Sold my 9-5 and congrats to Puntita and Krit

Yesterday evening I`ve sold my Saab 9-5 to a client. Her own car was too expensive to repair. She`s very happy with my 9-5 and I have still 3 Saabs left.

The 9-5 really is a good car, I really enjoyed driving the 9-5 but I did not use this car very often. It`s better this way. Besides that. I am in contact with the owner of my first new bought Saab (9-3 hatchback on petrol). He `s still a happy owner, but if he wants to sell in the future he`ll call me first.

Today Puntita and Krit are married in their "Sharp-Saab" in Thailand. Congratulations and good luck together!!!

With my Saab 9-3 Aero I`m still not finished by the way. Very often I have the "rear fog light" warning. I`m afraid I have to replace the whole fuse box (have replaced light, wires are ok).

New this fuse box is rather expensive, I hope to replace it with a used one. It`s not very urgent, so I have the time.

Saabs in Thailand 2

The Sharp Saab has got some company. The owner (Krit) has bought a "new" Saab 900s.

Of course Krit is proud of his Saabs. Krit and Puntita want to marry the 23rd jan in their Saab 96 (for pictures see the Sharp Saab article).

Saabs made in China

Source The Qingdao Qingbo Investment Co. Ltd., the State Power Group Co. Ltd., and its Swedish subsidiary signed an agreement on 7 January to build SAAB cars in Qingdao, Shandong Province, states the Qingdao Daily newspaper. National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB (NEVS), a sister company to State Power Group Co. Ltd., bought SAAB in June 2012. Both companies are owned by National Modern Energy Holdings, a company founded and controlled by Johan Kai Jiang, a Chinese-Swedish enterpreneur. According to the Qingdao Daily,the three parties involved pledged to invest 10 billion yuan (1.6 billion dollars) to construct a factory capable of building up to 400,000 automobiles a year, which includes cars powered by both conventional internal-combustion engines and alternative fuel engines. The factory, an R&D center, sales, and procurement centers will be built in Qingdao, a northern Chinese port city. The Qingdao Qingbo Investment Co. Ltd. is believed to be a company set up by the Chinese government specifically for the SAAB project. That makes the Chinese an investor in any future SAAB cars. By shifting production to China instead of Sweden heavy import tariffs are avoided for cars made under the SAAB brand. A time frame for the building of the factory is unclear, but factory construction in China can be done at a breathtaking pace once approval is granted by the central government. An official statement by the Swedish subsidiary of NEVS is still pending on this matter. However a source to Saabblog.net states that in the future Qingdao will produce cars for the Asian markets, while Trollhättan will produce them for Europe and the US. Too good to be true? If it all comes true and SAAB is revived perhaps their first car ought to be the SAAB Phoenix, which will be appropriately named...

The Sharp Saab in Thailand

On our Facebook fanpage we`ve nearly 1200 fans now. One of them is Krit Jongudomsombut from Bangkok (Thailand). As we maybe all know, in Thailand a Saab is very rare (for sure not so common like here in Europe).

Krit told me people in Thailand really don`t know Saab. If he parks at the public car park people often call his car a Sharp (brand of electric appliances) instead of Saab. Krit is a Saab fan for many years. And he`s not the only one in his family. Also his brother in law drives a Saab.

The Saab 96 shown above is the wedding car of Krit and Puntita (they`ve planned their marriage januari the 23rd). Krit drives his Saab 96 for 5 days a week and he gets a lot of attention on the road. Krit drives a very exclusive car because there are just 2 other Saab 96`s left in Thailand.

In the past Krit had also a 1993 Saab 9000CD. Below some pictures.

Finally a picture of the Black Saab 9000 CD Krit owns, this one is from 1997. Do you have a Saab too, feel free to post your picture with or without story on our Facebook page.

Mini Saab meet

Yesterday evening I had the event in my showroom with clients of my company combined with fellow Saabists. Alexander was present too, he came with his nice Saab 9-3 Convertible with V6 engine from Bratislava (Slovakia). I`ve got some bottles of Slovakian wine from him, thank you very much Alex! Unfortunately I forgot to make a picture of his nice Saab between my Saabs during daylight, so I have to organise an other meet :).

Some Saab drivers had never driven in a V4, so Robbert (my neighbor) offered them a ride through our village in my 95 veteran Saab.

The Belgian Saabists where present too and they`ve tested my mussels (I passed the test). More pictures are shared on this link (dutch).

Saabs, Prosciutto and Mussels

Yesterday evening I had an event with San Daniele Prosciutto in my Snaidero kitchen showroom (today as well). One of my guests (Ben) also owns a Saab (a 9-3 convertible more or less the same as I have) and we where talking about nice Saabs. I told him I like the Saab 2-strokes, but he had never seen one (me neither until IntSaab). Actually I wanted to show him some youtube videos with Saab two-strokes but unfortunately it was too late to start up my computer again (after midnight). That`s why I`ve embedded some video`s for him, I hope he understands me better now. Today more Saab drivers are expected to visit my showroom. One of them is Alexander (he also has a 9-3 convertible). Alexander lives in Bratislava, so he has a nice trip to do today with his Saab. Alexander has a blog about Saabs like me. Besides Alexander also some Dutch and Belgian Saab drivers are expected. At one of our Saabmeets at the airport we where talking about mussels and I told one of the Belgian Saab drivers I can make the best mussels of the world. Tonight I have to prove I did not exaggerate.

Clean oil pan for the 9-5

Yesterday evening we`ve proceeded with my Midnight Blue Saab 9-5. Last week we`ve cleaned the oil pan and strainer. This page of Frank Wulfers was very usefull for us (never done this before to be honest).

Yesterday we`ve installed the clean oil pan back in the car. After that we`ve filled the engine with fresh oil.

Starting the car was not easy with a dead battery, so the 9-3 convertible supplied the electricity. We`ve let the engine warm up but (fortunately) did not see leaks around the oil sump.

For the moment I`m finished with my own 9-5. We want to do the same maintenance now first for the Saab 9-5 of John (an other local Saabist). John helped me with my 9-5 too the last weeks, on the picture below he is cleaning my engine.