Picked up the new car this weekend. This was Tweek's winter car, it had been taken pretty good care of, mine needs a few things to make it go smooth again so it only made sense to pick up a second car.
Ben was nice enough to let me hitch a ride back to NY with him after Claremont, which was rather entertaining in and of itself, up to and including the Paul problem. The drive back was a little nervewracking, I generally don't have good luck with maiden journeys (clutch, timing chain, turbocharger and everything else, ECU, you name it, it's failed when I take a car home). I've been having good luck lately; nothing bad happened with the 88 and everything went really well with the 89. There was a sketchy moment when I forgot to remove one of the "for sale" signs and some rapist-in-training from Connecticut invited himself into the car, couldn't take "it's not for sale and i'm not buying what you're selling" for an answer, and had to be removed via less than ladylike methods :roll: There was also some directional confusion, phone tag ensued, and some ballbusting was done later ("I'm in Ontario." "How the hell did you get to Ontario?") I got the car home, and nothing fell off it, so I was pretty damn excited until I got in the house and literally had to crawl upstairs.
Between the meet this weekend, driving back from Syracuse or wherever the hell the car was, and the shit I had to do today, I haven't had a chance to wash, clay, and wax it... but there are some pictures anyway.
I've never had a hatchback that lasted more than six minutes, so it's still pretty new to me. I've had four 900 sedans and one non-Saab sedan, and I'm starting to get a little tired of it. So it's a nice change
So far, the car runs smoother than butter. No jerking, sputtering, stalling, parts falling off and getting dragged behind the car, any of that. The a/c blows coolish (not cold, it needs a charge). Transmission is really quiet, and holy shit it's even got a radio. So it wins 200 points on Granny any day. Unfortunately the best I could get out of it was about 95mph, there is some speculation that since the hatch is 250lbs more than the sedan apparently it can't haul the same way. It's ok, I'm used to slow cars Driving it you can't tell that it's 17 years old. The interior is really good, it doesn't smell like dead bodies or reek of smoke like other cars I've bought. Clean too, not a lot of dash cracks, only a couple small holes in the carpet, the headliner is pretty clean compared to Granny but sags more (the staples held up, but the fabric around them didn't).
Only problems I've noticed so far are that it takes a little longer to crank than I like, rear brakes are really freaked (we assumed this was just rust, but I've since put approx. 600 miles on the car and the rear still clunks), hatch doesn't open, and the speakers don't all work at the same time, sometimes not at all. These all seem like ridiculously simple things to fix, I just have to find the time to do it. It also needs some cosmetic work... a little more after I "tweek'd" it driving in the rain this afternoon
It also seems to have a weird little shifter problem, it's rather hard to find 5th. The shift collar isn't working properly, so the car always wants to go into reverse instead. This is not a very good thing for someone who is always looking for the non-existant 6th and 7th gears :roll:. That's the first thing that's getting fixed.
Overall it's a really good car, I was planning on using it as the backupmobile but it'll probably become the daily driver. Something about the hatchback just feels more fun.
It doesn't have a name yet, obviously it'll be referred to as Granny II but I always like to have a human name for the car so I can yell something at it when it does something I don't like. Obviously it's got to be an old lady name
Anyway, feast your eyes.
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(ignore all the crap, I haven't really had time to shuffle things around)
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What with it being Enduro's little sister and all, this and the fact that half the trim is missing, is rather humorous. I was given the part, I just don't seem to have the extra tabs lying around.
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The car is by no means a beater or a rustbucket, this is probably the worst of it. It especially pisses me off that I just junked Audrey, same year and color, with a nearly rust-free hood less than a week ago. :roll:
Ben was nice enough to let me hitch a ride back to NY with him after Claremont, which was rather entertaining in and of itself, up to and including the Paul problem. The drive back was a little nervewracking, I generally don't have good luck with maiden journeys (clutch, timing chain, turbocharger and everything else, ECU, you name it, it's failed when I take a car home). I've been having good luck lately; nothing bad happened with the 88 and everything went really well with the 89. There was a sketchy moment when I forgot to remove one of the "for sale" signs and some rapist-in-training from Connecticut invited himself into the car, couldn't take "it's not for sale and i'm not buying what you're selling" for an answer, and had to be removed via less than ladylike methods :roll: There was also some directional confusion, phone tag ensued, and some ballbusting was done later ("I'm in Ontario." "How the hell did you get to Ontario?") I got the car home, and nothing fell off it, so I was pretty damn excited until I got in the house and literally had to crawl upstairs.
Between the meet this weekend, driving back from Syracuse or wherever the hell the car was, and the shit I had to do today, I haven't had a chance to wash, clay, and wax it... but there are some pictures anyway.
I've never had a hatchback that lasted more than six minutes, so it's still pretty new to me. I've had four 900 sedans and one non-Saab sedan, and I'm starting to get a little tired of it. So it's a nice change
So far, the car runs smoother than butter. No jerking, sputtering, stalling, parts falling off and getting dragged behind the car, any of that. The a/c blows coolish (not cold, it needs a charge). Transmission is really quiet, and holy shit it's even got a radio. So it wins 200 points on Granny any day. Unfortunately the best I could get out of it was about 95mph, there is some speculation that since the hatch is 250lbs more than the sedan apparently it can't haul the same way. It's ok, I'm used to slow cars
Driving it you can't tell that it's 17 years old. The interior is really good, it doesn't smell like dead bodies or reek of smoke like other cars I've bought. Clean too, not a lot of dash cracks, only a couple small holes in the carpet, the headliner is pretty clean compared to Granny but sags more (the staples held up, but the fabric around them didn't).Only problems I've noticed so far are that it takes a little longer to crank than I like, rear brakes are really freaked (we assumed this was just rust, but I've since put approx. 600 miles on the car and the rear still clunks), hatch doesn't open, and the speakers don't all work at the same time, sometimes not at all. These all seem like ridiculously simple things to fix, I just have to find the time to do it. It also needs some cosmetic work... a little more after I "tweek'd" it driving in the rain this afternoon
It also seems to have a weird little shifter problem, it's rather hard to find 5th. The shift collar isn't working properly, so the car always wants to go into reverse instead. This is not a very good thing for someone who is always looking for the non-existant 6th and 7th gears :roll:. That's the first thing that's getting fixed.
Overall it's a really good car, I was planning on using it as the backupmobile but it'll probably become the daily driver. Something about the hatchback just feels more fun.
It doesn't have a name yet, obviously it'll be referred to as Granny II but I always like to have a human name for the car so I can yell something at it when it does something I don't like. Obviously it's got to be an old lady name
Anyway, feast your eyes.
(ignore all the crap, I haven't really had time to shuffle things around)
What with it being Enduro's little sister and all, this and the fact that half the trim is missing, is rather humorous. I was given the part, I just don't seem to have the extra tabs lying around.
The car is by no means a beater or a rustbucket, this is probably the worst of it. It especially pisses me off that I just junked Audrey, same year and color, with a nearly rust-free hood less than a week ago. :roll:
