Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 12:00:16 GMT From: "stephen" <stephen_hopenospamorld.com> Subject: Re: looking for input re buying a used Saab
"Michael Hellwig" <michael.hellwignospamulm.de> wrote in message news:slrne8h2n7.1pg.michael.hellwignospamp.in-ulm.de... > Hi everyone, I'm new to the group .. > > well anyway, since I've been thinking about this for a few weeks now I > thought I'd toss my thoughts in here and see whether anybody wants to > comment on them. > > I am right now in the process of thinking about buying a car, what with > not being so young any more (28 now), just having gotten married and > having moved to some place away from the old hometown and maybe wanting > to go back and forth between here and there and the trains being a pain > and so on .. > > So a few weeks ago I wandered by this used car dealership and there was > a Saab 9-3 on display, 2 years old, black, not the classic hatchback but > a sedan shape. Loved it. Asked for a test-drive. Test-drove. Loved it > even more. In the end I had to admit that my wife was right and that it > was too expensive (16000 EUR). > > So what I'm looking for is a car for around 10000 EUR max that will > mostly be used for driving long Autobahn-stretches (mainly in Germany), > that should be comfortable, bigger than you average small car and that > should last me for at least five years without being too much hassle. > Plus I definitely want it to be a diesel, what with mileage when driving > these long stretches and so on. > > Since test-driving that one particular Saab (which has been sold to > somebody else by now) I have been looking around for others and have a > few questions rolling around my head. > > On the one hand, the shape I prefer is the sedan, not the hatchback. The > 9-3 sedan-model seems to be a bit hard to find, almost any car I find is > a hatchback. So the 9-5 might be a better choice over all, since it's > bigger anyway (might come in handy in the next few years, who knows) and > since it has that lovely shape. Saabs here (UK) seem to lose value fairly quickly compared to the German makes - which is probably good for you as that means they will be cheaper. i have a 3L diesel 9-5 sedan - a bit under 40 mpg 12k mile intervals. costs vary - average so far around £300. I think the older 2.2 diesels are similar servicing, but not so smooth and quiet. 1 thing to watch - the various Saab diesels seem to have more turbo lag and take longer to pick up - i am happy with mine, but the petrol ones i had when i was driving company cars were more fun. the new 1.9L diesels have longer service intervals, but likely outside your price range for a while.... > > On the other hand, since I have a fixed budget, I might get a nicer 9-3 > for the same money than a 9-5. i would check - 9-5s dont seem as popular, so maybe that makes up for it? > > So I'm undecided re that. > > And of course the biggest question that remains is: How good is a Saab > in terms of long-term reliability, anyway? I mean one sees quite a few > of the old 900 models driving around, but as Mercedes has shown in > recent years, reliability in the olden days doesn't necessarily > translate into reliability in the modern models. So the newish models, > how would one of those compare to, say, a Toyota or Honda in terms of > un-kill-ability and service costs? Is there any experience on that sort > of thing? > I have done 46k miles in around 2 years (58k on the clock) - so far it has been pretty good - main niggle has been broken glass on the low level spots. it is due for a door handle swap on some sort of recall next time it goes in. 1 thing i would say is the dealers in NW UK generally seem good - i dont ever want to go back to Citroen / Alfa dealer i used a few years back, and my wife doesnt get the same help with her Fiat... > Sorry for going on so long, but there's lots of thoughts colliding in > this head here, and it's not like it's all that big, and it has to hold > quite a bit of quantum physics as well. > > Thanks for reading so far if you have, and thanks even more for > commenting if you do. > > -- > Michael Hellwig aka The Eye olymp.idle.at admin > to contact me via email, use michael.hellwignospamulm.de > don't hesitate to look at http://laerm.or.at -- Regards stephen_hopenospamorld.com - replace xyz with ntl
