Attention all Viggen shoppers... (updated 10/08/09)

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RITmusic2k
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Attention all Viggen shoppers... (updated 10/08/09)

Post by RITmusic2k »

No, I'm not selling Carmen. I may be stupid, but I'm not crazy!

BUT. There are like seven Viggens for sale all around the country, which is approximately 10 times as many as usual, listed over at saabcentral.com. I figured I'd send some love this way, because SS needs more Viggen drivers:

http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showt ... p?t=165589
http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showt ... p?t=165492
http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showt ... p?t=165203
http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showt ... p?t=165142
http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showt ... p?t=164784
http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showt ... p?t=165078
http://www.saabcentral.com/forums/showt ... p?t=165291

Start buying, people!
Last edited by RITmusic2k on Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
LHOswald
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by LHOswald »

RITmusic2k wrote:There are like seven Viggens for sale all around the country, which is approximately 10 times as many as usual, listed over at saabcentral.com.
so there are normally about .7 viggens for sale normally?
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by RITmusic2k »

Exactly. See, even if you sell the car, a part of it will remain with you forever.
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by watkins »

Sentimental much?

I know 500 went to the UK, but how many of the 3000 Viggens came to the US?

I know mine is one of (now under) 504 Lightning Blue.
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by watkins »

Wait? Rafal is selling the MCY vert too? I thought he was only selling the '99.
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by RITmusic2k »

Dude, yeah. He's purging his collection to get something RWD for the time being. He admitted that he'll probably come back and buy another one in a couple years though. I don't blame him :P
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by watkins »

If I were him Id throw one of them, probably the MCY, into storage and take the insurance off of it. That thing is crazy rare and in nearly perfect condition.

Maybe Ill bother him about this on Saturday when I see him
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by LHOswald »

i want both of you to explain EXACTLY why you love saab so much. in excruciating detail
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by watkins »

Drive one.
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by RITmusic2k »

LHOswald wrote:i want both of you to explain EXACTLY why you love saab so much. in excruciating detail
Alright. I'll bite. Since it's gonna take some time, I can't really get started on it until I'm on lunch. In the meantime, I guess I could just link you to all my posts over at saabcentral... that'd show you a bit.
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by RITmusic2k »

There is a large disparity between the perceived value and the actual value of a ten-year-old Saab. When I was browsing through autotrader.com listings with certain price and transmission criteria filtering my search, my results returned looked like this:

Focus
Civic
Civic
Focus
Neon
Civic
9-3 turbo convertible
Civic
Sentra
Focus
9-3 SE turbo
Civic
Civic
Neon
...

Because of an unfair reputation as being expensive and unreliable, they suffer from horrible depreciation. For the same money, one can buy much more car if they choose a Saab.

Back in the late eighties and early nineties, Audi had a certain reputation, or lack thereof. BMW and Mercedes got all the attention and recognition as THE luxury cars. But for a small group of discerning customers, there was a car that was brilliantly designed and built for a single purpose: being sharp and elegant at ridiculously high speeds. It was Audi, and it provided exactly what it promised, despite not being considered a real luxury sport car. I owned a 1984 5000 CS turbo - my first car - and it was perfect for me. I saw it as a vehicle that was comfortable and valuable and a serious piece of machinery, but it lacked the egotistical sheen of its Bavarian counterpart. And you didn't see them everywhere you looked.

Skip forward a decade, and Audi has rightfully claimed its place as a purveyor of world-class vehicles, and it presents a solid and ever-expanding blip on the automotive radar. The cars are better than they've ever been, and they can be found everywhere.

(to be continued)
Last edited by RITmusic2k on Tue Sep 22, 2009 3:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by watkins »

RITmusic2k wrote:Because of an unfair reputation as expensive and unreliable, they suffer from horrible depreciation.
Which is fantastic for those of us in the know
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by LHOswald »

haha good point!
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by RITmusic2k »

Hence:
RITmusic2k wrote:For the same money, one can buy much more car if they choose a Saab.
I'll continue my essay at lunch...
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Re: Attention all Viggen shoppers...

Post by RITmusic2k »

(continued from above)

And so with their ascension, Audi left that special place in my sphere of automotive awareness: the place of the 'secretly great car'. That is not to say that I've lost any love for them; some day when my budget can accommodate it, I will own another piece of chiseled steel from Ingolstadt. But in the meantime... I stumbled upon a new contender from Trollhattan.

Like the girl next door, who was always beautiful, but never elicited your attention until you took a closer look years later and under far removed circumstances, I'd been aware of Saabs and of hatchbacks for most of my life as a car enthusiast, but neither ever held my attention. When the time came to look for a car to replace my SHO last year, however, the circumstances were indeed far removed, and the years had gone by in batches.

The autotrader report I cited above was not an exaggeration, and it was the ever-so-slight nudge I needed to give Saab a second look. Really, a first look; I'd written them off during my years as an enamored Audiphile and this would be the first honest attention I'd have ever given them. I'm so glad I did.


Maybe my sensibilities had matured or seasoned in a way of which I wasn't aware, but when I walked onto that lot and viewed the black 9-3 that would, unbeknownst to me at the time, become my sweet Carla, I saw design and intent where I'd only seen shape before. I saw purpose and that purpose was agressive. And yet, it was poised and composed. Like a bouncer in a three-piece suit: imposing, but presentable.

The door was opened for me. I found my place in the driver's seat and was greeted with a assortment of delightful sensations that recalled my old Audi: A door that didn't simply latch closed... it engaged with a weight and solidness that betrayed its massively reinforced understructure and mechanisms; a sweet creamy smell of leather and surfaces that gave slightly to the touch, but reacted with firmness. Not a single screw or fastener to interrupt the lines gracefully flowing through the interior as if they were sketched around my body as I sat there. There was formal blackness dressed in slight garnishes of subdued leather and heavy, sturdy plastics. I was not sitting in a 'near luxury' vehicle at all. And this was the base model...

(to be continued)
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