Used Car Of The Day: 1999 Saab 9-3

by Tim Healey

Published: February 18th, 2026

Today's used car is project, there's no doubt. Remember, the point of this feature is for the car to be interesting, not a trailer queen. Anyway, if you have time, money, and a healthy enjoyment of pain, this 1999 Saab 9-3 might be for you.

This one does apparently start and run, though it needs a catalytic converter. The seller says the parts and frame are solid.

This one apparently has no rust.

You can find it for $499 in Cleveland. Click here for more.

[Images: Seller]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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2 of 12 comments

MaintenanceCosts on Feb 19, 2026

Another Junkyard Find by another name. The key parts don't even seem to be in good enough shape for this to be a good parts car.

4 Reply
Mnemic on Feb 19, 2026

This has junkyard written all over it. There's an old youtube video of a guy that bought a red one of these and the video is about how to "spruce up an old car to sell it" and he literally spray paints the seats and other interior trim, he blew off the peeling clear coat with compressed air and then wiped new clear coat over the spots. It was all greasy used car sales tricks. I can find it if anyone is so inclined...

2 Reply

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