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Thoughts Posted by Saabpilot [Email]  (#134) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Saabpilot) on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:18:18
In Reply to: 9-3 vs 9-5 reliability, Johnson  [Profile/Gallery]
, Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:59:12
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I have a 2008 9-3 Aero sedan and a 2003 9-5 Aero Wagon, and also owned a 2003 9-5 Aero sedan for a year and a half. If I could choose only one it would be the 9-5 (the wagon in my case because I like the utility of it).
I don't know what your experience has been, but the 9-3 has been a serious let down. Mind you, it has great power and handles well, especially after I attended the Aero Academy last year and really learned what it could do. But...the interior is a joke, and is of embarassingly horrible quality, the silver strip on the dash constantly reflects into the driver's eyes on the windshield, the doors won't stay open all the way unless you push and hold them for several seconds and then half the time they come closed on your leg anyway, the coolant resevoir lost all of it's coolant and then I found out about a recall, the car used up much of it's oil unexplainedly with about 25,000 miles on the odometer, the rear seats once you put them down will occasionally set off the "rear seat down" warning message even though they're up, the steering wheel was so horribly uncomfortable that I spent almost $500 to replace it with a Turbo X wheel, the simulated stainless steel (aka plastic) is impossible to keep clean. Well, there's more but that's a start.
The 9-5 drives much smoother, has better passenger compartment space but surely has it's problems as well. Temperature sensor and thermostat failures are plaguing me right now. DI cassette failures are expensive. The temperature thing is really trying my patience. I've replaced the sensor and still get a check engine light and code occasionally so I know the thermostat needs to be replaced, too. I had this issue on the 9-5 Aero sedan, too.
So, neither is perfect but I would not buy another 9-3 Sports Sedan, no matter if Saab were around building new ones or not. For certain, the worst part of this car is the atrocious quality of the interior and the horrid "Infotainment" GPS / Stereo system I shouldn't have paid all of the extra money to get. It routinely will not adjust day / night backlighting and the GPS functionality is the worst I've ever used. My portable Garmin C550 runs circles around it. Kudos to GM for not using a widely available GPS database like others do, but rather using some obscure thing that routes you on insane routes. I can't tell you how many times the Saab unit has had me exit an interstate...and then get right back on the SAME exit, for example.
, Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:59:12, Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:18:18 <-- Viewing This Message, Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:23:50, Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:34:02
, Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:17:06
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