I fully realise any failure will no doubt write it off, but in the meantime it makes a refreshing change from my other (modern) cars.

A failure will write the car off if its street value is what it cost you, but in that event you will of course decide to have it repaired, as a potentially appreciating asset. Don't forget how the price of 205 GTi's has risen in the last few years.

A former colleague of mine ran an ageing S-Class on a low budget (other than for fuel!) for several years. He kept the cost down by buying a second one that had been written off in a minor accident, which he slowly dismantled in his barn and used it as a supply of replacement parts. It woudn't have been at all 'budget' though had he not enjoyed doing this or had the space, and taken it to a garage (or worse still a main dealer) to get it repaired instead. It went wrong in some way which would have been at least £500 to fix at a garage about every three months....

“Volvo 900 series estate for me was the best design of all, a brilliant robust and reasonably economical car, my favourite was when specced with VW's LT van 2.4 litre 6 cyl Diesel engine.” I liked the old 740/940 range but the VW diesels we’re unpopular as they were really not much better on fuel in real life than the much cheaper and quieter 4cyl petrols. I liked the offbeat 5cyl engine note though. The 2.3 4cyl petrol was almost impossible to kill though. Simple and unstressed they’d run and run until the rot finally took hold. Other than the occasional speedo failure I never had one back for anything even mega-Mike examples. They were one of my favourite ‘Dad cars’ along with the Ford Granada, Toyota Camry, Vauxhall Carlton, Saab 9000, Peugeot 505 and Rover 820. Simple things with loads of space and mostly cheap to buy used.

I just realised I'd owned most of the cars you mentioned. I had a 740, Camry, Carlton and Saab 9000. Always wanted a Granada, but every one I looked at was rotten and the 2.8 V6 was surprisingly slow / noisy.

The most disappointing was the Saab, as I'd always wanted one, but in reality it was little more than a re-badged GM product. Not Saab's finest moment.

i also had a Nissan QX. This was effectively a big Primera and I seem to recall it had a 2.0 V6.

I'd owned all of these before I was a Dad!

The original 1985-ish Saab 9000 had nothing to do with GM. It was a joint venture between Saab, Alfa Romeo (164), Fiat (Croma) and Lancia (Thema). The 1st Saab to be based on a GM product was the then new 900 in around 1993, which used the Vauxhall Calibra floorpan. But even then, all the engines at the time, apart from the 2.5 V6 was Saab's own.

I just realised I'd owned most of the cars you mentioned. I had a 740, Camry, Carlton and Saab 9000. Always wanted a Granada, but every one I looked at was rotten and the 2.8 V6 was surprisingly slow / noisy.

The most disappointing was the Saab, as I'd always wanted one, but in reality it was little more than a re-badged GM product. Not Saab's finest moment.

The Saab 9000 had no GM connections - it shared a platform with Fiat Croma, Lancia Thema and Alfa-Romeo 164 - the engine was the Saab-developed unit originally from Triumph.

It was the later new generation Saab 900 and 9-3/9-5 which were GM based.

When i worked at the Saab dealership in Aberdeen, one of my jobs was to drop off customers down town, or to their home, while the car was being seen to. I remember having a convesation with one customer in particular who told me his wife was an artist and in her opinion the (classic shape) 900 was the best looking car she was aware of.

I was a fan well before i worked there, actually that was one of the reasons i wanted to work there!. But over the years i have had 4 Saab's, 2 99's and 2 900's. The favourite of these was the first of the 99's, a basic model from 1979. Despite it's lowly status in the range, it had disk brakes on all 4 wheels, headlamp wash wipe, daytime runninng lights (which you could switch off GB!), thermostatically controlled heated front seats, height adjustable drivers seat (front up on its own, rear up on its own, or the whole thing up. Very simple but effective system), and a warning light which showed if either front occupant was not using their seatbelt. Even though it was a 2 door saloon, it had a proper folding rear seat which had a completely flat floor. Once you got past how heavy the unassisted steering was at parking speed it was a lovely thing to drive. Very solid, stable and secure on the road, but fun to hustle too and able to maintain a higher speed across country roads than you might expect a heavy (for the time) 100hp car to manage. The curved windscreen coupled with slim A pillars gave a level of visibility which would be totally alien to drivers only used to modern cars. Despite how slim the pillars looked from the drivers seat, they were actually pretty thick, its just that they had been shaped in such a way to give the least obstruction. The pictures in this article shows how well they stood up to the car having been dropped on to its roof from 2.4 meters(!), www.saabplanet.com/saab-99-drop-test/

bbd, exactly and you'll remember the sill design. No dirty trousers getting in one of those Saabs. So much thought went into the details. That's why the Focus MK1 is a miles better design than the MK2.

Yes, I'd forgotten about that!. I remember giving my next door neighbour a lift, it was winter at the time, and she actually commented on the sill. Said she had to be very careful getting into her husbands car to avoid getting dirty. I hadn't even thought about it till then, but I started looking at other cars and noticed the difference in how the Saab's door went right down and curved under the sill.

If I had a garage to keep it, I'd love an old 99 or 900 again.

I love the classic 900, it was the first genuinely interesting car my dad had when I was young. A 1986 C plate burgundy 4dr 16v Turbo. Had all the toys and went like a rocket compared to the Volvo 340 that came before but turbo lag would astound anyone used to a modern turbo but that just made it seem all the more dramatic to twelve year old me.

Likewise my Father had a Saab 99 Combi Coupe Turbo in the late 70's / early 80's. This was black and had a red velour interior. I too recall the epic turbo lag, but it just made the car seem all the more impressive, especially compared with the contemporary cars around at the time - Marina, Princess etc.

I especially recall the boost gauge - the was very much an after-thought and was tacked onto the dashboard in a seperate pod. I recall watching intently as the turbo built boost - very much "all or nothing" and nothing like the turbo's of today.

That said, the car that got replaced by SAAB was (IMHO) a better car (lack of hatchback and seat quality aside), my Triumph Dolomite Sprint was just as quick (before I modded the SAAB), handled better, suffered less wind noise at speed despite the older shape and has the character in spades too. I'm sure on a twisty country road I could make much better progress in the Dolly than the SAAB 900 Turbo.

Fond memories of my Dolly Sprint - it was a very quick and nimble car, although worn rear suspension mounts made it prone to axle tramp and a slight change in direction on sharp acceleration! Its best feature was the tiny switch in the gear lever knob. Floor it from 40mph in third gear, clicking into overdrive at around 65mph would provide a continuous surge of acceleration to, er, a speed when a further gear change was necessary.

That sounds like it would have been a pre-facelift, flat front model SLO?, IMO the nicest of the styles. I remember we took in one of those as a trade in, a 1984 B reg. Beautiful car, two tone with slate blue over silver along with the cream leather interior. Electric windows all round, electric mirrors, electric sunroof, electric ariel(!), cruise control, all the mod cons for the time!. I would have loved that car, but it was well beyind my budget, both to buy and insure!.

Edited by badbusdriver on 01/01/2019 at 21:52

“That sounds like it would have been a pre-facelift, flat front model SLO?” That it was. Quite rare even back then as a 4dr saloon too. But my old man hated the terrible fuel economy, it struggled to get past 25mpg. He raplaced it with a new Volvo 240 GLT which my mother hated so it was rapidly changed for a new 440 Turbo which we all loved. I ended running a series of these as company motors in the 90’s.

The 244/240 GLT is another car I'd really like!.

I remember reading an article in a classic car magazine not too long ago about the 400 series Volvo's, particularly the turbo's. Volvo was concerned about the long term reliability of turbocharging the 1.7, so massively over-engineered the installation. It didn't produce a huge amount of power, even for the time, but it was apparently extremely reliable, extremely driveable, and was able to use its power very effectively.