Today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Saab is a car I’ll bet you didn’t even know you could buy. We’ll just have to see if this extremely rare and low mileage beast is priced so that you should also consider buying it.
The demon that possessed Linda Blair’s character in the movie The Exorcist didn’t really give a damn about being a total dick all the time. In contrast, yesterday’s custom 1971 Dodge Dart Demon pickup, looked to be both cheerful and useful. Well, useful to a point, as its lack of a tailgate and probable load carrying capacity comparable to a twelve-year old girl.
You know what else was limiting? That car’s seven-grand price, that’s what. Fully 70% of you didn’t like that despite it being a full-grand shy of what the car went for a year ago. I guess it’s lucky we didn’t see it back then.
Now, here’s a car that you are unlikely to have seen - ever. A 2011 Saab 9-4x.
I saw one once. It was at the 2010 L.A. Auto Show, where the 9-4x was introduced on the show floor behind an enormous ice sculpture. Despite the arrival there of the world’s first Mexico-built Saab, I was more interested in how the company was going to keep that frozen bit of art from turning into a carpet-ruining puddle over the week-long show. In retrospect I should have been more contemplative of the Saab’s potential longevity.
Saab introduced the production 9-4x in replacement of the U.S.-built 9-7x in June of 2011. Production ended in November of the same year after fewer than 500 had left the Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico.
They all shared their Theta platform with Cadillac’s SRX Sport U… Cross Ov… um, thing. The 9-4x was the last new car introduced by Saab before the company went bankrupt and the folks at GM stopped returning their calls
This one, in black over shark grey looks to be pretty loaded, however it’s not the top of the line Aero model. That one came with a kind of shitty 300-horse turbo 2.8.
This 9-4x has the 265-bhp 2997-cc V6 engine that’s more pedestrian but is considered easier to live with. The only transmission choice on the 9-4x was a six speed automatic. Those are a lot of ponies and a lot of cogs, however keep in mind that these were pretty hefty wagons, weighing in at around two tons.
That’s the result of a plethora of features including AWD and a big-ass moonroof through which you could moon your big ass, at the actual moon. It being a child of this decade it’s equipped with most all the convenience features you might want as well - heated and cooled seats, push button start, bluetooth and nav, etc - so you wouldn’t be slumming it here.
It’s also all GM underneath so parts for the mill, tranny and other mechanical systems should be easy to source. Pieces specific to the 9-4x however, like interior bits or the bi-xenon headlamps when they go cloudy? Magic 8-ball says unlikely.
The car has only 34,000 miles on the clock, or less than 9,000 a year. That seems appropriate, as all numbers related to this rare Saab should rightfully be low. That should also include the price, right?
Well, the price here is $19,000. That’s about half what the car went for when new four years ago, which of course means four years of depreciation. Maybe it’s still heading down? It’s hard to say with so few by which to judge.
What do you think about this Mexican-built Saab and that nineteen-grand price? Is that a deal to own a car that’s as rare a sight as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster? Or, for that much is this a Saab you’d just as soon forget?
You decide!
Boston Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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