Though I am not a true Saab nerd, I have owned more than 20 different Saabs in the 30 years I have been driving. The first was a 1977 99GL 5 door stick. This car was amazing in every way. My father lost control of it in the snow on a trip from Seattle to Sioux Falls. He spun out in Montana on I-90 at about 60 and ran into a guard rail. You would think this would be the end of this car, NOPE. He backed it up and got out to see the car had a bent bumper and broken headlight, had a Billy Idle snarled if you will. Hey jumped back in and finshed the trip. He then drove it back to Seattle. Many years later my mother was in the same car and was rear ended at an intersection while she was stopped. The 1967 Buick hit her hard enough to push her forward more than 30 feet and the Buick drove up the hatchback and was sitting on the roof. Again this was not the end of this car. It dented the hatchback and broke the tail lights as well as breaking the seat pins that held the fronts of the seats in the car. It took me about 20 minutes to fix all of the damage and we kept driving it. That first car had more the 250,000 miles on it when it finally blew the motor.

Since that first Saab 99 I was lucky and was able to learn at the knee of the best Saab mechanic ever, Rob at ScanWest (Saabmasters) in Seattle. I learned all of the ins and outs of these cars. I spent years just learning and helping him for free. One of the greatest guys and crews ever.

Fast forward many years, we have had everything from a 1971 99 auto to a 1998 9000 CSE. In all of the cars that we have owned, I have had one blow a motor, one blow a water pump, one blow the pinion gear, and one that had a lower control arm give it up. We have had ones with as little as 60,000 miles to as many as 300,000 miles on them. I now currently daily drive Volvo P2’s, S60 & V70XC. However, we still have 3 different 9000’s and 2 classic 1994 900 Convertibles. One of them has 112,000 miles and the other has 92,000 miles on it. My family has never In nearly 30 years ever not owned a Classic Saab.

The issues discussed here are not the norm by my experience over these 30 years. If I find the heater controls not working, I pull the drivers front speaker and reach in and reconnect the universal joint. It is known to fall off or in some cases break. The CV joints, in my experience, are rock solid. I have only ever replaced ones on my 9000’s. Never on any of the 99’s or 900’s that we have owned. So I am not saying that these problems are not out there, I am however saying that I have never encountered many of these issues. My family has driven at least 150,000 mile on one of the 99’s.

As far as collectibility goes, GOD I HOPE THEY BECOME COLLECTIBLES SOON. I know I have been offered more than $10,000 for each of my 1994 Convertibles and won’t take it. I just pulled one of them out of storage for the last 8 years and thru the key in and jump started it with 8 year old gas in it and it ran like a top. Now days if you are thinking about buying one or trying to get in while they are still reasonable to buy, keep in mind that parts are hard to find. It can be a couple hundred dollars to get the parts to do a tune up. So look up parts costs and availability where you live. As I have said, I am lucky and am a Saab mechanic and do restore these incredible cars. I buy cheap, fix, restore, and sell for way more than I probably should. The good news is that until a person gets in and drives one of these classic, they have no idea what they are missing. I would still jump in my beater 9000 with over 250,000 miles on it with all of its rust and mismatched doors and drive it cross country without blinking an eye. I would jump in my Convertible that has been stored for 8 years and drive it anywhere without worry. These cars are just amazing. Extremely under rated.

Oh and if you are looking for a faster car from 20mph to 60mph, you ain’t gunna find one. I regularly would out accelerate any super car when pushed in our 1989 Turbo 900 hatchback. That car was killer and would impress everyone. The thing was that it had 220,000+ miles on it at the time. The only car I have found more comfortable on long road trips is my Volvo’s.

So in all honesty, if you can find a good clean unit at a price you can afford, BUY IT. If you do you proper research and can turn a wrench at a basic shade tree mechanic level. If you can find a good source for parts at a price you can live with. YOU WILL NEVER BE DISAPPOINTED.

I’ve owned more than my share of Saab 900’s and have repaired them. My purpose in writing about the Saab 900 was not to extol the virtues of the car — or to defend or sell the car, which is apparently the tone of your reply. It was to notify potential buyers about what they may encounter.

Thank you for your correction concerning the pedigree of the 5 speed (I was quoting a Saab employee). However, your other comments do nothing to inform potential buyers of what they can expect. Regardless of where it was designed and produced, the 5 speed transmission is not reliable. Any reader need only go look for a Saab 900, read the advertisements and take note of how many of them have transmission problems. Read: Buyer, beware of the 5 speed. Check it out thoroughly. It is a weak design. OK?

Furthermore, my point about the 3 speed stands. The gearing is too short legged. Driving in normal freeway traffic between 3000-4000 RPM is not a good experience. It’s loud and uncomfortable. You’re being defensive trying to dismiss that fact by arguing that selected other cars share that defect. Seriously?

The heater valve. One bright and sunny cold morning, Saab owners may begin their drive to work and smell coolant inside the cockpit. When the owner turns the heater valve to increase the temperature of air to warm the inside of the car, they will note that the dial seems to be connected to nothing. There is no resistance. And they have no heat! Welcome to the well-known heater valve problem. (this has zero to do with the heater core) I’ve replaced that part myself and it requires removal of the dash to be done correctly. Period. Again, buyer beware. Check the heater control operation. Many people don’t. Even if it does check out, don’t be surprised if it fails. It’s fairly common.

The automatic seat belt tensioning system: Modifying the vehicle restraint system, to address a design defect is not intelligent. If you do it and someone is injured in an accident, you deserve the lawsuit that is coming. Repair the unit that came with the car.

Plastics. The point stands. Buyers, observe the bumper plastic. The metalized trim around the windows, The door trim. The dash.

CV joints. The point stands. CV joints are one of the first things to inspect.

I also reiterate the positives about the car. The car, besides these and other well known faults, is one of the most beautiful cars I’ve ever owned. The feel of the structure, the visibility, the handling are simply wonderful. If I could find a great example of a Saab 900, I would buy another one.

Wow! That is some serious Saab knowledge, Paul. Thanks for giving us your insight about these under-appreciated cars that deserves a lot more respect than what they receive nowadays.

There is some incorrect information in Peter’s comments above.

First, the 5 speed transmission has nothing to do with Britain. It was designed and assembled in Sweden, by Saab. It is a decent enough transmission, but can fail with hard use in turbo models and pinion bearings (upgraded to larger ones for 1989) can fail beginning around 150,000 miles. Many last over 300k if driven nicely.

The 3 speed automatic was a Borg Warner design used in everything from Studebakers, to AMCs, to V12 Jaguars and postal Jeeps. It is quite reliable if given frequent fluid changes (15k). It was produced in the US and later, for European cars, in Britain, which is probably why Peter thought the 5 speed was built there.

Yes, the automatic revs high at highway speeds, but so do most 3 speed automatcs. Remember that this car was introduced for the 1979 model year and like many automatic transmission cars of that vintage (e.g. VW Rabbit, most American cars, etc.) had only three gears.

The plastics used on the car were no different than those used by other makers. Have a look inside and you won’t notice any more fading than other cars of the era. The door panels are especially good, while the dashboards crack like many 70s cars do. The seats are well known for being comfortable and well-made, both the in-house seats and the later ones from Lear. Headlner fabric will eventually fall.

Heater valves do fail periodically but are easily accessed through the speaker grille on the dash. Heater cores almost never fail.

Automatic shoulder belts were only used in part of ’87, ’88 and ’89 production until airbags came along. Most people replace these with the standard seat belts from earlier and later years.

CV joints were made by GKN/Lobro. Excellent quality German joints that are found on top quality cars.

Also, I’m not aware of any strikes at these plants in the ’90s. I could be wrong but I did know a company manager and I think he would have told me. The only change with the 1990s models is that the addition of airbag and anti-lock brakes made the cars just a bit more complicated so some people prefer the earlier cars with mechanical (Bosch CIS) fuel injection and fewer gadgets.

There is a 1989 with over 1 million miles at a Wisconsin auto museum. Original engine and two manual transmission rebuilds. They’re very tough cars. I have kept at least one of them around for the last 25 years.

Truly sad for a unique company that was going strong but eventually failed. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Peter. Hopefully others will learn from Saab’s downfall.

And I hate it. Saab executives amassed a record of mismanagement and poor judgment that surpasses that of almost any other car company. In the hands of Saab management after 1989, the Saab 900 was exactly like a Stradivarius violin in the hands of a gansta rapper. In the early 1990’s strikes and other discord resulted in the production quality of the car going downhill.

The car has so many boneheaded design failures. The use of a British transmission – two words that should never appear in a sentence together (“British” and “transmission”) – resulted in common failures in the 5 speed transmission. Pinion bearings resulting in difficulty getting into gear and eventual failure are common. In a move of dazzling stupidity, Saab used a 3 speed automatic transmission resulting in cars that cruise at normal freeway speeds pushing 4000 RPM because of a lack of a tall gear.

Dazzlingly stupid.

Plastic on the cars were cheap and susceptible to UV fading far worse than on “normal” cars. Saab 900’s are famous for heater valve failures – owners would experience an inability to adjust the cabin heat and the heater valve was placed far inside the dash requiring an expensive replacement. For years, Saab used an automatic shoulder belt tensioner that was prone to failure and expensive to fix, low reliability CV joints, poorly designed interior door panels and seats and more.

Still, these engineering failures could not overcome the basic beauty of the car and it’s solid feel — two of the fundamental qualities of the brand that Saab executives flushed down the toilet when they completely changed the body style in the mid-90’s. When I think about the Saab and how it might have evolved, the old adage truly does apply: It was a story that makes you sob.