Saab

[Dr.cLaShiZ]

Whats the deal with these cars? Are parts hard to find? Is it a more difficult car to finance once something breaks down and you are hurting for the parts? I can't say I know much about these cars but more specifically the 9-3. Looks like a decent car for my money. Not really looking for optional cars here just the answer to my first three questions. Thanks bros.

[Leveller]

Whats the deal with these cars? Are parts hard to find? Is it a more difficult car to finance once something breaks down and you are hurting for the parts? I can't say I know much about these cars but more specifically the 9-3. Looks like a decent car for my money. Not really looking for optional cars here just the answer to my first three questions. Thanks bros.

 

Saabs have a bit of a "academic" reputation in Europe as they (and volvos) were always driven by teachers, architects and the like who would own them until they died.

However, I bought a 9-3 a few years ago that I picked up relatively cheaply to make some money on, I was driving it home and every time I put the power down the steering wheel shook, it wasn't pulling to either side and it wasn't a wheel balance issue. I thought it was very odd and spoke to three separate dealers and an independent specialist who all told me, "yeah, they'll do that under power, nothing wrong with it".

They may well have ironed out this inbuilt fault since then (it was an early second generation car, turbo convertible, so probably a 2004-5), it was and I believe still is a shared platform with the G6/Malibu/Saturn Aura, but I have no experience of them here in the US and my ownership was pretty short. But I would say that it got a great deal of interest and sold pretty quickly so I can only assume they're quite desireable or the price was right.

[mohawk]

For the most part.. they are reliable and fun to drive.. however if you run into one that starts having alot of issues they can be costly to repair (parts).

 

I had a stick 900 s Turbo (Early 90s) in high school that was a blast. I've yet to find a car that much fun to drive.. put about 20k miles on it from 150-170k and never had any problems with it.

 

I also had a 2002 9-3 for a couple years.. never any problems, but sold it while it was still under warranty.

[Clueless]

They used to be great for the most part with a few issues here and there, but now GM owns them and has stripped them of everything that was unique, so in my opinion, save some cash and buy the GM counterpart if thats what youre into, because Saab isn't Saab anymore