of

SAAB Specialists of Spokane

E. 1211 Francis

Spokane, WA 99207

( 509 ) 487-3308

We hope 1991 has been a good year for you and your SAAB and look forward to assisting you with your maintenance and repair needs in 1992. You may have heard about us... we enjoy working on SAAB's! Our rates are very reasonable and our service, second to none!

1969: John is offered a job at a Saab / Alfa / BMC dealer in Santa Barbara, CA. Job Accepted, John and Anne move to SB with one cat which becomes four during trip. Later that year, Danny is born.

John later becomes Service Mgr. at T.I.P. Imports, one of the oldest Import dealerships in U.S.

1971: Mike is born.

1972: Dealership Owner retires from business and John and Anne open "John's Imported Car Service", afraid to name business "SAAB Specialist" for fear of not having Saabs to work on. John was wrong, but also enjoys working on an occasional Alfa or BMC motorcar.

1974 Matt is born.

1982: John convinces only employee, George, to open Saab Repair Business also: George opens Motorcar Servicing next to John and subleases 1/2 of building from John. John and George take care of most of the Saabs in Santa Barbara and several others from LA area, San Francisco, and a few Die-Hards from Oregon and Texas.

1984: Stacey is adopted from Taegau City, South Korea at age of 2 1/2 yrs.

Nov., 1984: John and Anne close "John's Imports", say farewell to many friends and move family to Deer Park, WA, to introduce children to "Living Off Of The Land" before kids are grown and gone.

1985 1/2: Lippis family is broke again, (spent too much on "Dream Farm") and having discovered "living off the land" costs money!. Anne must go to work to support family while John resumes career, now as "Precision Car Care"; again afraid there are not enough Saabs to support a "SAAB Specialist" (i.e.; Maytag Repairman Syndrome).

85-89: Family raises Hay and Cows on 40 acres. with antique John Deere farm machinery. John becomes "The Saab Guy in Deer Park", and teaches an experimental "Auto Diagnostics" class at Riverside High School part time. Dan and Mike begin Saab repair apprenticeship with John. Anne returns to College for a Master's Degree in Social Work.

1988: Dan and Chris graduate High School. Dan tries WSU Vet. School but finds college life doesn't suit his needs; and satisfies his rancher instincts on a 20,000 acre cattle ranch south of Ritzville, nearly single-handedly feeding several thousand cattle through the worst winter in decades. Later Dan becomes a Repair Tech. for Ingham Phipps Radiators.

1989: Chris goes on to Spokane Comm. College for his degree in Automotive Technology.

Mike graduates and goes to work for Dad; we become quite a team.

1990: Dan returns to work with John and Mike to work on Saabs. We become an even better team. Plans are made to move into Spokane.

1991: The bank resumes ownership of our farm so that we may borrow necessary funds to open "SAAB Specialists of Spokane".

June: Chris joins us after having graduated near top of the class, on his way to further education in Automotive Engineering.

Anne has her Degree; Matt is a Junior in H.S., Stacey plays the clarinet in the fifth grade.

THE END

(P.S. Moral of Story: We're a family business proud of a family tradition of Honesty, Integrity and Putting Forth Our Best Effort, Always. We offer the best service on Saab's, ; Anywhere.)

You Should Have Been There! This year's annual National SAAB Owners Convention was a huge success and a great surprise for me, never having attended such an event. Held in August at Crystal Mountain Resort near Mt. Rainier, over 350 Saab owners and enthusiasts came from all over the U.S. to bask in the High Mountain Sun, educate themselves with the many technical seminars, enjoy the good food and dinner events, ride the ski lift to the "top" and be literally showered with gifts from Saab and other sponsors. Eric Carlson, the great Swedish Rally Driver was there and gracious enough to talk to anyone who desired his acquaintance. The Outgoing President of Saab USA, Bob Sinclair, introduced new company leaders and designers and we were given quite a show of upcoming SAAB plans for the future. Test Drives in several models were available, including the 9000 model which set the World Record at 100,000 Km at a sustained 130 mph.

We usually shy away from such events expecting to be bored to death by SAAB "extremists" and other zealots who think the world revolves around their SAAB. But we were very pleasantly surprised to find that almost everyone was just-like-us, and had the same kind of fears. Hmmm, you know, there was an interesting theory put forth about Swedish Astrophysical Evolution....

Early SAAB design was influenced in no small part by Saab's success on the European Rally Circuits in the 50's-60's. Rallying often involves driving at max speeds for a thousand or more miles, using the race car to protect you from whatever is encountered. Often the cars are rolled over many times in a single rally. Trees, poles, and other roadside geology are often used to bounce-off-of to keep the vehicle on course. In the early 70's, Saab's stunning successes in the Baja 1000 off-road race began to establish their reputation as a tough car which protected its occupants. Saab's are designed with "active-safety in mind, where the driver is able to maneuver out of trouble if need be, but in case of collision, their "passive -safety" is equally impressive. Older Saab national advertising included rolling a Saab several times down a mountain side, whereupon the driver started up and drove away; and dropping an inverted 99 suspended on a shop ceiling. The windows didn't even pop out.

Personally, I am very proud and thankful to say, "In these past 25 years, I've not known of anyone to be injured in a Saab crash." Let's keep it that way.. OK?

Brake fluid is Hygroscopic; that is to say, it absorbs water. In our climate the brake fluid will absorb enough water to cause rust inside your brake hydraulic system, ruining expensive parts such as master cylinders and calipers. In extreme cases, the excessive water will boil in the brake system during hard braking and may cause a spongy pedal or worse. Make sure your brake fluid is changed every two years. Try this experiment: Fill a small glass with water. Now slowly add the brake fluid. You may be amazed to see how much fluid you can add without overflowing the waterglass. Tip: Water alone can clean up spilled brake fluid. Wash off clothes and paint or plastic surfaces immediately with water.

Speaking of fluids mixing with water..., what is popularly known as "Gas Line Antifreeze" is actually alcohol. If put it in your gas tank, it will react with the water accumulated in the tank from condensation, and help the water to be mixed with the gasoline and be burned in the engine. Problems sometimes arise when gas tanks are kept low all year long, causing excessive condensation inside. Winter-time rolls around and the owner pours one or more bottles of "anti-Freeze" in the fuel tank. The alcohol reacts with excessive amounts of water and the resulting mix will barely combust in the engine, causing strange running problems. The answer: Keep your tank above half when able, and if you feel you must add the alcohol, add it two or three times a year, preventing the excessive buildup of water. WARNING: Make sure the "anti-freeze" of your choice is "Isopropyl" alcohol' and not Methanol or Ethanol. These alcohols can harm fuel injection components, mainly neoprene seals, and even destroy aluminum fuel lines. Excessive alcohol in fuel is also known to cause engine oil seal deterioration. ( Compliments of Chris Loran, BS,MS, 1979 900, 151.7K )

900-9000 Gearbox Oil Changes: In all 99/900 models, the gearbox oil should be changed annually, to remove small metal particles from the oil which are crushed between other moving parts and cause accelerated gear and bearing wear. We are also able to "read" the magnetic drain plug of its attracted metal and gauge the condition of the transaxle. The Saab 9000, and '90-'91 900's, however, have no provision for draining and changing the gearbox oil. (The Gearbox Drainplug has been deleted. ) To circumvent this "oversight," (in my opinion) we remove the speedo drive gear or sender from the 9000 transaxle and siphon the oil out. Late 900's can be drained by removing the rear transmission cover. As far as I know, we are the only SAAB repair people going to this extra effort to save 900 and 9000 gearboxes from premature obsolescence. Three cheers for SAAB Specialists!