Something nice

[Paper Plane]

On most mornings recently as I've been driving my 1999 9-3 vert to work, a similar vintage 9-3 4 door (also dark blue) has been coming in the opposite direction.

We have now started to flash lights and wave as we pass. A pleasant sign of chumminess amongst Saab drivers I feel.

steve 

[Jeepple]

I want to do and look forward to this forum as well.

[mikeloadsasaabs]

On most mornings recently as I've been driving my 1999 9-3 vert to work, a similar vintage 9-3 4 door (also dark blue) has been coming in the opposite direction.

We have now started to flash lights and wave as we pass. A pleasant sign of chumminess amongst Saab drivers I feel.

steve 

Used to be quite common when I started driving Saabs 30+ years ago! There weren't so many on the road then, and we're going back to the same situation now.

[Geoff1951]

VW Beetle drivers did it too. The proper beetle, not the current one, which is a Golf in fancy dress.

[Bristolian]

It's very common amongst Land Rover drivers

[TomPaine]

I think it'll become a lot more common as they thin out on the roads.

I saw a 9000 in Reading today and it made me realise how quickly they've vanished in the last few years.

[Audax]

I saw a 9000 in Reading today and it made me realise how quickly they've vanished in the last few years.

Too many people are condemning them due to age too quickly. It's all too common to hear "it's not worth repairing, time for something else" which just results in 1 less Saab on the road.

If you look on howmanyleft, in Q1 2009 we had 230,880 Saabs on the road, the greatest number ever recorded. In Q3 2012 we went below 200,000. Now with the latest data from Q4 2014 we're at 167,582.

That's 63k in 5 years which is around 1000 a month going off the road. If we keep that up then things will not look good for much longer. It's not surprising really but if you extrapolate that data out then in 5-10 years time seeing any Saab on the road will be unusual.

[dw]

I am selling my 9 5 Aero back to the garage that originally sold it to me. One of the big issues that is driving down the price is the Road Tax, currently approaching £500. It is beginning to be a relatively expensive car to own for a car of that age regardless of condition.