Too normal, I guess. My dad had a 1978 Saab 99 Turbo identical to the one in the photo below but without the rear window louvers. Neat car to drive (especially as a testosterone-laden teen-aged boy), but I will admit, the wrap-around glass took some getting used to but it definitely grew on you. Then when you went to a "normal" car, the glass felt "too close". It drove normally if you didn't go into positive pressure where the demeanor of the engine definitely took on a significantly more aggressive sound and satisfying push into the upholstery.

My dad was also an avid sailor and this car was quite the workhorse. Fold down the rear seat and there was plenty of room for sailing gear and it handled a Dyer Dhow dinghy on the roof quite well. His car had well over 200,000 miles on it when it threw the primary drive chain and ultimately was used up to the point of no-return. Original turbo and all. I think Saab's mistake was to try to go too mainstream. Better to have been selling smaller volumes, steadily to a niche market than go up against the behemoths of the auto industry.

I liked the car, it was great to drive, almost like flying a plane.

But working for many years (82 till 97) in a building that we shared with the main stores of Saab, Germany, we saw daily just how many new Turbos (they threw the outside box away in the shared paper trash can and sent the turbo in the smaller inside box only to the garage/service center) were needed for the cars when run on German Autobahns!! Around 30 every working day!!!!

In Germany cars will often be driven at their maximum speed, maybe for several hours at a time (we still can if we wish to!!). This causes the turbos to get really, really hot.

That's not a problem if you let the engine tick over for 2 minutes or so to let the oil cool things down before switching off, but many forget. The result is that the lube oil in the turbo simply turns to coke and ruins the bearings.

In most cars I have driven with the older, non water cooled turbos, there is a warning (that many ignore) to do this, in the manual......I never looked at a Saab manual, did anyone here?

The situation has also dramatically improved since then when using Full Synthetic oils.....but the water cooling of turbos was the best change of all.....