I scrapped my car recently, and though I sat in the driver's seat for about an hour waiting for the scrapyard guy to arrive and take it away (which he did just over an hour late), feeling out my kinship with said car, not letting the coat of condensation on the inside of the windshield and apparent humidity on the seat phase me, though starting to feel like our time truly was up and it was best to part ways... it feels it'd be worth writing a long-ass post in homage too. You grow close, you know? A car's like a baby. Should've given it a name, my brother always gave his cars names...

It all started in August, 2020, when mid-pandemic-and-self-isolation I was looking for a method of transport that could take me to the office, without the unwanted albeit obligatory company that commuter trains usually provide you with - with facemasks a wielding or no.

I browsed around on Blocket - our local online marketplace - and found a shiny black SAAB 9-3 for just 7000 SEK, in Kungsängen, just kilometers away.

It took a while for us to set up a suitable date for inspection, the seller led a busy life it seemed, but finally I made my way there, and met the particular individual who was selling this vehicular vintage piece.

She was kind and all, but it was her brother's car, though it was registered in her dad's name, and he lived way up in Mariestad - which is by the way a coastal city - which by the way explains the surplus rust. You couldn't see most of it, just a bit around the wheelhouses, but I discovered later that the undercarriage had plenty, and one of the wheelhouses by the engine was almost rusted through.

Since neither dad nor brother were there to sign the contract, and she didn't have the registration certificate, we wrote up a makeshift one on a piece of paper, and signed it with both our names, but only my phone number. I didn't even ask to see any personal identification! She took a photo of the contract, and I took the paper, and the deal was sealed!

I did take the car for a test drive first though, of course, and surveyed it with scrutiny - I believed, and it was great! It started immediately. The engine sounded great - soft but strong - never strained. The turbo worked. It took curves easily. It just floated along the asphalt, as SAAB cars usually do - I do have experience with this particular brand. My brother's repped SAAB pretty much his entire life, and the family car for the past ten years or so has also been a 9-5, from 2002. Very similar to this one, albeit a station wagon rather than a hatchback.

And just look at this soft beige interior, the clean black finish (disregard spots of rust), the tinted windows, the painted grill, the streamlined form...

These aren't pictures from the actual sale by the way. I took them a while later during a post-sale testdrive around the neighborhood. I did save the original image from the ad but it seems I've misplaced that one... it was just the one though. Cellphone quality. Better cellphone quality than my own cellphone quality - which sucks - as is maybe apparent above. Though it works alright with copious amounts of natural lighting...

I did notice the AC was set to max when I turned on the car during my first drive, which was kinda strange, but didn't think more of it then.

The suspension swayed nicely too.

So I bought it! The seller even reduced the price slightly - seems she'd been prepared for a harder barter.

I Bought insurance for it when I'd driven home with it - which you're actually supposed to get before you buy the car - and filled it up with gas along the way - the tank was almost empty, and there it was, my own beautiful black beast in the driveway.

I took it for a first service on a rebate service deal at Vinsta Fordonsvård, excited as I was to make sure it was in tip top shape, to replace old fluids and all. They replaced the oil and filter and did their thing, and then informed me that the front suspension was broken.

So that's why it swayed so nicely. It's not really supposed to.

And the Coolant was not coolant at all but in fact just water. The mechanic assured me of this by dipping his pinky finger in the coolant, tasting it, and then spitting it out. I've since read up on how even small amounts of coolant can actually kill a human - hopefully he doesn't do that on the regular!

Dang. Well, I found a company nearby that could fix the coolant thing, as cheap as possible.

They didn't have any coolant at home, so I bought some and brought it with me - and got a spankin' brand new first aid kit and miniature vacuum cleaner for the car too while I was at the shop. Was still pretty excited about the purchase then.

The company started doing their thing... though realized halfway through that I'd bought the wrong coolant. Not the wrong type fortunately, that would've been worse, rather a pre-mixed pack instead of concentrate, so they ended up pouring in a very watered down blend of said coolant at no cost at all! Free service. They flushed out the old water first.

I poured in concentrate later on to get the distribution better - it needs to be around half/half so it doesn't freeze during winter here.

But it was nice of them to do it for free! NP Däck in Bro - here's to you. Really helpful personnel there.

They shifted my tires too before this, since apparently I had two different pairs, and the different pairs were set on the left and right side rather than the front and back, which made the car seem a little wobbly when I drove it... that cost just 100 SEK. No major costs yet...

Fixing the suspension cost a bit more, but I work at a car parts company - specialized in exhaust systems, so we ordered a pair from one of our suppliers.

I bought it at B2B purchase price. Plus tax. Wish I had my own company sometimes.

I checked some other shops later on and discovered there was way cheaper suspension available elsewhere, they even had some on sale at the time, after that I started better weighing my options before such a buy. B2B is apparently no guarantee on best price, it all comes down to supplier/brand/connections...

Once the part was purchased I called around and found a suitably cheap repair shop nearby anyhow, BSV in Kungsängen, a one man shop where said man seems to have been doing his thing for some time, and he did his thing alright! My trips to work were suddenly much more stress-free - I didn't have to think about slowing down before every potential bump, or hope none of the unaided coils in the broken suspension would burst through a wheel house at any moment along the way.

So that was that! All was good. Except that the steering wheel still wobbled a bit when I drove, and the tires apparently touched the roofs of the wheelhouses occasionally, and I couldn't turn them fully to the side.

Turns out I had 17'' rims on what was really a 14'' car.

They had a limiter in place to prevent them from going too far to the sides, but that was apparently not working perfectly. And the balancing was a bit off too.

I called NP Däck first, but new tires are hella expensive, so I called up BSV again, and he had some old ones in store... good brands too. Continental and Michelin if I remember correctly. Maybe not Michelin but at least Continental.

As with my previous tires I got two different pairs, since he didn't have four of the same brand/dimensions. He mounted two up front, and the better two in back.

I think one pair was from 2011 or 2012, and the other from 2015 - just over and under a full decade old. But they were still in decent shape, so why not. And even more importantly he had rims! Aluminum 15'' ones. So these were 15'' tires, even though it was really a 14'' car.

No longer did they touch wheelhouse or chassis though, and they looked great!

At this point the car looked something like this (though cleaner - took this picture later on):

I kept the old rims and sold them. The cost/gains cancelled each other out.

Those old ones really were pretty big.

But there was yet another problem... the trunk was leaking in water.

I read up a bit online, and it was apparently a common problem with this particular model/make. First edition of the 9-3, before they managed to better insulate the trunk area and prevent future model/make leakage.

I thought it might be leaking in by the antenna, which is positioned just on the side of the trunk. It sat loosely and occasionally flipped over to the open trunk door when it was opened, and stuck under the door when it was slammed shut - fortunately it never took damage from this.
So I taped it to the side of the chassis with black tape, and tried adding some silicon sealant around the base (protip: use gloves).

That didn't help, but at least the antenna wasn't moving around now - and did I mention the car came with a custom JVC stereo + extra speakers and bass in the trunk? The sound quality was good... though I never could get that bass working properly. I salvaged it at the end; hope to sell it anyway.

Back to the water issues: I kept some old newspapers in the trunk that soaked up the occasional water, and lifted the carpet a bit so that it didn't soak into the actual fabric, and instead hopefully ran out somewhere below the spare tire. The water was leaking in somewhere on the left side, but I couldn't place it, and I can't say I made a serious effort to either...

Time came for the yearly check-up (it's obligatory here - as per government regulation you take the car to an approved testing facility on a yearly basis where they check the car for common flaws as to ensure it's safe to use in traffic), and apparently my brake pipes were rusted! All along the right side and towards the back. Some lights were out too, and the fog light on one side was angled wrong. I didn't even know I had fog lights - I tested them on the drive home - they're pretty cool, and bought some new lights to replace the faulty ones.

They didn't work.

I thought it might be an electrical issue, but it turned out it was just a light attachment that wasn't fastened properly! Part of the socket was broken, so I taped it up and they worked again! Kept using the old lights and had the new as future reserves.

I went to BSV again to sort out the rusty brake pipes, asked him to check on the leak at the same time, and asked about the fog lights. The easiest way to fix that issue was simply to disconnect them. If they work they need to work properly, but if they don't they pay it no mind during inspection. Fog lights aren't obligatory.

So that was a simple fix, the brake pipes were a simple fix - but a little costly, and the leak was apparently the rear light casing on the left side. It was full of water, like an aquarium. He emptied it and cleaned it up a bit, but I'd probably need to get a replacement part for it too. So I ordered one used, but then I figured maybe I could just tape over the old one with transparent tape... and for a while that seemed to do the trick! Easier that way. It actually didn't work at all but that's a story for later.

I still have that new(er) replacement light. Hope it's sellable too.

I went in for my second checkup anyway, and this time the car went through! And for one winter and all the way up till next summer the car ran perfectly.

I took a long roadtrip with my nephew in 2021, driving from Stockholm to Östersund and back again with a buddy of his, just over a weekend.

This was before gas prices had started rising again, and though it was 32°C on the way out, and the AC wasn't working, and I thought I was about to get a heatstroke or something before we stopped for lunch and rest in a cool diner and the weather finally started to cool down a bit as well - we had a blast. Stopped by a beach to cool down further a bit later on.

The drive took way too long and we finally rolled into Östersund somewhere between 2-3 AM... in the dream-like dawn of early summer.
It was just a few degrees above zero, from heatwave on the way out, and a mountain of empty water/soda cans rattled on the floor as we pulled in.

That was probably the highlight of the time I spent with this 9-3.

It was the one long trip - though I did take other detours to explore places nearby - with and without buddies or parents.

In Östersund my brother had a quick look at the car and discovered that the check valve was uncoupled too - possibly broken? He connected it again after first verifying with a more car-savvy friend that it really was supposed to be connected - and that it was the cable it seemed to be, but apparently the connection might've been broken. It disconnected by itself again later on. It can't have been a key component can it? Imagine if this one little thing was the source of all other; bigger issues later on...

Regarding trips: when I had this car I found myself just driving to the store sometimes, or even to the mailbox. It was so easy. It was so fun. It was expensive too though - I didn't fully comprehend the cost of gas before I had my minty 9-3. And I gained weight! You don't realize how much you move about if you don't have the alternative for quick at-any-time vehicular leisure. At least I'm healthier without it.

As for that AC: I realized during the spring of 2021 that it didn't seem to work anymore, though in retrospect I wonder if it ever did.

When I first surveyed and bought the car it was afternoon, autumn, when it was cooler, and during the winter of course AC wasn't a requirement at all.

The cool air I was getting might've been by means of fan only since the beginning, but it's possible it had been working a little, and died down completely during my early times with it.

On warm days I'd drive with both front windows open. In the back the windows were tinted - but not with a thin coat of plastic on the glass itself, but by sheets of plastic that were fastened with simple plastic locks on the inside - so those windows couldn't be opened at all. But they did keep out a bit of the heat, so I kept those sheets.

They also allowed for a bit more out-of-view storage potential in the backseat, which I used for a while when my room started getting too crowded. Bought a few hundred comics on whim that I had no place to store so... the backseat it was. Got an additional bookshelf since.

And I took the car for an AC service in Spånga! I initially thought that'd be a simple thing, just refill the coolant and look for/fix potential issues.

They refilled the coolant first, and then found the issues, and the issues were issues. I needed a whole new... whatever the part was called. I can't recall. It'd cost around 9000 SEK to replace while they were already in the process of filling up coolant and all, or more if I hired them at a later time.

I respectfully declined, and figured it'd be alright without AC. And it was. We'd managed that immense heatwave roadtrip too, so what was a short trip to work now and then compared to that? I did arrive to work many times a little fatigued by heat, but whatevs. It was still great to drive. So much faster than commuting. So much funner. So much freer.

Initially this was a pandemic car. One I could use to make my way to and from work without mingling with others along the way - and it served that initial purpose wonderfully.

The covid's over now - so I say since we caught covid anyway and I don't believe it's as potent a virus any longer - and I'm back to commuting, and the car is gone... at least the time is right. It did what it was meant to do, and I kept it longer than I should have.

That AC service was wasted money, but there you go. The more you know.

I looked at prices for said part on the aftermarket too after the visit and it would've been expensive to fix elsewhere as well. But it wasn't essential.

Time rolled on, and winter came, and I took the car for a rebate carwash deal, and they washed everything! I mean they didn't just clean and wax the exterior, but the interior too, and the rims, and prep the windshield with something to prevent dust from sticking, and the dashboard with something to make it extra glossy, and they vacuumed the trunk, and even got into the engine room!

The car looked nice now, and looking back this would have been the ideal opportunity to sell it. Let someone else take over this wonderful vehicle prior to potential future problems that had me questioning all the money I'd put into it that maybe they would've been able to fix easy.

But shout-out GT Bilverkstad in Veddesta for that thorough cleanse! Photos:

I cruised to the local café Mazarin in my newly polished car just as they were closing shop - building's set to be demolished now - and bought a final farewell cake sometime in December... and felt good. Like a diplomat. Like a VIP. Like royalty on the road. Good times...

I tried the miniature vacuum cleaner I bought early on a couple times myself btw, and it SUCKED. But not literally.

Don't fall for those. Best just use a real one. Or pay for something like this.

If you notice the rims are different in these pictures btw: they're winter tires.

Fortunately those came with the car too - as is customary here in Sweden - cars usually sell with two sets for alternating seasons, and those were the right size from the get-go. I can probably sell 'em for a fair price as well. They're newer than my summer ones were.

I learned to swap tires myself with this car too.

The first time was at work, in Årstaberg before we swapped offices, with an intern who drove a pretty cool white Volvo with a spoiler on back himself. Kudos! We swapped tires with office tools the first time, and I managed another three times at home myself - bought some tools for this too.

Last Spring the bolts were getting a bit difficult to unscrew. I'd planned to apply a little lubricant of some sort this winter.

I also discovered one of my summer tires had a screw in it - but it was at the bottom of on one of the grooves, so I left it there, and it went alright! No flats. Never. So that's one thing I'm happy about. The tires came cheap and they lasted till the end.

I tried pumping some extra air into the spare tire at one point too and discovered it was so full already that I actually ended up depressurizing it a bit... whoops! Apparently you'd best just leave those alone. They have a higher pressure than the regular ones - since they're smaller they need it to sustain the additional weight - and are nae easy to fill further.

So my car was running nice, and looking nice at this point, and everything was fine and dandy. Only thing was I'd started having some weird issues with the coolant...

There seemed to be some sort of orange sludge in the coolant tank, and occasionally I'd need to fill it a bit more, and it seemed like it wasn't releasing pressure like it was supposed to, so I unscrewed the lid occasionally just to let out excess steam.

Somewhere around this time the car started showing a 'Check Engine' light on the dashboard too, so I took it to a boyfriend of a friend of my sister who worked at a repair shop in Sollentuna, where they had equipment that could read error codes, and he did a quick check for free.

The code seemed to have something to do with a build-up of gas... I read up on it later.

Could have something to do with the lid to the gas tank not being screwed on properly. Could have something to do with exhaust fumes getting into the coolant tank. Could be a bundle of things, and he wasn't sure what it was, but he tried disabling the error message and it didn't come back! So that was cool. Should out Niko too!

I also started getting some electrical issues.

One day the car alarm just started blaring, so I went out and shut it off, and noticed the AC in the car seemed to still be turned on... the next day the battery had drained entirely. Had to jumpstart it with cables (shout-out dad - he also helped here and there) and take a long drive.

That happened again at work. Twice, actually.

The car alarm flared twice, and the battery drained entirely just once there. Had help of a friendly neighbor with a spare battery and car troubles of his own when the battery had died, and drove home with an engine that seemed to take a while to warm up then... at first it ran a little unevenly. Maybe initial signs of bigger things to come then...

The time the car battery died at home it seems the car doors had unlocked themselves too! The car stood unlocked all night, without me knowing. On the street. Fortunately nobody else noticed it either.

I started disconnecting the car battery when I wasn't using the car after this, and apart from having to reset the internal clock and stereo every time I plugged it in again that worked well (I didn't bother to reset them at all for shorter drives). I bought a tiny little wrench for the battery that I could keep in the car.

I also learned that the car alarm works even without the main battery - I assume there's a small internal one in addition to the big one, so if you want to disconnect the battery it's best to first unlock the car, or else the sirens kick in.

Had that happen the first time when I was just on my way to play some frisbee golf with a cousin, and was parked by a highly trafficked street with people driving and walking by... embarrassing moment.

Those electrical problems somehow solved themselves later.

I spent some time looking at fuses and cables and what-not trying to find the source, but I never did. I assume - since the issue came after the thorough car cleaning deal - that there was some water left in the engine room somewhere, that interfered with some of the cables. When things started drying up it was alright again!

I bought a little coupler thing to add before the car battery too, so I could turn the current on/off with just a little switch, but to install that you'd need to cut the battery cables and remove the existing connections, and it'd be difficult to reinstall those if you ever wanted to, so I never did end up using that. Still have that little thing lying around unused too. I bought jumper cables as well to keep in the car at all times should I need 'em.

And as for the coolant pressure problem... I didn't pay it much mind. I wondered about it occasionally, and it was a hassle to keep depressurizing the tank, but it didn't seem to be a major issue. I asked the guy at BSV about it once and he wasn't sure what it could be. Troubleshooting would be difficult. So I let it be.

If I knew then what I know now...

Anyway it was time for my second yearly check-up, and so I drove in again, with higher spirits than last year, thinking everything must be mostly fine and dandy with my car now - a functioning AC and electrical problems shouldn't be safety issues at least, though I was a little worried the car alarm might go off while it was standing idle on their parking lot, but that didn't happen.

What did happen was however that the guy who checked my car found a new flaw. The brake pipe on the other side needed changing too - the left side... so I booked a time with BSV again, and fixed it, and went back for another control.

This time a woman was on the job, and though the brake pipe was now fine she took a look at my exhaust system... and said I'd need to swap out the entire thing there too.

I'm not sure it really was that bad, and I feel it might've gone unnoticed by someone else. She seemed new on the job, and maybe overly attentive even with minor things, or trying to veil her kind feminine side by being extra stern about unnecessary things... but what can you do. I had no plans on selling the car just for this, although unplanned repair costs were starting to accumulate now, so I booked a time with BSV again and got it fixed. And since I happen to work at a car parts company specialized in exhaust systems at least the parts was cheap this time - very different from the suspension we ordered earlier.

The catalyst - the really expensive part within this sequence of various exhaust-related contraptions - was in decent shape too. Just needed to swap out both mufflers and pipes.

Initially it seemed the flex pipe connected to the engine might be bad too, but it was fine! All good. Wasn't that big an expense after all, albeit a very unnecessary one it felt like.

Back for another checkup. All OK.

I wonder if Opus is better than Bilprovningen - they're two competing companies when it comes to these check-ups. Just had to go through one check-up with them the year prior. I tried Bilprovningen this year. Since they were cheaper. Turned out they weren't after all.

But no matter! The costs were starting to amount a bit, and I'd put more money into this car than I had planned to, and it still had some problems, but overall it was running smoothly! The engine rumbled satisfyingly still. Everything seemed and sounded good. I made it to work fast and back home even faster, when traffic was sparse. It was fun to drive.

Turns out there was a good cinema right by the highway on my way from work too - Westfield's Mall of Scandinavia - so it become routine to stop by every once in a while with my cousin, and then drive home together. He saved a bit on commuting costs, and it was barely a detour at all for me. Gas prices were picking up now...

The 'check engine' light came back again after a while, but I didn't pay it much mind now. I remembered seeing the same error in my neighbor's car up North. I asked her about it and she said not to worry - it had been that way for years for her. So I ignored mine, figuring it was a similarly temporary thing, and that if I would have someone like that dude I knew disable it then it would just disappear again... it did disappear on it's own after I'd unplugged the battery once actually. But it came back again later.

I kept up with the routine for a while even after it seemed the AC was no longer powering on by itself. Just incase. Wouldn't want to be stranded.

So summer came again, and off we went, and early August I came back to Stockholm again, checked the car real quick - it seemed alright - and drove to work! The coolant hose exploded on the highway and the rest is history.

135 Motor in Tyresö fixed the coolant hose - and did a lot of extra work flushing the system and getting it temporarily in shape again - so shout out to them! At a low cost too. The tow there was more expensive.

Even though they didn't fix the issue I'm happy with their efforts.

It's no surprise things went awry with the engine before I'd stopped the car after the hose exploded - if something hadn't happened with it already - I drove for quite some time before dashboard lights started flashing, but I do wonder if things slowly got worse as the car stood still, as I waited to sort out this issue, and read up, and called around trying to find someone who could take care of this for cheap...

Did the humidity thing become a bigger issue when the car was never on and running? It was autumn too now - rain season. Did the recently cleaned-out coolant system start leaking water into the engine now that they'd cleared out the sludge - or leaking something somewhere else? Could I have remedied this issue easily if I'd taken care of it earlier? Right away? Exactly what happened with the engine, and how - if at all, did it deteriorate since the explosion? I would've liked to know.

Of course I could've taken fixed things before the hose exploded. Before I drove too far. While I was naively ignoring a steadily present and progressing problem under the hood - and this particular morning on my way to work I didn't even bother opening up the coolant tank a bit to alleviate that excess pressure... maybe that was my big mistake.

But after that, after things went as they went...?

Who knows.

What I do know is that regardless of if the cylinder heads in the engine were actually damaged, or if it was just a gasket that needed replacing, the costs would've amounted far more than I would've been happy to pay either way. Either repair would've necessitated opening up the engine, and that would have taken time, and been costly.

After that I'd still have needed to swap out the cooler - since the source of all that sludge was apparently repair goo from an earlier coolant leak - and the coolant level did continually decline while the car stood still. Especially after the hose exploded and they cleaned the system.

I actually knew there was a leak after I'd bought the car. The previous owner told me - they sent me a list detailing all the work that they'd done on the car, and mentioned in passing there was still a leaking seam in... the compressor, was it? Not sure where it was exactly. It was coolant-related.

With my lack of experience regarding cars I just couldn't properly process this information, and I focused more on the things they had fixed, and replaced, than I did on what was still potentially broken. It didn't seem like anything was broken. The engine ran fine. Tip top shape surfacially.

And even if I could've fixed the coolant issues I'd have had ongoing issues with humidity in the trunk and elsewhere - I learned early on that the wheelhouses weren't entirely intact either. The undercarriage was rusty - though not dangerously so. The upholstery was - although still intact - a little worn out, the windshield had some stone damage that'd need repairing (I could've fixed this bit for free though - changed insurance company recently as to get one that covered windshield damage) and as y'all know the AC wasn't running.

It's possible I'd need to eventually replace the battery too, since the times it drained completely it seemed to have a bit less juice. And who knows what else?

Though the central components were in great shape considering the mileage - pre-explosion - the car was not in mint condition.

I'm not sure I could've run another season on these summer tires either. And tires are expensive.

As gas prices rise further - though they've actually dropped a bit the past month, and the shed is currently a little extra packed with tires and other car-related accessories I managed to salvage and hope to sell - I'm actually not as sad as I expected I'd be about the demise of my dear 9-3.

I hope they take care of those rims, and that someone notices the brand new mufflers, and that all other parts that are possible to use do find new owners.

Would be a shame if they just crush the entire car and break even on material value.

At least they're definitely selling the catalytic converter. Valuable minerals there.

I've probably forgotten a few car-related incidents or purchases above.

I bought a new air filter early on too, and learned how to change that myself.

I'm glad I didn't pay for an additional service last year - but then again if I did maybe the bigger issues could've been remedied early on. I think they were there during the first service too though, but they didn't see said problems then. Maybe because the coolant was just plain water. Maybe that was why it was just water.

Do you want to know what it costs to own a car?

I've been sifting through all repair shop, purchase and petrol receipts. I won't go into specifics here, but what it all came down to was 27,000 SEK/year. That's roughly 2,700 USD. Without gas or purchase price of the car included it's roughly 15,000 SEK/year instead. Without gas but with purchase price included roughly 19,000 SEK/year.

That's including fifteen (15!) repair shop visits, services (the one) and obligatory yearly check-up's, and thirty-one (31) stops for gas - though I might've forgotten to document at least a couple there.

That's also factoring in insurance on roughly 2000 SEK/year (which is relatively cheap), and 2200 SEK/year in tax (which is relatively expensive - much cheaper with newer or smaller fuel-efficiant cars).

I chose the cheapest insurance company and form available - basic insurance is obligatory too - to cover costs you might incur on other road users, and there's no escaping tax, but I could have probably shaved off a few hundred there if it was registered as not in traffic for a few months when it hadn't needed to be, and shaved off a few thousand on repairs if I knew the right people, or bought cheaper parts sometimes - and skipped the unnecessary AC service entirely, but all in all that's not so bad for the amount of work that was done on it. I managed to get much for my money after all. Supported some good local businesses...

If I'd have paid only what I needed to pay, and gone with the cheapest parts available, I reckon I could've brought costs down to roughly 10,000 SEK/year instead, without gas.

Compare that to the cheapest car lease currently available on our market, at 2090 SEK/month. That'd be 25,080 SEK/year without gas.

Compare that to a public commuter card instead. That'd be 10,190 SEK/year, with unlimited trips included within Stockholm - though public transport alternatives don't go everywhere here.

If I knew the car would eventually be scrapped I definitely wouldn't have let costs amount as much as they did, but I was intending to sell it when I was done with it. I don't like the prospect of old cars being demolished for any reason. I love old cars. I'd rather we demolished new ones.

To own an old car is not cheap but... it rumbles and beeps. It's available when ever you want to escape it all. It stands there and awaits your call, just like a hawk or a stable foal. The goal is not to be cheap but free, that's a comfort; that's sleep I need. But I do feel pretty free now. So ye old black beast... RIP.

It'll be public transit for a while now. And maybe a cheaper; smaller; more pristine little method of home-owned transport down the line.

I have been looking around a bit already, though for some reason the cars that catch my eye the most are still those SAABs. There's a 9-3 identical to mine nearby right now. Same year. Same color. Just 2500 SEK.

It looks great, the only notable flaw's a leaking exhaust system, probably the flex pipe that needs to be soldered...

For now this is it. Here's the car being towed away for good, all the way to Eskilstuna, way out in the sticks.

You little black beast. 9-3. I think I'll call you Prime B. You were the shit.

And I mean that as the best possible quip! You'll be missed.