Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2001 15:53:04 -0500 From: "Kenneth S." <nimrodnopsams.com> Subject: Re: Purchasing a Saab
Garrett Cook wrote: > > l am a college undergrad that will probably be needing a car this > summer. l thought about getting the usual, like a Honda or something, > but then thought about getting something "different." l think that > the 1994-1998 Saabs are probably some of the nicest looking cars out > there; even the 1994 models look brand new if you wash 'em. l was > thinking about getting the manual 1998 coupe model (with the turbo, > yea!) l've heard a lot of people saying "l love my Saab!" and "l've > gone 300,000 miles on the same clutch," but others telling of horror > stories of weird things like coolant spilling into the passenger > compartment and stuff. lt seems like there's no happy medium, people > are either getting good cars or bad ones. > > 1. lf l were to purchase a 1998 model, what would be some key points > to look for as far as reliability is concerned? l'm afraid that a lot > of the used ones may be from people trading them in because their > particular one broke down all the time. > 2. ls the oil filter location such that it is easy to get to, or is it > someplace screwed-up like in the center of the engine or something? > 3. Repair l'm sure is expensive. l feel that l'm pretty good at > finding info on the internet; that if it had a problem l could > probably find out its cause and how to fix it. l have almost no > experience dealing with repairing cars, other than changing oil and > pouring in washer fluid and stuff. lf something did go wrong with the > engine somewhere, and l had step-by-step instructions as to how to fix > it, what are the odds that l could fix it with a normal metric set of > tools? My suggestion is that you look at the Consumer Report summaries of the experiences with these cars. You can also look at the Magliozzi brothers' (Car Talk) website, which has what people who own different brands of cars say about them. Also, if you put "Saab 900" into a search engine, you will see a selection of what people have to say. I have a 1996 900SE, which I bought at the beginning of this year. I'd always been interested in owning a Saab, right back to the days when they had two-stroke engines and often won rallies in Europe. I also was interested in having a decent-sized four-door hatchback, of which there are very few on the U.S. market. It's fair to say that, although I still like the concept of the car, my experience has been disappointing. Quite a few things have gone wrong, and they really need to be fixed by a Saab dealer, because Saabs have many peculiarities of their own. There are too many gimmicks on the car, starting with the key between the seats, but inadequate attention seems to have been paid to some of the basics in a car that, at any rate when new, is in the upper price brackets. To take just one small example, the driver's side mirror appears to be configured for European standards, which allow a convex mirror on the driver's side, but there isn't enough adjustment for the U.S. standard, which requires a flat mirror that gives a more restricted field of vision. Maybe the newer Saab models are better, but if reliability is a and low repair costs are important factors for you, I think you'd be better off with another car.
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