I had one. Crazy acceleration.

The 'Lightning Blue' was ONLY available in '99 and was only available in the 3 door. ALL '99 Viggens were 3 door and ALL were Lightning Blue.

However, beginning in '00, there was a blue similar to LB that was available with a 5 door. However, it was not available with the Viggen.

So, if you're stuck on a Viggen and that color, in has to be a '99 3-door.

I had one... wonderful car.

Good info, including cars for sale at: saabnet.com.

I'm a big fan of Saabs. In my mind, they come pretty close to being the do-it-all in one package car.

Things to look out for on these cars is oil sludging. I would go so far as to remove the oil pan and clean it out fully before doing anything else. There's also a retrofit kit for the PCV to help reduce oil sludging.

The other big thing are ignition cassettes. They tend to fail without warning and are kinda pricey.

The torque limiting is to prevent wear on the gearbox. And yes, they have stupid fast acceleration.

These cars really benefit from bigger sway bars and stiffer springs. Stock, they have non-existing steering feel. Changing all the front bushings to polyurethane transforms the feel of the car.

The torque steer problem is fixed by re-inforcing the steering rack where it bolts to the firewall. You can install a pre-made brace to fix this. I welded gussets into mine. Really made a big difference.

The earlier cars had Trionic 5 engine management (red ignition cassette) which can be easily tweaked for higher boost pressure. Do this with a port and polish, open up the intake and exhaust, adjustable fuel pressure regulator, bigger injectors and you have a stupid fast car.

The later cars use Trionic 7 (black ignition cassette) which really doesnt give you much options for tuning except re-programming the ECU.

Thanks Jared,

I'm also a big SAAB fan

The 99 Viggen had the trionic 7 cassette (mine still failed, but it ran...).

The 2.3L is the 'sludge' engine, but that's what the Viggen has.

The 'Viggen Rescue Kit' from Abbott Racing is a VERY worthwhile addition to the Viggen... transforms the handling.

Abbott Racing - Viggen Rescue Kit (LHD Cars) (SAAB 9-3)