EnG Shopping: Drum Roll please…
Well, we have a winner in the EggsNGrits Saab Sweepstakes.
Let’s review the criteria, shall we?
1. Manual transmission. This is paramount for the fun-to-drive factor.
2. Turbocharged. The winning Saab will be a turbocharged car.
3. In good condition. (Duh.)
4. Budgeted for less than US$6,000.
The winner fits all of these criteria.
I gave a little hint in the post about the peeling badges. There, I noted that this badge adorned the hood of the chosen one:
Do you think that you know what it is? Click to find out…
This is the new EnG daily ride:
It’s a 1999 Saab 9-5 SE 5-speed 2.3l LPT with 93,000 miles (150,000 km) on the odometer. It’s a Texas car (read: no rust), and the Carfax report shows regular maintenance through the car’s life. Charcoal gray interior that is in very, very good shape.
Everything works except the #$@! information display module which is scrambled. I’ll get that rebuilt.
I paid an auto broker US$5400 for it. A smokin’ great deal, if you ask me.
In Cirrus White, it also matches the ‘vert.
And, it also resembles this killer, which will serve as inspiration for mods:
I’ll be picking the car up in a week or so. Vive la C900, but 9-5 rules!!
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Congrats. Nice cars, those 9-5s. My dad drives an ‘01. Silver on Charcoal Leather. He put 17″ BBS wheels on it. Makes a huge difference.
Enjoy the car. I like white. My 9000 Aero is Cirrus White.
~P
congrats!!!!!
all grins for you, Eggs!
Excellent stuff, Eggs. Great price, too. Wish we could do that here in Oz. So much car for the money.
Got plans for it?
Yes, and yes. EnG
It is utterly astonishing how cheap the ‘99 9-5’s have gotten here in the US.
Great car, great choice.
Thanks, Greg. Yes, the car was even a bit below market value because it is a manual (harder to resell) and because I was willing to buy from a no-frills car broker. Plus, I hit them at the right time — they’d had the car a couple of months and I was the only one to even ask about it. EnG
hehe… time to work on the SID with an iron then…
There’s a do-it-yourself SID repair article with pictures here.
And there’s a recent positive comment on this repair site ($70 + shipping): kramermicrorepair_dot_com .
Half of my SID doesn’t work…sort of. The left half works fine, but the right half, though the pixels are all there, is really really dim, like there’s a backlight that’s gone out or something.
Also, hooray for Eggs. I still like the silver 9-3 better, but I like this car too.
I’m curious. Does the 9-5 hood open up like the C900? It looks like a clamshell.
Nope. EnG
Eggs, these guys did an awesome job fixing my SID with a lifetime warranty on the repair. just pull yours out, check the part #, match it to the number on the list, place your order, and send it in. $79 plus shipping and you’ll get it back in a little over a week, good as new.
Very nice car, good to see that all of your time and effort finally paid off and you found something you liked.
Keep in mind if that falls through there is a nice ’92 (bit older than the one you had) Lumina Euro 3.4 just begging for a new home on EBAY right now….
Congrats Eggs. Good looking car at a most appealing price. Enjoy!
Great choice, I knew you would see the light and choose a 9-5
Make sure to drop the oil sump, check for sludge, do a good cleaning and it should last you a long time.
CONGRATS, EGGS!
Now you can stop spending so much
time shopping for cars, and devote
all your time to modifying that 9-5!
Looks a real bargain. I have seen plenty of 95’s here in UK with 100000 plus miles. Should be good for plenty more.
Just watch out for turbo failure common here around those miles and if you are not quick at catching this the results are pretty catastrophic.
Have fun with it.
Nice work EnG. Got a soft spot for a nice car in white myself.
Swade - if you go shopping for a 95 Aero with similar mileage here you can get’em closer to $10K than you might think. Sure, given the exchange rate thats pretty much double your money but its not sheepstation territory either. Crosses my mind about once a day…….
+ Aussies being lazy buggers, the manuals are cheaper than autos.
Eggs,
Great- but you must drop the sump adn steam clean it- adn be sure to spend $50 USD on the Saab breather pipe mod parts - which this car may not have had!
I have only ever seen 2 white niner- fives in the UK, but you have sun so white is good!
Oh and DO NOT perform an engine flush - you will distrub all the sump crap and it will rise up and blow your turbo and or head…
Enjoy - it should last
Well done EG, we knew it was just a matter of time ! Congrats.
“White is the new black”
I saw an interesting piece on “CBS This Morning”, it seems White is now the #1 color for new cars, displacing silver as the former #1 and black as #2. That came to me as a big surprise.
So it seems you are “trendy” haha!
Nice car BTW, great combo with charcoal. Not many cars look good in white IMHO but 9-5 does it well.
Enjoy.
BEAUTIFUL!!!