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I'll leave some questions for others to answer, so they don't feel left out :)
I've lost touch with the second-hand market a bit since I bought my Aero - I haven't needed to look at prices as I haven't wanted to change it. As far as warranties go, my '96 Aero (3 years and 113K miles old at the time) came with a good Saab warranty (at about £500 on the invoice - compulsory). They do a lower level for cars up to 15 years and 160K miles, but I don't know whether it is available aftermarket. You would certainly have to have it dealer-serviced through the warranty period, though.
I would be wary of other aftermarket warranties. They will likely only cover things that stop the car from going, and those things seldom go wrong on the 9000. The engine is almost bulletproof (OK, so I managed to blow one up - but look on this board and you'll find it practically never happens). I'd be pretty sure they won't cover things like TCS (doesn't seem such a problem in the UK as in the US, even though we've had it for longer) and likely not the turbocharger. Heater matrix (again, haven't had one fail myself) and DI may well not be covered. Clutch and exhaust definitely won't.
An aftermarket warranty will probably cost you a goodly proportion of the cost of the car. Warranties sold by secondhand car dealers on the back of a sale, like "extended warranties" on electrical goods, are seldom worth the money.
AA inspection is an excellent idea and would be well worth the cost, or a Saab dealer should be happy to look it over for you - my local dealer offered to inspect my first 9000 before I bought it. Expect them to charge for it, of course, but they'll probably jump at the chance to introduce themselves to a new Saab owner - parts, servicing, new car sales further down the line... if you look closely, you'll probably see the £££ signs in their eyes :)
The RAC also do inspections, I believe.
Performance: that magazine figure is useless because the Aero is so high-geared that you'll have trouble pulling much less than 50mph in 5th and will be turning about 1700rpm at 50!
Try it in second, though. My slightly-modified Aero will go from 50-70 in second gear in under 2.5 seconds. That's a little quicker than most repmobiles. (You'll hit the rev-limiter in 2nd gear at just over 70mph).
It's pretty quick in 3rd too, just in case you like to give the red line a bit of a body-swerve.
Since 4th gear will probably rev out at around 140, you'll have all the motorway acceleration you need. 5th gear performance only starts to be really impressive over 100mph, but don't underestimate the usefulness of being able to simply cruise at 70 in 5th gear and squeeze the accelerator to achieve acceleration other cars would require a gearchange for, and you're turning just slightly over 2000rpm at that speed.
Pre-Aero 9000s had shorter gearing (and perhaps the '93 Aero has too, but I'm not sure). The US market preferred higher gearing on the manual because of all the "freeway" driving they get to do. Those who live in US cities seem generally to buy autos.
posted by 62.253....
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