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Viggen -- impressions 11 days after delivery
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Posted by Hood (more from Hood) on Wed, 31 Oct 2001 10:23:43 Share Post by Email
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Took delivery of a brand new 2001 Viggen about 11 days ago. Having now driven it about 850 miles, here are my impressions so far:

Likes:

1. Buttery smooth and quiet engine
2. Second and third gears -- whoosh! Power on demand.
3. Super tight cornering
4. Hatchback room and versatility
5. Front seats are as good as any in the world, and my passengers say the backseats are really nice too.
6. Night Panel (it really does make a difference)
7. Great leather feel and smell
8. overall exterior look is fantastic -- Saab lowering the suspension, adding the Viggen wheelsand modifying the spoilers/air dmas/extensions really turns the tall, somewhat awkward 9-3 shape into a sleek, racy looking car. Everyone says "it sure looks fast". It's all helped by mine being black -- softens the harsher edges in the car's somewhat old design.

Dislikes:

1. Plasticky bits: center console looks and feels a little cheap, so do the interior door handles and parts of the door, some switchgear feels cheap (cruise control, brace handles).
2. Tight suspension is a little harsh in everyday driving (but not terribly so)
3. footwell is tight for my size 14 feet.
4. center console hits my right leg a little awkwardly
5. gearbox a little bit imprecise.
6. Low front air dam is a threat to scrape everything (well, it's more my paranoia -- I havent' scraped it yet, but I'm always on the lookout!)
7. ACC -- I HATE automatic climate control in general (jot really a Saab-specific complaint). I want the ability to fiddle with the knobs myself. Also, the ACC layout in the Viggen is a little confusing.
8. Hate the location of the window switches -- it requires that i look down to find them. Put them on the door in the NG9-3.
9. Cruise control location sucks -- put it on the steering wheel, dammit. I'd rather have cruise on the wheel than the radio controls.
10. No tilt steering wheel, and it doesn't telescope enough (i'm 6'6").
11. The console ingnition is actually a little annoying, but not because it's located there -- getting the key in there is fine, but turning it on or off requires me to wrench my hand awkwardly. The location of the ignition slot in my C900 (still chugging along after 190K miles) falls much more naturally to my arm/hand.

Overall: First, the less-than-good news. You can see I complain about small things. I think some of those will stop being complaints once I get more used to the car. But they are little things that, if fixed, could turn the 9-3 into a world class car (Saab -- are you listening?). My last car was a 2000 VW Passat, and maybe I'm being unfair but the quality of everything in the Passat was absolutely first rate -- almost no cheap plastic, the switches, levers and stalks oozed quality. The Passat really set the bar a lot higher because the quality feel of the car blows away cars from the $20K through the $40K range. I expect Saab, a more expensive car, to match it. Of course, the quality of the leather and the seats in my Viggen is much, MUCH better than in the Passat, so I guess there's always a tradeoff!

Now, the good news. None of my little petty complaints has diminished my enjoyment of this special car. Incredibly fast (please oh please let my 1000 mile mark come soon so I can uncork the engine for real), smooth, quiet, tight, and totally unique. That's what I bargained for, and that's what I got. LOVE IT!

Hood
1987 900 8v four-door, 190K miles
2000 VW Passat (selling), 17K miles
2001 9-3 Viggen 5 door, 853 miles.

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