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Cars You Never See Anymore

1991 Saab 900 and a '92 Skoda, both in good (and original?) nick.

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Serendipitous indeed; on friday I picked up a copy of Drive My Car, in which the protagonist is driven around in his Saab 900. Then on saturday my partner picked Sideways as the evening movie, in which two friends drive a Saab 900 around california wine country. And on monday this car was sitting on my road parked next to the Triumph Stag (under a cover in the background):
saab_900.jpg
 
Came very close to buying one of those (not a ragtop, mind you). Went with 635CSi instead due to the number of people amazed at "Swedish car you can't drive in snow".
 
Came very close to buying one of those (not a ragtop, mind you). Went with 635CSi instead due to the number of people amazed at "Swedish car you can't drive in snow".
Why can't it be driven in the snow? I know you'd need to be light on the throttle, but it's still drivable, isn't it?
 
Why can't it be driven in the snow? I know you'd need to be light on the throttle, but it's still drivable, isn't it?
Old-fashioned 1980s turbos and snow are a really poor match. They took ages to spool up, encouraging you to give it a bit more on the pedal, and then slam on all at once. Really quite dangerous unless you knew what you were doing, and finding out what to do was quite hazardous enough even if you were careful.

Edit: At least the Saab was FWD. The Volvo 240 Turbo, with its RWD was... interesting in less grippy scenarios.
 
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My dad had one...the colour scheme was "champagne and tobacco" ...that is to say beige with a brown stripe down the side...there was a hole in the bonnet for a hood ornament..great cars though
Could you choose your own bonnet ornament? Wow. I'd have a gold goatse for sure.
 
thats me dream car up there ^^^^^. They are beautiful to drive without being lairy. Rust to fuck and lots of cat C damages on many of them, but thats kinda part of the game. virtually impossible to find a stock one these days, they were all escorted up with big bore exhausts and Kent hardware. But thats kind of what they were about.. they do look shabby inside very quickly as well.

late last century, very late, I needed cheap wheels as my £200 automatic chevette had been trashed in a station car park by kids. meh. i left it there. A trip to dagenham and its used car lots on the A13 had one of these in black for 1399. They also had a similar age rust free 2.3 square granada auto ghia for £400. the insurance was twice as much for the RS, so I went for the Granada. Its probably sitting in a service station on the M6 when after 400 miles of trouble free motoring , it decided to shove a piston thro the crankcase for the lols.

that decision and the Alfa Montreal I didnt go for were possibly the biggest negative shite decisions in my chequered car history.
 
A couple spotted today when driving, a Honda Prelude which turned out to be from 1991, and a 1986 VW Jetta

Both on just over 100k miles which is not a lot for cars of that age really
 
Theres a big grey market at the minute with well old shitboxes being got back onto the road and their interesting plates being flogged off on vanity plate sites.
 
I followed this for a few miles down the A3 and am not sure I have ever seen one before. It is now cream not canary yellow though.
I was surprised at how small it was, I would have expected it to be much bigger.

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Well it was supposed to be a "sports" car. Compare it to a European coupe of the same era and it's gigantic. It's still quite a bit larger than an XK-E and that was always criticised for being a bit on the fat side.
 
something akin to this passed me on the M1 this morning


early 80s x reg mercedes
 
Theres a big grey market at the minute with well old shitboxes being got back onto the road and their interesting plates being flogged off on vanity plate sites.
I think you have to have a certain piece of paper to sell the plates, I know my dad didn’t have it for the Morris minor in the garage when I was younger, would have been worth £450 if he did (XHY7). Though it’s now on a different make of car so maybe something was done by the person who bought it off him circa 1990 as a non-runner. Just checked and it’s now on a shitty Porsche Cayenne.

I just remembered the other day that we would occasionally see an identical black Minor when we were out and about, which was XHY5. MOT expired in 2006 according to the DVSA. Maybe that was recent enough for it still to be sat in a garage somewhere.
 
Theres a big grey market at the minute with well old shitboxes being got back onto the road and their interesting plates being flogged off on vanity plate sites.

I think you have to have a certain piece of paper to sell the plates, I know my dad didn’t have it for the Morris minor in the garage when I was younger, would have been worth £450 if he did (XHY7)

When I was involved in it (temporary job at local DVLA office just before they all got shut down, which is getting on for 10 years ago) the vehicle giving up the registration number had to be MOT'd and taxed at the time (even if the tax rate is zero, e.g. historic vehicle class, you still have to go through the process) - and of course the current registered keeper had to agree to it and sign one end of the transfer document.

Around that time, the 'historic vehicle exemption' to MOT testing came in, so presumably a vehicle that had been off the road some time could then be re-licensed without an MOT. Presume it wouldn't be allowed if the vehicle had been declared scrapped.

There is a process for re-licensing vehicles that have been off the road (or out of the country) for so long they have fallen off the DVLA computer, and in some circumstances you can get its original registration number back if you can prove to DVLA's satisfaction that it really is the vehicle you say it is (I know people who have done this with elderly buses) - again this used to require the vehicle to be MOT'd, but maybe doesn't now.
 
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