I am considering buying a Saab 9-3

iamjor

2008, 1.8 petrol around the €13,000 mark.

Anyone on this board ever owned one, know someone who owned one or able to offer an opinion or advice.

As I'm not the most knowledgeable about cars any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Tito Ortiz

iamjor wrote: »

2008, 1.8 petrol around the €13,000 mark.

Anyone on this board ever owned one, know someone who owned one or able to offer an opinion or advice.

As I'm not the most knowledgeable about cars any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

I have an interest in this too.Looking for a new car and the prices for the Saabs are excellent.
I'm hearing the 1.8 are a bit under powered !!

cullen5998

depreciation = 50% after 3 years. Thats awful
you buy the car and sell it for 5000 after another 2 years.
Buy a BMW instead.

Bigcheeze

cullen5998 wrote: »

depreciation = 50% after 3 years. Thats awful
you buy the car and sell it for 5000 after another 2 years.
Buy a BMW instead.

Your maths needs some work...

kirving

....Meaning the OP would only be able to afford an older BMW.

Anyway, the Saab is a nice change to the monotonous german stuff

overshoot

how are they reliability wise?

Compton

Saab are generally one of the most reliable brands out there, I've heard the engineering on them is great. Go for it.

iamjor

Thanks everybody for your replies

If anyone else has any opinion, especially if you have owned a Saab or even know someone who has owned one I would be truely grateful to know what experience you or they have had with them. They seem to have the best spec in that price and class bracket and I have always thought they are a good looking car but before shelling out the money I would like to know some first or second hand experience especially concerning whether are they reliable or what the mpg is like, my brother-in-law says best to buy Japanese, which is good advice, but I might try something different this time.

Any posts, positive or negative, are seriously considered.

Thanks

Henry Ford III

The bulkhead cracks on them. Came up recently.

shawnee

Have always liked the Saab, they are unique. Guys who have them tend to continue with them. There are many low mileage cars around that have been well serviced. New ones do depreciate heavily and therefore second hand models are a good buy. Can't really be compared to Toyota etc. Have a look at honestjohn. co uk for reliability and get a good clean one that has been serviced.
Life is too short to drive what others like !!:D

illegalpower

The bulkhead cracking is an issue on the previous 98-03 model and not the one the op is looking at

anthony4335

They come in 3 flavors , linear (or ARC depending upon age) ,vector or Aero. I would suggest getting the Vector or Aero. They are basically a vectra, and should be reliable enough ,not too costly to repair.

godtabh

i've an 05 1.8i vector.

I think its a great car. Dont find it under powered. Great for cruising on motorways etc but thirsty in the city.

and its not basically a vectra, A lot more car than that.

Tea 1000

Used like the Saab 9-3, until I sat in one, woefully put together interior. It was brand new too. Apparently the higher up spec ones have much better interior's, but it put me off enough to advise that you just go for a 159 instead. Better built interior, nicer looking and even rarer.

Ash.J.Williams

iamjor wrote: »

2008, 1.8 petrol around the €13,000 mark.

Anyone on this board ever owned one, know someone who owned one or able to offer an opinion or advice.

As I'm not the most knowledgeable about cars any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Try and find a mechanic in the land who will even touch it! I had a saab 93 and i actually couldn't find a mechanic to change a head gasket...

The Recliner

Have an 03 1.8t Arc, bought it 5 months ago with 103,000 miles on it

Very happy with it, it certainly doesn't feel like it has that amount of mileage on it, there isn't a squeak or rattle out of it and mechanically everything is sound

On the underpowered comment I wouldn't agree with that, it certainly doesn't feel under powered to me and it is great on motorways and back roads, very comfortable and grand on the back roads

I have been doing a lot of city driving recently and am getting around 25mpg, I mainly do cross country runs in it and get around 35-40mpg, if you were a bit lighter with the right foot you could get over 40mpg out of it

All in all aside from hankering back to the days when I had something a bit more sporty I can't fault it

godtabh

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Try and find a mechanic in the land who will even touch it! I had a saab 93 and i actually couldn't find a mechanic to change a head gasket...

i've a great mechanic who have has no problem working on it.

I'd say a saab main dealer would also have no issue

The only major problem that I've had is that the abs sensor cable broke and the whole unit had to be replaced. My mechanic (who is a member here) had no problem finding the problem, getting the parts and installing them

eyeball kid

I bought a 05 1.9tdi one last year. Haven't had any problems with it so far, thankfully. Its economical especially on the longer drives. I like the
build and interior, find it very comportable.
Think the 9-3's are nice looking car. Overall, I'm very happy with it.

R.O.R

The 1.8i isn't that bad to drive - much better performance than I expected before I'd driven one.

Looking through the service history of the last 1.8i we had on fleet, it made it to 150,000km before it was sold with standard servicing and:

Timing belt @ 100,000km
Rear Pads @ 58k

Nothing else stood out as unusual and I don't remember hearing of any major issues with them.

I have found that most 9-3's start to feel a bit tired around 120k. It's hard to put in to words, but they feel loose.

iamjor

Thanks for all the replies guys. Very much appreciated.

If anyone know what their diesels are like please let me know.

Thanks again and cheers.

racer1

Had 08 1.8t which in fact was a 2.0L Bio Fuel for 3 years. Never had a problem with it... Plenty of power and very comfortable.... You can get good value in 93 now.. . When i was buying mine the dealer told me that petrol engines were giving no trouble but they were seeing a few problems with the diesel ones.

fando

I bought 9-3 Arc 2003 recently. 60000 miles, full service history from the local Saab dealer. Lovely car for the price. First week of driving - auto gearbox gone. I google 'Saab gearbox malfunction' and got shocked with horror stories about those gearboxes.
I am thinking now about selling that after fixing and getting Avensis or something. They look ****e but maybe wont die on me that quick.

unkel

fando wrote: »

I bought 9-3 Arc 2003 recently. 60000 miles, full service history from the local Saab dealer. Lovely car for the price. First week of driving - auto gearbox gone. I google 'Saab gearbox malfunction' and got shocked with horror stories about those gearboxes.
I am thinking now about selling that after fixing and getting Avensis or something. They look ****e but maybe wont die on me that quick.

I take it the autobox was covered under warranty? So why worry?

I presume you did your homework that the full service history you got included oil changes every 6k miles?

fando

The warranty was for 2 years . According to the service book autobox oil was checked every 12000 miles.
Just sad as I was very happy for this car. I had a few cars in my life, some with high mileage, but none of them just died in the middle of the road like this one. Sometime must be that first time I suppose...