Patience paid off - '89 900 SPG

[turbo stephan]

I've been looking for a 900t hatchback for quite a while now. Although I didn't expect to find a nice SPG anytime soon, or better said at all, it has always been one of my favorite Saabs, and one of the Saabs I always wanted. I especially like them in black, probably back from the days when my friend and I got his black 900t 16s (SPG designation used in Europe) ready for his 18th birthday at his parents Saab dealership. It was an unobtainium for me back then but I knew that I wanted to own one some day.

After I commented on Luke's very nice Talladega red SPG I received an e-mail from a board member out of Portland (spgftw). He was selling exactly the car I've been looking for and after a few e-mails back and forth we decided to meet up last Saturday in Seattle so I can have a look at his car. We met at the Triple X Drive-Inn in Issaquah where every February the NWSOC meets for the Swedish car cruise inn. Dennis joint us a bit later and so all three of us, who are also all members of the NWSOC, went for a drive. The car drove and handled really nice and felt like a true Saab over the hilly areas around Tiger Mountain. A lot of work had been done to it including the change to recently rebuild gear box, a new head gasket and timing chain, a 2.1 liter head and intake, a fresh steering rack, new ball joints, a new headliner, a manual sunroof and butyl soundproofing on the floor pans. I'm sure I'm forgetting things but on top of that the car has been in New Mexico and Oregon only, which means literally zero rust. Also, it has a relatively low mileage of 161,000.

After the drive we struck a deal and I'm now the owner of a really nice and original black '89 900 SPG . The deal included 16" deep dish aero rims which need a little TLC and a ceramic coated exhaust manifold as a bonus. I'm very happy that I finally found the car that I've been looking for so long. I'll take good care of it and it will hopefully soon become my daily driver. I've planned to maybe put in T5 in the future. For now it's temporarily parked at family friends.
Before I forget, when I bought the car we quickly stopped at a gas station so I could fill it up. While waiting for the turn a DeLorean passed us which I thought was a funny coincident .

Nice vent covers

[turbo stephan]

Some more pics...

[squaab99t]

It is a good thing you bought it. If you did not, it might have followed me home. It is a very nice example of a well cared for car. Some mods, but nothing over the top and all were executed nicely. I'm telling you the '89 was a good run for the 900s.

[turbo stephan]

It is a good thing you bought it. If you did not, it might have followed me home. It is a very nice example of a well cared for car. Some mods, but nothing over the top and all were executed nicely. I'm telling you the '89 was a good run for the 900s.

I like '89 the most. No ABS clutter and Airbag stuff. Plus you get the better gearbox. Thanks again for stopping by at the mini Saab swap meet .

[Jordan]

Awesome! Looks like they only thing it is missing is the chrome bumper strips...and Trionic :)

But honestly, if it is going to just be a clean weekend car... keep the Jetronic... Keep it original, keep it clean.

[SalemSaab]

Dear Everyone;

please stop stealing our clean Saabs

Sincerely,

Oregon



gonna have to hassle spg_ftw for this one ..

[spgftw]

Ha! Yep, sad to see it go, but it was a good run. I put 30,000 miles on that car and it only broke down once- a pinhole leak in a hose that I managed to control with a zip tie till I could get home. Not bad for an old saab. :)

Oh yeah- the bumper strips are all there, just repainted flat black. They had turned yellowish with age and looked terrible.

Best of luck with the car. I want to see those aero rims in action. It'll be the icing on the cake.

[turbo stephan]

Awesome! Looks like they only thing it is missing is the chrome bumper strips...and Trionic :)

But honestly, if it is going to just be a clean weekend car... keep the Jetronic... Keep it original, keep it clean.

Thanks. I would like to make this a very nice daily driver with some upgrades. I like the idea of T5 not only because of the better driveability, but also because parts for the LH systems are harder to get by. I just think of the distributor, wouldn't it be great to not worry about them anymore?!

[turbo stephan]

Ha! Yep, sad to see it go, but it was a good run. I put 30,000 miles on that car and it only broke down once- a pinhole leak in a hose that I managed to control with a zip tie till I could get home. Not bad for an old saab. :)

Oh yeah- the bumper strips are all there, just repainted flat black. They had turned yellowish with age and looked terrible.

Best of luck with the car. I want to see those aero rims in action. It'll be the icing on the cake.

Thanks a lot Paul. The Aero rims will probably be one of the first little projects beside the front motor mount. As I said, I'm thinking to re-polish the lips, powder coat the middle part with 176 and then powder coat the lip with clear coat. We'll see...

[Luke]

sweeeeeet! Looks like a great find

[SwedeSport]

My buddy had a black 89 SPG a while ago. His was missing the bumper strips too. We ended up removing the remaining strips, grinding down the groove to bevel it, and filling it with a flexible body filler. We smoothed it all out and feathered it into the bumper. Then painted it with the factory gray. It was a ton of work to get it smooth and straight, but the end result really cleaned up the look of the car.

I had a picture of it. But was unable to retrieve it from my crashed computer.

Nice find!