1999-2009 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
I began my Saab experience with a 1987 900 Turbo (which saved our lives in a T-bone with a 4 liter Mustang) and while this was out of commission awaiting a DIY tranny rebuild (never accomplished..!!) we picked up a used 1993 non Turbo (i.e. "Tractor") with an automatic tranny to tide us over. We looked at the 9-3's but found them to have less interior room than the classic and NG 900's. I happened to stumble upon a 1999 9-5 2.3 lpt 5 speed in my Wash DC area being sold by its original owner at the end of the 60K mile service warranty and liked it. With only one child, it still has plenty of space, luxury, classic styling, economy and performance to satisfy my wife, 11 year old son and myself. Big trunk, fold down rear seat back and Thule factory Saab specific roof rack bars let you haul almost anything. First car we ever owned with leather seats, and heated ones too!! The stock base model stereo is certainly awesome enough.
As for repairs and maintenance, I did plenty of research on the 1999 first year 9-5 model and saw Consumer Reports favorable review, but studied SaabNet at length to get familiar with ECM failures, turbo failures, instrument display pixel failures, DIC failures, etc. Luckily some of the major bugs were covered under the original owner's warranty period and being an avid DIY car person, I have even successfully rebuilt the turbo with $100 worth of parts. I continue to have a recurring rear tire wear problem, even after swapping out the stock suspension for a slightly lower and stiffer 2001 Aero setup and shimming the wheel hubs to adjust the camber, but I suspect the Dunlops just don't do well on this car and will replace them to match the Bridgestone Potenzas in the front and rotate them more often.
All in all, I'll probably hope to drive this car to 250K miles (currently halfway there!!) Hopefully, GM won't further homogenize Saab into a Chevy/Buick look alike..
Best of Luck,
Kirk D.
posted by 169.253....
, Fri, 10 Mar 2006 16:18:09
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