After we saw our fourth DOTS Volvo (a clean 1970 164) last week, there was some grumbling by Saab fans that I seem to think the only cars from Sweden are Volvos. In fact, the ugly truth is that there are very few old Saabs in Alameda; however, I went out with the camera the other day, determined to find at least one Saab older than 20 years on the island. Block after block I trudged, stumbling across all manner of cool old Detroit iron to shoot... but the only Saabs I could find were 1990s or newer. Finally, my bleary eyes beheld this vision in white. Victory!
Of course, now I'm on a misson! Somewhere on the island lurks a Saab 95 or 99, and I'm going to photograph it.
The '85 Saab 900 4-door sold new for $12,170 ($23,771 in 2007 dollars). That wasn't ridiculously expensive, but by the mid-80s the Japanese competition was thudding brutal punches straight to Saab's kidneys and buyers in a Swedish mood seemed to favor the more expensive Volvos. At least, that's the way it looked in California.
But after seeing Team Saabs Gone Wild at the 24 Hours of LeMons, we're believers in the old Saabs now.
