Some of us have put too much money into the wrong cars. We haven’t started with the best example that we could find and we ended up being way over our heads in restoration costs. I’m wondering whether this 1974 Saab Sonett III is a project car or just a parts car at this point. This blue Swede can be found here on eBay in the capital city of Kansas: Topeka. There is an unmet opening bid price of $750.

My M.O. is to find a car, usually online, after reading that it’s “rust-free” and “just needs a little work”, and then when it shows up on a trailer my heart sinks and my secret car fund (shhhhhhhh…) winces and I end up blowing money on something that I should have kept in the cyber world. The first two or three photos of this Sonett III make it look like a fairly easy restoration project, but then again…

The Sonett III was available for the 1970-1974 model years and just under 8,400 of them were made. That should make them fairly popular and collectible today but, being Saabs, it’s often a different type of collector who buys these cars. They have a distinctive shape and the cool, hidden headlights are joined by even cooler somewhat hidden additional lights behind the grille. The mandated huge rear bumpers were added in 1973 so many buyers look for 1970-1972 cars or modify the bumpers on newer Sonett IIIs.

The interior looks like it has been a Welcome Wagon for generations of Kansas mouse families, but maybe it’s just generations of plant life. The seller says that the floorboards have rust and they’re known for having rust in the compartment under the hatchback. They mention that there is no title for this car so be prepared to do some work on that, too.

There are no engine photos but they show all four wheels. The wheels do look great and if this ends up being a parts car they’ll help to pay off the seller’s bid price if they part it out once they check out the rust and mechanical situation. The engine should be a Ford Taunus-sourced 1.7L V4 with 65 hp and there’s no mention of it at all so I would assume that it needs everything, which is usually the case from my experience. What are your thoughts on this Sonett III? Can it be saved without breaking the bank or is it a parts car?