Earlier this year I found on eBay a late first gen Saab 900 (known as a Cla$$ic 900) with a suspected head gasket problem and a whole 6 months MOT.

I couldn’t resist and went and had a look to find it wasn’t too bad, apart from some kids scribbling on the bonnet and some of the fabric appearing to have  been burned away on the drivers seat. If it didn’t sell then it was going to be broken for spares. Now you hear people say ‘it’s too good for that’ but never buy it to save the poor thing, but I did and Jalopy has another Saab (Another £300 Saab at that…)

A week later the deal was done and the Saab was delivered by the previous owner Dave. Unfortunately the exhaust link pipe snapped 1/2 mile away so already I had something to fix. But it started, ran and drove well, so all in all a pretty decent purchase. I just needed to keep an eye on the head gasket issue which was treated to some sealant type stuff in the expansion tank. No reported water losses at that point so I figured I’d just drive it until I needed to do something about it.

How long was this going to take to fully evaluate remains to be seen, but it seemed like a good idea at the time…

Simon