“It isn’t a real truck.” Ok fine, it’s a minivan with a bed. Are you going to stand there arguing, or are you going to help me load up these kayaks?
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Extremely this. I never in a thousand years thought I’d be a Ridgeline Guy, but here I am. What this guy is describing is close to my situation except I pull a utility trailer, move a lot of sheet goods and building materials and tools on the weekend. It handles better than any pickup I’ve driven, it is comfortable,… Read more

Sort of the inverse of what you are going for, but the local boneyard had an ‘81 900 Turbo sedan. 8 Valve, K-Jet, early style transmission, all kinds of uber rare NLA parts. Slowly, 50% of that car migrated into my garage one piece at a time.
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its actually a bong
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I used Tom’s services to help my Mom buy a car. My Mom and I are both busy and have better things to do with our time than argue with car sales people. We did the initial legwork to identify the make and model we wanted and then tried to buy it. Local dealer’s price seemed off, they were inflexible and their sales… Read more

I used to order from them, too. Whether they’re pulling back the reins on the suits or not is basically irrelevant at this point. It wasn’t a “mistake” on their part. Sending you a Small when you ordered a Medium is a mistake. This was an intentional, carefully thought-out plan, that only got halted with enormous… Read more

I used to order from them, too. Whether they’re pulling back the reins on the suits or not is basically irrelevant…

Is this the same Backcountry dot com that’s suing a bunch of small businesses that also have the word “backcountry” in their name? If so, probably should avoid them! Buy from Evo dot com instead.
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Is this the same Backcountry dot com that’s suing a bunch of small businesses that also have the word “backcountry”…

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Right! And the weird thing was that I don’t remember any animosity between various “competing” Saab boards, which is unheard of in almost any other area where there are multiple sites covering the same product/interest/etc.
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Same! It was perennially the first site I checked each day on my PowerMac G3 running Netscape Navigator. The boards there are still delightfully antiquated and still incredibly functional. Read more

Part of the reason I got so heavily into Saabs was the internet culture around them. Places like Saabnet.com had a distinct character: technical, helpful, serious and DIY-focused on everything from changing a side lamp bulb to rebuilding a gearbox. Things like trolling, flame wars, street racing threads, were just… Read more

David, beautiful truck. Can you tell us what you think about the mass resignations over at Deadspin and the stuff that precipitated it?
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L - OH- L
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This set the hook, and set it deep. ‘87 900S 4 door.

Saab 9000 Yes, it’s FWD and boring, but it is extremely Radwood era, can be very competent on a track (considerably moreso than the subjectively cooler 900) and YES YOU CAN STILL GET PARTS.
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As much as I love this choice, and I do, if he’s tracking it, he’s going to learn how to rebuild a gearbox or find a dude* who can. “Big bearing” 5 speeds were introduced in late ‘89, so that helps narrow the search, but factor this into the budget. I have friends who own a Saab shop who raced these in circle track… Read more

Pickup was a Chevy Colorado that had, on paper, slightly more HP and torque, but didn’t deliver it in a particularly compelling way. Gearing? Area under curve? ECM tuning? If I had to guess it was choice #2, and the t5 2.0 HOT in the Saab was peaky and raw, but all torque all the time from 2000 RPM to 55oo RPM.
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You’re alright Bradley. I threw a hitch on my Saab 9-3 and for 10 years towed so goddamn much with that thing. My “personal best” was 2000 pounds of renovation debris. It was an absolute beast, and pulled harder (albeit with less stability) than the pickup that eventually replaced it. So, from one Opel-In-Its-Bones… Read more

Is it better than my Ridgeline?
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Is this a good car for my ex-girlfriend Allison? For some context, she’s like 4'11, with a tremendous backside and a masters in public administration and currently works as an public comment review facilitator for the Federal Highway Administration. The second or third time we hung out, she was wasted and passed out… Read more