It’s time for this week’s SOTW, which comes from David in foggy San Francisco.
“Hello!
“Linnea” is my third Saab, and my first purchased new. She’s a 2000 Saab 9-3 “S” Coupé, 5-speed with leather package and heated seats with just over 82,000 miles, and has always been garaged or under covered parking. My plan is to keep this car operational and attractive for as long as possible. This Saab is perfect for my needs – sporty, stylish, practical, and unique.
Modifications are minimal and intended tasteful. They are:
- Saab Sport Exhaust
- 22mm rear anti-sway bar
- Eibach springs
- Bilstein HD shocks
- 16” Viking Aero wheels
- Black chrome front grille (a rare accessory)
- Carbon fiber dash
Reliability has been excellent, though service is expensive in San Francisco, even at a Saab independent garage. I live in the city, and have no space to perform maintenance myself, though I’m mechanically able.
Eventual plans are to upgrade stereo to “SE” spec, with door speakers and amplifier, and install silver painted mirror covers.
Previously I’ve owned a 1980 3-door 900 Turbo, and a 1977 5-door 99GL. Clearly, I’m a fan of the hatchback.
Photographs were taken at the Golden Gate Park horse stables, in San Francisco. Note the fog!
David
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Don’t forget to join us on www.facebook.com/SaabsUnited
RikardH
Love it. Reminds me of my old ’94 900, but I have to say yours is much nicer. Best color on that model too.
you took my words about that car, logan.. my first car was a -94 900 in silver 🙂
David, nice pictures of a vey nice car! My mother has a similar three door 9-3 with same colour and Aero wheels. She won’t sell hers either, she just loves it. And she is 78!
The three door 9-3 of that era is really both a very nice and practical car.
All the best for both your car and yourself, David! 🙂
Cheers from Norway
-Olav-
Always on the longest road home when out there with my SAAB. Always!
Nice car, good condition. I had 2 x 900s and a 9-3 in this style – all RED.
P.S. Hope the SaabsUnited “SOTW” doesn’t get confused with PistonHeads “SOTW”! … Still, they seems to like Saabs.
SOTW: SAAB 900 TURBO(S)
BTW: On a web-techie note, can I suggest that links default to [ target=”_blank” ]? This makes them open up in another browser window or tab, keeping the SU page open at the same time.
Speaking of links, yours is broken. 😉 Kudos for the suggestion though. It would prevent me from right-clicking then selecting Open Link in New Tab from Firefox.
Broken, I think, because I tried to hack it to open in a new window! 🙂
SOTW Link Failure:
2 x http
Works okay if you delete one of ’em
900 or first 93 version are beautiful cars, full of style and look absolutely modern. Not in vain was designed by the same team that created the beautiful original 900 and you can see it in its shape.
Mine is a 900S white and I also upgraded it with the Viking Aero, one of the most wonderful wheels I have seen in my life.
Beautiful car. Mine is going strong after more than 216.000 km so I think you have Saab for a long time…
I agree. 900 or first 93 version are for me the most beautiful Saab. If it had the same torsional strenght as the new 9-3 it had also been the best.
Guys; for the third day in a row, I can’t see any of the pics posted on the site. Is it me?
Seems to be hit or miss for me. I can’t see the SOTW picture but do see others posted today.
Nice photos, David! Is that a 1999, 2000, or 2001 model? I have a 2000 4-door version of the same model in the same color and have 170,000+ miles on it. It is a very fun to drive and practical car, as Olov said.
Oops, I meant “…as Olav said.” 🙂
A 2000 model, and thanks for the kind words,
Since the move of SU to the server(s) in Trollhattan, I have had Firefox 3.6.15 crash several times while viewing SU pages. Has anyone else noticed this?
Also, it seems more likely to crash when the page is refreshing after submitting a comment. (Not sure if that is related or not.)
Maanders, I’m running the same version of Firefox and have had zero problems since the move.
There’s a new version of Firefox out (v4.0), don’t know if that helps. Also, what I did was remove all the cookies from SU, though I don’t know if that helps either… In any case, it’s probably unrelated to the comment submitting procedure. Crashing after refreshing sounds very familiar, though.
Yep, occasional crash after submitting a comment here too.
I mentioned the same problem earlier, here. It has only happened once since then, though, so it’s fairly intermittent. In my case, I’m quite sure it has happened without submitting a comment.
Same problems but now running Firefox 4. All clear!
Enjoy!
Nice coupe! She’s in really great shape. SF is a great city, and seems like a strong Saab market – we saw lots of them on our trip there last year.
Yes, SF is a strong Saab market (and a great city, thank you). My car get admiring glances in certain neighborhoods, and people seem to like the versatility of hatchbacks/wagons, and our eco-friendly nature has diminished the use of SUVs. I’m convinced they lost sales here when they dropped the hatchback from MY 2003-2006, as I see many Audi A3 5-door models, a suitable replacement for the 900/9-3 5-door. Same for the Mazda 3 5-door.
Nice looking machine, but is this a test? Or just for insiders? I may be missing something, but I can’t find any description of the year or model of the car in the text. Speaking personally, I can’t ID an old Saab from its field marks. I see it’s a hatchback and I think I remember that 2002 was the last year before GM snuffed them, but aside from that I haven’t a clue.
BTW, I’m running FireFox 3.6.15 and I can see the pix just fine.
Thanks for the compliment. Part of my email to SU was edited out, hence the lack of model info.
2000 Saab 9-3 “S” Coupé, 5-speed with leather package and heated seats.
I still think that the hatchback 9-3 is one of the best all round cars that Saab ever build. It has a small foot print, relative large interior space and a huge cargo space if necessary. It’s nimble in the city but comfortable enough to take on long trips.
I feel extremely lucky that I was able to get my hands on a 2002 Viggen 5-door, the last year of the hatchback 9-3. The Viggen styling adds just that little bit extra that turns the styling of the 9-3 from good to almost perfect. After 2003….well…let’s not go into that.
Took the words right out of my mouth…still a very clean design, the Viggens and the proper Aero’s are still beautiful things today with the spoiler and the subtle underskirts. a very cool design was the og9-3 pre 2003
Nice car; had a 900 2.3SE and a 9-3 2.0 Aero. Loved them both, but all in all I have to say the 9-3SS was a big improvement, just shame it didn’t come with a hatch.
Everyone, thanks for the kind words. To clarify, my car is a 2000 Saab 9-3 “S” Coupé, 5-speed with leather package and heated seats.
I’m running IE 8 (I think) – and all is ok.
Lovely car – in my view, that is the nicest version of the OG9-3, i.e., 3-door, with those wheels. I’m not a huge silver fan – but it looks well. There were lots of nice colours back then though! Dark reds, greens etc – I miss those colours!!
Ahh, yes I had a 1999 9-3 (base) I loved that car and still miss it. In many respects I prefer it to my 2004 9-5 wagon I now drive.
Nice car, David! 🙂
A note to the new SU staff though:
Please make the title of the SOTW entries a bit descriptive so they differ from the different SOTW stories. So for this entry I suggest that instead of having “SAAB of the week” as the title, you change it to something like “Saab of The Week – Linnea the 9-3 edition”. 🙂
We always take notes from the community 🙂
Very nice! Love the tasteful and subtle changes.
Nice David! The OG93 still looks amazing.
I had a 93 from 99 a few years ago and I “BSRd” it to around 240 hp.
That car moved fast!
Hang on to it!
Viking Aeros are my favorite wheels; they are the quintessential Saab design. The Double Evos are a close second. Overall a very nice car with just the right amount of customization.
David–
Niiice car. Nice name, too, but then I have a bias!