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I took my almost new 2002 Aero SW out for its first real road trip this past weekend. About 1000 total miles over the course of four days. It now as ~3600 miles. :<
On the positive side, what an enjoyable drive. I know it's been said before, but deserves to be said again - the 9-5 is a great long distance car. The seats are very comfortable and it's such an enjoy to drive. The miles just buzz by. Coming back, I paired up with a S60 T5 for about 80 miles of somewhat 'spirited' driving. What a blast. Didn't help the gas mileage at all, but oh well. Ended up averaging about 27.5 mph over the entire trip. That includes about 75/25 split between highway and city (or other slow driving conditions, like 15 miles of gravel roads in first gear - ouch!). Given the hilly terrain of the Red Woods and hwy 101, I was generally happy with the gas mileage.
Now for the problems. In Eureka, while pulling away from a stop sign in first gear, the car suddenly started severely vibrating and making a horrible growling noise. I immediately pulled over to the side and turned off the car. After taking a few breaths (and saying the required 'what the hell?'), I started the car again. Same thing. I vibration that could be felt throughout the car and a horrible growling/banging noise that was loud enough for people on the sidewalk to hear. I turned the car off again. After a minute, I tried again, needing to move the car out of a driveway/loading zone. I backed the car up a few feet before turning it off again. The noise was just to horrible. On the third start, the car returned to normal and I was able to pull off the main road into a parking lot.
So we called Saab's road side assistance. There were no Saab repair shops or dealers near by. The only real option would be to have the car towed several hundred miles (likely to Stockton or Sacramento) or continue driving it. We decided to take it around 'the block' a few times to see how it drove. No further evidence of a problem, so we opted to continue driving it rather than interrupt our vacation.
The following morning, the car had a very difficult time starting. After 4 or 5 tries, I finally got it started. It idled very roughly for the 20-30 seconds before getting better. I don't think this was connected to the prior problem. Instead, I think it has to do with the high moisture content of the air (it rained during the night). I experienced a similar problem one other time during the trip, although not near as bad as this time. From recent posts, it seems like this might be a common problem with Saabs (?).
Finally, I still have complaints about the automatic climate control system. I don't understand why at one point, 72 produces nice cool air and during similar outside conditions, it produces warm air. It feels less like "automatic" and more like "random".
I'll definitely be taking the car into the shop at the first opportunity. The first problem especially has me worried.
posted by 199.3.105...
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