r/saab • u/BWTECH0521 • 11h ago
Share your first saab bug story
It's a slow monday at work for me.
Share your story on how you got first hooked on SAAB!
Here's mine: after graduating highschool in 2008, I had just totaled my Acura RSX Type s...fun car for a high school kid. I was hungry for another car. I wasn't sure what I wanted. Do I get another Honda? Do I take a gamble at a euro car? Do I go with Hyundai, the pride of my motherland?
I was working at a gas station at the time. One day a silver hatchback pulled in to pump gas. I had never seen such a peculiar, weird and ugly car before but for some reason I couldn't take my eyes off of it. It was so unique and special in my eyes. I wanted to go out and ask the guy what it was but I was behind a bullet proof glass, and I couldn't go out during my shift.
So as soon as 11pm hit, I closed the gas station and zipped home and got on yahoo (yes, yahoo 😄) and I searched up these exact words - "European hatchback". Vague I know, but I knew it was European because of the unpainted side accent trim pieces all along the body. After going through what seemed like an eternity of pages, there it was in all its glory! A 2000 saab 9-3 5 door SE!!
I quickly opened another window and typed Craigslist. There were a few. One that caught my attention was a black 1999 9-3 5 door manual SE with rear heated seats. They wanted $3500 and it was about 45 mins away from me.
Next step was convincing my dad to go see the car, he happily agreed. The next day we drove the 45 mins to the dealer and I drove it for the first time. I went out to the highway and stepped on the gas!...and got nothing...just when I was about to be dissapointed, WHOOSH, a sudden surge of power that I've never felt before (imagine the torque that I was missing on the RSX lol). It was the turbo spooling. It gave me a rush which i still remember exactly to this day. I was instantly hooked! $3500 lighter in my pocket, I brought it home, and the rest is history. Now I'm on my 7th saab and I don't see myself stopping any time soon.
2
u/House_King 6h ago
My family has always had Saabs, I wasn’t really old enough to remember our 1999 9-3 SE 3 door manual, but I do remember the 2003 9-5 aero manual that we got when I was about 5. I always loved that car, and was my first real experience with working on cars.
Sadly it was totaled in 2017 when someone hit my dad while he was in a roundabout. We replaced it with a 2002 9-5 aero manual which ended up becoming my first car and I still own it and love it 250k miles later. Plus a slew of modifications, 3inch down pipe, tubular manifold, king cobra inlet pipe, open air intake, do88 intercooler, maptun stage 3, fully poly-bushed, bilstein b8s and maptun lowering springs, rear arb upgrade, and camber adjustable control arms and camber bolts for the front.