(first posted 7/24/2018) I received my driver’s license on my 16th birthday in the fall of 1985. Just like Samantha Baker, my dream car was not in the driveway either when I awoke that morning although on the bright side my family did remember that it was in fact my birthday. However, 32 and a half years later, the same exact car that I was hoping to awaken to was next to me at my local gas station in Northern Colorado, being driven by a pleasant bearded fellow…
Oh, what would I have given to be able to pilot a new 1986 Saab 900 Turbo into the school parking lot that day. But there was no way that was going to happen at Casa de Klein, not that car, not any new car, not at that time anyway, the $19,000 base price in late 1985 dollars was well out of range. Still, this was one of the cars I was in love with at the time and spent a fair amount of time at the dealership looking at. Dark red over tan leather, three-door, 5-speed manual, turbo, what could have been better?
Powered by a turbocharged 2-liter 16V 4-cylinder engine producing 175hp and backed by a 5-speed but only weighing around 2800 lbs, these could really scoot back in the day. Front-wheel drive, excellent visibility, and a wonderfully upright seating position made for excellent all-weather capabilities along with all-day driving comfort.
Looking inside brings back lots of memories, I’d spent lots of time trying that steering wheel on for size while gazing at the gauges in the showroom of Livingston Saab/Peugeot/Pontiac on Topanga Blvd in Woodland Hills (Wow, that dealer kind of chose the trifecta of doom, didn’t he?). The little turbo gauge at the top right of the panel, everything else arranged just so nice and high without anything buried way down low, the stick shift falling to hand just ahead of the ignition between the seats…
This particular example showed a bit over 210,000 miles on the odometer, chatting with the owner while we filled up revealed that the engine was original, but the turbo had likely been rebuilt along the way. Back then the turbo on this engine was only oil-cooled and not yet water-cooled. He also told me that last summer he had driven it all the way to Alaska (and back), he wasn’t 100% positive it would make it, but it did so without any trouble.
The icing on the cake for me was probably the wheels. While not original to this car as they date from an earlier year and weren’t offered anymore for 1986, this style, named “Inca”, is one of my favorite alloy wheel designs of all time and was introduced back in 1977 on the original Saab 99 Turbo at the Frankfurt Auto Show. They were then used on the 99 and 900 Turbo until the early 1980’s. It’s a nice touch to see them on this particular car.
We finished filling up at around the same time; I heard him twist the key and the engine started right up with that characteristic Saab burble. He put it in gear and pulled out ahead of me, doubtless enjoying driving what should have been my car (dammit!). Who knows, if this had in fact been my first car, my COAL series may have been a very short, one-post event instead of what it turned out to be and I’d still be at the same gas station at the same time but filling up this car instead of a different one.
I drove several V4 96s in high school and college, I also lusted for the 900 Turbos back then. Bought a 1989 turbo convertible as my weekend car just a year ago. Worth the wait.
Beautiful colour and I also love the styling (even with the big bumpers) and the aircraft-inspired interior. But mine would have to be an automatic as I’m just not interested the least bit in rowing my own gears.
Even those sheepskin seat covers are aircraft-like. Boeing uses sheepskin upholstery in their flight decks, as you can see in this photo.
You might not miss much with the automatic. I can’t speak for the 900, but the shifter was the weak point in the manual 9-3 I drove. Vague and rather rubbery. One letdown in an otherwise excellent car and brand in general.
Problem is, those old Saab automatic trannys were supposedly true shit boxes
My older sister had two of these back in the 80’s, when we were both in high school. (She wrecked the first one. Well, she wrecked the second one too, come to think of it, but I digress…)
I wasn’t quite old enough to drive them, but I rode in them quite a bit, and what I remember most about them was:
▪ the super sturdy tank-like feel of them combined with the amazingly comfortable & supportive seats.
▪ the very convex shape of the windshield…almost like a half-circle arcing outward. Kind of bizarre!
▪ the enormous cargo area when the back seat was folded down. You could put a queen-size mattress back there! (And I’m sure she did sleep back there a few times on various trips to the beach…)
The first one was a medium blue with blue cloth seats & an automatic and was a great and reliable ride.
The second one was maroon with black leather & a stick. For whatever reasons, the second one gave her no end of trouble and when she ended up totalling it, she switched to Honda and never looked back. SMH.
Best looking Saab ever along with the convertible of the same gen.
There is a guy that lives in my area with the twin of that car. I always see it at my local thrift shop. The car is clean inside and outside.
Looking at the older fellow in the front of that car trying to fill up his Honda van, I see one thing that I always wish the US. Govt. would pass a law requiring all car makers to have the gas tank filler door on the same side
This gas station gets crowded in terms of demand but the hoses are long enough to reach around most vehicles. So if the side you’d prefer has a line (which happens often), many people just use the other and do the reach-around. It’s a regular thing at this station as opposed to most other stations I use.
The layout is also a one-way deal which helps the traffic move through pretty well.
Wow, who would have thought – Jim Klein and JPC having the exact same taste in cars during one short little time period in history. 🙂
I was deeply, madly in love with these in the late spring of 1985. The only difference was that dream-spec involved paint that was black, not red, and those 3 spoke wheels. That $18k + price tag proved to be a problem for me as well and there was no way that a basic Saab 3 door was ever going to do it for me after having driven the Turbo. So I moved on as well. It was probably for the best.
I did carry a huge torch for the SPG version that you described but I was wiling to concede to the regular 900T16 if it would help put it in the driveway that fall. 🙂 My generous concession did not in fact change anything.
I think the SPG 3-spokes are my second favorite Saab wheel and one of the VERY few 3-spokes that ever really worked on any car.
As I recall you ended up with a new VW GTI at half the price and I saved my pennies and bought my ’79 Mazda 626 from my dad for $3000 or so.
Well the GTI came in at about $12K which was still kind of a lot for what you were getting. I think this was about what my mother paid for a really well equipped Crown Victoria that year. So the VW was not exactly a screaming bargain, but it was a payment that would keep me out of the soup kitchens (which is where I might have spent some time with that Saab Turbo out in the driveway).
But you would look gooood pulling up to the Soup Kitchen in your black Saab while holding a matching lawyer briefcase. 🙂
Believe it or not, the basic Saab 3 door was a very rewarding car to drive an own, even after having driven a turbo. My dad had a 1984 4 door turbo and I loved the turbo surge, but when he bought me a car, he ignored my pleas for a GTI and bought me a base 1988 3 door which I loved for 5.5 years and 97,000 miles before I moved on…
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1988-saab-900-a-bit-slow-but-is-an-18-year-old-going-to-complain-about-getting-a-brand-new-car/
Beauty of a Saab, and nice find and write-up! Having read your posts and COALs before, it doesn’t come as a surprise that this particular car caught your eye.
I had a ’99 9-3, the soul successor to these, and it was an awesome ride, turbo and all, but ultimately, it was just to expensive to upkeep. Now that I’m more mechanically inclined, I’ve thought about acquiring one of these as a project. Of course, it’d have to be a convertible with a stick!
Jim, as sweet as this Saab is, you’re not fooling anyone here with your quip about it perhaps being your one and only car had you acquired it at 16. We all know you’ve got a lustful eye – at least as far as cars are concerned 😉
You have excellent taste in dream cars. These always looked very intriguing in my early driving days, though they were exceedingly rare in our (domestic-heavy) area. And you’re right: those are cool wheels.
As for your poor orphan-brand dealer, they really should’ve capped things off by buying a Sterling franchise.
My inspection guy has a convertible in his collection it rarely moves between my visits, Electrical gremlins have rendered it dead, though he says it will run but not reliably enough to use it, the car belongs to his partner she collects cars he collects motorcycles, its a great place to go for safety inspections I never know what I’ll find lurking in the parking lot.
For me, it was 1983 or so, and Cooke Motors on Centre Street in Calgary. I probably wandered in to drool over a Jag or a TR8, but it was these that really, REALLY caught my attention. The very Scandinavian functionality of the seats and dashboard, the immense room inside, and the oh-so-logical way the doors wrapped UNDER the rocker panels to keep the winter road muck away from your legs.
As I remember it, my Saab lust was such that I once considered an early 70’s 99, a lime green sedan. It was all my limited budget would allow, so it’s probably for the better that my senses kicked in when I realized how deeply the rust had penetrated, and how badly it ran. I moved on…but I’ve never forgotten.
Engines on these cars are practically indestructible – not at all unusual for them to still be spinning away for decades and hundreds of thousands of miles. The real question is how many times the transmission has to be rebuilt or replaced. Unfortunately compared to the rest of the car the 900’s transmission might as well be made of cardboard and tin foil.
Love it! Simply perfect.
I have always loved this car. In fact I have been keeping an eye out for one in the Bay Area. Ironically the Bay Area was like ground zero for Saabs in the 80’s just as it was for Bimmer 320s and 528s, along with Benz 300 diesels, yet you can’t find any of them except the 300D.
I remember seeing my first 900 Turbo back in 1978 shortly after it was being launched.
Totally rare sight back at the time.
The 900 was painted in that famous green color they used for the ads back in the day.
Strangely, what caught my attention first where those gigantic rear headrests in garish green velours that looked like huge rolls sitting on the top of the backseat (back in those days rear headrests were the insignia of true luxury cars)
And yes….just like Björn Borg who was winning all those Grand Slam titles at the French Open and Wimbledon the 900 was “Super Suede” 😉
Thats basically what much of the rest of the motoring press was thinking…the 1978 model was basically a revamped version of the very old 99 in order to please US car buyers…
…
Speaking of tank like build quality
And every once in a while some early 900 Turbo pop up for sale at a hefty price
https://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=265454598&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&isSearchRequest=true&makeModelVariant1.makeId=21800&makeModelVariant1.modelId=3&maxFirstRegistrationDate=1980&pageNumber=1&scopeId=C&fnai=prev&searchId=c1e0caca-aa3e-71ac-dbeb-ad05367fe950
That “Saab throb”, as we used to call it, really was distinctive. The original-equipment mufflers seemed to have a central role in it, because as these cars grew old enough for factory parts not to be used (or not to be available), the throb largely disappeared. It could be roughly approximated if the owner intentionally or inadvertently chose a muffler that let some sound through, but none of the aftermarket mufflers seemed to come close to matching the sound of the genuine article; it’s been many years since I heard a car make any but a bare shadow of the real-deal Saab throb.
I have never been in one, and I am not sure I really desired one personally, but these were very desirable cars, a great combination of practicality, uniqueness, and sportiness. You couldn’t go wrong driving up in a Saab, Turbo or not. The convertible was perhaps the peak of cache in the mid-1980’s, esp. since you could tote around 3 of your friends in one.
Great catch!
I had to look up Samantha Baker. I did see the movie when it was new in the theater, and certainly remember Molly Ringwald, but don’t recall the character’s name or any Saab in the film. I was no longer a teenager then 😀. I did test drive a new 1986 900 though, sans turbo. And not red. Not for me, for my Mom who was in the market for a new car at the time. The last Saab I’ve driven, preceded by a two stroke 96, a 99 EMS, and a 99 Turbo. Ive also driven at least one Saab era FWD Malibu … does that count?
Ha, well there wasn’t a Saab in the film, I think she had wanted a black TransAm…it was my own 16th birthday I was referencing there. Although this Saab would probably run rings around that TransAm as well as Jake’s red Porsche 944 (sadly equipped with an automatic)… This is the kind of useless crap I can recall at a moment’s notice these days. But never the third item on any three-item mental list of things to get whenever I go to the hardware store. That memory doesn’t come until just after I pull back in my own driveway.
Seeing this car reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when Jerry was buying a similar Saab from David Putty. Rattling off the charges, having “keys” was considered an extra fee.
All kidding aside, a buddy of mine had a similar model. It was a blast to drive, especially when spooling up the turbo and getting a noticeable kick.
Peak Saab design if I may say so. Back when I was in high school this car would have been just 4-5 years old. Back then a friend of a friend gave me a ride in his parents very similar model but painted the deep blue requisite at the time. When I commented how solid the Saab felt he told me something I would never forget. He said that same Saab we were driving was deliberately crashed into by a young women attempting to take her own life. Thankfully the Saab protected everyone so the worst injuries they received were some bruises and a sprained ankle. He said the young women was in the hospital for a while and didn’t know her status. I asked him what was the other car that hit him and not being a motorhead he didn’t know. He said the other car was so mangled Fire Fighters had to use the Jaws of Life to get her out.
Fresh out of high school, 1988. . . I bought a nice ’82 900 Turbo. Black with maroon velour, manual sliding steel moonroof, 5-sp (yes, a little rubbery feel to the shifter, but I won’t have a car any other way than three pedals), turbine style alloys. Loved that car and so many great mam. . . memories! Used to wind it out on the highway when traffic was sparse. 85mph speedo, but math on the tach said 115-120mph if I recall. Damn, I miss the 80’s.
The 900 was a useful update, but I’ve long had a thing for black 99 Turbos with the crazy orange interior.
MInd you, I did have a thing for Agnetha Fältskog back then…
I had the Sonetts and something small, light and agile was what I wanted, but after a while you become known in the area as the SAAB guy and anyone with a SAAB for sale brings it to you and wants you to buy it. That’s how I picked up a black ’85 900 Turbo SPG ,complete with the spoiler, three spoke mags, and louvers on the back window. Great car, cavernous interior, leather seats. I love the Inca’s on yours, had a set and put them on a ’71 Sonett.
Wow, different car, but same year, similar thing happened to me a few months ago, also in the Costco gas station lot. I was filling up my sister’s Impala, right behind me pulled an ’86 Alfa Romeo GTV6. Not normal for me, I had to go up to the guy to admire his car, he offered to find one for me, guess he was well connected to the Alfa owners in the area, I thanked him but told him that ship had sailed (at least for me) awhile ago, though I admired the car it wasn’t quite in my wheelhouse these days. It probably wasn’t even really in 1986 either, that was the year I spent a sizeable amount of time looking at different cars, even different types of cars than I normally would have considered while looking for another car (it ended up I got an ’86 GTi). Even test drove a Bertone X1/9 and Toyota MR/2, which I ruled out (don’t know why I drove both, it was clear they weren’t for me).
I really would have preferred a 74 or prior GTV, those are near unobtanium now and prices reflect that….but I guess part of life is what you see and maybe have some regrets from…when viewed from the gas pump at Costco (or some such vantage point).