Lol new project
No brakes, no gears, no problems
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I used to be a car guy, but I just don’t care for any modern vehicles, and I don’t have the time (or budget) to fix up any classics.
1997 Mercury Sable LS.
This was my college beater. Green and oval. Not only was the exterior green, but mine had a green interior as well. 
It did the job, but was not particularly inspiring. The 200hp DOHC V6 had some decent get up and go, but the slushbox was awful. It got me through college, at which point I bought my first “real” car.
(Not my car or my picture)
2001 Saab 9-5 Aero (with 5 Spd Manual)
My first “real” car.
It was 3 years old, with about 30k miles on it. I got a good deal on it because it sat on the lot a while, because no one was buying manuals. I loved this thing. I did some mild tuning (rebuilt uprated Mitsubishi TD04 turbo, downpipes, catback, + BSR software, and it could move. I got in trouble a lot.
…at some point it was totaled when I was t-boned in an intersection by a Honda Pilot that didn’t stop. The Saab did so well in that collision, that I decided to get another one.
2004 Saab 9-5 Aero (with 5 spd manual)
The replacement.
Prettier exterior, but GM ownership was starting to take a toll on the interior, so it was a mixed bag.
I got a surprise the first time I gunned it. It lit up the front end like crazy. Turns out the previous owner had modified it a bit as well. Not as much as my first one, but there was at least a Nordic software tune in it.
During this time period I was following the tragic slow death of Saab. For a while I had hoped that the GM Sale to Spyker would save the brand, but in the end they ran out of cash before hitting breakeven, and shut down.
I did my part though. I bought one of their newly designed cars during this period.
2011 Saab 9-5 Turbo 4 Premium (with Tech Package and 6 Spd Manual)
To this day the only new car I’ve ever bought, and one of the best cars I’ve ever owned.
The tech package included a heads up display projected on the windshield which was really cool in 2011.
I was even able to run it on E85, which was pretty cool, and I did it as often as I could (though I only ever found one gas station that sold the stuff near me)
I got a software tune for it, but otherwise left it as is. The software tune really transformed the little 2L I4. No idea how much power I was making, but it was no slouch, especially when running on E85.
I sadly only kept this one for a couple of years after the bankruptcy. A car-wash ruined the chrome strip and light bar assembly on the trunk lid, and when I went to the dealer to get a replacement, they told me I lucked out. I got one of the last 3 in the world.
Mechanical parts were pretty widely available (due to them essentially just buying from the Bosch, and the likeparts bin for engine management and using many GM parts for things like wiper motors, etc. The engine and transmission were also GM parts at this point.) but body parts were going to be scarce.
I got a little spooked and decided to sell.
I had a bit of an identity crisis now though. I had been a “Saab Guy” for so long, I didn’t know what to do with Saab no longer around. I had also really liked driving a car with a manual transmission, and they were getting really difficult to find around me, at least in cars I liked.
In the end I just needed a car, so I bought a…
2009 Volvo S80 T6 (AWD)
Compared to my Saabs the handling was truck-like, fuel economy was poor, and it had an automatic transmission. And it was beige…
(Well, Volvo called it “Oyster Grey Metallic” which makes it sound better, but it was still the ugliest color of any car I’ve ever owned.)
The car did have a few redeeming qualities though. The thing was idiot proof. The AWD system was great. Point the steering wheel in the direction you want to go and gun it. It doesn’t matter what the surface is like, it’s going to go where you want it to go.
That, and the straight six turbo, did move it at a decent pace.
A side benefit of this car was that a late 2000’s beige Volvo is completely invisible to police. There were times when I should have gotten speeding tickets and I just didn’t.
Two things happened during my ownership of this Volvo. I bought a 65" plasma TV, and found I couldn’t fit it in the trunk. I was just barely able to slide it in by removing it from the packaging in the parking lot.
Then a bit later, I went on an IKEA shopping trip, and had a hell of a time fitting what I needed for the house in it. I started to think I needed something bigger. But I was not ready for a truck. Or for an SUV. As a proud car guy I still hated all things truck and SUV.
So I bought a used older Volvo wagon to have a s a secondary hauler:
2000 Volvo V70 (base model)
Having always been a “one car at a time” guy, I now had two.
It’s not fast, but the base model (168hp Straight 5) is ok. I don’t feel like I am going to die trying to merge onto a busy freeway.
But I can now haul stuff. People used to talk about half ton pickup trucks. Well my manual says I have a half ton Volvo wagon. Last year during a project, I brought home 32 80lb bags of concrete from Home Depot in the back of this thing. (in multiple trips, of course, 8 at a time.)
I had a loaner Volvo XC90 from the dealership once (while servicing a later car) and that large SUV couldn’t fit as much in the back as I can with this wagon when the seats are folded down:
(not my picture)
The beige Sedan was starting to need replacement. I still haven’t found myself in the car world and struggled with this purchase. I guess I’m a “Volvo guy” now? But I like the older ones. The rugged and dependable tanks. Not the new “luxury” models.
The Volvo I used to like is pretty much what only Subaru is now, and I just couldn’t bring myself to buy a Subaru.
So I bought another Volvo.
2017 Volvo S90 T6 (Momentum Plus with Polestar Factory Tune)
I got a decent deal on an off-lease model with only 16k miles on the odometer. I don’t usually buy first year models, but 2017 was the last model year of the S90 we in the U.S. got shipped that was made in Sweden. Starting in 2018 the U.S. got the stretched wheel base model made in China. (Europe continues to get the shorter wheel base made in Sweden)
I test drove one of the longer wheelbase models, and while it was only a difference of a few inches, it really felt different, large and bulky. So I opted - against my better judgment - to go with the first model year.
It’s a very pretty car. It took me years to get over the fact that I thought it looked too obnoxious driving around in it. After all, I was used to the opposite-of-flashy, older beige sedan.
It is a very paradoxical car. Despite its tiny 2.0L I4 (tied as the smallest engine I’ve ever owned in a car), the fact that it is heavy, and has AWD (which usually adds in drivetrain losses) through the miracle of twin charging (both a turbo and a supercharger) and the fact that it has a ridiculous 8 speed automatic transmission that shifts pretty fast, this thing is also the fastest car I’ve ever owned (stock)
I bought it in late summer 2019. Then in early 2020 the world shut down. I’ve been working hybrid (but mostly from home) ever since. For many local errands I’ve been driving the old green wagon (which I still own) meaning that 6 years later, I still only have about 45k miles on the thing.
I don’t know how long I want to keep it though. With all the fancy aspects of its design (twin charged engine, AWD, air suspension, active suspension, road following headlights, etc. etc.) I just know it is going to be impossibly expensive to maintain once things start breaking.
But yeah. TLDR. There’s my car story if anyone cares.
Edit:
The saga continues. Two of our three cars have been replaced.
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Picked up one of these, for sure could have done it cheaper but nice US made device to easily add garage to homeassistant.
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It was all good when they were making the cheap entry level bikes in India and then having a good warranty but then they started building the mid-range bikes there and started denying warranty claims.
They are getting the reputation that Ducati had in the 90’s and mid 2000’s.
That car, is such a feccin’ DAME- and OFC, it and wagon sibling are squandered
How well, does the forced-induction shift, from SC to Turbo?
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I don’t know exactly how it works behind the scene, but from a driving perspective it is entirely seamless.
Unlike my old peaky I4 turbos, it’s a lot like driving a car with a larger displacement engine. On my high pressure turbo Saabs, they felt brutally fast from like 2500rpm up to about 5000rpm, and then still pretty fast up to the redline. A real kick in the butt when you hit the rpm range right (like pre-selecting second as you enter a turn, and gun it exiting the turn.
The Volvo twin charger T6 has that “small v8” experience, where you gun it, it doesn’t really feel like you are accelerating that fast, but then you look down and are like “whoops, I’m doing 120mph.”
I have not read up on exactly how they do it, but I presume the turbo is just allowed to do it’s best over the entire rpm range and at ever throttle input.
The supercharger must be on at lower RPM’s, and then at some higher rpm it must ease off, to avoid the mechanical losses associated with traditional superchargers at higher RPM’s allowing the turbo to provide all the pressure at higher RPM’s, where it works the best.
I[m not sure if this is done strictly based on RPM, or if there is a feedback loop based on a pressure transducer in the block, or torque measurement on the pulley.
Also, not sure how - exactly - they do it. If it is simply some sort of smooth clutched disconnect of the supercharger, or if they use some sort of CVT to gradually slow down the supercharger to engine rotational ratio.
I’ve meant to research this over the years I’ve owned it, but never gotten around to it.
The end result - however - is excellent. It’s a 2.0L I4 that feels like a small V8. No turbo lag, and a nice flat torque curve.
Now, keep in mind. My comments are based on the Polestar software upgrade from Volvo. It’s a mild software tune that the dealerships sell. I bought the car without it, but only drove it that way for the first few weeks before having it installed by the dealer, and that was almost 6 years ago now.
I don’t remember the standard software being much different from this perspective though. Just a little less torque and power, and slightly less throttle response in performance mode, and the shift points are also not as aggressive in performance mode.
The polestar software is a nice to have, but it’s not a huge difference in 0-60 times. (only like 0.1 seconds). I’d imagine you’d see more of a difference in the quarter mile, but I’m not a drag racer.
It does make the car feel overall much more responsive though, and though I have never measured it, it feels a lot faster in typical highway driving situations like passing.
As a side bonus you also get a cool little badge:
While 330hp and 325ft-lb of torque is a lot to squeeze from a 2.0L I4, this is also a big, heavy 4,200lb car with AWD, and it is faster than it has any right to be, based on historical comparisons.
Don’t get me wrong, I still miss my manual transmissions to death, but I suspect a lot of that has to do with the fast shifting 8-speed automatic transmission, being able to make the most out of the torque it has. It’s no German automated double clutch thing, but I guess it is about as close as you can get from a traditional automatic transmission.
Wikipedia tells me it is an Aisin TG-81SC, presumably the same transmission you’d find in a modern Lexus.
I was pretty good with my manuals back in the day, and there is no way in hell I could come anywhere close to the shift times in this transmission with a three pedal version. I also have no idea what an 8 speed manual gear layout would look like. Maybe some weird dog leg thing?
I haven’t paid much attention to what has happened in the last 10-15 years of automotive engineering, but I presume modern automatic transmissions also no longer have the level of drive train loss disadvantage compared to a manual anymore.
For a car this large, it has great fuel mileage, at least when driven nicely. Back when I first got it, I averaged 39.2 mpg over a 109 mile trip from Brattleboro Vermont to near Boston, Ma.
It’s probably slightly exaggerated due to the average drop in elevation from Brattleboro to Boston, but even driving nicely on the highway around here, leaving enough space that I don’t have to constantly hit the brakes, I not infrequently average 34-35mpg ion long drives in ECO mode while behaving.
My biggest complaints about this car in my ownership have been the touch screen head unit, which is very slow after a cold start, a slight rattle in the internal sliding moon-roof shade, and the minor annoyance associated with the electric motor opening and closing the trunk. I would much rather have had a standard trunk release.
Don’t get me wrong, the electric trunk is just as good as any other I’ve ever used, I just question why it is even there. Opening and closing a trunk is easy, it seems like a pointless “perceived luxury” feature that I don’t need, might result in expensive failures and causes problems.
Imagine if you have to open the trunk if your battery is dead? There must be a manual release somewhere, especially since the cars main battery is back there (it also has a smaller secondary auxiliary battery under the hood) but I don’t know where that trunk release might be.
The big annoyance is when you try to shove big soft suitcases in there. In a car with a normal trunk, if they are right on the cusp of fitting, you just slam the trunk down, and the soft suitcases compress. With this electric trunk, the sensor notices that there is not enough space to close the trunk, and it beeps and refuses to close.
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Thats some nice MPG for that boat
Thank you. I do take a little bit of an exception to the term “boat” though 
It’s certainly a large and heavy car, but while I wouldn’t take it auto-crossing, it drives pretty well, and not boat-like at all. It’s more like a four door grand tourer, especially when you pop it in performance mode, and the adjustable suspension tightens up.
I don’t think it would completely embarrass itself on a road course.
I usually reserve the term “boat” for something like this:
At 6’3" I’m a semi-tall guy. I just don’t fit at all in many smaller cars. I tried sitting in a Toyota MR2 in a dealership once back in like 2001-2002 some time, and I literally could not close the door, because no matter how I adjusted things, my knee was between the steering wheel and the door.
Even in some smaller cars that can seat larger people, I find that modern curved sloping roofs often mean the A-pillars or roof itself are often bothersomly in my field of view.
This is why I used to love the OG Saab 9-5 back in the day. Unlike the smaller Saab 900/9-3, BMW 3 series, Audi A4, and the like, it was slightly larger, so I could fit comfortably and my visibility was not obstructed. But at the same time it was smaller than the likes of the Mercedes E-Class, BMW 5 Series, Audi A6, etc. and didn’t feel like driving a large car.
Sadly no one seems to make this tweener size anymore, so I feel forced to go for the larger cars. Still, if you buy the models with the tighter suspension and/or shorter wheel base they still feel pretty nice on the road, and not like driving a land barge.
This is the main reason why I opted for the 2017 S90 instead of the 2018 which had the lengthened wheel base. The 2018 and newer (in the U.S.) just don’t feel the same, and feel like a much larger car, despite the fact that the difference in length is only a few of inches.
If I were shopping a couple of years after I was in 2019, I probably would have gone with the smaller Volvo S60 instead. Volvo appears to be the rare outlier that actually knows how to build a smaller car that fits tall people well. Unfortunately when I was shopping in 2019, the 3rd gen had only just been launched, and a new untested car was just not in the budget or plans at that point.
I have since driven several S60’s as loaners from the dealership, and they are crazy fun little tossable cars, and I actually fit in them, which is great. The factory tires (some Pirelly gabrage) are utter trash though. They resulted in me doing an all wheel power slide on an onramp in a loaner S60 once, as they let go without any warning at all, and much sooner than the Continental DWS06’s I was used to. Still, I was impressed at how balanced and controllable it was in the slide, meaning I did not wipe out in the loaner, which would have been very embarrassing
It’s absolutely tragic that Volvo decided to discontinue the S60 in 2024. As far as I am concerned, it was the best vehicle in their entire lineup. Apparently here in the SUV happy U.S, it just wasn’t selling well.
And this is frustrating to me. I will never buy an SUV or truck, on principle. I don’t want some dog of a piss-poor handling turd with a high center of gravity. I guess that means that at some point I will no longer be able to buy Volvo’s either, as they are slowly abandoning their roots and becoming an SUV/Crossover only company
I mean not to many modern cars bigger than that one.
I presumed. I just couldn’t not respond
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Some nice bikes at the Bike Shed:
Dig the clutch window and brake air scoop thing.
Very Steam Punk’ish
The Termignoni exhaust on that red Ducati is bonkers.
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I’d imagine India doesn’t have the same kind of expertise manufacturing bigger more powerful engines as Austria.
lol, with Italian you kind of expect it.
I’d take an Italian bike over an Austrian at this rate. At least you know what you are getting into with an Italian princess .
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