I "DougScore" my 1985 Saab 900 S 

One of the best Saab stories ever

my first time ever driving a Saab was in the late 80's when I was a valet at a high rise condominium. My captain played a cruel trick on me my first day and handed me the keys to a Saab 900 Turbo and told me to park it. I was excited to drive such an exotic car "for the day". I got in the car and closed the door and started looking for the ignition and could not find it to save my life....lol

I had an identical red '85 900S Notchback! I loved that car so much I drove it for 22 years.

SAAB is the best and always will be a 10/10

Great and fun review. My only addition would be the bonus space with the back seat folded down. Takes the amazing trunk space to a new level.

You can probably make an entire video on the quirks alone. Here are some quirks that I would have included in the video: 1. Show that this is the only car in the world that you can put a large pizza (including the box) on top of the dashboard and it will stay put while you drive. 2. Show that (often) when you are first in line at an intersection with a single traffic light, that you can't see the traffic light unless you put your head forward and look up. 3. Show that the operation of the Sunroof is neither by an electric motor, nor by a crank (typical of that era) 4. (not sure what year, they stopped this, but my 1981 had this feature) Show that the car has heated seats, but does not have any switches to turn them on or off.

I had a 1985 900i two-door in white, it had 'minilite' style wheels and a black lip-spoiler on the boot lid (taken from the Turbo), also a red/green pinstripe down the swage line. The colour and spoiler somehow balanced the shape of the car to the point I thought it better than the (usually preferred) 3-door. It was a stripped-down version with no electric windows, seats or a bunch of other stuff often fitted, I believe was it was the lightest version of the 900 ever made. It wasn't under-powered by any stretch, easily holding 90-100 MPH on M-ways even up long gradients, and it just felt very grunty for a normally-aspirated 2-litre. Re. the tracking on long, fast curves was you mention - it was unmatched by any other car in my 40+ years of driving, completely unperturbed by bumps or camber (surface) changes, and that was no accident - Saab chose a (very well located) rear axle over an independent setup (along with the double wishbone front) for good reason.

Haha! Loved your Doug video. This was great. It's funny - many years ago early in Doug's youtube channel days, I sent him an email suggesting he review a 900 Turbo SPG. He me back chuckling saying "Of the course the guy from New England wants me to review a Saab." He did eventually review a late model 9-5 sedan. I am still waiting for him to review the classic 900. BTW, in addition to tons of other SAABs we had from every era of SAAB, we also had a gorgeous '86 1/2 two-door 900S notchback with the very smooth 16 valve engine. Great great car. My all time favorite was the '79 99 Turbo 5-door. Boy those early turbos were so much fun. Tons of turbo lag, but once you get it going and that turbo spools up, really fun. And the turbo whine was such a great sound.

Wow. This bring back memories. I had a black '83 900S 4-door. Loved that car until I was t-boned by a large delivery truck. The car was totalled, but I walked away.

I actually enjoyed this much more than most of Doug’s content. Not a criticism of Doug, but I just found this more informative and fair. Keep up the good work.

🤣🤣🤣You did the review yourself. You're a great man like all of us who love saab. Ciao dall'Italia🇮🇹

Two big thumbs up! One for imitating Doug Demuro, and the other for loving the saab 900 as much as i do. I just happened to buy the cheapest saab 900spd ever sold on bring a trailer. I am also a fan of Hoovies garage.

Oh man, my parents got one of these in the 80’s on their boss’ recommendation. He had one in Germany, was driving it on the Autobahn and he ended up rolling it. The car was built really well, so the roof hadn’t caved because the chassis had essentially a roll cage inside of it. The engine was still running and it landed on its wheels, so he just drove it out of the field to the nearest service station completely unharmed. What fantastic cars.

Good job Boi, Exactly as I expected 😊

On some euro cars the dots are there to indicate the max engine speed for each gear. I imagine 150 km/h is the max speed of 4th gear for example. You can find this kind of indication in old Mercedes as well.

Love it! 88 4-door notchback here.

You couldn't have picked a more appropriate back-drop, abandoned Sears parking lot.

Ah the memories- my burgundy 1985 Saab 900 (non turbo) 5spd 3 door (hatchback) 285,000 on odometer-- traded in 1995 for a bright red 1995 Pontiac Grand Prix GT... had several vehicles since then - none as memorable as the tank (Saab) I had 🙁

Love the odd looks of this car. And love the visibility, something which is sadly lacking in modern cars. Awesome video!

I always wanted that exact model.. I owned 3 Saabs.. A 88 SPG.. a 83 turbo.. and a 88 900s... I miss them.

Great video! It is highlighting 50km/h. That was back then and to day the speedlimit in the city. And its true about the key. It was for safety.

Great video! I love these old Saabs!

Makes me miss my old 1985 900S hatchback. The 2-door notchback 900 and 99 always looked weird to me. ;)

The alternate Doug! Fantastic job imitating his style.

great car, lovely video! I have also a '85 900i, but a 4 door saloon... love these machines

Thank you, excellent review

4:20 - and owning a 1986 SPG made me feel unique, all that lowkey notchback bragging. God, it does look good though. Gives me those western European vibes... makes me want to listen to The Human League lol

fabulous film thank you

I never seen one in person but seems like a cool car ....I just recently bought a used 97 Saab 9000 CSE turbo.....exterior has seen better days but this car is so much fun to drive ....love and hate relationship with it 👌👌

Video made me miss my 900T. Wonderful car and in the snow I must brag I could do donuts in a few inches of snow and never loose tracking. No car Ive owned since gave me so much of a fun factor as the 89 16V turbo....To drive Saab is to partake in a truly unique automotive experience...

That was very cool, great content.

This was a great video. I think I'll go looking to buy one now!

Love the vid!

Hmmm, no Ellen, yet? Alright, I'll come back later then... Great video!

Love it!!! My dream car coming out of high school 1986. Now I'm in the market 👌🏿

you forgot the old style oppenable rear windows! thats a BIG qurk!

My '89 16v 900i 4 door 'notch back' manual is currently having some work done - including a new clutch. My car has done 307,000 km on the original clutch, gearbox still great. Car drives very well, so well on winding roads that I can leave modern cars well behind. Driver's heated seat no longer works- but the passenger one does.

A much more pleasant voice and flow vs imitated party. Please do more :)!

Awesome awesome video. I just purchased a 1985 900s as this video was perfect

I think Saab 900 gets a 10/10 cool factor as the official James Bond drove with Saab900 between 1981-1994 (I believe) in novels. My first and second cars in the 90s were Saab 900's.

The curved windshield was developed on the SAAB 99 to be the first to survive the moose test. The key between the seats came about because there was a study that showed many knee injuries caused by the ignition key.

I drive a 1990 3-door 16v 900 and I really love your car! A buddy of mine has a dark grey 900 from 1985, also 2-door but its the most basic equipped Saab had for sale back then (no power steering, 4-speed manual, no odometer, 8v 2.0L, etc.). Love the vid and its way more accurate than Doug's review! Greetings from the Netherlands :)

I’m getting too old to drive my 1984 red Saab turbo 900 hatchback -which has been the PERFECT beloved car! Considering selling but only to someone who will appreciate it for all those reasons you list in your good review. WHY did they ever stop making these?!!

The notchbacks had none of the practicality of the 4-door OR the hatchback, BUT...they were the coolest looking of the 900s. I had one that I transplanted a turbo B engine into. It was a lot of fun.

Hey you forgot that you can make the boot even bigger by flipping the backrest of the backseat!

Ricardo Engineering, a British firm designed the first Saab 99 engine from Saab's design specifications. Saab couldn't afford to manufacture it at the time but Triumph could and they also needed an engine. So Triumph manufactured it for Saab for a couple of years before using it themselves. At this point Saab designed an entirely new engine with no shared parts and began manufacturing in house - this B engine shared some measurements but no parts with the Ricardo engine. When the Saab 900 came around Saab designed another new engine - the H engine which was even further removed from anything Triumph ever used. The Saab engine is legendarily well designed and built and therefore a million miles has been done on several without major surgery. The Ricardo engine that Triumph continued to use for many years was not reliable at all and very few examples survive in comparison. The fact that the Triumph myth is always told is so frustrating - Saab did not back down on engineering or materials quality apart from this one time and yet unfortunately it is the one thing everyone remembers... This is especially annoying when you release that a standard Saab 16 valve H engine will take north of 500 bhp without significant internal modification - one of, if not the best designed engine in the world!

GREAT VIDEO! Honest evaluation and "Doug Score;" but WAY under rated in my opinion! As you allude, there is much more to these cars! - D- '86 900T 3dr

Good job on your Vid...

That video was freaking awesome!! You're better than Doug DeMissed-out-on-this-SAAB. And DANG over 340,000 miles! Nice!! Keep on SAABin'

The convertibles started life as a notchback!

This actually feels like a real Doug Demuro review lol

I have a classic 900i convertible. I had a BMW mechanic come up to me and say how nice my 900 was and what great cars they are. He said you drive 5 hrs in a SAAB 900 and want to drive 5 more. I know I love to drive mine.

I love your 900. I owned a 1989 2 door turbo 5 speed. Wish I still had that car. So much fun. New York rust got the best of it. I've owned others. 1995 ng900S 5 speed, 1999 viggen, 2005 9-3 soft top, turbo 5 speed and currently own a 1996 ng900 soft top 5 speed turbo and a 1967 model 96 with a 1.7L V4, 4 speed on the collum.

Great video very doug like. I think you way under rated it. I agree best car design ever. Can you imagine if they had continued to develop and mprove this design instead of rebaging Opels and Trailblazers?

saab is such a legendary company still building airplanes for the swedish airforce

Great job, thanks. Doug’s was good too’

You can unlock the trunk with the central locking system. You just need to program that feature with the drivers side door lock.

You might have convinced me to look at one that’s up for sale with only 50k on the clock

Any 900 notchback is incredibly rare. I'd trade my 01 Viggen convertible for a good one in a minute.

love it, man. still hoping we can get together with our Saabs after all this Covid stuff passes. Our cars are pretty dang similar (year, color, miles). are you part of the saab club of california on FB?

I had a blue 1985 SAAB 900 S, my regret was the trade in for a Chevy Suburban. I would purchase another SAAB 900 S for myself today. Truthfully, it's the only car I had no problems with. My wife at the time wanted a car with more space.

30, 50, 70, 90, 110 were the restricted speed limits in Sweden in the day soooo Swedish car made in Trollhättan. Nowadays speed limits are 10, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 110 and 120kph in Sweden.

Listening to you talk about the ignition key in this car - my father had a Saab 900i a while back where the engine would stay on even if you removed the key entirely, when I believe it was supposed to auto-shutoff if you removed the key. I wonder if these cars had common ignition key issues.

Yeah they do heat up in town, and they also are built to blow heat from the engine back in into the cabin, they were aimed for cold climate driving

Hey, love the video. I wouldn't consider myself a car guy but have always loved the 900 ever since my brother gave me his as my first car. I recently bought a 1985 notch-back 4-door 900 Turbo, 85k miles. Looks just like yours, cherry red, but without the chrome detailing on the windows, and a leather interior as opposed to cloth. I'm really grateful you mentioned the temperature issues, because I've found it hard to get a read on whether or not it's running too hot. I get nervous when the needle spikes since it gets uncomfortable close to the red. I've noticed it most after getting off of the highway and entering into a more urban area. I don't know if maybe my electric fan isn't triggering correctly but if I turn on the AC it will turn on the fan and it'll start to cool down. Not an ideal solution. Also one question. I recently had to switch out a defective battery and I think the shop gave me a replacement with the positive and negative posts inverted, but I'm unsure. I'm trying to determine which battery cable is positive but they're not marked nor are they red or black. The one on the left (assuming you're standing by the right-front wheel and facing the battery) is wrapped in a kind of braided fabric like cover and the one on the right in a blue rubber. I'm almost positive the cable on the right is the negative, and it looks like one of its two cables is a ground, but I'm just not sure and don't wanna risk damaging anything by reversing the cables and battery terminals. Any insight would be much appreciated!

2dr sedan was the least sold of all Saab 900, not very common! But i have had 6 of them :D BTW, the 2l engines has absolute nothing in common with the triumph 1,85 and 1,7 engines.

I am actually dying at how good you did at copying Doug lolololol

I never drove nothing like the Saab 900 especially of its time it was the best

Great video! We've had many Saabs. I have a 1989 900s sedan. So, why doesn't your 1985 have side blinkers? 110 MPH? What highway is that?

Well... the key and reverse is just to have the car not to roll if not deploying the handbrake... common man

Really cool video and a really cool car. But please never get technical again.

Spot on "Doug DeMuro's" review even it isn't..

Hey cool u viewed that beautiful red saab way better than if Doug could do. i like u. if I was u I start RU-vid channel viewing cars u are cool . Viva saab lol thanks

Ppl in Scandinavian countries are not impressed by SAAB hoods I should think. But drive any year of Jeep Cherokee there and jaws drop, phones rise, invites extended, and doors open.

Never had a problem with the odometer

i love you

Nice car. How hard is the engine to work on

Whats the mileage of these older cars?

Thought the 2-door sedan was not in North America (just the 4-door and the 3-door "combi" only).

No!!!! you can't repair those ignitions like that! You really should fix that issue so that it works properly again! Other than that, it's a great car!

Hilarious!

1984 was the first year for the 16 valve turbo, not 1985.

Arnsten hingy guflut kahingen altstuul!

This can’t be a triumph engine, cause this one works, and a triumph engine doesn’t😂

5X Saab Owner about to get my 6th: Looking for a licensed non-profit to handle raffling my 2004 Saab 9-5 wagon. Will to give 20% of closed raffle for handling and possible promoting 165K. Large service history from Saab trained mechanic AC not working recharges don’t last too long in S Florida heat Also needs lots of niggling things to bring it up to spec, Radiator and turbo were replaced several years ago DIC less than 2K miles ago Please let me know if you know of a charity who would be interested

The real reason: Doug spent 4 days recording quirks and features before his brain melted... he's got Saab quirks and feature ptsd. It's ok, it happens to most.

you need to be more animated and wave your arms more to impersonate Doug

Doug reviewed a e39 BMW M5, and said it has the worst cupholders. He obviously has not seen the saab 900 cupholders. Just open your glovebox and see for yourself.

Also you seem to have problems reading speedometers

My 2006 Honda Civic has 508000 miles and it’s 21 years newer 😂

Ah ah ah,that´s the SAAB developed H-Engine,it has nothing in common with the Triumph engine.The H was developed from the Scania V-8 truck engine.

And I lost Doug Demuro when he reffered to the passenger side vanity mirror of the Lamborghini Jalpa as a coke mirror. I've had a problem with depression and substance abuse so to hell with that and that that kind of language.

Saab made some great cars on paper. If they made them less difficult to look at i think they'd still be around. They all looked fairly terrible, especially by american car standards.

Doug DeMuro is one of the most annoying buffoons on the Tube so I don't know why any serious car enthusiast would Dougscore their car, but at least you are knowledgable about it.

A Doug demuro ripoff

Saabs is the ugliest car ever made.

i love you