No, this particular car is one of just four notchback 99 Turbo sedans brought into the U.S. as early test cars, part of an overall fleet of 40 99 Turbos.

While everyone waits to see what Spyker will do with SAAB, Jalopnik has taken a drive in my current most-lustworthy automobile. Current, I say, while probably mentally cementing it into the slot of “All-time most lustworthy.”

As we reach down between the seats and turn the key, the old 99 protests just a bit until we coax a breath out of it with a slight stab of the throttle. The car warms up within a couple of minutes, at which point we mash the throttle. Boost builds steadily, but serious acceleration doesn’t really happen until around 3500 rpm.

What I wouldn’t give to own this 99…

Although they didn’t compare an ix-series Bimmer, did they? via Jalopnik

via the NYT:

Unable to find a buyer for Saab after a year-long search, General Motors said Friday that it would begin shutting down operations at the Swedish carmaker.

Sad, sad day.

EDIT: Jalopnik has an interesting write-up on which of SAAB’s models didn’t quite help the brand.

EDIT EDIT: And Jalopnik follows up with the Five Greatest SAABs Ever. Well done.

Click through for the full writeup!

Please note: clicking all the images in this post will bring up the full, 800×600 sizes for better reference. Also, this was done on a 2003 Jetta 1.8T – your mileage may vary in trying this procedure on another model or model year. As always, I’m not responsible for any liability, breakage, and so on that may result from following these directions. Use them at your own risk.

To start, pop the hood and remove the center grille with the VW logo on it by pressing the center tab in with a flathead screwdriver (red arrow). The grille will move forward and ultimately upwards:

Pull up and outwards on the tabs on the sides of the center, VW grille to release it from the body mounts:

With the grille moving forward, you can see that the hood release will have to be un-clipped in order to be able to remove the whole assembly.

To unclip the hood release, flip up the metal retainer that keeps the plastic fork of the clip from spreading:

I used a flat screwdriver to spread apart the fork of the hood release – once spread far enough apart you’ll be able to get it off the pin holding it to the internal hood release and the center grille will come off the car entirely. Once the grille is off, you’ll want to remove the five Torx screws holding the bumper cover on:

Next, remove the small screws holding the bumper cover on from inside the front wheel-wells. This allows you to be able to pull the cover forward enough to expose the headlight mounting bolts without pulling at anything too hard and breaking oft-fragile clips:

At this point you should be able to pull forward on the bumper and down a little, exposing the underside of the headlight assembly and the two hex screws holding the assembly on (red arrows). A really long, skinny hex driver is perfect here – even more perfect if it’s magnetized as the screws tend to fall out into the interior of your bumper easily (Harbor Freight offset star drive wrench set to the rescue!):

On the driver’s side, remove the two Torx screws holding the headlight and remove the two Phillips screws holding the cover that’s on the backside of the headlight assembly – this will allow you to get to the headlight plug. No need to remove any cover on the passenger’s side.

Insert a flat screwdriver into the headlight plug assembly and gently press down to unclip the plug from the socket on the back of the headlight assembly:

At this point you’ll be able to remove the entire headlight assembly through the front of the grille. Reassembly is literally the opposite, with replacing the assembly, mounting it with the Torx screws, reconnecting the wiring harness and remounting the bumper and grille. One hint: I mounted the headlights and tested them by plugging in the harness, running through low beams, high beams, turn and hazard signals before really replacing all the various screws and covers. The last thing to remember is to aim your headlights properly, which is covered in general by the Mid-State DeLorean Club (you can’t make this stuff up…) as well as by any Google search on “aiming headlights.”

Overall, this took me about an hour and a half of work and brought back that nice, new, shiny headlight appearance that 6+ years of road grime and busted headlamp seals had brought on.

Took a ride yesterday looking to traverse Trail Ridge Road while the rest of the Front Range baked in 90+ temps, only to be turned away by 12 miles of oiled gravel laid down in preparation of the Park Service resurfacing the classic 1920′s 12,000-foot-high scenic wonder. I even brought my winter gear.

So I turned back around to head back through Granby and down the slightly less scenic Berthoud Pass when I passed this curious camouflaged AMG Somethingorother. I can tell you a few things about it: it was definitely a Benz, the seats had AMG on ‘em, the two dudes that were walking out while I was taking these photos were not very happy with me, and that’s about the longest V10- or V12-hiding hood I’ve seen in… well… ever. Any ideas? Click pics for larger images of the MysteryBenz.

A test aired Sunday on BBC’s Top Gear television program, however, casts doubt upon the notion that a hybrid would be the most fuel efficient in every circumstance.

“This is a BMW M3,” the show’s host Jeremy Clarkson said in introducing the car that would compete with a Prius. “It is not designed to be as economical as possible; it is designed to be fast.”

Clarkson chose the most extreme examples to make the point — a sedan equipped with a V-8 engine producing 414 horsepower against the Toyota Prius with its 76 horsepower hybrid motor. The EPA rates the BMW at 14 miles per gallon in the city, and 20 on the highway which compares unfavorably to the 48 and 45 figures for the Prius. In this test, the M3 matched the speed of the Prius as the hybrid ran flat-out over ten laps of the 1.8 mile Top Gear Test Track in Surrey, England. Measurements taken after the run show that the Prius returned just 14.3 miles to the US gallon, while the BMW had 12 percent better fuel economy at 16.1 miles per gallon.

Not to get all little-pinky-turned-up-in-the-air and all, but I’d also like to point out that I’ve been watching my fuel consumption on the Wee as well. I’m consistently in the 55mpg range, and that’s at full-throttle, idling, city and highway, and so on… Anna and I took off for Estes Park last weekend, and at a mid-day fill-up I was showing 59mpg.

via Anna, who’s loving her 35+ mpg Goob hauler. Suck it, hybrids.