Well, finally an an area of expertise of mine. And with 215 comments already. What more to add?
I drive my saabs every day. My daily driver is an old 900 turbo hatchback from the 80s. It's a constant work-in-progress as I fix it and it degrades from the beatings and many miles I give it.
I drive my 60's saab on the weekend, rolling around town on a light footprint with a engine that was actually manufactured by Ford for skidsteers, and made its way into Saab because of emissions requirements.
I sometimes drive my convertible, another 900 turbo, though mostly my mother gets the pleasure of using it.
I don't often drive my 9000 Aero, even though it's the most comfortable and modern of my Saabs, it feels like a whale. A fast whale, but I don't drive it often.
I recently acquired a base model 900 from the 90s... It has no turbo, no stick shift, no go-fast-parts. It's such a lovely around-towner I have been driving it any time I don't have to hit the highway.
I love saab. I love 80's saab. I think it's close to my dream car. When I get older, I will spend the time manufacturing upgrades to this vehicle badly needed from the factory. Maybe a better transmission. An improved rear axle would be fantastic. Common failures I have started to meter out with 3D printed parts - and sourcing them from other manufactures.
What you hear about parts is mostly rubbish. Saab made a car, bosch built everything else from the ECU and electrical sensors, to the waterpumps and brake pads. If you get smart you can find and make work crossover bits.
Right now we're trying to locate some VW distributors that have a hall sensor built in for a 4 cylinder. They're fairly close (also Bosch) to the saab 900 (pre 90) distributors, and are still available. If I can make that work on my 900 - we have many more good years on the road.
All in all... ask me anything about saab from the 60's to the 2000s. I've worked on them all and love them dearly.
Your comment makes it seem like you mostly do work with new parts sourced cleverly, rather than my experience growing up. We had a 96 (?) 9000 with 397,000 miles when someone rear ended it to death, and we always went to saab graveyards for parts.
Mostly I do avoid them. I have stocked up on a lot of reman kits - or sourced or made my own. For my 96, which is a 1968, I sourced bearings like normal, and made gaskets by hand. A bit tedious but rewarding. For things like brake calipers, I reman those.
When it comes to irreplacable parts that wear, I gave up on finding new ones for exorbitant sums. The ill fated 900 dashboard comes to mind, baking in the sun. You'll find collectors boasting how their is uncracked, but mine is as well - given 30 or so hours of using a plastic welder and a lot of sanding it even looks half decent.
For 3D printed parts, Jordan Pagano and other have been doing it a lot longer than myself, though I have built out some vacuum manifold pieces that are NLA. In the end - I am more focused on replacing that plastic with something long term. In the case of the vacuum manifold - i took a leaf out of my Porsche 944's playbook and tapped in brass fittings, that don't leak and will never wear out! Another example is the key barrel system, which combines a reverse lockout, and starting functions, and the switch is NLA. I'm now getting ready to order a retrofit keyless fob system. The key barrel will be removed and replaced with a knob that requires no key - and since my door key barrels, and my replacement sets are wearing thin - I found a system that can also send a 12v trigger. That'll be my key going forward to lock and unlock the doors. upgrades people, upgrades...
So, it's fun. It's really fun that saab used similar systems. the Jetronic, K-Jet and others are all over volvo, porsche, saab, bmw, of the 70s-80s-and-90s... Hell my 96 even has a Solex carb...
That's not to say I haven't stripped a few 900s down. I must have a half dozen axles in my shop I rescued, cut up body panels and little pieces scattered - and a very good friend and addict who has about 20 of them in his backyard.
I drive my saabs every day. My daily driver is an old 900 turbo hatchback from the 80s. It's a constant work-in-progress as I fix it and it degrades from the beatings and many miles I give it.
I drive my 60's saab on the weekend, rolling around town on a light footprint with a engine that was actually manufactured by Ford for skidsteers, and made its way into Saab because of emissions requirements.
I sometimes drive my convertible, another 900 turbo, though mostly my mother gets the pleasure of using it.
I don't often drive my 9000 Aero, even though it's the most comfortable and modern of my Saabs, it feels like a whale. A fast whale, but I don't drive it often.
I recently acquired a base model 900 from the 90s... It has no turbo, no stick shift, no go-fast-parts. It's such a lovely around-towner I have been driving it any time I don't have to hit the highway.
I love saab. I love 80's saab. I think it's close to my dream car. When I get older, I will spend the time manufacturing upgrades to this vehicle badly needed from the factory. Maybe a better transmission. An improved rear axle would be fantastic. Common failures I have started to meter out with 3D printed parts - and sourcing them from other manufactures.
What you hear about parts is mostly rubbish. Saab made a car, bosch built everything else from the ECU and electrical sensors, to the waterpumps and brake pads. If you get smart you can find and make work crossover bits.
Right now we're trying to locate some VW distributors that have a hall sensor built in for a 4 cylinder. They're fairly close (also Bosch) to the saab 900 (pre 90) distributors, and are still available. If I can make that work on my 900 - we have many more good years on the road.
All in all... ask me anything about saab from the 60's to the 2000s. I've worked on them all and love them dearly.