I'm surprised that you thought the handling of the GTI was better than the base Saab's. My friend and I have driven a GTI 150hp 1.8t and a base Saab 9-3 (with auto, unfortunately), and we both thought the Saab handled better and was generally nicer. At the time, I couldn't afford the Saab and actually went to buy a GTI 1.8t, but the dealership was asking 1,000 over MSRP for it, so I backed out. (A year later, I ended up buying a Viggen, but that's a different story.)

The GTI is nice for the money, but the 2-year warrantee worries me, particularly with the low JD Powers scores for the Golf and my second friend's experience with his (his experience hasn't been good). Also, it's a very small car if you're tall -- when my second friend sits in his, his head is behind the pillar. This looks ridiculous!

There are more tuning options for VW, and the 150hp 1.8t needed them -- it was anemic. Maybe the new 1.8t VW is better, because VW has supposedly upped the power to 170, which is really even higher but VW doesn't want to make the Audi crowd mad. Well, I looked on carpoint.com, and it says that the GTI still only has 150hp. I thought they were upping it to 170hp; maybe that's next year, or only for the Jetta? The Saab also has way more torque (194 vs. 155), although an APR chip will take the 1.8t to 196 horsepower and 240 ft. lbs of torque (supposedly) for about $500.

For me, I like the Saab interior and exterior styling a lot better, the 9-3 is more powerful, rides better (to me), has a bigger and more useful interior, seems to be safer, and is (in my opinion) of higher overall quality. However, the GTI is relatively cheap and can be modified (actually, should be modified) to some respectible power.

• 9-3 base vs. gti 1.8t? Opinions wanted., tommy, Mon, 28 May 2001 12:28:12
  • Re: 9-3 base vs. gti 1.8t? Opinions wanted., CB, Tue, 29 May 2001 18:03:32
  • Re: 9-3 base vs. gti 1.8t? Opinions wanted., Han, Tue, 29 May 2001 15:25:17
  • Ramsey Auto Group experience, Jeff, Tue, 29 May 2001 13:08:48
  • Re: 9-3 base vs. gti 1.8t? Opinions wanted., 99Hokie, Tue, 29 May 2001 09:39:24
    • Can I please get an explanation of incentives/financing?, tommy, Tue, 29 May 2001 09:51:42
      • Re: Can I please get an explanation of incentives/financing?, 99Hokie, Wed, 30 May 2001 09:31:59
  • Re: 9-3 base vs. gti 1.8t? Opinions wanted., bob, Tue, 29 May 2001 09:29:09 <-- Viewing This Message
    • The 1.8t GTI is not slow, nickR, Tue, 29 May 2001 19:49:02
  • Check out the discounts for SAABs, Coolknight, Tue, 29 May 2001 05:15:38
  • Re: 9-3 base vs. gti 1.8t? Opinions wanted., Keith K, Mon, 28 May 2001 20:59:01
  • Re: 9-3 base vs. gti 1.8t? Opinions wanted., Steve H., Mon, 28 May 2001 20:20:49
  • Those were my choices too, nickR, Mon, 28 May 2001 12:41:08
  • Re: 9-3 base vs. gti 1.8t? Opinions wanted., Jeff Newton, Mon, 28 May 2001 12:36:48
    • That's what Edmunds lists - should it be much less?, tommy, Mon, 28 May 2001 12:50:56

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