Ten years ago this month, I had a very momentous experience. I bought my very first Saab.
It was October, 1996. I had graduated from college in August, and started work at Intertek (known as ITS at the time) the same month. My 1988 Mazda MX-6 base 2-door sedan, as sporty as it was, was getting rough around the edges. It had recently stranded me in the suburbs with a dead alternator and battery, and I’d done it no favors by involving it in two accidents during the two-and-a-half years I owned it.
I was shopping for a replacement car. It would be a 2-door, priced around $20,000. I test drove all sorts of cars; older BMW 3-series, 1st generation Saab 900 convertible, Honda Accord and Toyota Camry (!gasp!) 2-doors, and the new Mazda MX-6. My parents owned my dream car, a 1995 Saab 900 SE turbo coupe, that they had bought new from my erstwhile summer employer, Bill Hazelett Saab. Their beautiful 900 was black with black leather interior, 5-speed manual transmission, absolute perfection on wheels.
One weekend in October I was home visiting from
Portland. That weekend my parents were installing new windows in their house, the weather that weekend was just like we’ve had this week in Seattle, sunny and warm. On Saturday morning, I rolled out of bed (at a certainly late hour) and started looking through the Seattle Times Autos section, for interesting cars to test drive. In the small-print ads, I found it. 1995 Saab 900s, 3 door, 5 speed, black, heated charcoal cloth upholstery, 30k miles, at Carter Saab. $20000. Bulls-eye! I phoned the dealership, and went for a test drive later in the day.
I drove the car, and liked it pretty well. It had the optional roof-rack crossbars in the trunk, as well as a 6-disc CD changer. It was very clean and shiny. It had the V-6 long-spoke wheels which I didn’t love, but those were better than the plastic wheelcovers which were standard on the 900 S in 1995. I drove it, and left very excited but undecided. The salesman had my name and phone number, and knew I was in town just for the weekend.
I talked over the purchase with my parents that evening, and we decided that if I could get the car for some price (which now escapes me), that I would buy it. The salesman called me on Sunday morning, and asked if I was still interested in the car. I said I was, he agreed to my price, and that was it. I’d just agreed to buy my car.
I was a member of Washington School Employees Credit Union through my mom, and they had the best car loan rates. I did an over-the-phone application for credit using their high-tech (for 1996) phone-computer system, and then my dad and I went to Carter Saab in my cleaned-out MX-6, which had I washed and emptied it to be traded in. I was a little sad, it had served me well. My dad fished the title for the Mazda out of his filing cabinet, and off we went.
This photo, which I scanned in, was taken the day the MX-6 was traded in, just after I’d cleaned it up. . Check out my hot shoes… those are purple Converse hi-tops. My grandfather helped me clean the car out.
We got to Carter Saab, and I took another test drive, with my dad along. Then we headed in and filled out all of the paperwork. I was able to prove Oregon residence, so I didn’t have to pay sales tax. I remember that it took an eternity for the paperwork to be processed. It was late afternoon by the time we got out of there.
On the way back to my parents’ house, we stopped at my brother’s house near UW to show him my new car. I think he was a little surprised that I’d just bought a $20k car, as he was still in college. He may have been a little jealous, and may have been wondering why I chose that particular non-turbo car. Whatever. He’ll surely comment and let us all know what he really thought.
I scanned in this photo too, from the original Polaroid print. The Polaroid was my work camera. The car was very new in this photo, as I got the license plates within a few days of buying the car, and there are no plates on in this photo.
Back at my parents house, we confirmed that two black 1995 900 3-doors do really look alike, only the sportier wheels and spoiler differentiate them on the outside. Then I loaded up my stuff and headed back to Portland, to surprise my housemates with the new car. The trip down I-5 was so fun in my new car. I used the cruise control to ensure I wouldn’t get a speeding ticket.
Click on these scanned photos to enlarge them. Writing on the back indicates they were taken in December, 1996. This was in front of the ITS office in Beaverton.
That afternoon ten years ago, I bought the car over which I have spent more hours obsessing than any car before or since. I grew to love the car (which I called Thor-Bjorn), and it fit me more comfortably than any of our current cars; I’d say it is the most comfortable car for my body to sit in. The biggest upgrade I gave my 900 was new 3-spoke wheels in early 1999, which (in my opinion) greatly improved the car’s appearance. When I sold the car in May of 2004, on the same day we picked up the V70R, my heart was very heavy. Over the years I owned it, the 900 reached 157,000 miles. The miles weren’t all trouble-free, but I look back fondly on my time spent with the 900.
This scanned in photo was taken in early July, 1999, on the northern California coast when Ani and I were on a camping trip. Thor-Bjorn looks SO sporty in this shot!
February, 2004, Cle Elum. So sporty.
