My Second Car: 1978 Saab 99*

1978 Saab 99GL 4door
This quite possibly was my overall favorite car that I've owned. In the summer of 1995 I found it sitting in front of a house in the country township of Moreland, OH with a sign that read, "For Sale $700". Bought it for $200 offa a shirtless, sagging chested man selling it by proxy for his out of town son. He wanted it outta his yard and I wanted it cheap.
The reason for the asterick, it was truely my 3rd car. For 1 week before I bought the Saab, for $225 I bought a pile of crap, mid 70's Volvo 244. I don't know why I did it, maybe to drive something more fuel efficient than a 70's era American V8 engine. Rusted to shit, holes everywhere and the decomposing floorboard sagged deeply. It did run well, though. So one week before I bought the Saab I bought the Volvo, then one week after the Saab, I drove the Volvo to a junk yard and traded it for 4 lightly used metric tires for the Saab. Probably not an even trade, but those tires took me everywhere I went, to Philidelphia a couple times, through Michigan, Kentucky, Canada, and of course Ohio.
This car introduced me to the world of rubber tramp hoboism. Really invigorating. I easily slept in the back with the rear bench folded down. While camping by myself, I once freaked out on the Alegany (sp?) Reservoir. During a massive snow storm while visiting in Chuyahoga Falls, OH, I kicked a hole in it's left front fender. I was temporarily stranded in Windsor, Ontario as my ATM card had died a week before in Niagra Falls and the toll bridge to Detriot only took cash... lived on a credit card, cashless.
The very original color of the car was actually a beautiful shade of lime green, never actually seen a car of what I imagined it to have been. The shame was someone along the line had spray painted it, obviously using cans of black aerosol spray cans. I don't know if anyone can do a good paint job using this method, but that's alright as long as you give it your all. Whomever did this did not give it their all. The top of the car was funny, a fuzzy green line following the length of the roof. My guess was the guy was really short and couldn't reach far enough across. I didn't need a baddly painted black and green car, so I painted it in one afternoon. At the time, I think I wanted a lot of attention and I got it. It was fun.
How my life with the Saab ended:
Past midnight, 1997, Taco Bell drive thru, One Tostada One 7-Layer Burrito, Wooster, OH. Some kid sticks his head outta the window as I'm recieving my junkfood and asked, "Cool car, wanna sell it?" i say "I don't know, how much?", "$400" , "hmm, ok". So I sold it 'cause I was nearly broke but quickly realized that I no longer had a car.
Problems:
1. Once the engine was warm, if I shut it off and wanted to start it again, I'd have to open the hood and prop the 'air sensor plate' with a screw driver. This feature sometimes made me mad, this is why I kicked the hole in it.
2. The brakes never quite worked right. Never hit anything but a telephone pole at low speed... of course this was as a result of my daydreaming not mechanics
3. It was a 4speed manual transmission... really wish it were a 5th. Very high RPMs at 65mph, in the summer I had to keep it around 55mph for sustained driving or it would borderline overheat
*** I loved this car
1. My First Vehicle
2. My Second Vehicle*
3. My Third Vehicle