Thanks again for the comments - the car is really shaping up now. I need to do some work inside the car now the headliner has dropped. I am thinking of doing the headliner in a lighter colour (like a light grey/white leatherette) and re-covering the door inserts in the same colour. That would be in keeping with the 'Orca' theme
SAABs in the UK? C900s and 99s are very popular "retro-cars". Our culture is very much to have new cars, so people who drive old cars are often thought of as poor; people who can't afford a new car. There is a difference between those people who tend to drive 5-10 year old cars and those of us who drive 15+ year old cars. When I first started driving C900s, they were still within 10 years old, so many people just thought of them as old cars, in the same way as we think of people today with 5-10 year old cars: " Old Bangers"!
Now C900s are just a bit older, they fall into the "retro-cars" category (not quite "classic", but definately not an "old banger") and a driven by much the same kind of people who buy old VWs or old Citröens. The same goes for 99s.
There are a lot of them about. On UK SAABs forums, there are loads of C900 drivers and loads of new people buying them. I know of about 10 or 15 in my area and I see 2-5 every day. We wave at each other
SAAB 96s are more rare in the UK. Many of them are used for historical rallying, so when they come up for sale they tend to be rally-prepared and not really suitable for road cars. My mechanics (who are independent SAAB specialists) deal mostly with C900s and 99s. They say they've never done any work on 96s, but I know they look after a couple of Reliant Scimitars which had the Ford Essex engine, too. They also look after a few track cars, like Caterhams, Westfields and things like that. Over the years, they say they're getting less work for old SAABs, which is odd, because I think there are more of them now.
The NG900 is not really well thought of and often just called a re-badged Vauxhall/Opel Vectra - a car which is thought of as a "common" car. The 9000 is still regarded as a very good car and there are loads of well looked-after examples, but they do tend to be owned by "SAAB people" who may have a C900 or a 99 for leisure driving. My C900 is my daily driver, BTW.
Newer SAABs, like the 9-3SS and the 9-5s are very popular cars. Since the introduction of the 9-3SS, there are loads more SAABs on the road. The introduction of the 1.9TDi was a very good move - that caught the market that would have bought Vauxhall (Opel) and the other 9-3SS models are taking the kind of people who would have bought Audi or BMW. It fits as a business car and sits in the same marque as Audi and BMW, where the old NG900 definately did not - that was seen more are a family car, like the Vauxhall Vectra or the Ford Mondeo.
So, there we are ... SAABing in the UK
We did enjoy the sea harrier episode. It did seem to suggest that the car did not handle well and was a bit boring to drive ... unless you were in a straight line in 2nd gear and out-running a Porsche Carrera
One of Top Gear's old presenters, called Quentin Wilson, did a good episode about the classic 900 and another old presenter, called Tiff Needel, did one about the NG900 which had a good couple of minutes about the C900. He used to race C900s in his younger days.
why do you call him (her?!) "Orca"? 
