5k: Put A Little V4 In Your Life: 1970 SAAB 96 – $3900

 If you had thirty nine hundred smackeroos burning a hole in your pocket and missed the chance to pickup Mrs CFlo’s 1800S— fear not!  The world is full of cheap drivable Swedish classics just looking for your love, affection, time and money.  It is sort of like joining a budget dating service that only matches you up with people from half-way houses, but cheap is cheap, right?  Find this 1970 SAAB 96 offered for $3,900 in Los Angeles, CA via craigslist.

The SAAB 96 is a modernized version of the design that dates from the era when SAAB was building a beetle-esque Vader helmet shaped car called the Ur-SAAB.  When everyone else was using body-on-frame rear-drive cars, SAAB used of front wheel drive and unibody construction similar to a modern car. 

This 96 is powered by a V4 engine borrowed from the European market Ford Taunus. The four cylinder vee setup similar to oddballs like Lancia’s Fulvia or
the 2014 Porsche 919 LeMans Hybrid Prototype racer and with 1.7 liters of displacement, it is
good for 65 horsepower and it a top speed of over 90mph.  You won’t win any drag races with 500 horsepower sleeper Caprice Broughams, but you will enjoy great fuel economy and working the column mounted shifter to keep up with traffic.

The interior isn’t perfect, but it is far from the most horrible sub $4k car found on craigslist.  Sub $4k classics tend to fall into two buckets; first are total rusted basket cases and the second are under appreciated cars that were built in huge numbers and don’t have a heavy following in the top 1% of income earners.  You can guess which kind we prefer.

 See another cheap classic?  tips@dailyturismo.com