OUR SAAB SHOWS HOW TO STAY MOBILE IN A RECESSION

For many of us, there’s going to have to be some belt tightening over the next couple of years. There’s not much you can do about rent or a mortgage, but that other great expense in life, motoring? Well, that we can do something about.

I once worked at a car magazine with a bloke called James Ruppert. He’d previously been a salesman at a swanky BMW dealership in central London, but his heart wasn’t in it because what he really liked was old bangers.

In about 1990 he came up with the concept of Bangernomics – the art of buying and running a used car on a very tight budget. He then wrote a book on the subject which became very popular and it’s recently been reprinted and entitled Bangernomics Rebooted.

See below for details of how to get hold of a copy. It’ll pay for itself in no time.

A couple of years ago, I pulled out my ragged copy of Bangernomics because my wife wanted a convertible with four seats – either a BMW 3-Series, Audi A4, a Mercedes CLK or, my favourite, a Saab 9-3.

I’ve always like Saabs, although the last economic crisis wrecked it and it disappeared in 2012.

A squint on the internet revealed that Simply Saab in

Saab 9-3 Vector convertible 2.0t Engine: 2.0 four-cylinder, petrol, 175bhp

Transmission: 5-speed manual

Year: 2004

Mileage when bought: 126,000

Mileage now: 146,000 Cost: £2,300 Servicing to date: £1,173

Bristol looked to have a fine selection of ragtops, including one in Caipirinha green (our preferred colour) with 126,000 miles on the clock for £2,995. Better still it had a petrol engine, which is a more

sensible way to go than diesel due to unpredictable legislation about where you can drive them.

A week later and I’d taken the train down to Bristol and was on my way home in my Saab, bought

Porsche has added a third body style to its 911 range to join the coupe and the cabriolet. It’s the Targa with its fully automatic and distinctive automatically folding roof. I never liked the old 911 Targas but now I think they’re particularly stylish – it must be something to do with getting older. You have a choice of Targa 4 and Targa 4S. Both have an eight-speed PDK auto gearbox and four-wheel drive. The Targa 4 has a 385PS version of the 3.0-litre twin-turbo engine. The 4S has a 450PS version of the same motor with a seven-speed manual gearbox offered. Prices start at £98,170 for the 4 and £109,725 for the 4S.