To all those wondering what the hell I was talking about when I posted a few weeks ago about changes coming to my life… Well here’s part 1 of the mystery revealed: Needing to find a pastime that didn’t involve skiing or biking, something about bringing a bit of balance to my life, I recently dug deep and decided to get myself a new hobby. His name is Ingemar, named after the Swedish ski legend Ingemar Stenmark… But first, here’s a little bit of background:
As some of you may or may not know I’m a huge car buff. I’ve been around and owned many interesting cars in my life, from my dad’s Coronet, Roadrunner and Lada to my mom’s Cuda, Olds 442, Toronado and Thunderbird to my own rag-tag collection of vehicles that have included, among others, a Ford LTD Country Squire, a Dodge Monaco Wagon, a Renault 18 Sportwagon, a Mazda 323 GTX, a ’72 Ford Bronco, a ’79 Suburban, a Ford Taurus Wagon, a Ford E350, a Mercedes R350 and a B200 turbo, a Ford Focus, a Mazda 6 GT Sportwagon, a few F150’s and finally a VW Routan and our current Subaru Crosstrek … And while none of these vehicles could ever be misconstrued as collector cars, they all left their mark on me in some form or fashion and for the most part I wish I still owned them all (except for the Monaco, what an epic piece of shit that car was).
I’ve been an avid reader and subscriber of Car and Driver magazine since 1979 and the late David E Davis Jr (C&D’s longtime editor) was a big influence on me as a kid and a young adult… My tastes in cars were heavily influenced by his writings and he was absolutely right about many of the cars I bought based on his sometimes comical recommendations … He was right when he wrote that everyone who loves cars should own at least one Suburban, one Mercedes wagon and one Subaru in their lifetimes… and while I’ll likely never be able to afford a Ferrari 308 or an LM200 I can, however, (almost) afford a beater SAAB. And so I did a silly thing today and like I said in the first paragraph of this diatribe… I bought myself a new hobby.
This isn’t The first SAAB I looked at… As a matter of fact it’s the second. The first one was a train wreck of a 2007 9-5 Combisport Aero that I almost bought but thankfully didn’t. The story of that fateful parking lot meet will be told at a later date… It did, however, get me hooked on the irrational need to own a SAAB.
Enter “Ingemar”, my 2006 SAAB (don’t ask why but I like spelling out SAAB in all caps, but I do) 9-3 Combisport wagon Aero complete with 2.8l V6 Turbo putting out roughly 280hp. A stunning (for that age) rust-free example of a sadly defunct car company that could have and should have survived if it wasn’t for General Motor’s total lack of vision and marketing wherewithal when it came to building and selling stylish Swedish cars born from a jet fighter company that still makes kick-ass airplanes. (Saab AB)
Yes, it would have made more sense to find a nice clean generic and asepticized Honda or Toyota but come-on, life is much too short to dive an Accord and since I still have my testicles there’s no way you could make me rent much less buy a Camry. How about a Civic you say? I’m not from Sherbrooke so that’s a non-starter.
Besides, my budget was almost non existent. We’re talking very little money here. What I wanted was the most amount of car (in both style and substance) for the least amount of money possible … And that’s where the SAABs come in. Very few people want to buy things from defunct companies. Much less things with wheels, engines and other moving parts. SAABs were an acquired taste at the best of times and thus supply somewhat outstrips demand, Ergo I hit all the possible online buy-and-sell sites and found a few I really liked, some 9-5’s, some 9-3’s… all Combisports (SAAB-speak for wagons) and a few Aeros (SAAB-speak for top-of-the-line performance)… B
After much research I narrowed down my choice of maybes to three candidates. The first phone call of the three was in rough shape, broken suspension and a six speed manual (I was looking for an automatic this time, this was going to be a cruiser to me, not a sports car) the second call went to “Dan” who later told me that his car didn’t seem to have any rust on it… and that got my attention. Dan and I hit it off immediately. and for some reason my gut told me that this would be a fun and stress-free dude to transact with.
We met at the usual spot where you would expect to buy an eleven year-old car (in the mall parking lot in front of the Canadian Tire service department) and that’s where the laughs began.
Turns out my gut was right for once, Dan was exactly as I thought he’d be. I make a living reading folks and I could tell that he was a good person. Great smile, friendly demeanour, just a pleasant straight-up honest guy. Dan even came with his cool diagnostic thing to plug into the car computer to show me the engine error codes, gave me the straight goods on what needed to be done to Ingemar (by that point it was a foregone conclusion that I was going to buy it, so name it I did). I would venture to say that this car has the cleanest interior and most rust-free body of any ’06 out there.
The interior on this car is simply amazing. For decades I’d read about the aircraft cockpit feel of SAAB automobiles but I’d never sat in one and man, did it not disappoint. Even in this admittedly GM-neutered variant, the seats were perfect, the controls were intuitive, the switchgear solid, the radio thoroughly modern (especially for an eleven year old car) and even the silly floor-mounted SAAB-centric ignition position made immediate sense to me. Who wants dangling keys against your leg?
But you can’t buy a car without a test drive… so that’s when my conciliere Nicolas and I took the beast out for a thourogh spin … But not before leaving Zoé with Dan as a hostage. Yep, as advertised, cylinder one and six did misfire when you dropped the hammer but otherwise man did the thing go like a bat out of hell. Very fun car to drive.
So I offered a bit less than what Dan was asking (so I could afford to fix the rear brakes right away) and Dan (the man) was gracious enough to accept… Hands were shaken, deposit was given, contract was signed (thanks for the paralegal help Z) and Dan’s baby now has a loving new home with a doting new owner.
Of course this thing isn’t perfect, but what can you expect from a used Swedish high-performance wagon sold for the same price as a new mid-range full-suspension mountain bike? To be frank, I don’t care about this particular car’s failings… Because not unlike Ingemar’s new owner, all that is wrong with him (at least I think it’s a “him”) is fixable … and until I can get around to and/or afford to repair those things this gorgeous black SAAB still drives ok and looks like a million bucks.
Like a buddy so eloquently said to me when I announced to him my silly plan to get one of these things and slowly fix it up: “ouais, t’aimes-ça le trouble, toi!”
The nice thing is that Ingemar’s troubles are manageable.
JF® 
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