New Luxobarge - SAAB 9000 CD Auto

Dec 09, 2006 30 Replies

We needed a towcar for the Sylva, and this seemed to fit the bill.



what a great thing.



Drove it home from newcastle and it did to the good side of 40 to the gallon. Not bad for a (light pressure) turbocharged barge with an autobox.



Everything works as well and it's pretty much spotless. Obviously, it's no sports car but that wasn't on the list of requirements.



Strange observation though. The digital pics told us it had been painted on a couple of panels in the past which was fine by us - it was cheap enough. But to the naked eye, you can't actually see any difference at all. Must be something to do with what the digital camera 'sees'.



Anyway - our first SAAB, and we like it so far.



Have one reasonable pic -

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Bargetastic :-)


I know - it's not the done thing to respond to you own post, but this is a modifications group and err.....

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Before Carl tells me to do this :-)

500 quid for an extra 76bhp and an extra100 lb/ft of grunt sounds fair enough.

I'd be careful with that - at least on the 900 the slushboxes aren't up to the power of a full-power turbo. Dunno if that's the same on the

9000 but I'd do a bit more research.

I'm reading all of the relevant forums as we speak :-)

As I recall, the 9000 slushbox is the same as the one in the Alfa 164 V6, which is fairly troublesome. I've been offered several with knackered boxes.

Well this one does everything I would want it to. So, we will maybe leave the engine well alone and enjoy it for what it is.

Nicely built thing though - more so than I had expected.

The 9k slushbox is a lot better. Can handle a large increase but Maptun and Hirsch do limit the max torque on mod kits for the Autos, but that is only to protect thier rep. It is more down to servicing, the auto boxes do get neglected more than manuals.

You can still take it upto full pressure standard though.

Not bad? I'd call it "hideously good".

Good order. The 9000 is a well built, solid piece of kit. A pity (that I'm tight) Saab didn't do a diesel... ;) That's why I have a 9-3 (and I found a nice 9-3 before a 9-5).

That is just a stage one kit. Small safe upgrade that will give you basic Full pressure spec (there was no later 2.0FPT 9000 models. They wanted to keep the Full pressure models for 2.3 engined cars).

Looks nice in the piccies.

On the C900, they aren't upto the power of a tuned full power turbo. But on a standard one they drop out of the spool up range on shifts and take too long so they bog down. They actually handle standard full power quite well. Americans like them, but what do they know.

Afraid of strangers? They don't come much stranger than americans.

(waits for smack from Charlie)

Charlie is stranger than an American, she's from California...

valley girl... like.. oh.. my... gaaaaad...

(starts running)

Well she has seen all of these comments... but not the video of the Saab going sideways.

Indeed. Sorry to get all prickly on y'all. One look at the thread Tim started in uk.rec.driving and how egotistical and bigoted some people get about UK peeps, yeah, well people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Type thing. So I'll shut up now...

yeah well at least we didn't invade iraq

(gets into running car and drives in an unspecified direction)

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