Gentlemen (and any ladies who may be present):

My name is Dave, and I live in Sugar Land, Texas, a Houston suburb. I'm quite intrigued with your cars. I hope you will forgive my long story and indulge me by answering some questions that may be stupid ones.

Here's the story:

I've been a car guy for many years, and in that time I've owned a number of interesting vehicles, including an Alfa Giulietta Spider, an Olds 442, a BMW 528i, an Integra with some Jackson Racing bits, and a SHO Taurus.

Right now, I'm driving a Saab Viggen that's been modified with a bigger turbo, intercooler, injectors, fuel pump, forged pistons, etc etc. The 2.3 liter four-banger now puts about 360 horsepower and 390 lb-feet on the wheels, as measured on an AutoDyn Superflow 30 dyno. Putting that much torque on the front wheels is totally insane, I promise you.

However, when the engine was rebuilt, the rings didn't seal right, and the engine guy wants to re-ring it. I'm sure the car will be out of commission for at least a couple of months.

I was planning on driving my wife's old minivan during that time, but I've also considered getting a different daily driver and keeping the Viggen for weekends and times when I want to make some tire smoke. (It's a 2000 with over 200,000 miles on it.)

So here are the questions:

Is an SRT6 appropriate for a 100 mile daily commute?

Is the suspension unreasonably stiff on the highway?

Do these cars have air/liquid intercoolers? (I've seen mention of IC pump failures.) Where are the intercoolers located? Do most supercharged cars have liquid ICs?

Are they set up so that the superchargers disengage when cruising so that they don't consume shaft HP?

How is the maintenance and repair cost? Parts and service availability?

How big is the trunk?

What kind of fuel mileage do you get, honestly? (So many of the Saab guys claim to get 30 or more MPG, but I get an honest 25 in my combination of driving, which involves a lot of cruising at 80.)

Would you even consider a non-SRT6 Crossfire? I'm used to having a lot of torque under my right foot.

And finally, what is SSB? I'm guessing it's a shade of blue, just like when speaking of Viggens, LB means Lightning Blue.

Congratulations to all of you on choosing a very cool car!

Best regards,

Dave