Never properly introduced myself

[ScotHibb]

I guess I jumped in and started posting on a few issue-driven items and never properly introduced myself in the New Members thread as one should when joining a forum one plans on sticking around...

I am from NJ, born and raised to the age of 10 in Pompton Lakes when my father's job moved us to the pacific NW, where I aged to 18 and swiftly came back to NJ, found a job and started school (and have been here ever since). I double majored in Pharmacology and Psychology, with an MBA in Marketing with a cert for pharmaceutical advertising/marketing. I have been in the industry since the early 90's when I was working and night-schooling it.

I fell in love with Saab in 1989 when I was lucky enough to pick-up a "left over" model...a 1989 900 SPG Turbo (manual tranny of course). The 8 years living in the Pacific NW I was in a small town that allowed me to obtain my Bike license at the age of 13 (500cc and under only), my learners permit at 14yo (which I utilized as a full drivers license), and my unrestricted drivers license at 16yo, and solo pilots license at 18. I drove a Ford F250 with a clutch I rebuilt, and didn't know what it was like to drive an automatic until I drove a friend's car 2 years later.

I remember the first Saab that ever caught my attention was an older 900 that the mayor drove for the entire 8 years I lived in the small town, and he was always plonking-about in the deep snow, so I guess it stuck in my mind. It was the only Saab in town, and while taking ground school and learning about aerodynamics of flight, I made the connection to it's Jet-like windshield. There was no internet back then, so I was limited in research, but caught tidbits from racing magazines i subscribed to.

Anyway, when I had saved a good amount of cash for a car, I was looking around and just couldn't find one (was looking in the old-school want ads for a used fast car that I wouldn't have to spend a ton of scratch on up-keep). I had gone the route ot the Cuda with the competition clutch, H slam shifter, tunnel ram, and huge slicks (bout it from a guy who had it for 2 years and couldn't afford to keep up with the maintenance), and soon found out that I couldn't wither (hell, snapped more engine bolts than I can remember). A friend told me I should look at a few dealers to see if there was a better car I wouldn't need to worry about and used the cash as a down payment. I took his advice, and the first place I went to was a Saab dealer...I took the 900 out for a spin (sales manager not trusting at all and wasn't even going to let me test drive it...he rode along). After the test drive I knew i was going to buy it, but the sales guy pissed me off so bad I told him I wanted to think about it and came back the next day when he had off and spoke to another sales guy who happened to be listing a different 900 that I sat down and bought that memorable fall day in 1989...

Since then I have never been without a Saab at any point in my life, many times with 2 registered and insured at the same time (post marriage). My first wife (may she rest in peace) knew how to drive a clutch pretty well, so the 900 got plenty of great mileage with almost no repair bills. My second (and current) wife is not a fan of a clutch, so a few have been automatics since 1999, but I have kept the AT models to leases when possible.

Geez...didn't mean to give you my life story...my ADHD and ability to type at a rapid pace sometimes makes me ramble on a bit...

Anyway, my long love of Saab has caused me to own many to-date (most I still own), including: the original and first love of my life, my 1989 900 SPG Turbo, my second affair a 1993 9000 Aero Turbo, then onto a 2000 9-5 Aero, 2005 9-2x Aero (worse mistake of my life (read THIS thread), and recently an awesome 2011 9-3 Aero Sedan Turbo4.

I have had other Saabs as well, but I don't list them in "my Saabs" because they were leases and I never leased with the intention to purchase...sometimes as a write-off to a consulting company I started, sometimes to give the wife a new car in-between our 3-year new car rotation plan. Of the Saabs I've leased: 9-7x, 9-5 Aero SportCombi, 9-3 Aero convertible.

My wife calls me "Saab Obsessed", but she too loves them to death!

Think that's enough for now...glad I found a forum that doesn't seem to be controlled by a mob of creeps, a manufacturer, or a auto-thread-company!!!

[J-Rod]

Excelent intro! Welcome to the site, and I hope you stay a long while!

[ScotHibb]

Excelent intro! Welcome to the site, and I hope you stay a long while!

Wow...more post options when replying via Droid!Thanks J-Rod. By the way, love your auto sig tag! I once told a friend working for the ad firm that did the 9-7 "Born from Jets" campaign that they should use a new tagline such as "Don't drive fast, fly slow, Saab...born from jets."! Fecken cool! Good to see someone else had the same thought! Too bad my buddy didn't pass it by the GM marketing team (a bunch of idiots anyhow)...

[tunnanxwd]

I guess there is some strong aviation cue in the old 900's windscreen and most GA aircraft. You can actually see through both of them. I am still amazed.

I have tried and tried but I still can't find any aviation feel between any of the Saabs from the 900 on down, nothing that says airplane to me. They stopped making Luscomes too but that is not the kind of affinity we should be faced with though. When the tail of the 900 starts getting weird in the rain .... Aercoup? Look Mom, no rudder pedals? I should have bought that one. Here is a thought. As they closed Twin Pine they had a pic in the newspaper of a Kachina with shattered plexi. That brought a few tears. I learned to fly there and still remember the day they flew it in all new and shiny and swore if I ever owned a plane ... and to see it that way.

There was a whimsy sort of article on the smell of Saabs the other day and at first I was kind of, ummmmm yeah, but then it was about old Saabs of the 50's and such. Cars were made of metal and wood and leather, hardly any plastic save perhaps the phenolic knobs and wheel. Sort of a straw stuffing too and little between driver, firewall and motor. We did have a manual choke too and that was kind of like mixture ..

Automatics ... best thing if you had a turbo back "in the day" because the revs stayed up. We learned to keep a bit of juice into it with a turbo and stick. The auto boxes were said to be a tad quicker. I had a "blow through" Bill Thomas fame. He built a Cheetah that in it's short life was quicker than the Cobra and but for a fire in the shop? Sorry, daydreaming I guess.

Then one day, my Mother disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke. She worked with our neighbor and he bought an oil burner Saab with freewheel and all ..

[Hirsch]

Great intro.

Welcome Scott!

[ScotHibb]

I guess there is some strong aviation cue in the old 900's windscreen and most GA aircraft. You can actually see through both of them. I am still amazed.

I have tried and tried but I still can't find any aviation feel between any of the Saabs from the 900 on down, nothing that says airplane to me. They stopped making Luscomes too but that is not the kind of affinity we should be faced with though. When the tail of the 900 starts getting weird in the rain .... Aercoup? Look Mom, no rudder pedals? I should have bought that one. Here is a thought. As they closed Twin Pine they had a pic in the newspaper of a Kachina with shattered plexi. That brought a few tears. I learned to fly there and still remember the day they flew it in all new and shiny and swore if I ever owned a plane ... and to see it that way.

There was a whimsy sort of article on the smell of Saabs the other day and at first I was kind of, ummmmm yeah, but then it was about old Saabs of the 50's and such. Cars were made of metal and wood and leather, hardly any plastic save perhaps the phenolic knobs and wheel. Sort of a straw stuffing too and little between driver, firewall and motor. We did have a manual choke too and that was kind of like mixture ..

Automatics ... best thing if you had a turbo back "in the day" because the revs stayed up. We learned to keep a bit of juice into it with a turbo and stick. The auto boxes were said to be a tad quicker. I had a "blow through" Bill Thomas fame. He built a Cheetah that in it's short life was quicker than the Cobra and but for a fire in the shop? Sorry, daydreaming I guess.

Then one day, my Mother disappeared in a cloud of blue smoke. She worked with our neighbor and he bought an oil burner Saab with freewheel and all ..

HAAA!

You're right though...besides a history of jet engines, etc (which is shared by many auto manufacturers, even Subaru), there's not much that make one feel like they're in a cockpit. That's the problem with positioning statements that turn into taglines, or message buckets that turn into taglines. BMW was one of the first big company that broke the marketing rule of a positioning statement only being an internal tool by which to develop key messages, strategy/tactics, taglines, etc. when their company's positioning statement (something that was created to ensure tactics/communications owned a specific space in the consumer's mind) ended up becoming their tag "The ultimate driving machine" and is still alive in the most recent commercial spots. But Saab's marketing department shared part of their positioning and RTBs (reason to believe)'s with the advertising agency (most likely an internal function of the marketing team at the time), and the back-up/RTBs became the tagline "born from jets"...which, while I can fully understand where they were coming from, can look backwards as jets were born of Saab and cars were born of Saab, but the the jet and the car never got together under the sheets...

I do like the manual choke surrogate to mixture...and lack of firewall would let more raw engine heat/smell in the cab and probably remind me of a Cessna 120 my friend's father had that I cut my teeth on (which also felt similar to punching the 900 in heavy rain, compared to landing it in SE Alaska on a small single strip along a river and feeling my tail slapped back and forth)...

Come to think of it, I remember my friend and his slightly older 900 turbo automatic trans...I swore if felt like it geared-up and accelerated faster than I could driving my MT. I thought it was a Saab-thing with different tuned points during high-performance driving...

Ahh....memories....I remember when I first met my second wife and she got in the 900 (not knowing what to even expect from a 10-year-old Saab), and she caught her breath by the time I was in 3rd and said "wow, this thing zooms". lol, I still tease her about using that term when the "zoom zoom" commercials come on...

[tunnanxwd]

Wifey and I got along well but I was between marriages and so I/we decided to cool out and date others but this only lasted a month. In the interim I get paired up with this gal and as part of my buds "wetting" party we start to hit it off. I had driven to the rehearse-els in my MGB Ltd. and she hints about dinner and all that so yeah, I want to make a good impression so I bring my new 1984 900 that I am all proud of. We get a few blocks into the date and she starts nagging me ... "where is that, that other car" ... "can we go and get that other car, the black one" and.

At least wifey knew an MG from a Porsche and even loved the ratty Midgets and rusted 914's .... "that other car" my azz, dinner, home and I did turn the brights on so she didn't trip on whatever on her way to her front door!

[ScotHibb]

Wifey and I got along well but I was between marriages and so I/we decided to cool out and date others but this only lasted a month. In the interim I get paired up with this gal and as part of my buds "wetting" party we start to hit it off. I had driven to the rehearse-els in my MGB Ltd. and she hints about dinner and all that so yeah, I want to make a good impression so I bring my new 1984 900 that I am all proud of. We get a few blocks into the date and she starts nagging me ... "where is that, that other car" ... "can we go and get that other car, the black one" and.

At least wifey knew an MG from a Porsche and even loved the ratty Midgets and rusted 914's .... "that other car" my azz, dinner, home and I did turn the brights on so she didn't trip on whatever on her way to her front door!

Should at least have given her a mercy Feck! lol...love it when a target at least TRIES to talk the talk! Then again, that mix-up may have cause me to also choose Rosie Palm over her that night.......LOL!!!