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).
hotspur said:
funny you mention all this now. check your now dated post of your MN shopping list as I threw some thoughts on the 9-3 in that post just last night. I too like the hatch 9-3s much better than the new sedans. at least they have the sportcombi out/out soon.
the problem with the 9-3s though: FWD. in winter i prefer AWD. and I can’t bring myself to like the 9-2x since its not new, just stolen from wrx fame, thus i’m looking forward to the v6 quattro version of the new a3, which should be available in feb. (only FWD and the 2.0T engine options are out now).
19:24 on 22 Aug 2005
matches said:
I could tell you it’s coincidence but actually I just saw your comment this morning and responded that I’d write more.
I can’t say that I mind FWD, especially when you have TCS and ABS to help you out. I don’t mind so much that the 9-2x rips off the WRX especially with the employee discount pricing ($20K for an Aero!). On the other hand I can’t stand the A3 with that gaping hole they call a grille - I loved it so much before that the new “design.”
19:33 on 22 Aug 2005
jbucki said:
i think i miss the skyways in the winter more than anything else about living in mpls. everyday i walked through about 1-2 miles of skyway on my way to work. to me, the smells that you encounter while strolling though them are the best part. coffee shops, cinnabuns, flower galleries, and smelly ass bums.
20:31 on 22 Aug 2005
hotspur said:
I must agree that with all the new TCS and DSC systems when I think about it I guess there are really only a handful of winter days a year that AWD is noticable advantage over a FWD. Sometimes I still think about buying a silver ‘02 9-3 hatch.
I quite like the new look Audis. Never saw the older euro a3 as the a3 wasn’t in the U.S. until this year, of course with the new grill. but I also like the new a4 and a6 better than the old ones and I think the old a3 and a4 styles would have been similiar.
I’m anti the 9-2x ’cause Subie/Fuji Intl were against GM using wrx dna for a new saab. GM wanted saab to have an AWD model and saabifying the wrx was the quickest/cheapest way of doing it. plus to me saab=FWD (yeah i’m anti the 9-7 SUV too).
while talking about subies…I still prefer the old bug eye wrx headlight design over the new ’sleeker’ cat eye design. And no matter how much Subie wanted to “show off their aircraft building heritige in a vehicle design” the B9 is straight up ugly.
00:31 on 23 Aug 2005