DJA880, update for 2013
January 24, 2013 in News
As our beloved Saab 9-3 Griffin is enjoying all the attention from visitors in the Saab Car Museum we’re working on the book which tells the tail of how that car came to be. As we’ve stated here before that book will be available at the Saab Car Museum, a PDF version will also be available for download.
Even though we’ve bought the car and it has a roof over its head free of charge, it does not mean that the car doesn’t cost money. In 2013 the first service is due and should be performed in April-May. I have asked some of our SU’s partners if they would like to help out and Maptun offered to do the yearly maintenance free-of-charge. Its a good solution since its never good for a car to stand completely still forever and we’ll get a chance to drive it for a few hours again.
Insurance is also a monthly cost and so far I have been paying that out of my own pocket, we’re hoping to bring out some kind of associated product we can sell in order to fund this cost for 2013. Perhaps you guys would be interested in owning a hard-copy of the book described above?
We’re also planning on bringing the car out on the Saab Festival, driving it around a bit so that people can enjoy it in what we hope will be lots of sunshine.
Until then, make sure to visit the museum and purchase the key-rings when you are there in order to support the museum as much as possible, 100% of the money you pay for a key-ring goes directly into the museum!
Fulltpafemman said on January 24, 2013
First of all, thank you for taking care of our baby. It was such an achievement by the community to come together to buy this car but as your post says, it must be cared for as well. A book is a wonderful idea and I’d love to get a hard-copy of it.
When it comes to costs I was thinking that maybe the insurance could also be sponsored. How about http://www.saabforsakring.se for example. They might be interested to tell people that they’re still alive
Maybe try to work out a deal that they insure the DJA and come up with a nice offer for Saab-owners to insure their cars with them. I don’t know if that is feasable at all and it’s easy for me to ramble about in a comment but might be worth a try?
Tim said on January 24, 2013
Thats a good idea, however I had the same idea about 8 months ago and the trouble was that all insurance companies who were willing to fund the cost also wanted a sticker or something similar on the car itself stating what they did, which I did not accept since it did not feel right considering where the car is located.
Fulltpafemman said on January 24, 2013
How about their name in the book and a banner here on SU then?
Tim said on January 24, 2013
Their name in the book is a good idea! =)
Fulltpafemman said on January 24, 2013
Make it happen
Tim said on January 24, 2013
I’ve written to Trygghansa where the car is insured right now, asking if they are willing to support a full insurance on the car.
Mathias Meisfjordskar said on January 24, 2013
Isn’t there a plaque or something near the car with info and the names of everybody that contributed? A portion of that dedicated to sponsors would be acceptable I think. As long as it’s decent and not flashy stickers or the likes. Engraved logos and a small description to inform the public of their donation to SU and the museum if form of the continued support of DJA880.
Tim said on January 24, 2013
We’ve looked into that several times but considering the amount of names its completely impossible to do and the cost to do that is huge =(
The book is the final decision on how we’re going to present the donors
Mathias Meisfjordskar said on January 25, 2013
I was thinking of adding smaller plaques at the bottom or top, not destroy the current one. Sponsors come and go so adding them to the book only takes care of the foreseeable future, but what if the insurance company decides to back out? You would need a new sponsor and the book is probably not going to be reprinted (at least for a while). A small plaque can be exchanged for a manageable cost.
Tim said on January 25, 2013
Yea but where do you put a plaque?
If we do a sponsor agreement we will do it for a period of a couple of years so that we’re not stuck in the same mess each year…
Henrik Sonnergård said on January 24, 2013
Hardback copy of the book? Very much, yes!
xelav said on January 24, 2013
I would very much appreciate a book about the car, and the way it came to the idea of buying the car and perhaps some info about SU in it ?
KoGa said on January 24, 2013
I like the book idea as well. You could sign it for added value
Hell I would love to have a poster or photo of the car too, or even a T-shirt with the licence plate number. 
Having donated some money I kind of feel the car my baby as well and I would love to have some phisical proof of it, besides the key chain.
Tim said on January 24, 2013
We have posters for sale but we sold maybe 40 out of 300 so there weren’t many interested in buying that, we were kind of hoping that those posters would help out with the costs a bit…
Henrik Sonnergård said on January 24, 2013
I sent you a mail asking for a poster, and quite a few of my relatives and friends are interested as well! Didn’t hear back from you, though.
KoGa said on January 25, 2013
Hm I’m sure I had seen that but forgot about it…
Simon said on January 25, 2013
where can we buy the posters? I looked in the SU store but I didn’t find them. Key rings are only sold at the museum?
Kyle Merrihew said on January 24, 2013
Yes to the hard copy! Would like to get one to the US!
Swizzy said on January 24, 2013
I already met the white Beauty in June 2012 outside the Museum and could caress her
! She’s a little bit my baby too and I like to have a book in hardcopy, signed from SU crew-members (as much as possible) and from PB.
Would this dream come true?
I’ll pick it up at SAAB-Festival 2013 in THN.
Tim said on January 27, 2013
Your contribution to this project as most impressive! =)
Pacey said on January 25, 2013
I’d be interested in a book, particularly if it’s designed to match Saab’s brochures etc – lots of white space, set in Gill Sans , full bleed images.. happy to help or offer my opinion as an art director, just email me the .pdf. I’d like to help ensure that this is a perfect and fitting testament.
John C. said on January 25, 2013
I wish the museum had an online store as I’d love to purchase a few key rings if not more. Maybe I’d put one under the wiper of a well kept Saab as a a little gift.
I remember they didn’t have a whole lot to sell back in ’00 but they did have some books available. They gave us a couple “The Spirit of Saab” books for free and it’s a very enjoyable and humorous read. I’d love to see some cool merchandise from all eras produced and sold by the museum. Perhaps licensing costs prohibit this but I’m wholly unaware of what they currently offer.
p.s. I couldn’t find a contact link while visiting the site but this could be my short attention span kicking in.
Tim said on January 25, 2013
I think its more a matter of money. To create products you need to put in a substantial amount of money that you place at risk of never getting back if nobody wants to purchase the product…
Per-Erik said on January 27, 2013
“…tells the tail…” – unless that was intentionally trying to be funny, it should be “…tells the tale…” (Had to say it
)
…and then about the ownership of our car – is it “our” car, or what? I was told some disturbing story by someone who visited the car at the museum (during a recent event), when he tried to lean in close and take a good look at the car he helped to sponsor the purchase of, a person came up to him and told him to “move away from MY car!” What’s up with that?
Tim said on January 27, 2013
We were very clear from the beginning that anyone contributing to the purchase of the car are contributing to a cause and have no claim to the car. SU stated that we intended to purchase the car for the money and place it in the museum, that is exactly what we have done.
I am the owner of the car on paper since but I do not consider myself as that, only the custodian and protector of it but it doesn’t not leave me without responsibility to care for the car. The museum has not accepted a transfer of the ownership because of the structure of the museum ownership.
As for people touching the car, I have heard from the people working at the museum that many people claimed that they had the rights to sit in the car etc which they do not. There are many people touching the car which is not allowed. The car is placed under exactly the same rules as the other cars in the museum.
In my mind the car is owned by SaabsUntied and none of us running SaabsUnited will do anything with the car unless we have consulted the others in the crew and are in agreement.
Per-Erik said on January 30, 2013
ok, that’s clear. The person in question was not touching the car though, and not claiming he should be allowed to sit in it. He was just behaving like we all do when we enter that holy place: we want to get as close a look as possible… Maybe it was another over-protective “owner” (meaning one of us)