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Re: Buying a Used Saab
Posted by Alex J Todd (more from Alex J Todd) on Mon, 3 Jan 2000 21:56:04
In Reply to: , Kok Chen, Sat, 17 Dec 1988 12:00:00 

About the HVAC system in the 'classic' 900s:  It is operating properly.
Those center vents blow cold (outside) air in the winter, and cold
(air-conditioned) air in the summer.  Saab's reasoning for this is that
these vents can deliver a cold blast to help keep a tired driver awake.

I don't know anything about dome lights falling out.  My old 900 had the
dome light screwed into the headliner right above and behind the driver's
door.  My dad's '87 had a center-roof dome light, but it never fell out.

The knob to the left of the steering column controls dash illumination. 
Mine rotated, too.  Many times I tried to pry off the knob cover to see
if I could tighten it, but couldn't budge it.  There's another
potentiometer in the instrument cluster that controls illumination of the
instrument lights.  The other knob in the instrument cluster sets the
clock.  

The headlight switch shouldn't rotate like that.  Mine never did, but
this may be common for other drivers of old 900s,  I don't know.  At any
rate, it probably means the plastic tabs into which the switch assembly
clicks are broken, and they're part of the dash.  Maybe there's an easy
fix, but the car may need to have the dash fascia replaced, a moderately
difficult maneuver.

Check for rust beginning to bubble up on the inside bottom of the doors. 
This is where rust usually appears first on older 900s, so if these are
clean, you have a very nice car indeed.

I don't recall ever driving an automatic 'classic' 900.  My general
impression is to avoid automatic Saabs, thinking they're more trouble
prone, but I don't know that for sure.  They're certainly less fun to
drive.  The 'Classic' 900s used an antediluvian Borg-Warner 3-speed
transmission, which shifted harshly and would result in higher highway
RPM.  I suspect, if your Volvo is less than about 15 years old, it has a
four-speed auto.  The difference in highway RPM can probably be explained
by the Volvo's extra cog.

Good luck in shopping for a classic 900.  If you live up north, get a set
of four Hakkapeliittaa snow tires at once.  With Hakkas on a Saab 900,
Audi Quattros will have a hard time doing better in winter. I had
fantastic luck with my old 900. I bought mine with 135,000 on it, and it
performed (if you can call what an 8-valve saab does performance)
reliably and pleasantly up to the 257,000 mile mark.  I just traded it to
Andrews,Inc. last week (!) for a 1995 900 S, and I'm really happy with
the new car.  I'll have to add my general impressions about the new car
compared with the old Saab at a later date.

Posts in this Thread:
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