1973 SAAB 96 - what a find!

Always liked these and enjoyed watching the roadtest on it

Very nice!

Word of caution, those battery disconnect screws pass a lot of current through a very small area of metal and quite rapidly become high resistance and intermittent.
Mine melted the green dial... They don't like damp locations and protective grease doesn't do much.
If it begins to act up on starting, suspect that first.

Lovely car though, my neighbor had one in the eighties, still remember the crackle pop of the exhaust coming down the street. Same color, too.

I guess a little update is in order on my 96. Its already the end of the season.

First off: I had only two repairs. A welcome change after investing a bit in the last years.


One was on a headlight bulb. The headlight relais acted a bit funny after that but that was a one time fluke.


The other was that the washerpump failed. As it turns out this is the same part as on a number of Volvo's so was easy to get and cheap.


I visited a number of events and tours with the Saab




And besides Hubnut visiting to take it for a drive also a Dutch magazine asked to use it in a comparison against a VW Beetle of the same year. Article will be published this winter but photo's were taken on one of the hotter days this summer. I did get a little bit vapor lock from just maneuvering (not enough airflow under the bonnet to cool things) but apart from that the heat was no issue for the Saab.


Last but not least. The insurance appraisal was updated again. According to the expert it gained quite a bit in value. The investments at least translate into that.