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ooh, a 9-5 Aero...possibly one of the best Saabs ever. HOT is maybe not the right term; as far as I know, HOT was mostly used to distinguish the 210hp 2.0L engine from the 185hp version found in the base 9-3. The Aero uses a 2.3L turbo that makes something around 250hp, if I remember correctly.
For specifics on what to look for in a 9-5, you should probably check the 9-5 board. Basics are regular maintenance, especially oil changes with good quality (preferably fully synthetic) oil.
On Saabs in general...anything with four or more doors is good for a young family. A 9-3 coupe will be a little more difficult for you. Otherwise, they're safe, spacious, practical, fun, and economical cars. They'll be more expensive to maintain than a Toyota or Honda, but not by that much. The expensive maintenance intervals are the 30,000 mile ones, which tend to run $600-800. Hopefully, the 60k was done on the car you're looking at, and you won't have to pay up for a while still.
Keep a spare DI cassette handy if the one in your car has more than 30,000 miles on it. They can fail anytime after that (but sometimes last 120,000 miles plus). It's a $300 part, and it takes less than 10 minutes to replace at the side of the road. However, if you have to get the car towed to a dealer, and pay dealer prices and labor, you're looking at $700-800 from what others have reported.
The one other thing that can strand you is a failed serpentine belt or idler pulley. These should be inspected every 10,000 miles, and probably replaced at 60k as preventative maintenance. It's a pretty easy job, really...less than an hour if you're a do-it-yourself type, and shouldn't be too expensive at a mechanic's shop.
Which leads me to mechanics...depending on where you are, there may be a good independent mechanic near you for non-warranty service. There's a mechanics section of this website that has reviews. In the Boston area, I still prefer Charles River Saab (dealer) over mechanics I've tried, but I haven't tried ABJ, about which I've read good things. People on this board rave about Walter Wong and Anders (SWEDECAR), who are both in the LA area.
You'll find that many of us here like the extra space a hatch or wagon offers. An Aero wagon is a particularly nice car. But don't worry...you're still welcome here if you drive a sedan ;)
Welcome (almost),
Matt
'99 9³
posted by 65.106.18...
, Thu, 31 Mar 2005 14:41:43
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