Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

is surely the right answer.

and am with @Aroogah - paint could be epic

It’s probably going to be a Gen 1 tbh, purely because I can’t stretch to a Gen 2 - like you say, this gets dangerously close to 991 money.

From what I’ve read, maintenance can be anything from £5-10k per annum depending on what sort of life the car has previously had

You've chosen 997 due to the more traditional look of the front end?

I have

I was always a massive fan of the 996 and the foibles with which it came, but prices of the C4S and Turbo’s have escalated somewhat. So I’m inclined to try and run with the 997.

One of the major problems I have is sourcing the correct colour and trim

There are a few different approaches available here.

It is harder to change trim colour than it is to change suspension - and more expensive.

I'd therefore advise going to see enough cars to get a firm idea of what you want - steering wheel, seats, colour, any must-have options - and using that as your primary criteria, with age of suspension struts, coffin arms and so on as secondary. For reference, my interior work has cost more than the initial purchase price of the car, by some margin.

Engine - the 3.6 and 3.8 M97 will score, it's a question of when. Of course, when can be quite far in the future, but if you go into this accepting that it's going to feature at some point then you'll be happier for it. If the engine has been rebuilt then, depending on by whom it has been done, this is a massive plus. Personally I'd prioritise cars that have not had third party/aftermarket IMS fixes above those that have, but this is my opinion only.

Currently thinking of getting one of these roof racks made for my car. Black or silver frame??🤔
My roof will be black in the longer term...

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Lovely cars.

Watch out for the Geartronic autos; the 5-speed AW box cars are torque-limited in 1st and 2nd, consequently feel very sluggish off the line. Massive mid-range punch though. The box is prone to failure as it’s specced as ‘sealed for life’, with the fluid degrading and gumming up the solenoids. £1.5K to repair.

The 6-speed auto box is much better and not/less torque limited, but still suffers from failure due to prescribed lack of maintenance.

If you’re looking at a V70R, get a manual.

The AWD gubbins, aforementioned cylinder liners and 4C active suspension are all prone to disintegrating as well, and cost fucktons to fix properly.

A T5 or 2.5T with a mild tune will give you 90% of the usable performance for a fraction of the purchase and maintenance cost.

Personally I'd prioritise cars that have not had third party/aftermarket IMS fixes above those that have, but this is my opinion only.

Intrigued why this is? The ones that are going to go bang already have and dodgy IMS fixes may not be the fix-all some people think they are?

The IMS is part of the timing system, which has been designed to cope with very significant loads in the direction of the chains, but it's never been designed to cope with sideways loads - which is what the more hamfisted installers can apply lots of when pulling out and pressing back in whatever replacement bearing they've convinced the customer is best.

There are also some "fixes" that on the surface look good but when you drill into them are somewhat questionable - one of which, as an example, potentially puts swarf into the bearing as part of its installation.

My preference is to remove the seals from the existing bearing - there's more than enough oil in that area to lubricate the bearing when that's done, and the failures can be convincingly argued to be due to lack of adequate lubrication which this resolves.

I'd change the steering wheel out for Momo Prototipo goodness, but there seem to very few Gen 1 convertibles with either tan interiors with seal grey paint - maybe these are pipe dreams, because everything currently on the market seems to be silver with dark blue or grey leather...

I'm not interested in going down the route of respraying the car because I think cars really ought to retain their original colour and it's such a needless expense that I'd rather put into the structure of the car itself. I have plans for long-term ownership (I've had the M3 since '97) and don't necessarily want to haemorrhage money into anything that one might deem unnecessary. Independent specialists (Cridfords/Portiacraft etc) will be the direction I'd take for maintenance

Seal grey is both rare and desirable, which commands a premium (as I'm sure you are aware).

I'm not familiar with the 997, but I've never seen a car with the tan/Savannah interior that's not blue (most common), black (less common) or red (rare as).

The observation that I'd make is that the Porsche tan interior is (in my view) a bit OTT - it's all one colour. The way that others (Ferrari for example) does it is to mix black and tan elements, so dash and door tops are black, seats are tan and so on, which I feel looks a lot better.

Therefore, a route forward might be to get a black interior and have panels re-trimmed.

Is the automatic gearbox problem generally caused by mileage or age, or both? It’s hard to find a manual that’s done under 150k which puts me off.

If the manual is a development of the M56/M59 then they're very tough units, tune them sufficiently and you can break 3rd gear off it's shaft but with stock power that's not going to happen. The autos I don't know much about - for the period of car I knew, the autos were crap so no one used them.

150K is nothing, providing regular maintenance.

The AW autobox eats itself if the fluid gets cooked and degrades, which can happen by way of sitting in traffic repeatedly for 15 years, doing hard launches all the time, or just normal wear.

The fluid ought to be regularly refreshed, but it’s not a service item and Volvo’s maintenance regime consists of ‘replace with £6K recon gearbox upon failure’.

As with all of these things, I'm prepared to wait for the right car. Money obviously isn't limitless, but I'll have a fairly decent budget for the car itself and then a healthy contingency budget for any "unforeseen" issues that may well arise during the early period of ownership.

I'm not particularly interested in changing it significantly - possibly only another set of wheels for summer/winter use as well as the aforementioned steering wheel and gearknob, but other than that I'd like to keep it as standard as possible.

All the Blue Badge holders I've noticed before tend to have functional, reliable but chronically dull chariots, so the owner of this has just catapulted to the top of the cool BB league table. A 1963 Ford Thunderbird, and I am loving the rocket booster rear lights. A shining star on my visit to the shithole that is Croydon.

We're normally a few posts away from talking about v8 estates, so thought I'd speed things up

https://youtu.be/ZqWQpH1VKHc

I hear ya. I would be equally happy with a T5 SE or T6 but they seem few and far between. There is a manual V70R up now for £8k ish, but that’s it atm.

I watched that, thought I'd be lusting after an e39 alpina touring... Nah, I'd go for the M5 given the choice.

I have not watched d the clip- will do so later.

I have been looking at E39 M5’s though and I’m struggling to make the figures add up - I think you need to really want one as they’re either huge money or expensive-but-fucked, and will require a hefty investment to un-fuck.

Personally I felt even more love for the Alpina, seems extra 'executive' and wafty-er than the M5. Also is there a more elegant wheel? To be fair BMW alloys from that period were all lovely.

Kinnel, another hit and run on my car whilst parked outside my house. That's 3 in as many years. Heard it, saw the truck flying on up the road but couldn't get reg. Neighbour has doorbell footage that gives me the time but angle/speed don't give any useful details. First thankless task is to contact council and ask if i give them the time/vehicle type details if they will give me the reg details as we have a ANPR camera outside my house, won't hold my breath.

Next massive obstacle will be what to do about insurance. I'd likely have to claim on my insurance which fudges my premium etc. But more to the point as it's an older a car with very limited parts there's a high risk they will write the car off. I feel like i may of partially gone down this road the first time my car was hit and from memory they couldn't/wouldn't tell me if i would be able to buy the car back once it's scrapped. I can't find anything about it in my paperwork, does anyone have experience of buying back written off cars or know if insurers should are obliged to give this information? As it happens new arch repair panels are still available so there's a chance this could be fixed under insurance but as i've been deliberating having the car restored at the end of the year i have to wonder if it's worth the hassle. With both previous hits i've just accepted the damage and moved on.

Main concern is that the car can be made useable, current thoughts are bash the arch back in place, removed sharp edges and bolt on the plastic arch trim i found 30 feet up the road so there's no risk of tyre damage. And there was me thinking i should do a nice CP thread to show off how easy this car is to live with...

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Edit - I didn't click on the video.

And there was me thinking i should do a nice CP thread to show off how easy this car is to live with...

Arghhh, feel for you. :(

Being a SAAB the whole panel will probably be attached by easy to access t-25 bolts and come off easily!

Remember dropping my 9-3 Aero bumper over a curb on my first day at work, reversing out the parking space and pulling the whole thing off. Not a problem.. 5 mins on the internetz and another 5 on the floor and i had it back on, no tools.