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Hi everyone -
Just wanted to introduce myself. This weekend we purchased a CPO 2002 9-5 Aero in Silver Metallic with Beige interior. If anyone's interested, here's the whole sordid history, and why I'm glad to be back in the fold of SAAB ownership.
In the Fall of 2000 I was working for EDS in the SF Bay Area. One day I happened to wander into B&B SAAB in Santa Clara and there was a new-on-the-lot Imola Red Aero with an automatic tranny. It was love at first sight. Took it for a drive, and as they say, once you drive a SAAB, you usually buy a SAAB. Since EDS employees were able to use the GM employee discount (GM had once owned EDS and was still one of its largest clients), it was a no-brainer. It had everything except the ventilated seats. The BBS wheels were especially sweet. I told my wife that I would never whine about a BMW 5 Series or a Mercedes E430 if she let me buy the Aero. So we got it, and it was motoring bliss, for a while.
Fast forward a few years, and now I had an opportunity to get into a Mercedes SL with the 5.0L V8 for cheap. I had lusted after this car ever since Daimler-Benz brought it to the States in 1990. But we already had three vehicles, for just the two of us. So something had to go, and it was (sniff) the Aero. Cancelled my Nines subscription and let my SCNA membership expire.
So now I'm enjoying the SL, and loving every minute, but secretly wishing I still had the Aero. Then my commute changed, and the sub-20 MPG of the SL began to bother me (combined with the fact that our other two main vehicles were gas guzzling SUVs). Then we had a baby, and the SL finally had to go. Totally impractical and expensive to run. So what now? Why not another Aero? On my list of criteria, it was the only four-door sports sedan I could think of that met every one:
- available with a manual tranny (I seriously craved one of these again)
- safe (this would be a backup car for carrying the baby)
- reliable (the 9-5 being probably one of the best outside of Japan)
- at least 30 mpg on the highway (this requirement blew away pretty much every other car in the class)
- 0-60 in under 7 seconds
- sporty handling
- seat five
- aftermarket performance support
- and most importantly... wait for it... a CHILLED GLOVEBOX! (OK, just kidding, but we did miss that feature from our old 9-5)
Plus, I simply loved the car from my prior experience. Never would have sold it if the boss hadn't put her foot down. There was a certain undefinable yet unique quality, I guess I'll call it "character," that the faceless multitudes of Bimmers around here lacked big time. And lots of nifty features not to be found elsewhere. Plus that turbo experience that, while not for everyone, certainly makes for an entertaining driving experience. Also, the quality of interior fit and finish and materials was almost without exception better than anything I had seen lately from Daimler-Chrysler (buying Chrysler must have taken them down-market...) and certainly equal to BMW (maybe not quite as good as Audi).
So the Aero it was, though this time I would go 2002+ to get the newer performance enhancements. Started looking, and found a beautiful Silver Metallic example at Dirito Bros. SAAB in Walnut Creek. CPO, 36K miles on the clock, perfect leather (no cracks or wear), absolutely no door dings, DIC already taken care of, etc. A few scrapes, scratches, and rock chips, but nothing too abnormal or difficult to touch up. Blue Book was about $24,500, they were asking $21,500, got them down to $20K even.
So, I'm once again in the SAAB fold, and MAN I sure feel relieved to be back! Looking forward to lots more reading here on the board.
Thanks for your time,
Derek Lee
`94 Toyota Land Cruiser (rock-crawler)
`02 SAAB 9-5 Aero (commuter/fun car)
`04 Toyota Land Cruiser (grocery-getter and primary baby transporter)
Elk Grove, CA, USA
posted by 70.97.22...
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