Ouch! That hurts, to look at and to contemplate: this is the last Saab 99 on the streets here, to the best of my knowledge. And I just shot it right here a week earlier, still looking great. This is the same car that I first spotted in a driveway off the alley on this block, so when it showed up here, I was all excited to shoot it properly. And then this: another Saab story.
This is how it looked just a week or so earlier, when I caught it on my daily pre-breakfast walk with the dog. A few blemishes, but very solid and intact otherwise.
This somewhat cryptic note was under the wiper.
Here’s how that front corner looked before it got hit. Looks like the leading edge of the hood has seen abit of wind in its day.
The interior looks commensurate with the exterior: solid with some wear after some forty years.
The back seat looks even better, not surprisingly.
A common sight here in Eugene: parking passes for the Country Fair.
A wee bit of rust on this wheel arch. I shudder to think what a 99 that spent over 40 years in the Rust Belt would look like.
These 99 sedans have really grown on me. back in the day I thought they looked a bit dorky compared to the fastback hatchback. That was of course what came to be the definitive 99/900 body style, but there’s some quirky charm in the sedan.
And now it’s been spoiled. What a bummer.
I prefer to remember it like this.
What a shame such a straight an clean car for its age, it was the first Turbo car in Ireland when I was a mechanic 50years ago.
It was emitting clouds of blue smoke due to failure of the turbo at the time.
It was a very responsive car with excellent acceleration.
It is doubtful if any parts are now available.
Just a flesh wound any half competent body man could pull that back into shape, install some more lights and good for another few years
Yeah, this is minor damage, only the front needs a bit of hammering.
For the rest: just get a good used fender, bumper and hood and you’re good to go. Nice oppurtunity to get rid of the US spec headlights, too.
Don’t think used parts for this are going to plentiful nor cheap. Never mind trying to get the euro spec composite headlamps. And look at those lights. They ain’t what was stock!
The “before” pic shows (cracked and otherwise degraded) Hella H4 and H1 conversion lamps in place of the original sealed beams. Are you seeing other non-stock lights? I thought the stock park/turn lights had an amber lens for the turn signal and a colourless one for the parking light like the 900s—that’s how the rest-of-world lamp was configured, as there was no amber bulb approved in Europe until decades after these cars were built. But these on this car look as if they could be original equipment, and an image search confirms it; amber bulbs were readily available in the American market, and these have the amber side reflex reflector often absent from aftermarket modified-style lights.
Daniel, about that “no amber bulb approved in Europe until….” thing, ever since you mentioned it last time you’ve had me wondering. As originally released, I’m sure the Ford Capri Mk 1 had an orange bulb behind a clear lens for its front indicators. Or was that an orange filter between the clear lens and the bulb?
Not trying to correct you, just curious.
The UK didn’t join Europe until 1 January 1973, and didn’t require car lights and bulbs type-approved to the European regulations until 1 April 1985. The four images here show a UK-market pre-facelift Mk1 Capri (amber bulb behind clear front indicator lens with no E-mark); a European-market pre-facelift Mk1 Capri (amber lens), and close-ups of the lenses themselves. The amber lens shown here has an E-mark.
Aha! Thanks.
Not much of any such opportunity, really; the European headlamps for these went out of production many years ago, and all known stocks were depleted by 2003 or so.
The UK mandated orange turn signal lamps on the front around 65 why do I say that you ask? Well my 66 Hillman Superminx MK4 has different front park/indicator lamps than the preceding 4 year models its got an amber lense inside the light unit and seperate park light, and are very hard to replace the lamp lense is angled where the previous models were square on,
Lucas wouldnt have bothered making them if there wasnt a regulation forcing it.The MK4 model appeared September 65 and ran in wagon untill 67 when the Arrow body wagon appeared
Insurance would undoubtedly total it out. If the owner likes it enough (s)he could buy it back and salvage it, though parts would take some effort to find.
But in its already-neglected condition, I doubt that will happen. Probably bound for the wreckers.
It was just aging gracefully.
I’m with kiwi and MB on this one…that’s totally fix-able. Parts shouldn’t be hard to find out in that corner of the country as I know that one could easily source those out here in this corner. I just hope that this car doesn’t have to become the parts source for someone else’s 99 and that it can be vice-a-versa.
That said, what for many of us might be a couple of thousand in labor and some time spent by the owner hunting down the parts and the right person to do the work may well be over and beyond what the owner of this car can (or wants to) manage. Who knows? Hopefully Paul will get to see what happens…and maybe even get the story behind the cryptic note.
Definitely, I would love to hear the rest of the story when it hopefully has a happy ending.
Such are the dangers of using an old car and even of parking it curbside, as it’s possible it could have been hit while parked. I hope the owner is motivated to get it fixed properly. I think there is a good chance of it, as even in Eugene, nobody drives a 40 year old Saab by happenstance. I would think it has to be a deliberate choice by an enthusiast of some sort.
At the very least, an impoverished but motivated owner could bang it out, make the lights functional and keep on driving.
I’m going to assume that its owner has plans to rehab it. It makes me feel better to operate under that assumption. It looks like a pretty well-loved survivor. Those few pre-accident blemishes are just the effects of time marching on, but it was in great shape before this mishap, had all of its trim, no apparent deferred maintenance, etc., so I’m just going to believe it’ll get a little facelift and be back to puttering along blissfully.
I am not sure I had ever noticed the 2 door sedan body style before. While 900s were moderately common in the midwest in the mid 80s, the 99s were always pretty rare.
My “99” is Barbara Feldon from “Get Smart”
Oh wow! You just made my heart skip a beat!!!
In the winter of 76-77 I was planning to buy my first new car. I was a couple of years out of university and my Alfa Berlina was getting dangerously rusty. I narrowed down my choice to either a Saab 99 like this or a BMW 2002. I really liked the Saab, and it was probably a better winter car, but I ended up with the BMW. The 3 series had just been introduced and there were only a couple of 2002s left in Toronto. I picked one in inka orange and kept it for over 30 years.
Bought a new ’73 99 in Feb of ’74. Loved that car. The later 99s had a clear turn signal not the 2 tone Euro type, I also had a ’77 99 a few years ago (pic). Very hard to find now the clear type lenses now. I sold my last NOS clear one to a guy on SaabLink about 5 years ago.