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I'll say tis at the risk of offending a few souls here. First the easy part. I'm on my fourth Saab,2 9000, now 2 9-5's over a 14 year period and think that they are among the most reliable cars I have woned,which total about 35 cars now. First 9000 only had for a year plus, so hard to judge reliability, but second one, a 9000 Aero,went 104 K on my watch with only regular maintenance and one problem that needed a bit of diagnosis to correct. Turned out to be a faulty MAP sensor,and once corrected, car ran to 104 K on it's original brakes clutch, everyting. second owner had it serviced at my mechanic's shop, and I heard it enjoyed a few more years till it started needing some work. By that time, it had about 150 K on it.
My next one, a 99 9-5, went 88 K in four years and although it had a few warranty related fixes, it had only a DI failure to sour the experience. Ditto the current 2002 Aero,now at 83 K and has only had a DI plus regular maintenance and it is perfect. I have done 5K oil intervals on this car, up from 3 K on the previous ones and now have settled on 4 K going forward.
Now for the bad news. A lot of the posts you read here are over inflated with emotion and rhetoric and mask the actual faliures that the car has. I have seen failures of the serpentine belt reported as " my engine just blew up", and also people having expectations that something will last forever. If the car has a weak spot, it is the DI cassette,and even though that part and it's controlling electronics have been improved over time,if it decides to fail while you are driving, your engine can stop. Other than carrying a spare( which I now do) this is about the only real issue with the car that a prospective buyer ought to be aware of. Much has been made on thie board recently about Saab's covering sludge related engine failures to 8 years, but what they do not tell you is that not only are those failures really rare, but that a lot of major manufacturers like Toyota are doing the same thing. The problems that Saab has seen are not really unique to Saab. Long oil intervals are the real culprit, and fresh clean oil is very cheap engine insurance. You could also infer from reading this board that only Saabs dust their weels with black soot and wear out front rotors in 35 K miles, but take a look at just about every European car around and you will see the same thing.
Others here continue to bash the Saab single turbo V-6 as not being a "real" Saab engine. In reality, these people have no clue as to the internatinal scope of the auto business, and how so many parts arte sourced and manufactured across country borders today. That V-6 happens to be one sweet running engine, gets good economy, has great throttle response and power delivery, but for the old school 2 cycle crowd, it will never do. A lot of people here are living in the past of Saab and not able to sccept that they are now a part of GM and while that represents some compromises in product execution, it also means that there is a productin the first place,since the company would be long since gone had GM not made the investment.
If you are concerned about future service costs, but a car that can get the CPO program and pay the extra money for the peace of mind. It is a very reliable car if maintained properly, and in my mind ,that means minimal DIY. There really is not that much on modern cars today that does not involve electronics, and most of us have neither the equipment or the expertise to do it right the first time. Good luck if you decide to purchase one.
posted by 24.128.183...
, Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:42:34
, Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:37:23
, Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:31:55, Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:33:04, Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:26:30, Thu, 10 Mar 2005 16:29:43, Thu, 10 Mar 2005 17:00:55
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