11 practical things to consider when buying a convertible

There was recently a question somewhere on the net about Volvo C70 convertible. After a short talk it wasn't about a C70 but about convertibles in general. To compare convertibles and to set expectations for a newbie are two different discussions. Since there are people having  a convertible desire and never owned one, here are a couple of practical points, the obvious and the less obvious, to consider.

Most probably you need a garage
Outside can be cold, snowy and frosty. Not everywhere, but still. Also thiefs. Your future toy doesn't like none of these things, so doesn't do your wallet. 

Consider a wind deflector
A ride with the wind in the hair might sound romantic, but when after a full-day trip your frequence of asking "What? I didn't understand, could you please repeat ?" increases, you will know why some kind of wind protection is needed. If it doesn't hurt, it's the better case. The leather flying caps from WWI might look like from psychiatry these days, but the creators knew what they did. The creators of wind deflectors knew as well. Some of them are built in, mainly in roadsters (two-seaters), some you have to buy. It's not a cheap thing, but it works great.

What about the trunk / cargo space? Is it large enough?

In our Saab 9-3 convertible we could comfortably pack our stuff for a one week long vacation for two people and drive with the roof down with attached wind deflector along the adriatic coast a couple of hundred kilometers. The back seats are a huge help. Try that in a two-seater.

In general, there is more trunk space in soft-tops, then in hard-tops. Check it, when you buy your convertible. It's far less, then normal sedan trunk space but still with a bit of thinking, you can pack a lot of thigs inside.

Is in a four-seats convertible really enough space for four people? 
For short trips yes. One, two hours maybe. We did two times 11 hours in three people. It was ok. But to do this in four people you need a special kind of people. The ones who enjoy to suffer. Then it's ok.

A cap, a jacket and gloves
You have no roof, so the sun can look into your eyes in a very detailistic manner. A cap helps significantly, together with sunglasses. If you are afraid to look stupid in a cap (I do), you either ignore it or find a normal cap. There are so many choices. Also through the sunny days consider sun lotion. The sunburn can come very quickly.

The temperature jumps sometimes like crazy and you don't want to close the roof. Mountains, fields, city, countryside, morning, sunny day, evening, season, whatever. I've experienced 15º C difference within ~3 hours. You can use the A/C or heater but to have a light jacket with neck protection for the colder passages is very practical. Somewhere hidden in the car, it doesn't take too much place. The gloves are stylish, but that's it. Imho. Try them. Unless you drive with the roof down in winter.

And unless you dont have a special heater for the neck or so which the luxury convertibles offer.

Strong or weak engine? 
Of course strong. All the slow cruising things are *******. A weak engine means less fun. You don't need to be a notoric speeder to have moments when you love to push the gas pedal a bit more than usual. This experience in a convertible is simply more intense. If you like diesels, fine. But be aware of the engine sound. You drive a convertible, not a tractor.

Hard top or soft top? 
Firstly it depends on your taste. From the practical side both have pros and cons. Hard tops are heavier, slower in operation, take more place in the trunk and have a more complicated construction.  On the other hand they are less sensitive against bad weather, thieves and the cars are more quiet in the down position. They are also easier to clean. Soft tops are the exact opposite. Modern soft tops have multiple layers, mine survived several strong storms without any problems.

Dark or light interior? 
Again it's up to your taste. The dark seats heaten up faster if you leave your car open, that is true. In my experience I had only once a situation, where they were really hot. Not a real problem here. On the opossite side, it's an open car, it will always be a bit dirty inside. Do you want to clean it ? How often ?

Parking sensors or rearview camera 
Strictly recommended. You don't see too much in reverse with the roof down. The rear window is small and some kind of assistant is very helpful. 

Heated or / and cooled seats
Heated seats are great, when the temperature goes down or when you drive through the night. It's pleasant and comfortable. I don't have any experience with cooled seats.

Edit: now I have. Well, I can live very well without it.

What is the right temperature for driving with the roof down ?
Depends on your sensitivity. In my opinion the ideal temperature is 24-28ºC (75-82º F), It starts to be too hot after 33º C (91º C) and too cold below 17º C. However in the spring when you can't wait for an open ride, you will definitely drive in colder conditions.

I might forgot on something so feel free to ask. Enjoy the ride.

The wiper blades

Wiper blades might look as a banality, but if they don't work properly, they can prepare a lot of stress and maybe dangerous situations. Two years ago I've searched for a good ones and tried Valeo Silencio X-TRM.

There was a post about it here on Saabism. It's from 1. April 2011 (no joke :)) at about 60.000 km. It  means they were good for 2 years and 2 months and 50.000 km. Which is very good.  They did a great job in every condition and then recently abrupt stopped to clean properly.

Since this is a very good performance, a new pair is ordered.

A complete SAAB wheel guide

If you have ever searched for new or used wheels for your Saab, you might come to a quite powerful but still not complete guides, either Jeff Powells list or the Allfactory wheels list.They have a lot of content but either some wheels are missing or information about them.

There is now going a really nice attempt to make a complete list in a shared google document, where fans already did a great job and it continues right now. It looks like this :

This really nice community effort can be found here : Saab Wheel Guide.

The edit is open for a week or a little bit longer.

Please look at it, if you can add something, please do it. If this goes good, it could be the most complete Saab wheel guide on the web.

This attempt was started by a user of the Saabbit forum.

Your Saab data in real time

This video is an impressive example of gathering data from your Saab while driving with relatively simple tools. It's a user walkthrough, saying what you need to get the data in real time and much more.

It's an OBDLink MX device reading the data from the ECU and sending them via Bluetooth to an Android smartphone, which runs an application called Torque. The reader is utilising OBD-II standard and this video example is made on a MY2007 Saab 9-3 with B284L engine (stock).

The reactions on the few forums are claiming, that the reader device is extremely well built and fast, much better than the usual chinese production. However there are tests online with cheaper devices which are claimed to work.



According to the description the Torque app besides reading from the ECU has many other features. It can record a mobile video with selected data (throttle, torque, fuel consumption etc) or you can combine them with the video from another camera such as this Saab in the Nordschleife. For this you might need a free Track Recorder plugin.

While reading around the combinations, there are three important things coming out : 1) the amount of informations from the ECU varies by car type, 2) the device takes energy from the battery also with engine switched off, so one has to be careful not to flatten the battery and 3) it needs a quite powerful smartphone.

This device doesn't support iOS based devices, but the manufacturer has wifi based devices, which can be used with Apple mobile toys.

I think my Saab will get a new toy. When the new smartphone will arrive ...

src : youtube

The Supercapacitor - option for electric cars ?

The biggest problem by pure electric cars is still the driving range and length of the charging cycle. I came across a video which shows a technology, which could change the whole thing. It's called the graphene supercapacitor.

An extremetech article from last year explains that an relatively easily manufacturable substance - graphene, when putted between two electrodes can have energy and power density far beyond from what we have now. They simply can hold much more energy and charge much quicker.

Recently appeared a short film, a submission to a short film competition which describes the whole thing in 3 and half minutes in a natural and understandable way. Well if this would come into production, things would be much easier and not only cars.


Yes science is very cool.

Sleepiness is stronger than you

Driving while being drowsy can have fatal consequences. Many drivers know, but there are always campaigns which attempt to convert the "many" to "all". It makes absolutely sense.

The Thai Health Promotion Foundation is running such a campaign, with an amazing tatoo visual.

via Jalopnik

Btw. you can also read a bit more about how to fight against sleepiness while driving.

The Independence Edition dashboard

It seems that everything needs it's time. This was a Christmas gift to my Saab. It needed some time to come here and again many thanks to all who helped. Then it was Christmas time, afterwards 2.5 weeks vacation, then hardcore work. And then the service guy got a flu. So the whole thing took nearly three months from start to installation.

But it's here and installed. Finally. Together with Hirsch leather door handles. The dashboard hasn't a Hirsch logo on it, because the Independence Edition didn't had it. It is maybe one of the last available, if not the very last one.

My biggest concern was, that it will visually "fight" with the Maptun steering wheel. Luckily, it's not the case, they are playing very well together. I love it.

And besides the visual upgrade, the original dashboard had a quasi alumium edge, which created a bit annoying reflection on the windscreen under the "right" light conditions. This is now gone.

The search another parts for replacement or covering of other aluminium parts in the cockpit continues. The center console and probably the glovebox. If it needs it's time, ok. So let's see ...

Heat your seat

Jalopnik has a recent story called "Thank A Swede For Your Toasty Ass" admiting, that Saab was the first one, who introduced heated seats in Saab 99.

Citing the Saabhistory site :

"The electronically heated seats were designed as a precaution for driver's backaches, ensuring better driving pleasure and ultimately more safety."

I've heard another more real-life story. In an interview (still giving myself hard time to find the source) it was told, that the heated seats were invented, because one of the test drivers had, especially in winter, problems with urinary bladder. So someone in the development team constructed a heater into the seat and than the idea came to introduce it as a car feature.

It might be an urban legend, but who knows ...

Picture source : Serious Wheels

Maptun upgrade installed

My Saab reached 100.000 km and the circumstances were good for an upgrade. So after a short e-mailing with Maptun two boxes came and were installed some days ago. Here are the first feelings.

The more visible new part is the Maptun steering wheel. It is thicker and softer than the original one. It fits very well into the hands. My fear, that the rugged structure will be a hurdle in smooth steering was not confirmed at all. It is a nice piece which found its home in the cockpit basically immediately.

Also I had the luck, that the service here had black steering controls which are looking much better in this combination than the chrome ones.

The less visible but very important upgrade was the front strut brace again from Maptun. Since the convertible doesn't has a fixed roof, the chassis got torque steering at fast acceleration in some situations. For example, when you enter a fast road and don't want to slow the cars behind you. Or while overtaking a slower vehicle on a country road. These were places where the car started to "dance". The strut brace eliminated it completely.  The car is much more stable, feels more robust and drives more smooth. As it would be from one piece of metal. Unexpected and a nice surprise.

Hopely it's not the end. Something more is still in plan. Let's see how this works out.

edit : oh yes and if you're in doubts how to hold the steering wheel properly, check this :

 source : gamespot forum

Upgrade !

My Saab recently arrived to the 100.000 km mark on the odometer. Since there were no serious faults, he deserves a reward. So an upgrade from Maptun is coming. Because the software is from  Hirsch and it works great, no chip this time.

But the chassis gets in some situations torque steering. Answers from forums how to improve this are saying two things : harder bushes from Powerflex and a strut brace. I am afraid a bit of the bushes and it wasn't very recommended by the trusted service technician. But the strut brace shouldn't bring any potential damage with itself.

Yes, it could be bought from a garage master in the next service. But I wanted a branded one, so Maptun was the choice. It looks very professional.

Another thing which comed was equally if not more important. A Maptun steering wheel ! It's massive and feels fantastic in the hand, a very comfortable kind of softness. I love it even not mounted yet, this will be a major thing.

Two boxes came via UPS, very professional packaged and another remarkable thing was - they are both very light, together 6 kg. That's nothing.

The communication with Maptun was very professional, quick and everything was gone very smoothly. After a not very good experience with some other seller this was a refreshing thing. Thank you Fredrik.

I can't wait to have it mounted. Soon.

Sleepy on the road after a meal ? What exactly happened ?

Each of us, the drivers, knows what it is to feel sleepy on the road after eating. Each of us knows, that it can cause [microsleeps], with possible fatal consequences. But not only microsleeps can cause an accident. While being dizzy, your reaction time goes down and braking too late is not safe at all.

So I've asked my girlfriend, a medical doctor, what exactly happens in our bodies through this time. Is the claim "all the blood from the brain goes to stomach" a myth or true ? Why is it happening and how we can prevent ? We asked also two more doctors  we know, an internist and a specialist in methabolism and consulted some books.

It is a quite complicated process, so the following lines are a version as simplified as possible.

There are two main reasons for feeling dizzy : hypoglycaemia, (the lack of carbs, sacharides) and hypotension (low blood pressure).

Postprandial hypoglycaemia (lack of carbohydrates after a meal)

The most essential things from which we gather energy are sacharides (carbs, sugars). The mechanism how we gather energy is, that our body creates insuline which converts sacharides in our cells to energy.

There are two types of sacharides : the "fast" monosacharides (the simpler ones) and the "slow" polysacharides (merged monosacharides).

The "fast" monosacharides are causing a fast insuline reaction. All carbs are are fast digested, converted into energy, just a fraction stays in the blood, so the body asks for more carbs. If it doesn't get it, the consequence is fast drop of sugar level, we get hypoglycaemic, get hungry and important for our context - sleepy.

You can get into a deadlock - a "sugar shot" causes fast insuline reaction, lots of new but short energy, than sugar level drop and sleepiness. Than you fulill your monosacharide demand and the process repeats itself.

In contrast the "slow" polysacharides are digested slower and the whole process is less intensive as you don't get an intense insuline shot. The sugar level in the blood drops slower, we get sleepy later as well as the body requires more sugar later.

This is whay all advises says not eating food containing sugar - "fast" monosacharides such as sweets, ice cream, chocolate, sweet drinks etc. Instead they recommend eating food with "slow" sacharides, such as whole grain food like whole grain bread, rice, noodles, pastries. For drinking is recommended just water.

How to find out what to eat ? The Glycemic Index (GI), known to people with diabetes or overweight, tells more. Recommended is food with low or middle GI. You can find which food it is exactly in this table or also this one.

Postprandial hypotension (low blood pressure after meal)

is the second cause for feeling dizzy after a meal. The Harvard Health Publications as well as PubMed.gov, a very trusted source, are saying, that when you eat, your digestive system needs more blood, rerouted from other parts. But in some people this mechanism doesn't work as it should, so the blood pressure drops. The result is dizziness.

So how to prevent this ? Drink water before meal. The meal shouldn't be too large. Fewer rapidly digested carbs, as described sooner. The bottom of the blood pressure drop is 30 to 60 minutes. Let drive someone else through that time or make a break.

If some of the readers can add valuable information to this, feel free to do it in the comments section.

Have a good ride.

picture credits : Rene Martinez, Countylemonade

Saab replacement keys

Some keys for the 9-3 were really a pain. Such a great idea with the rubber, they are fitting great in the hand with a feeling that this is not just a key. But the rubber isn't durable enough, after a time it starts to break. I've heard there was a callback for some generation.

Being worry, that my two keys will have the same destiny, even they are after the callback generation, I searched for spare keys. Luckily, the time, when they were super rare is now over, so I've asked a friend who ordered something from Neobrothers to add two front cases, exactly these.

Actually it came something looking like the whole key. It's plastic, not rubber. Neobrothers wrote 
"... we recommend only using the front section of the case with your original backing. Then you will notice a correct fitment, we send out the rear out of courtesy but it is purely the front section that is required.". So I've replaced the front part.

It is a different feeling than the rubber. The buttons are going a bit harder, but it seens to get better with the time. The new front and original rear part are holding fine, however from the start I was a bit worry, that the key falls apart, but it seems to be only my paranoia. To kill it, I will have a backup key with me for a while.

Shell V-Power Nitro+ : is it worth ?

A friend has seen 2-3 weeks ago in Norway a petrol called Shell V-Power Nitro+. Surprisingly it appeared in the last days in Slovakia. Shell websites (slovakian and norwegian) are stating the same, only a very vague, basic and marketing only information : it cleans the engine (additives ?), some Ferrari blah blah and it increases the engine performance.

About the octane number (RON in our case), they are very shy, they just compare it to the FuelSave stating, that Nitro+ is for performance and FuelSave is about fuel consumption.

I tanked a full tank (5 liters remained from the previous one). It's expensive like hell - 1.71 € / liter in Bratislava, Slovakia. I don't trust these fancy fuels but I was curious.

Results : 

Indeed, after 5 - 6 km I felt a bit increase of performance. Nothing dramatic, maybe even a
placebo effect, but subjectively the car goes quicker after the gas pedal. I remembered myself on the feeling after using 102 (ROZ = RON) at Aral in Germany. It's simillar.

Fuel consumption depends hardly on the drive style. So I've tried to drive the same distance, around 120 km, same conditions 50/50 city/outside (no highways) with the same a bit more sportier style than cruising, but no speeding. With the regular RON 95, the fuel consumption was 11.2 litres/100km. Nitro+ required 10.8 litres. Interesting.

So the situation is : subjective feeling of more power and decreased consumption. 

Is it really worth ? 

If a regular petrol 98 costs around 1.50 € these days, with the above consumptions, 100 km costs 16.8 € and the same ride on Nitro+ costs 18.5 €. That is 1.7 € or ~10% more on 100 km. So in my case the lower fuel consumption doesn't balance the price.

Let's believe, it really cleans the engine more than regular fuel. 

Is the fancy fuel really increasing the engine power ? I found a video regarding this :



The Subaru in the video is weaker than my Saab (275 hp), but it got 14 hp more. In the Subaru case it's 6% difference. In my Saab the 6% hp would be 16.5 hp more = 291.5 hp. (275 + 6%). Nice. And the 16 hp more are definitely to feel. Also it would indicate, that the fuel is at least RON 98 if not 100. But is it worth the money ?

As usual in these situations, some people don't care. I do. A price of 1.71 € / liter is  too much. It stays similar as with the RON 100 V-Power - when I go driving longer distances, I buy it. Otherwise rather not. And until the price difference doesn't drops, it stays so. C'mon Shell, the new stuff is fine, but too expensive for what it offers.

Note : maybe in other countries the Nitro+ is distributed under another name. Pricing can be different. Also, I will continue to measure it. If something significantly changes, it will appear here. 

Update : It's RON 100

40.000 km of experience with the E85 fuel

This post is inspired by the Saabsunited article about the Maptun E85 offers for several Saab engines as well as Saabblog.net article about the same topic. I remembered about a guy driving a Saab 9-5 on E85 already for a longer time. Different from Maptun, but the point here is not to compare several software stacks (Maptun, BSR, trionictuning etc) but to get a direct experience with the Ethanol fuel itself.

It is the same guy, nicknamed Rass and the same car, featured on Saabism already with the custom mp3 Linux based player onboard. Since that we're in contact through Google Talk, so I've asked him for a chat about the topic.

Could you describe your Saab ?

It's a 9-5 Aero, combi, with manual transmission. Model year 2001, engine B235R, 2.3L on petrol.
When I bought him, he had 114.000 km, in cca 150.000 km I did the first chiptuning for E85, now he has around 190.000 km.

Which software do you use and how long ?

I use the software from ecuproject.com or trionictuning.com. I have it for almost two years and 40.000 kilometers. It comes from the original BioPower software from Saab, which is great. So the philosophy behind is, why to reinvent the wheel, a good one, when you can improve an existing one. I've heard that many other chiptuners are doing the same and improving the code on their own, but I don't know it for sure.

Which other parts of the engine you had to change ? What about the costs ? 

Not too many. Firstly after 1.000 km a new fuel filter and after 5.000 km a new gas pump. Also I've changed the plugs to BCPR7ES-11 as required here. But it looks like it is nice to have instead of necessary, because the regular Saab BioPower versions are using regular plugs as well. 

The ethanol resistant gas pump costs about 80€. The original one is not ethanol resistant  but also survives for some time. But mine was old, so in order not to stay somewhere on the road, I've changed it anyway. The plug costs about 3€ / piece and are to be changed every 10 - 15.000 km.

So after all this what happened with the engine performance ?

My original performance was 230hp / 350Nm. After the changes I have 260hp / 400nm on petrol and cca 230hp / 400nm on E85.

Why the difference between gasoline and E85 ? 

Because of the injectors. Ethanol is a mixture of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol. It has weaker heating power (although higher octane number 109 against 95, 98 petrols) so for the same performance you need more Ethanol. But the injectors are designed for petrol, so in higher speeds they have a bit less throughput (simply speaking) to deliver the needed amount of E85. The software has a peak of 230 HP, but adds 50Nm of torque. The change of the injectors would bring also more horsepower.

But even without it the subjective feeling is much better than before. The car is faster and the torque comes nearly immediately in low rpm. Recently I tanked petrol for after a month or so and I had a feeling the Saab doesn't go properly, it was weak :) Of course it is a feeling, but the torque plays here a significant role.

How many times did you updated the software ? 

Around 10 times. At the start some experiments and versions, now it's very stable. I did also some open SID software tuning to see more live data on SID, so alltogether maybe 15 times. It's not necessary, but I liked to play with it. Once I burned the software update outside, in front of my house in -20°C, with a bit of fear, but everything was going fine.

What happened to fuel consuption ? 

Well this depends heavily on the driving style. But it increased. In the city traffic 13-15 L / 100km, outside of the cities it's better, around 11.5 L / 100km. The best I could achieve is 10.5 on the highway with 115 km/h on tempomat. But who drives a 200+ hp car like this ...

On petrol the numbers are 10 - 12 L, highways 8.7 - 10.5 litres.

It is more or less correct, that on E85 the  fuel consumtion increases on 20% - 30%. But still, when here in the Czech republic the Natural 100 Petrol costs 39 CZK (1.6€) and E85 25.50 CZK (1.04€) which is 56 cents on liter less, I am still saving good money.

How to prevent microsleeps on long drives ?

Saab 9000 interior

Many of us knows the sleepy feeling after several hours of driving and everybody knows that microsleeps can kill. According to studies up to 20% and more all car accidents are caused by driver fatigue or microsleeps.

During a microsleep a driver completely stops to perceive the ambient plus after the fear after waking up while driving can cause wrong reactions with fatal consequences.

The investigations for such crashes often reports no marks after hard breaking, strange reactions in front of clear and visible obstacles or driving to other lanes without any visible reason.

I had such an experience. Several years ago after ~1800 km and several hours of tiring meetings I woke up  in the emergency lane of a highway in 130 km/h. I had luck, nothing happened, I had to rest for longer time. This "adventure" teached me to be extremely cautious on the road.

Reasons for microsleeps :
There are various reasons and combinations of them. Insufficient sleeping before the drive. Too much heating in the cabin. A long night drive and fight against biorythms, most sleepiness comes between 2 - 5 a.m. and 3 - 4 p.m.. Boring highway drive, all the time the same ambient. Too much eating before or during the drive (look at postprandial somnolence). Too many energy drinks, they can cause opposite effect, if they are too many.

Some example what can happen are shown in this video. There are several vehicle manufacturer independent warning systems (non-commercial example is here), but not all of us have them and to completely rely on them isn't too healthy as well.

So how to prevent microsleeps ?

Saab 9-3 convertible : folding the wind deflector

A year ago I wrote an often visited blog post about installation of the wind deflector, or windshield if you want, on my Saab 9-3 convertible. Today came a readers request to write about how to fold the deflector, when you don't use it. I found it as a good idea for the blog, so here we go :

It looks complicated at the first time, but once you do it for the first time, you will know everything. With practice you can do that in 20 seconds, maybe less.

So after you took the wind deflector out of your cool Saab, you have something like this :

Just simple fold it down to this :

Now find a mechanism which you see on the next set of pictures. It is holding both halfs of the windshield together. Everything holds on one plug. Continue as seen on the pictures : 

Now fold the upper half of the windshield :

Your are now able to fold in the same way the lower half to achieve this :

Don't do it strongly. It goes very easy, just find out how.

Now adjust the mounts. The side mounts must be together like in the picture. If you have problems to move them, you have to push the yellow part and pull the black part. A how-to picture is here. 

Now pack it into the case as in the pictures :

That's it. Use the brain instead of power. The wind deflector isn't a cheap thing, to break it would be a pity. I guarantee you, that after 5-6 folds you will laugh about how easy it is.

This pretty little windshield does a great service ! If you want to see how to install it, look here.

Enjoy the ride.

Change of traffic rules in Austria : emergency corridor on the highway

This is a heads-up for everyone driving to Austria. After 1.1.2012 there is a change in austrian traffic rules.

In principle it says, that if you are on a highway and see, that a traffic jam will come, you have to create an emergency corridor (Rettungsgasse) for rescue cars immediately.

Until now, the corridor was in the parking/emergency lane, but this was often jammed through cars with failure or around arrival/departure lanes. This is the main reason for the change.

The fines for not respecting this are pretty high, from 726€ up.

There is a multilanguage document [pdf, 2.5MB] explaining the new rule. Download it here.

The picture and video below explaining the system :

Headlight bulbs change

I'm quiet in the saabism blog in the last weeks, unfortunately I have to solve important things for living, so not too much time and motivation left to write. Ups and downs.

One thing, best tagged as "practical" happened last week. One of my xenon headlights started to change color from white to pink/red and the light intensity got lower. That is usually a sign of soon death. But not always you can change it immediately for various reasons. (weekend, no time slot in the service, no bulbs on stock etc). In my case I noticed it one evening and the next day in the early morning I had to drive 330km to other city.

So how long it lasted ? From being absolutely sure the light changed from white to pink, it took around 5-6 hours of functioning / drive to the definitive end.

When I came to the service (in the other city - Prague) the headlamp lighted somehow. After restarting the engine for going into the service garage it was dead. Good timing.

The service work was about 30 minutes : changing for Philips D2S, setting up & calibration. It is recommended to change both headlights because they have to have the same color and intensity of the light. Life expectation : 2400 hours. It happened after 4 years and 85.000 km of the Saab 9-3 convertible.

So advice : if your xenon lights are changing color, go to change them as soon as possible. You don't have too much time.

Saab AUX for 900 NG and older 9-3 / 9-5

There are people searching for AUX solutions for their older Saabs, so as addition to the SaabAUX link I'd like to share two other solutions. One of them may be suitable for you.

The first one is a 900 NG line-in mounting guide from platonoff.com where you can find a lot of Saab DIY guides.

The second one is a CDconnect AUX solution from Stockholm-based company Skyddet. It is suitable for Saab 9-5 until model year 2005 and all 9-3 (1998-2003) except 9-3 SS. Besides all the necessary equipment you can find also a youtube video to it.

I hope this is useful for someone.

Cabrio ride hint : Cuxhaven - Hamburg

On my recent trip Cuxhaven was an unplanned stop. I rather wanted to go to Bremerhaven, but hadn't reserved any hotel and everything was occupied. So booking.com in the PDA and after 5 minutes I had a reservation in 40km far Cuxhaven. At my day (Wednesday) it was an empty city. But the port was nice and the fisher restaurant was good.

The way to Hamburg, recommended by a local Saabist parking next to me his 9-3 I was the same as in the navigation under "other" road. It has ~120km leading through green parts, nice small towns, 1-2 boat locks, sometimes on a dam. It contains a ferry through Elbe river, which is a nice "stop". It was quite full, but waiting time wasn't longer than 20 minutes. Price ~10€.

Map :


Larger map


The whole way is rather slow, not empty, but not full. It's a 2 hours drive and if the weather plays with you, a very nice part of some trip. Somehow "peaceful".

From Cuxhaven to Hamburg

From Cuxhaven to Hamburg

I am not an eco-freak, but I really liked that lots of cows, sheeps and horses grazing around. Looks like the environment is fine. Something I am a bit missing at home. All the animals are somewhere closed in buildings :(

From Cuxhaven to Hamburg

Ferry over Elbe

It took at the end some kilometers on the highway. After seeing a Saab logo i turned there and found a dealer - Saab Etehad. Some new 9-5s outside, as well as a convertible. A very friendly approach. And a positive look into the future in spite of what is going on now with Saab. I bought color for scratches and a soft-top roof cleaning + impregnation set for the upcoming roof service in some weeks.

However they told, that to re-color the soft-top as shown here [youtube video] is not recommended at all. That the faded parts will look again fresh after the impregnation. Hmmm... I will try than the impregnation only and let's see. Btw. I've got Tunap Cabrio 152 & 153, it looks like this (picture stolen from ebay) :

It has disapeared from the Tunap site, what is a bit worrying, but I will try this out. Found it in some forums as recommended.