Viggen update - que sera sera
On Friday I accompanied my insurance assessor to the repairer’s yard so that he could have a look at my Viggen.
An hour or so before I that, I received a revised quote for the repair work. The initial quote that I received came in at $14,500 and at that price it was approaching the crossroads. The revised quote included some things that I pointed out were missing, like repainting all four wheels if they buy two new ones, and the fact that they couldn’t replace just one rear damper. Add in those and a few others, and the quote crept up to $18,000+.
After the session with the assessor, the quote was pushed up to around $20,000 - and all this is just an estimate. A best case scenario. They’d have to strip out a fair bit of the car and put it on an alignment jig to really know what’s going on.
Add all this up and it looks like the Viggen will go to auction, probably to be picked up by local Saab nut, Drew B, and added to his project collection. He can do a lot of the work himself and will likely cut that repair bill down to just the jig work and a few parts.
I’ll most likely take the payout, apply a large majority of it to our home mortgage, and then pick up something to play with. We have a really active car club here in Tasmania called Club Motori Italia (CMI). They enjoy a few hill climbs, motorkhanas and training events (the Viggen was damaged at one of their training events!) and are a great bunch of guys.
The car I have my eye on is an Alfa Romeo 33 16v from 1990. There’s currently a couple of them for sale in Melbourne so I’ll probably head over there in a few weeks to do some shopping 
CMI actually held a Motorkhana event today and I shot out to Baskerville to have a look. It’s an Italian car club by name, but they attract a lot of different vehicles to their events. Today there were 4 or 5 Porsches there, including an RS and - believe it or not - a Cayenne Turbo. The guy in the Cayenne Turbo also had his son bring the family’s 911 turbo. Nice family.
They had a training event in the north of the state earlier this month and had this car turn up, which was a surprise as I didn’t think there’d be any of these in the whole state!
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As for Saabiness…..well….
I’m still going to have the 900 Aero. I was originally going to sell that in order to buy the Alfa, now I get to keep both. The Aero will get some love and attention as there’s some things on that car that need to be tidied up.
We’ll also still have the 9000 CS in the car port. It’s going for repairs this week too after my wife had a minor accident in a car park last month. That’s been a great car for us, though I wouldn’t mind replacing it with a 9000 Aero.
Maybe next year.
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Maybe this is a win-win outcome. The Viggen can be picked up for a song by Drew and put back on the road, and you’ve got some options now. I keep thinking of some old ketchup commercial lyrics: “Anticipation, anticipation…”
Looks like Saab is pondering options too, 2 or 4 doors on the 9-X here at Edmunds.
Never a bad think paying down the mortgage….
On the “chicken beemer”, what is it under the car? A reflection or is something stuck?
Drew,
A heavy burden rests on your shoulder…
If their is one person that should buy the Viggen its Drew.
as has been documented before on this site; his silver 900 was in far far worse shape than the Viggen is, and knowing the attention to detail that went into that the Viggen will rise again..
a.
Sorry about the Viggen swade.
As to the Edmunds thing, Saab would be pretty stupid if they didn’t make the 9-1 in both 3 and 5 door versions. Judging by the the A3 and the BMW 1 series ( which only comes in a 5 door in Australia), it’ll probably sell about 60/40 in favour of the 5 door, but that 40% of 3 door buyers is worth having. Going the other way and only selling a 3 door, would give them the same problem as Volvo has with the C30, and they’ll lose a lot of potential 5 door customers.
I really hope someone at GM makes some sensible decisions where Saab’s concerned, unfortunately for most of this decade, that hasn’t been the case.
cj it’s a cone.
Yeah, the 9-1 HAS to be available as both a 3-door and a 5-door. It all has to do with markets, in Europe and elsewhere, 5-doors out-sell 3-doors by a healthy margin and there’s no doubt whatsoever that a 5-door car would be a better bet for those markets. The fact that Volvo is working on a 5-door C30 says everything you need to know about what the 9-1 will need to be successful in Europe.
At the same time though you have to consider markets like the US, where people buying small premium hatches tend to skew towards the driving enthusiast side of things. A lot of those buyers would find a 5-door 9-1 to be dowdy and un-sexy, while at the same time they’d likely fawn over the more stylish 3-door. The success of the 3-door mini and 3-door GTI compared to the clubman and the 5-door over here is a great example of this. Since Americans are finally warming up to the idea of small cars, a 3-door is a must for the US market.
Now given the flexibility of the Delta II architecture and the fact that you can get an Astra in 3 and 5-doors, it’ll be pretty much inexcusable for Saab to only offer one or the other.
Bummer for you. You’ll get yours in the end, but I know this meant something to you.
Swade - I know we share a common endearment and warmth towards Alfa Romeo, but as a Saab blogger, aren’t you going to blur the lines a little bit pottering around in that 33 boxer 4-cylinder - is this the one with twin-carbs or fuel-injected? They had a Q4 in there as well in some markets, right?
I don´t get it. If you love Saab you drive Saab. I guarantee that you will have huge problems with your Alfa, the old ones just isn´t made of good quality. Then when it comes to safety…..
Why is there a picture of the Devil’s bread van on this website?
That ‘thing’ in yellow- pls remove all evidence!
Alfaissimo I can handle, the Bavarian bakers van- nine danke!
Did they sell the 164 Q4 in Australia? That would be a cool way of driving an Alfa that still won’t make you feel bad about not driving a Saab, you know, because you’d still be driving one…
Devil’s bread van, he he
The Alfa’s a 1.7 litre boxer, 16 valve, fuel injected. Makes about 137hp in stock form but I’ve plans to warm it up to around 150hp straight away. That’ll put it in 900 Turbo territory but with just over two-thirds of the weight.
As for reliability, these are the last of the boxer engined Alfas. They don’t have any of the rust problems of the 80’s Alfas and the engine technology was pretty well ironed out, too. It’s like a 9-5 nowadays not having any of the issues that might have hit earlier ones.
I’ve learned the hard way that throwing one’s treasured Saab around the track can have dire consequences. I’d like to do more grassroots motorsport stuff, though, so an inexpesive Alfa seems like just the tonic.
Oh, and it’s not a dead certainty that Drew would buy the car, but I’m pretty sure he’d be thinking about it. As AlAero said, he’s the one guy I know who’d definitely do the car justice.
And Ted, I see you finally got a photo of your 96 flying through the air for your avatar
Get a 99. I’ve finally been able to drive mine around for a few weeks, and it’s simply the best car I’ve ever driven.
…That Alfa is ugly. I’m sorry.
This sucks. Well, I guess it won’t be too bad if Drew picks it up, but still.
I agree with Mag-X, find a 99.
I just got into an accident. $2400 repair on a car worth $2000. But that’s nothing, my Saab was worth $1000 when I got it, and by the time I sold it, I had spent about $3700 in repairs on it.
The Alfa ain’t no supermodel, that’s for sure, but it’ll be fun for what I have planned for it.
If a black 99T became available and the seller was willing to negotiate a deal for a 900 Aero then I’d be all ears (hint hint, Brendan
)
And if it wasn’t an Alfa (and money in the mortgage) then it would have most likely been something other than a Saab anyway. The What if list had the contents of my car list for the future.
No love for the Fiat 20v turbo though, eh? I would have thought an Italian 5-cylinder turbo hatchback would have been a shoo-in for any Saab person…
Can’t get ‘em here, but not too interested anyway.
Aside from the practical reasons, its’s hard to believe you’ll be without a Viggen. For now. I have confidence you’ll keep an eye on the ‘net for a used Viggen. May a mint Viggen (selling for an unreasonably low price) pop up on your radar some day soon.
Swade,
You have been told before mate- put $10,000 aside for osteo and chiro practitioners bills after you have spent 60 minutes in the Alfa’s seats. Oh and you;ll be needing a new hip afore long as the short leg, long arm knees in the air splayed crouch will knacker your pelvis.
Still, at least its not a bread van…….