Buying a used Saab...

Lionel,

To answer your question directly, I can say "NO".

But with with a time of 10 years, you must look at typical materials that age just from simple time.

The question of where the car has been sitting and what kind of conditions it has been sitting in, certainly can help you in understanding what you may or may not be getting into.

Rubber rots and tears over time

Plastic can crack

Metal can oxidize and rust away

Liquids can cause other materials to weaken

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For instance, a Saab parked in a good, safe and secure barn with a cover over it for 10 years in Northern Maine, may have simply problems with cold weather could have done to it.

A Saab parked in an open ashalt driveway in Florida for 10 years would clearly have massive paint discoloring and big time fluid and rubber rotting issues for sure.

A Saab parked in for 10 years on the coast of California, could have major rot due to the Ocean's Salt water effect.

A Saab parked in a mint garage in Denver, Colorado that was on wood, with wheels dismounted, all fluids drained prior to preparation for "10 year sitting", could be basically MINT perhaps.

See the trend.

Get more information to start figuring what kind of stuff the Saab may/may not need due to WHERE it has been sitting for the 10 years

SaabGuy

Ok lionell I have a 1992 saab 900s conv that I purchased new. It has been nothing short of heartaches I cant tell you how much ive spent cause the figure is huge. I had nothing but trouble since day one, everthing has been replaced at least once. Now you have to ask yourself why isnt this guy driving the car. Um maybe he cant afford the repairs which are very expensive.or maybe it needs more work who knows but you should have the car checked out by a saab dealer so you know what your getting into. Now you must be thinging why has he kept the car so long. Simple the top goes down and its damm pretty with the top down, good luck papa

Sitting is hard on cars, around here the interior rots, also gasoline varnishes, oil gums up, rubber deteriorates, metal rusts, seals dry up, if it was parked in a garage things may be much better off but you should still expect to put some work into it.

The tyres are unlikely to be round any more either !

The battery will be totally shot I expect too. Lead acid isn't a technology that's meant to 'stand'.

Graham

Time does damage.

Especially cooling system corrosion. if it was parked dry (no coolant at all) then perhaps the damage is minimal. One fun thing about cooling system corrosion is a bloewn head gasket, which on a SAAB is going to cost about $2000 to fix (odds are you will need to find another head that's not warped, since there's no meat on them to machine them flat again (common to all OHC designs) plus all of the related stuff.

I thought I was getting a good deal on the 93 I bought 3 months ago for

1400. Now I know the speedo had been disconnected (when? dunno), I had to spend $2300 for head gasket repair (incl a head), nearly a grand for resolving a wierd ignition problem, etc.

If I had known beforehand, I'd not have it today. Even so, I do enjoy driving it.

So you spent $4,700 to get a 1993 Saab in driving condition. I spent more than that to get a 1993 900 in mint condition. But that is exactly why I paid the price, I did not have to spend any money or time to drive it.

It could be worse, you could have bought a new on for $40,000 . . .

I've done two HG's.

The first cost me $38 and the second cost $62. Just buy some tools...

Cars are made to be driven, simple. Best thing can be done is to drive the car daily on a nice long highway run, ie every morning get in, drive 100km at 145km/h, drive another 100 back I guess, and repeat. Keep the car clean, plus change all the fluids and filtres and the car will quickly depass the 1 000 000km mark and look like new.

But if you buy the car brand new, drive it a few 100 km, park it in the driveway, near a tree and wait 15 years there likely won't be much left for you there.

Most cars go through a "use period" that looks like this:

First 5 years - babied

5-15 years - "used" 15-25 years - sitting in a field, scrapped, sold for under 1000 and driven into the scrapper, etc 25-30 years - fixed, restored, enjoyed in the summer and taken to shows etc.

There are exceptions sure. The problem is the vast majority of cars never get to that post-parked stage.

No, but ... as others have said, lots of bits will deteriorate. Expect to pay for a full service, new battery, tyres, water pump & hoses as a probable minimum to avoid heartache. If you can spend all that and still come out ahead, it's probably a good buy even if something else fails. Cheers

Gee... it occurs to me that this looks alot like what hapens with people too. Except for the "taken to shows" part...

-Fred W