Adapting To Winter

Where we used to spend holidays & non-work days was 100 miles N of Toronto, on the edge of one large lake & close to another even larger one. The winds blew chill off the icy waters from October to June, & too often carried snow. Once the snow started it usually didn't melt for over 4 months, so a more suitable car for those conditions was needed.
Besides, the little Fiat 128 didn't really fit my increasingly discerning tastes - I read all the car magazines to form those opinions!
A most sensible choice seemed to be a Saab 99.  These were fairly new to Canada & rapidly making their mark. After all, few cars had heated seats, demisters for side windows that actually worked & solid, thoughtful construction that went so far as to camber the car doors in at the sills so snow & slush didn't easily transfer to clothing upon entry or exit. A fairly sprightly 1800cc engine (Triumph based) gave a bit under 100 HP controlled by 4 gears. I also liked the quirkiness of the ignition key being by the handbrake instead of in the dashboard like every other car.  Ours was the same colour as shown here, except it wasn't the hoity-toity Turbo model that this one is, so also didn't have the flash wheels. Not that I aspired to the Turbo model as these early adoptions of turbochargers meant engine heating problems - you had to run the engine a few seconds after stopping, before switching off, & after all, I wasn't - never have been - much of a speed demon. I bought cars for esoteric reasons. Comfort, style & build quality. Suitability for purpose.

 Now, if you're a Canadian reading this, you won't be impressed with pictures of cars half-buried in snow, but to me, a relative newcomer to real winter weather at the time these photos were taken, in the mid-seventies, I was aghast at the severity of blizzards!
So the Saab 99 did us well - that is until the Saab 900 came on the market. I was a bit dismayed at the price - around C$13000 which was a big jump over the previous model; but this was the era when inflation began creeping up.
Our Saab 900 really wasn't very different from its predecessor, now I think back on, just a bit more modern in appearance, with fuel injection, a 2 litre engine pumping the power to over, gasp, 105 HP! With 5 gears, it seemed very peppy to me. And perhaps a trifle more mainstream in appearance from outside, although it maintained the sensibly placed ignition key socket.
It was the same colour as the one below, and had those ugly rubber bumpers required by US safety regulators.
These were know as "5mph" bumpers as they were supposed to resist an impact of less than that speed without damage, but unfortunately, that even was questionable, & the cost of replacing one, with it's built-shock absorbers, exceeded the earlier & prettier chrome ones.