You can tell you’re in downtown Minneapolis when there’s a skywalk on every block. What a novel idea for a city that actually gets winter!

I realized last week when I was giving a local dealership a list of cars I was looking for that it is indeed an eclectic one so perhaps some justification is in order. Today: the Saab 900/9-3.

Sometime at the end of the 90’s I 180’d in my opinion of the Saab hatchback. They’re made for cold weather (heated seats!), they’re safe, reasonably fast, and they are vaguely interesting without being tiny. A friend of mine had a 2002 9-3 Turbo for a brief period of time and it was a really neat and surprisingly roomy car. Unfortunately the 9-3 is just a little out of my price range so I’m looking for 900’s as well in spite of them showing their age a little more. The ideal would be a two-door model with a manual transmission. Something about the idea of a Swedish convertible appeals to me so if it’s a droptop I can’t say I’d mind.

I”m not even considering the new 9-3 because I can’t afford it and even if I could, I find the sedan bodystyle rather boring. It’s unfortunate that America doesn’t realize the value of a good hatchback because that’s what killed the 5-door (and 3-door) Saabs and homogenized them into the A4 knockoff that exists today. I’m sure it’s a perfectly fine car but the hatch was the only thing that differentiated it from other even more perfectly fine cars (like the aforementioned A4 before its nose surgery or the still perennially lovely Acura TSX).