The Fabulous Flatnose Register

The more Fabulous Flatnoses are joining to the register, the harder it gets to find new additions of yet unknown cars. Once in a while, someone applies for an insertion after having heard of the register, but most of the time it’s the register’s daily and deadly destiny to find ‘Fab Flats’ for sale on the net.

Today, the register was tipped off about a listing on ebay of a ‘rust free automatic’ 1986 convertible, that looked pretty fresh:

The car was described as follows:

The odometer shows 59k miles, but the odometer has stopped working. I am selling the vehicle as Miles Exempt and Unknown since I am not able to confirm the exact miles. The tachomter and speedometer do work and you are able to know what speed you are traveling at. The Turbo guage does not work.

The car is in very nice condition considering its age. The engine starts every time and it runs strong. The transmission shifts smooth. You can definitely hear and feel the Turbo engage. All the power windows go up and down smooth. The convertible top works great. The A/C blows warm air. It should be serviced. The exterior is in overall very good shape. It looks to be original paint and it has a good shine. There are a few smaller scratches and chips. the grille needs paint and there is a long ding/crease on the left quarter panel.

The interior is in good shape. The seats have less than normal wear and tear. It looks like the donor had the drivers seat reupholstered.

The convertible top is in nice shape. It works smoothly. The inside ceiling pad is in good shape. The covers that go on the convertible top are in good shape. The rear speaker covers are in the trunk. The material that covers them has deteriorated, they can be recovered and reinstalled.

The car appears to be rust free except for one area that I found. It looks like some battery acid caused some corrosion directly underneath the battery holder under the front bumper. There are signs of old oil leaks that have dried oil underneath.

This is a great Saab, soon to be a Classic. It runs and drives good and looks good. It is not new, and there are some issues to attend to, but overall you are looking at a clean rust Free Saab 900 Turbo convertible. New Jersey clean title.

The extensive photo series shows a clean Fabulous Flatnose automatic from June 1986, with some wear and tear and obviously some TLC needed:

It is with love that we adopt this Fabulous Flatnose in the register as #053. The PDF of the register can be found in the Register tab.

It looks like prices are rising for a Fabulous Flatnose in nice condition. Of course, from the first day on, they have been scarce. But it never really showed in second hand prices. But maybe things are changing…

On Reachoo, a yet unknown manual Fabulous Flatnose is offered for $ 12,500:

“A true collectors item. This is one of them-99k two family owner car. Stored winters, no snow. New exhaust, head gasket, brakes, cv joints, top motor. May need new top, no holes, just wear on trim. Comes with conv. hard boot and wind guard. Cruise and clock do not work.”

On the New London Craigslist, another Fabulous Flatnose (the 019877) is offered for $ 20,000:

“A rare vehicle – 1986 Saab 900 Turbo Convertible … MFG date 2/1986; well cared for – garaged and kept in Florida, with 81,325 daily-drive miles – carefully restored: repaired and new paint by Xtreme Restorations in RI; new upholstery, top, new tires & rims; fun to drive, quick, fast, smooth and straight forward … asking $20,000”

Although the mileage of 81,325 is pretty low, the car has apparently been restored, and Jalopnik is wondering if this car has a reasonable price. Giving the car has been for sale for quite some time, one might indeed wonder about that…

Both cars have a five number price tag and a mileage below 100,000. But I would not be surprised (nor sad) if the rarity of the flatnose convertible is starting to drive prices up. What do you think?

From Germany, a guy contacted the register to enlist his May 1986 Fabulous Flatnose with serial number 026481. This car is undergoing reconstruction at the moment and will be on the road again in May 2016. This car was imported to Germany from the United States, where it once was owned by a man in Georgia.

To make things a little thrilling, picture lovers will have to hold their horses until this summer. The anxiousness starts here…!

The search for the missing Fabulous Flatnoses continues… Sometimes, help comes unexcpectedly. Roland Almborg from Sweden killed two birds with one stone, when he came up with the Sweden registered 027036 and 032535!

The 027036 is a silver manual car, produced in May 1986 and imported to Sweden in 2013. The 032535 is a silver automatic car, produced in June or July 1986 and imported to Sweden in 2015. Both cars are alive and therefor can be added to the current population of Fabulous Flatnoses!

There are no pictures available, but of course the register was updated immediately…!

For quite some time, the 029277 stood for sale at a car trader in Berlicum, the Netherlands:

For me, this is an Extra Fabulous Flatnose, because it is the very first Fabulous Flatnose I witnessed in the wild. It was around 2005, when I lived in Het Gooi, an area in the Netherlands. This car has the automatic gearbox and was consistently driven by a lady and maintained by the local SAAB dealership. I really loved the lines of this distinct model and once in a while I spotted the car in the area. At some point in time it suddenly was for sale in the south of the Netherlands, in Berlicum. Although it got interest from Sweden even, it sadly remained unsold for about a year or two.

In May 2014, the 029277 was spotted – also in Berlicum – by a spotter on Flickr:

But apart from that, everything remained silent around this wonderful flatnose…

Until January 15th 2016, when I got an e-mail from Max Rens from Vianen, announcing his new purchase: the 029277! Although the car doesn’t look feeble at all, this lucky flatnose is now getting a full restoration. So if anyone sees an ‘as new’ Fab Flat this summer, it may surely be my first flatnose crush…

So, 2016 has arrived! Thrity years ago, in January 1986, the first cars rolled off the line at Valmet in Uusikaupunki, Finland. It was an exiting period for SAAB, because if this car would become a succes, SAABs future would be rosaceous and SAAB would be able to push the brand upmarket, a desire of mainly Bob Sinclair of SAAB USA, whereas in the European market the economy was difficult and SAAB was looking for a lower priced car. SAAB’s convertible sold out soon in the USA and now, 30 years later, we all know about the instant succes of SAAB’s convertible range.

For all of the pioneering Fabulous Flatnose production cars, who paved the road for this massive succes, this means their 30th birthday will be celebrated this year. So what do you think your venerable frontline fighter deserves?

To find out in which month to celebrate, check the left door jamb for the factory sticker for the building month:

Or just check your serial number in the Register-pdf on the Register page to see in which month your Fabulous Flatnose was built. What will you give your car for its birthday…?

Happy celebration!

The weekly search around the net for Fabulous Flatnose seller ads sometimes results in a lot of unanswered questions. Getting them answered is on of the fun parts of running an incomplete Register. Of course, every time a Fabulous Flatnose turns up for sale somewhere around the world, the serial number and affirmation of the model year are the first two facts to excavate. But not always is a seller able, willing or contactable to give that information.

On boxing day 2015, the following ad was spotted on Craigslist:

What caught my attention is the fact that the car offered for sale is a red 1986 convertible. In the Fabulous Flatnose Factsheet in the Library you can find out why that would be a rarity. So an ad like this raises multiple questions:

1. Is this a model year 1986 convertible (with a G-VIN) or a model year 1987 but 1986 delivered convertible (with a H-VIN)?
2. If the first is true, it is a true Fabulous Flatnose, but what will be the building date and will it be a production car or perhaps even a pre-production car that found its way to the USA (like Bill Jacobson’s car)?
3. If it is a production car, was the car originally red or was it resprayed at some point in time? Because a red production car would be the Register’s first!

Questions like these make it worhtwhile contacting the seller. I asked about the 10th VIN digit and waited anxiously for the answer…. “An H”, it sounded. Bummer. The car turned out to be a 1987 model year Saab convertible – hence the “1st year of the longer front end” note. So, mystery solved. No Red Flat on the Net.

Or is there?

That same afternoon yet another red flatnose convertible turned up on Facebook, a car from my very own country even:

The photos were actually three years old… Once some guy told me he thought there was a red Fabulous Flatnose in the Netherlands, but he knew nothing more. Judging from the license plate, this car has been there since May 2003! Of course, I want to know all about it… So another quest can start: how to find out the VIN to check what we are dealing with? How to contact the owner, when the photograph tells us nothing? Yes, it looks like a cherry red Fabulous Flatnose, which might mean it’s a pre-production car. But the license was first registered (outside the Netherlands) on September 15th, 1986. So that doens’t indicate an early car. Rather, it would suggest a 1987 model year car. Perhaps it was built back to the old looks? But the accompanying comment on the above photo series states “One of the first 400 Saab 900 convertibles”.

I really need to find this out…

Sometimes, as a register freak, waiting for answers is the only solution. On September 16th, 2015, I spotted a Fabulous Flatnose on the Internet, but there was no more information than two photos:

It was a website without clear goals or references, so all there was left to do was to sit and wait…

On December 28th, the same photographs popped up using Google Images, and now I was led to a sales advertisment, offering this 1986 Fabulous Flatnose automatic for $2,500, with 130,000 miles, stating:

Owned this car for 25 years. Has a rebuilt transmission with less than 10,000 miles on it. was go to restore the car but just don’t have the time. Not bad shape for a 29 year old car.

Luckily, the VIN was part of the advertisement: YS3AD76L4G7030924. So there it was, the serial number of this Fabulous Flatnose. So there’s another update on the Register!

Do you, as an owner of a Fabulous Flatnose, ever wonder if that car on – for example – this press photo or that one with Bob Sinclair in it is yours  now?

Well, to be honest I do. Imagine what your car looked like when it was brand new. I can’t even imagine! Wouldn’t it add great emotional value to owning your car if you had pictures from 1986 with your car on it? I think the car would also immediately add historic value for me in person.

Recently, Valmet posted this picture on its Facebook page:

The photo itself was seen before, and it was taken at the end of the production line in the Valmet facility. Those cars were almost ready to go, undergoing final quality inspection. In its recent post however, Valmet noted that the date this photo was taken was March 1st, 1986. Depending on at what moment the door jamb sticker was sticked on and on what data the month noted on that sticker was determined, this must be the February or March cars – sticker wise.

The sticker in my car tells me it is a March car, a month in which 14 cars were built. So that would give a 28.6% chance of my car being in the picture if it are March cars being shown. In February, 5 cars were built… So in the other case that would give the February car owners an 80% chance of appearance! Regrettably I was never any good at probabilism.

But that doesn’t keep me from thinking this way. I don’t know – it’s just something that occupies me. I guess that makes me a Fabulous Flatnose Fanatic.