(Originally published in NINES, the magazine of the Saab Club of North America.)

The $200 900

The "new" 1985 900 4-door and the retiring 1983 900S share a space in the driveway.

Personal economics over the past several years have kept a newer Saab out of my price range, so I have driven several older models, though models I am quite familiar with… Classic 900s. As mentioned in NINES #264, the 1985 Volvo 244 was replaced by a 1983 900S, my first Saab with the 8-valve "H" engine, also known as the B201. I had been leery about owning an early '80s 900 because the H engine had a bit of a reputation. Many of them developed cracks when overheated. It got to the point that there were companies advertising new H-head castings and complete heads in NINES. Small cracks next to the exhaust valves on #2 and #3 cylinders would allow coolant to seep into the combustion chambers, and air into the cooling system.

At 200K+ mi, the '83 900S ran darn good. Engine and transmission remain strong, brakes and clutch are great, but insidious rust is pealing the death knoll. The lower A-arm mount on the right side is looking bad. There is a procedure to replace the rusted area by cutting it out and welding in a new piece, but that work would cost more than the car is worth. While it would add to the anticipated life of that component, other systems on a 20-plus year old Saab could be expected to fail in the meantime. It is also doubtful that a non-turbo Saab of that age will ever be considered a collectible, so its value remains in the hundreds of dollars.

One other serious problem is a fuel leak at the pressure accumulator just ahead of the gas tank. Once again, Minnesota rust has eaten it away, and the connectors are well oxidized to the unit making replacement of the accumulator nearly impossible.

I started looking for a replacement vehicle. A friend in Grand Rapids, Michigan, located a 1985 900 base model, a 4-door with 234K mi, with only the beginnings of rust, for a mere $200. The drive train seems fine, with neither noise nor leakage from either transmission or engine. It needed some work, apparently more than the previous owner was willing to invest. Fortunately, my garage shelves held most of the necessary parts from "retired" 900s.

Since this 900 arrived in winter, it immediately received a set of old Nokia (so old that they are Nokia and not Nokian) snow tires on Saab/Shelby 8-spoke wheels, scavenged from a $100 99. The wheels had been repainted in silver. I might mount summer tires on the Super Incas in the barn and really class it up for warmer weather. (A recent inventory indicates nearly 100 various Saab wheels stacked in the barn.)

The coolant temp gauge did not function. A temperature sender from a parts car quickly got that working. The wiper motor was quite noisy and would occasionally jam. Two nuts, four bolts and an electrical connection later it was replaced with a much quieter assembly from another pats donor.

There is still the question of a brake master cylinder. The pedal is not real firm, and there appears to be just a little leakage, though not enough to require topping up the reservoir more than every few weeks. I would like to flush the system to see if there are any air bubbles or impurities, but unfortunately rust has seized the bleed screws for the calipers so I have been unable to bleed the system. I suppose I could replace the calipers as well since there are good used ones stashed away. I do have a good master cylinder, but would replace the rubber pieces with a new rebuild kit before installation. There are those who would just buy a new m/c, but we're on a budget here, remember? If the rebuilt unit doesn't take, then I'll have to reach deep for a new one.

The presumption is that the previous owner was frugal. The radio was a push-button AM/FM Blaupunkt unit without cassette. I chose an Alpine radio with cassette deck from the shelf in the garage, and backed it up with Alpine speakers salvaged from the old Winter Beater Mk. II ('85 900T).

The front bumper had absorbed a few impacts, so a decent looking replacement was found from the parts stash. A pair of round Bosch fog lights was added before the "new" bumper was installed. The wiring for the fog lights is part of the wiring loom, so all I had to do was add a switch and a relay, and make the connections.

The left side of the hood (right in the photo) has been waxed.

The Admiral Blue paint was faded, chipped and cracked with some nasty keyed scratches, especially on the hood, which made the car look dingy. A few hours with some Zymöl HD-Cleanse and Wax (sitting on the shelf for years) brought out some shine, but it was sort of like putting lipstick on a pig. It's not exactly pretty, but it isn't quite so ugly.

The engine is rated at only 110 HP, but the power isn't all that bad, though it certainly is far from a turbo. There is reasonable torque, and the slightly lower primary drive gear ratio gives a pretty good working range in the gears. The power is no better or worse than the '85 Volvo, or most current small 4-cylinder compacts, but getting in and out of the 4-door 900 is much easier than it was in the 4-door 244.

Experience has taught me that once rust begins, it takes over pretty rapidly. The suspension points on this car still look solid, but there are small holes on the fender lips and the corners of the doors. I'll get a year or two out of it, or maybe I'll sell it at the end of the summer as a winter car to some starving college student.

The total investment to date is less than a month's payment on a new Saab. What surprises me is that the car is pretty solid despite the age and miles. It is quiet traveling on the highway, even better than some newer compacts I have driven in the past few years as rental cars.

One other oddity is that the headliner appears to be original, though there is some separation beginning at the front corners. Margaret Adler, who was a contributor to The Saab Club Newsletter when I took over as editor in 1986, once suggested that headliner failure might be due to extremes of hot and cold from using the air conditioner. Since the A/C had been removed from this '85, maybe she was onto something.