New Car

Yes indeed, eagle eyed S&N readers will have picked up my earlier clues that I have finally bought a car. My budget was very limited and for the price (£700) this was head and shoulders above the others on offer, although not necessarily my first choice looks wise. But hey, it has four wheels and an engine that works (for now) so I am going to make the most of it! Hopefully this Swedish beauty should cope well with the cold, retain her beautiful exterior (galvanised body don't ya know) and run and run for ever. We will see, but for the moment it is a whole lot of fun and convenient in for the bargain. With the help of my man on the inside track of the car world (my very own brother) I was steered in the right direction; away from all that French rubbish; and given confidence that it probably wont all go wrong at once and if it did, I can probably fix it for not that much either. I am planning to buy a Haynes manual for the simple stuff, but have the number of the garage in my phone now... just in case.

I did my first supermarket shop ever with my own car since I moved to Southampton and it was liberating to know that I didnt have to consider if I had room in my backpack for that extra banana, and still have the energy to cycle home with it all afterwards!


The chap I bought it from is a Prof at the university I work at, and after meeting him I was filled with confidence about the purchase. Full service history. Four new tyres. New exhuast last year. Bah, its all luck in the end I think, and I have read many Saab forums where guys claim they have a 9000 with well over 250,000 miles on the clock?! Here's hoping I can get that far! He had advertised on Ebay too but I signed the deal before that really took off. More pictures available on the Ebay site. This incidentally is not the registration as it is his private plate and my car has reverted back its original P plate.

Hopefully the first pictures of my first of many adventures in her soon.