Otter 74 - Saab Report?

[1990C4S]

Originally Posted by Otter74

Picked up this a month or so ago to replace my Honda Accord (I know, that makes a ton of sense)

(photo taken before it got thousands of miles of dirt on it)

Let's have a report please...

[tcar]

Loved my SPG... great car.

[Steve Carlton]

First new car I bought was a 1980 900 Turbo 3-door black on red. Great car; too many small issues.

[Otter74]

Had a great and totally event-free 3000-mile trip home with it - buying a car on the west coast was part of the whole point for me, as I love the west and wanted a road trip, and starting out there saves several days' getting there. Picked the car up in Vancouver, took the ferry to Nanaimo and drove down to Victoria, took the ferry to Port Angeles, visited Olympic NP, spent 5 days in Portland with friends, drove to Denver to visit friends with a stop at Spiral Jetty, and then home.

The car is in really good shape, with only minor issues. The odometer started getting intermittently sticky at the beginning of the trip, so I've been fastidious in tracking mileage (I'm going to pull the cluster out next week to check for broken odometer gears). The temp gauge indication was giving me some cause for concern on the trip but after some text exchanges with the PO and internet digging I think it is just a sensor issue. The AC works as well as '80s Euro-car AC can be expected to work, which is well enough but it feels like you lose 20hp when the compressor goes on.

The one thing I'm really not happy about is the suspension tuning - the car came to me with Intrax lowering springs installed and KYB GR-2 shocks, and while sure, the stance looks great, it's maybe oversprung and definitely underdamped for the springs it has, with poor body control. And it is a pain over speed bumps. I got the car with '89 SPG springs, the stock ECU and injectors and a spare mirror (the car has a Jack Stoll ECU, high-flow injectors, red box APC, and a later water-cooled turbo). I am going to start installing a set of red Konis tonight, and will probably put the stock springs on in another week or so. I'm working on cleaning and conditioning the back-seat leather, and there is a healthy oil leak that is probably the clutch shaft seal. I also love the look of the Euro lights, which were standard on Canadian-market cars. The reflector on the lamps need to be re-coated - it's going to be difficult to find a place that can do this right (so I may just DIY it), though that is still easier than finding a replacement lamp. The OE cassette deck barely worked and when I stopped by a Saab guy leaving Portland to pick up some misc. parts, he put in a modern stereo so I had music to listen to on my drive home. But to me all that stuff is just 32-year-old car stuff, and it's obviously a drive-anwyhere car. It's fun to drive except for the crappy suspension tuning (soon to be fixed), very comfortable, and I like the way it stands out without drawing attention to itself. It's also freaking huge inside - obviously I knew this (it's one reason they were on my shopping list), but it's rather fun. cargo area is 42" x 72" with the seat folded down.

Correcting the suspension is my main to-do; I also have replacement wheel-lip moldings and will get the paint buffed out (swirl marks), fill in a chip in the LHS headlamp lens (dammit), clean up the leather, and I think that's it. Otherwise just drive it when the occasion calls for it. I don't drive for daily getting-around and mostly use this slot in my fleet for road trips. I'm going to the Leelanau Peninsula in MI for LDW and it's a tossup whether I'll take the 911 or the SPG, but at least now that I have the SPG, if I decide I can't take the 911 for some practical reason or another (usually because it doesn't have enough room), I won't be hating the drive because I'm driving a really-nice-but-super-boring Accord. The car is fun, practical, has a clutch pedal, and is reliable, which were my key criteria for replacing the Beige Transportation Appliance. I'm also trying to break myself of being a "keeper" of *everything* - yeah, I'm keeping the SE-R and the 911, but this can be a rotating slot. Maybe in a year or two I'll decide I've had my fun and go looking for a 745 Turbo or an E34 Touring or whatever I want to try next. Or, hell, if I decide I really would like to have *one* modern Japanese car in my fleet, there are a squillion of those and I can go guy a Mazda 6 wagon or something. But for the time being I'm sure enjoying this!

It's perfectly rust-free and while I can have it coated I'm not sure I'm willing to drive it in the winter here (even as little as I drive, which in the winter is largely one trip to Detroit and one to Atlanta) so I'm going to make sure the SE-R is good to go for winter use.

[Otter74]

One more photo, at a Modernist icon at the end of a long dirt road in the middle of nowhere: