(First Posted 1/19/2014) Growing up in L.A. during the dawn of the Yuppie Era, Saabs were always visible, but a bit of an outlier compared to, for example, a BMW 3-series. Nevertheless there were a couple in my high school parking lot, and a friend had a first-year 900 Turbo that was capable of much greater performance than almost anything else I had access to at the time.
Over the years since I have looked at 900s of every generation but never decided to go for it and buy one for some reason or another. Of course in the mid-2000s I purchased a 9-2x Aero but the goal in that case was more to get a Subaru WRX at a better price with a better interior than it was to own a Saab.
Obviously I was well aware that GM had purchased Saab and the franchise was in terminal decline. Over time there were fewer and fewer Saabs visible in the Bay Area and I thought realistically about owning one less and less. However, upon moving to northern Colorado, I was surprised to see quite a large population of Saabs. Giving it a little bit of thought, it was most likely due to three factors. First, we live in a college town and I always associate Saabs with college towns for some reason; two, there was actually a local Saab dealer and three, Saabs tend to do well in wintery climates.
So when my wife mentioned that it would be nice to have a third car, it didn’t take long for me to start looking for a potential candidate. The idea was that the kids would not be transported in it and as a result, it would stay much cleaner inside making it far easier to keep or make the car presentable when with clients. The budget was not large, however the car could not have a bazillion miles on it either. In other words: a challenge.
Or maybe not. There are always cars that for one reason or another do not have high resale value, often deservedly so, sometimes not. It did not take long for me to find what I thought to be a suitable candidate in the form of this 2003 Saab 9-3 2.0t. A two-owner car, it had travelled less than 70,000 miles in its eight years and came with a fairly complete service history (along with a few hiccups).
The color was Polar White, a fairly creamy shade, kind of like Audi’s pearl white but without the pearl effect. The interior color was Parchment, which is sort of an off-white, but not beige-ish at all. I’d been watching a lot of “Wheeler Dealers” and fancied myself a bit of a combination Mike Brewer / Edd China. In other words, I was ready for a bit of a challenge. How hard could it be?
Well, as I stated, the car had a few hiccups. The check engine was lit, the seller told me there was engine oil contaminating the power steering fluid, the car squeaked when going over bumps, the interior needed some attention, and the display cluster atop the dashboard was not displaying all of its pixels. The door handles were very faded and the color on the badges had completely worn off. In addition, it sported two snow tires and two (new) all-seasons instead of a matching set of one or the other at all four corners.
However, it did drive very nicely, pulled strong (I love a turbo!) and handled well. The price was right as well, so we shook on it and finalized the deal the next day.
Saab (under GM stewardship) had developed a brand-new Saab 9-3 model for the 2003 model year. The great sacrilege to many was the elimination of the hatchback body style, long a Saab trademark. While I am a big fan of hatchbacks and older Saab 900s in particular, I still find this body style extremely attractive, even though it is now eleven years old and once again back in (limited) production by Saab’s new owner. Even worse for many were the supposed Opel Vectra roots of the car, long considered one of the duller automotive offerings in Europe.
Interestingly, I have seen it said in several places over the years that GM did mandate the use of as many Vectra components as possible with the intent of making it more or less a rebadge. However, it appears that Saab engineers ignored this and produced a car that shared no more than 15% parts content with the Vectra, including creating many distinct components for the Ecotec engines. If this is true (and I believe it is) it speaks volumes about GM managerial (in)competence with regard to its wholly owned subsidiary.
In the end, no matter what the reality, the cars were generally well-received upon their introduction to the market and not just considered a warmed-over Vectra (kind of like Ford Contour vs Jaguar X-Type, but probably even more so). If anyone has more actual knowledge about component sharing between the Opel and the Saab I’d like to hear it. The 9-3 featured modern exterior styling and an updated interpretation of the traditional Saab “cockpit” cabin; nothing that is visible would make anyone think of a Vectra.
The 9-3 came in three different trim levels. At the time they were called Linear, Arc and Vector (later renamed Aero). The Linear trim (the base offering) can be identified by its 2.0t (lowercase “t”) badging, offering a 175hp engine with a low-pressure turbocharger. The Arc level is labeled 2.0T (uppercase “T”) and offers basically the same engine but with more boost, generating 210hp. The Vector/Aero version used the same high-pressure turbo engine as the Arc but came with a stiffer and lower suspension, sportier seats and a subtle bodykit.
Note how the spacing between numbers decreases as the speed goes up.
All levels were well equipped. In my case, I had a base model (Linear), which included standard leather (a very nice velour was a no-cost option) and also had a 5-speed automatic transmission. Instrumentation was clear, legible, and attractive (as is usually the case with Saabs), the ignition key was between the seats (of course), and the seats were supremely comfortable, a hallmark of Swedish cars.
The ignition between the seats was not the only odd thing in this car. The radio had no display on its face; that was actually handled by a display pod mounted on top of the dashboard at the base of the windshield. This display also includes the readouts for the trip computer, vital warning messages and other information. It works very well as the base of the windshield is much more in your field of vision than either the instrument panel or the center console. In my car, half of the display was not working. I looked on a Saab forum and found several people parting out Saabs, one of whom was willing to sell his display pod for $40. It took all of five minutes to restore this function.
The lid of the center console was worn and the leather surface had cracked severely. Since my interior was off-white, the cracked leather looked horrible but Ebay provided a replacement for very little money. Again, a quick fix. A corollary of the horrendous depreciation experienced by many Saab models–especially in recent years–is that they are quickly totaled when involved in an accident.
As a result is is quite easy to find people parting them out and selling the parts for not much money. I was surprised at how easy to was to find most parts and how cheap they were. While there are plenty of parts cars available, the market for the pieces is fairly small, which keeps prices reasonable.
The front and rear Saab badges that had lost all of their color were easily replaced at minimal cost and made a huge improvement in the appearance of the car. This seems to be a problem on many newer Saabs, I often see newer 9-3s and 9-5s with blank chrome discs where there should be an attractive Saab logo.
The faded door handles were fixed with a generous application of peanut butter. Yes, the oil in the peanut butter completely reverses the oxidation of black plastic components on a car. I first learned of this with my old GTI, the black fender flares would fade and turn gray, peanut butter being the solution. Simply slather on and then wipe off. I prefer creamy but chunky should work just as well.
The squeaking when going over bumps turned out to be a common issue. The bushings on the sway bar are the cause, but only in colder temperatures. I did not want to mess with the suspension so I ordered new bushings and had my mechanic install them at minimal cost while replacing the Secondary Air Injection pump, which was cause of the check engine light coming on after the pump had seized.
The Secondary Air Injection pump is a device that a lot of newer cars have, and its purpose is to send more air into the exhaust in order to reduce emissions during cold starts. In the Saab it is mounted very low on the front of the car and the bearing tends to seize up due to condensation, requiring replacement as the unit is completely sealed. The aggravating thing is that the unit costs about $300 and is only used on the 2003 model, having been eliminated for 2004.
It turned out that the 9-3 is clean enough to not require it at all, but since it was there in 2003 and is an emissions control device, it must be functioning or the check engine light will cause a failure during emissions testing. I spent about an hour under the car trying to figure out how to replace it, but without a lift it turned out to be next to impossible to get enough leverage or the correct angle to attack, so I left it for my mechanic.
The biggest headache turned out to be the power steering pump. Saab uses a novel design wherein the pump is actually directly driven by the camshaft, and as such it is mounted on top of the engine. However, between the two parts is a seal that fails, resulting in pressurized engine oil flowing into the pump, which in turn causes the reservoir to overflow and obviously is not a good thing for the power steering pump itself.
I took the pump off and saw the seal, which looked like it had been pinched somehow and did not appear to be in the correct position. I repositioned it slightly and remounted everything and cleaned it up. Over the next week it became obvious that this had not fixed anything and it was still leaking.
In the meantime Saab had actually declared bankruptcy, everybody on the online forums was scared as to how their cars would be serviced henceforth and what about would happen with the parts supply. Our local dealer had closed shop several weeks prior and no longer had much of a parts department. I ended up driving to another dealer in Denver for the five dollar seal which ended up solving the issue. After remounting the pump, purging the contaminated fluid and refilling the reservoir it now worked without leaking.
My car had been delivered with a mismatched set of tires, as mentioned above. I found a different set of 16” Saab rims with a newer set of snow tires for a great price and mounted those. I sold the other wheels and tires separately, making a profit on the whole deal, which was nice.
As it turned out, my wife did not enjoy driving the car as much as we had expected. It is fairly low and not the easiest car to get in and out of. In addition the back seat is fairly small, not great when transporting more than one client. I ended up driving it a fair amount and enjoyed doing so. It was wonderful on the freeway, very responsive to throttle inputs, handled well in the twisties and got excellent gas mileage (low to mid-30’s were not difficult to achieve on the freeway).
Around town it was fine as well, but while I really like the exterior styling of these, the interior is, to be frank, a bit cheap. The area around the handbrake employs some very low-budget plastics, as does the center console. The finishes of adjacent plastics that should match do not, which is something that I always found annoying.
However, I (and everyone else who rode on the car) LOVED the cup holder, or at least the idea behind it. If you have not seen one in action, it is quite interesting to see. After pushing a small button in the dash, this spindly little thing emerges and performs a sort of acrobatic routine, resulting in a cup holder that, while functioning well, leaves you scared of overloading the contraption with anything larger than a soda can lest it break and necessitate sourcing a replacement, not to mention cause a large spill.
We ended up advertising the car for sale within six months of buying it. It just turned out not to be the “right“ car. But it was not done with us yet. A few days after starting to advertise it, I noticed a puddle of oil on the garage floor. I crawled under the car and wiped it off, only for it to reappear soon after. For several days I tried to pinpoint the cause, and in the meantime had found a serious buyer.
However I could not sell it as is in good conscience (and immediately thought back to the seller of my Chevy Tahoe with a similar situation), so I asked my mechanic to take a closer look. It turned out to be the rear main seal, which is quite a job to replace on this car and cost around $800 to correct. After explaining to the buyer why she would not be able to buy the car immediately, she, in apparent appreciation of my honesty, insisted on splitting the cost of the repair with me, which was very nice and not necessary at all. In the end it worked out and we both walked away happy. I had scratched my itch and she had gotten a car that had all of its issues resolved.
Nice piece.
“Even worse for many were the supposed Opel Vectra roots of the car, long considered one of the duller automotive offerings in Europe.” I think the word you are looking for is competent. I don’t think we saw them as dull.
Well, there was Jeremy Clarkson’s “road test”/hatchet job of the prior generation, which apparently had quite an impact on the sales in Britain (this being before people learned that he’s like that all the time…):
Clarkson didnt like the Vectras understeer having watched him get said understeer by pulling on full lock at over 100mph and standing on the gas with the traction control off producing wheelspin tyre smoke I figure he’s full of shit yet again.
I drove the Vectra when it first came out before I had heard any reviews from motor mouth JC or anyone else,
It was hired by the company I worked for as they always provided transport when you had to make business trips.
it was completely forgettable except for the front end losing grip on a roundabout without any provocation on my part, it just didn’t inspire confidence, I would have to say it was barely competent.
I have never liked Vauxhalls since, my sister bought one against my advice and it has been nothing but trouble
Basing a car like a Saab on the chassis took away a lot of the credibility Saab had as a respected make here in the UK, the less GM parts the better, glad the Swedes did their best to keep it their design and its a shame Saab is a defunct make
Thanks – Sorry if I came across as denigrating the Vectra. I am sure it was perfectly competent and a fine car at fulfilling its mission. Kind of like the Camry over here, right? Good car, generally reliable, but nothing to get particularly excited over from a driving enthusiast’s perspective.
Except when it said OPC on the trunk lid. Would 260 km/h be enough ?
Don’t forget that Opel has a long and extensive race- and rally history.
That’s true, but the OPC is not what you naturally think of first…Does Irmscher still do tuning for Opel products as well?
Yes, Opel had/has a fine rally and racing history, my normal screen name is WalterRohrl, I well remember the Ascona of the early ’80’s.
They certainly do Jim:
http://www.irmscher.com/
As you know, in Germany everybody is tuning like there’s no tomorrow….
The current Opel Insignia OPC is an AWD beast by the way. Available as a wagon ! OPC is an integral part of Opel, like Mopar’s SRT.
Yes, they are considered dull – at least here in Denmark. the Mantas and Kadetts had quite the boy racer following, but today they are considered dull. That is why I’m always considering buying one with a v6 – great value for money.
I was wondering if you owned one SAAB at some point during your “extended” test drives. I love this body style, specially in SW from. The facelift with their blue ice light strip looks sharp.
Back when I still could see Saab’s parts manual, I took the time to compare the Vectra and the 9-3 & 9-5. The suspension layout of the cars is mostly the same, but the P/N weren’t. I remember clearly the Saabs had a staggering amount of front spring combinations.
The 9-3 you show there has a shorter SWB than the Vectra. The 9-5 seems to be slightly longer. The switchgear is very different too. I have a NG900 and the solidity of how the door close is something even an Epsilon-I Vectra doesn’t have. That car has some recognizable GM parts here and there.
So IMO, the whole “GM simply slapped a Saab badge on a Vectra” is just BS.
Interesting re: the manual. Thank you. The 9-5 is longer and wider. I’ve looked at several 9-5’s as well, especially the wagons, over the years. Nice cars. The Swedes in general always do nice wagons, one almost thinks that the wagons come first, then the sedans although it is almost never so.
The 9-5 seems to be a nice car. In any case from the Swedes, I like the Saabs more than the Volvos. The wagons look much better.
Vectra door pillars are filled with liquid metal during build and the doors close solidly.
One of the guys that works with me is driving a V6 Vectra (last model). I would say the doors sound the same as the AH Astra we have over here.
The 900 I have sounds better.
Never been a big fan of these – but I’m a huge fan of the way you handled the oil leak at sale time. Bravo.
Congrats on scratching an itch. Not all of us are brave enough to do it, the reputations of the objects of our desire keep us away.
Now you can say, “Yes I did own a Saab.” and not go around wondering, “What would it be like to own a Saab?”
It’s also tantamount to asking what it would be like to poke one’s own eye out and acting upon it. Not necessary. Call up a former owner and get the gory details from them.
Yeah but that’s like when you’re a little kid and your mom tells you not to touch the hot stove…EVERYbody touches the hot stove. Once.
Nope. I did it twice.
Obviously I’m very late to the party here but since reposted, perhaps someone will read. I don’t think it’s fair to bag on the reliability of Saabs – GM or no.
I learned to drive in 1996 on my mother’s then 170K+ 1988 9000S – that car, 5-speed manual, non-turbo – went to about 225K as I recall, then she traded in on a very nice 1993 9000 CSE.
Personally, I’ve had at least three 9000’s that I can recall (US and UK-spec) plus an NG900 2000 9-3S. A mixture of turbo and NA cars – one NA 9000 and the rest turbos I believe… It’s been a while. ?
All of these cars treated me well. Yes, there are the failure points (namely the per-cylinder-coil ignition cassettes and that blasted ZF automatic gearbox if one was dumb enough to specify one) – but having owned A LOT of cars, I would say the Saabs did no better or worse than any others to include BMW etc.
They’re just an acquired taste – like it or don’t.
“First, it’s a college town and I always associate Saabs with college towns for some reason; two, there was actually a local Saab dealer and three, Saabs tend to do well in wintery climates.” – Pretty much explains why I so see many Saabs in Boston and the suburbs just south of it. Many also have faded emblems like yours.
I’ve always had a strong, unfulfilled desire to own a Saab. This generation 9-3, however, never were my favorites. The exterior styling is a bit too chunky for my tastes, especially compared to its predecessor and the 9-5. And it just didn’t look “Saab” enough for me.
I’ll be honest and say I did look as several for sale online, but the cheap interior materials turned me off. Even in later model, the added metal and wood trim just didn’t look premium enough.
I’m sorry your Saab experience was less than perfect. That’s a great tip about the peanut butter too! I never would have thought of that.
The final generation of 9-3 Combis were, IMO, some of the most attractive cars of the decade.
I also have a Saab itch (almost made an impulsive 9000 Aero purchase a couple of years back), probably stemming from the fact that Saab always ended up being my parents’ second choice whenever the time came to buy a new automobile. Both my parents’ families had experience with Saabs (and weirdly enough even more with Opels–my parents liked the L-series, too) so they knew their appeal. Of course, that also meant they knew their shortcomings and never felt the Saabs of the nineties and noughts were quite special enough to take the risk. Thus they did the typical ex-Swedish car buyer thing and opted for Legacies, though they eventually got their sporty hatch with my namesake Mazda6.
I looked at used 9-3’s a few years back, and had the same impression as you. Not that I’m a “dash-stroker”, but the way the bean-counted materials wore out made me worry about bean-counted materials in more crucial places. The instrument cluster also reminded me of a Chevy pickup…not exactly the best impression in a luxury car!
Needless to say, I was sad to see Saab’s demise; the last 9-5 was a very attractive car (though I don’t know how they’ll hold up). At least Saab is back in a sense.
I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a car from you!
And thanks for the peanut butter tip. I’m doing that when the weather warms up.
Nice write up. I have a black 2004 Aero convertible – top up or (especially) down, it is one beautiful car. It only has 46k miles on it – I bought it off lease in ’07 and drive it occasionally as the pleasure car. It tracks like a slot car; the pull from the turbo is intoxicating. I’ve reached 120 in it before I backed off. The 6 speed shifts snappily, although it might be time for a new clutch. I haven’t had to replace the hood/trunk emblems, but oddly enough the center caps on my wheels all darkened and were replaced.
I have two friends with Arc convertibles, newer than mine but as daily commuters they have considerably more miles. It has been hard at times for them to get reasonably priced repairs…but I believe that has always been SAAB’s challenge, especially here in the south. I believe they are both looking at what’s next while there is still minimal value in their cars.
My only major expense has been the hydraulics for the convertible top, which actually was covered by the extended warranty.
I love Saabs…
I am an Insurance Adjuster, and I just *hate* it when I have a Saab claim. They always total out, and I become overcome by guilt when I take one off the road. Saab owners usually love their vehicles, and it is always hard to deliver the news that the car is not cost-effective to repair.
Drive carefully, Saab lovers!
I liked these cars the minute they were introduced. Still remember seeing some black Vectors with dark tints just looking so bad-ass. Moreover, I loved the interiors and the gauges of these things. Always wanted one actually and thought the wagons were about the best looking out there.
With depreciation hitting these so hard, and because turbos are hard to say no to, I’d been flirting with picking up an ’03+ 9-3 as my next daily driver. But even with a dark paint color and proper factory wheels, I’m not sure I could pull it off.
Someone here once described Saabs as ‘eccentric, feminine, feline’ among other things. Not exactly labels I’d willingly apply to myself. (Well, maybe slightly ‘eccentric’. But not ‘feminine’ or ‘feline’. I’m a man who owns a dog.)
I’m still tempted. I still tell myself to just think of it as a Malibu with a turbo, leather, and a funny-looking grille. But if I have to keep explaining to friends and acquaintances (over their laughter, no less) that it has 210hp, gets 30mpg, *and* I got it for five cents on the dollar, is it really the right car for me? Probably not.
Still, there’s a black ’04 5-speed Vector with light-ish collision damage on craigslist right now for $1500 “OBO”, and it’s calling me. “Köp mig! Reparera mig! Jag vill bli din!”
From a mechanic’s perspective, you’d be totally fine, except for the fact that everything is a LOT tighter in the engine bay than what you are used to.
I have a dog as well, FWIW 🙂 But never thought of Saabs as particularly feminine. Funny that that’s the rep up there in the North. I thought all your peoples hailed from the Northern European countries?
Just get a black one, tint the windows really dark and just drive it at night. Your buddies won’t even know it’s you. You know, towards the end, they made an AWD version, even in wagon form, that can sometimes be picked up relatively cheap compared its competition.
Parts are not a problem as Saab Parts was a totally separate company from Saab Automobile (and did not go bankrupt or get auctioned off). Most everything is available and there are plenty of wrecks to pick over as well as other parts suppliers making options to the factory stuff. The biggest hurdle is for things that require a dealer computer (Like reprogramming a key or changing factory settings in the ECU.
But again, the internet is your friend in that wonderfully reverse way in that if you need to find out the correct procedure to get to the ECU (random example off the top off my head) there are probably dozens of threads on that topic for a car that was not sold in huge qty’s and whereas if you’re the one poor fool who needs the same thing for a Camry it’s probably hard to find (because nobody ever needs the info in the first place…)
Good to know.
Electronic issues don’t scare me all that much, since I’m only a short drive away from one of the better-known independent Saab shops (Andrews). They’ve been very helpful in the past when I’ve had obscure Classic 900 mechanical questions, and I know they’ve got the special Saab Tech II and all the other goodies needed to make these cars behave.
In fact, on one of my past turnovers (an ’88 900 vert), the buyer had me deliver it directly to Andrews’ garage for the full battery of repair and maintenance, so it’d be like new before they started driving it. I can only imagine what it cost them… but all’s well that ends well, I suppose.
But still – lose your keys (a common reason for cheap asking prices) and you’ll be stuck buying fobs and a CIM, then towing it to the shop so the CIM can be married to the BCM. Several hundred dollars (best case) spent on a job that could be done with a junkyard key/lock and 75¢ worth of resistors on any other older GM product… things like that do give me pause.
Plus, there’s always sludge to worry about. I don’t think I’d take a B205 or B235 powered Saab unless it was free. (And if it was a hatch, I wouldn’t even take it then!)
Oh, you are good to go then, and sorry, I had no idea that there was Saab in your history as well!
I’m not sure if the key thing is really fair – Newer GM’s aren’t like that are they? And older Saabs have conventional keys as well.
That resistor bypass trick only works on GM cars equipped with VATS (Vehicle Anti-Theft System). This wasn’t true immobilizer system, since the key “coding” was one of twelve reistance values, and the key coding did not change from key cycle to key cycle. This system was used on some GM models from 1989 to 1996.
The resitance key was relatively inexpensive, but you needed to match the resistor value at the same time you had a key cut (or you could cut the wiring harness and splice in a resistor to bypass the key resistor).
Since then GM has gone to a true immobilizer system, with all the associated expense and hassle.
That’s interesting– never thought about them being chick cars. Well, except the convertible maybe
One of my (probable) great disappointments in life is never having owned a Saab, no matter how much I liked them. My brother-in-law had one of the first generation GM cars and, although he liked it, it turned into a bit of a repair queen towards the end of his tenure. Not being offered much in trade with the Forester that replaced it (did I mention that he’s an east coast, politically correct, bleeding heart liberal?), he ended up selling it outright. Offered it to me, and I was very tempted, but the automatic killed it for me.
There are a fair number of them in the Richmond area for sale, and I’d still love to have one but I’ve already got one toy car (the Solstice) and whatever replaces the xB is going to have to be a reasonably new, easily serviced, daily driver as I’m looking forward to retirement three years from now.
And the OP’s experiences are about what I’d expect – and be afraid of dealing with given the support that still exists. Although, no doubt, the European car garage that handled my Porsche all those years would probably do just as good a job on one of these.
Dammit, I still want a Saab. Before they become “antique car show” cars only.
Spent some time in the business office of the local Saab (now Fiat) dealer a few years back trying to hash out a deal on a Glacier Blue Metallic ’06 9-3T with a 6-speed. Man, what a great car.
In hindsight, it was for the best that it didn’t work out, but I was bummed about it at the time. Seeing the same car now on occasion on my morning commute with one burnt out HID light makes a little happier though. They probably can’t find/afford the part to fix it.
$75 a lamp at NAPA. Of course, on an ’06 you have to remove the bumper shroud…
Thanks for the extensive write-up. The white on your Saab is one of the few whites I could live with… very soft and easy on the eyes, but not so muted as to be mistaken for a boring tan.
I also have always had a Saab itch, and in 2010 I came across a loaded 3-year old 9-3 with a 6-speed, and only 13,000 miles(!). For $16,000, I could not turn it down–a 3-year old car under factory warranty that originally stickered at $34K.
I think I lucked out; I think 2007 was the best year. It was a 60th anniversary edition, with nicer wheels, seats, and other extras (although it retained many of the other cheap interior materials). The electronic bugs had been worked out, and the hopelessly busy console controls had been revised. (I’m a little confused that yours did not have the original busy-button set-up, as thought it wasn’t changed until later.) And I found the later models less appealing… the ’08 facelift gave the front a desperate look and the side a slight droop due to the new clamshell hood.
While I’ve always wondered if mine is a “real” Saab, I’ve been more than happy with it over 3-1/2 years and 50,000 miles. The 6-speed is a blast. The car is comfortable and fast, and I get about 29mpg overall–to me, pretty amazing in a 3500-lb. car. A few things annoy me mildly. The back seat is cramped, but we don’t have kids. The stereo is underwhelming. There’s no auto-up on the driver’s window, which turns pulling away from a toll booth with a stick shift into a version of the one-armed paper-hanger exercise.
Problems: A front coil spring broke just after the warranty expired and, as luck would have it, right in the middle of Saab’s bankruptcy. Amazingly, the Saab dealer replaced it for free out a “good neighbor” fund. The other biggie was replacement of the a/c condenser, which apparently was hit by a rock. And it does tend to burn through headlight bulbs (four so far), but they’re inexpensive and easy to replace.
Hard to say if I’d be as happy if I had paid $34K for it new, but that’s the great benefit of being a used-car shopper 🙂
Yours is “real”…everybody knows somebody who had a horrible experience, but those that have a great experience tend to be much less vocal and just are happy with their circumstances.
I like your color. Actually I like almost all of the colors these came in, there was always a wide selection available. And I agree with you re: the newer ones, they look a little “off” for the reasons you mention, but only in comparison to the original ones.
Moral of the story?
You meet the nicest people when selling a Saab.
Also, is the peanut butter still edible after you use it, I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for answer man!!!
Your dog would probably be happy to lick the peanut butter off your parts for you…
Can you just use peanut oil?
Being summer here it has brought out many classics and many SAAB convertibles I havent noticed as many in winter but they are certainly out and about now.
Spring and fall seem to be Saab convertible selling/buying time. Have a look at Gumtree and you’ll see.
I sold SAABs from 1999 to 2004 until my dealer principal gave up the franchise…When these 2003s came in, neither myself or the other sales consultants were very impressed…To us, they just didn’t really feel like a ‘real’ SAAB…especially when opening the hood and seeing that turbocharged ECOtec motor…The interior also seemed like a real letdown compared to the previous model…but BY FAR the biggest complaint from our clientele? No hatchback…
A great thing about Saab dealers is that so many of the employees and service techs own one or more of them, frequently old ones. Those folks are really attached to their Saabs. When I once took my GM Saab into the dealer service department–the first Saab dealership in the US and which had a perfectly restored Saab 96 in the waiting area–I found myself wondering how the folks behind the counter felt about working on a mongrelized line of cars, which included a rebadged Subaru and a repackaged Cadillac SUV. But I’ve never thought my 9-3 to be a mongrel to the same degree. There’s still a lot of Saab in it (designed and built in Trollhattan), and Saab has always borrowed engines and components.
Incidentally, the dealer once loaned me a new 2010 9-5, which was pretty widely praised in the press (“GM figures out how to make a Saab”). But I thought it was VERY GM-like in its driving character and interior aesthetic, although the exterior styling fit the tradition well.
It’s interesting how people latch onto fairly trivial things as defining the character of a car. A different dealer told me he couldn’t get some of his customers to drive one of the new Saabs when it came out because the key wasn’t between the seats (was it the previous gen 9-3?). I know that’s been a longtime Saab “feature,” but get serious!
The abandonment of the hatchback has been criticized by many, but it’s well proved that few Americans want them. I can imagine, if Saab had kept the hatch, that the pundits today would be saying, “Well, no wonder Saab failed; they once made cars that fit the times, but they stayed married to superficialities instead of recognizing the changes in the market.”
The interior quality of the 9-3 is the biggest problem, however, although for the most part it’s the doors. The spare dash is pleasingly Swedish to my eye, but the hard plastic door finish is simply substandard.
The final 9-5 had the start button (there was no physical key slot) at the leading edge of the center console, if not between the seats. Of course, every recent Volkswagen in memory places the start button in a similar spot, so it’s not exactly special anymore.
Even for the 9-7X, the rebadged TrailBlazer that was the company’s laziest, most uninspired offering ever, they stuck the key between the seats and even managed to turn the generic GM key fob into an all-in-one.
For some reason, never had a Saab itch myself. Looked at them at the auto show when they still had hatchbacks. but the interior seemed terribly drab/cheap.
Don’t like turbos, on the theory that is just one more thing to break.
The CFO at work had a Saab a few years ago, the lease expired just as Saab died. He had fits with the hyperactive traction control, and discovered that GM had saved $2.00 by deleating the traction control “off” switch, so he frequently would be stranded on the patch of ice that forms at traffic lights. Diving in the pool at the YMCA, with the fancy key in his pocket, was another learning experience.
I had an itch for a Taurus X. Scratched that a couple years ago. Great for road trips. Terrible, too big, for chugging around town, though it’s performance in snow and ice (not AWD) has earned it some respect as a daily driver.
Still have that itch for a VeeDub. Been trying to ignore it for 20 years. Might scratch it this spring., before the turbos come out.
I’ve done the peanut butter thing before. It does work, at first anyway. After one week it started to lose its luster and after a month I would have to re-apply.
It also attracts squirrels. Which I know sounds funny, but was actually sort of weird because the squirrels would be quite brazen about getting up close to my car—giving little concern to how near they were to me even when I was making noise.
Ooh, maybe it’s not a good idea then if there are squirrels in the area, then. On mine the handles were still dark after six months. (The driveway pics are from the ad when I had it for sale, I had done the treatment right when I got the car). Maybe you used Chunky instead of Creamy 🙂 I used either Skippy or Kroger brand, I’m sure whatever plastic it was has something to do with it, i.e. YMMV.
I used Peter Pan. I’ve tried it on the rubber beltline on a ’89 and ’90 Bonneville.
You have a similar strip on the nose of your Olds 98, don’t you? Do you do anything to keep it in nice shape? I wouldn’t mind shining up the Electra.
Have you guys ever tried Mother’s Back to Black? Worked great when I used it on my cars before.
Yea, I’ve tried it. The peanut butter actually worked better for my applications.
Yep, I’ve tried that as well and like AJLA found that peanut butter worked better, was cheaper and smelled better. 🙂
I don’t have (and never had) an Olds 98, could be you;re thinking of someone else?
Sorry, I was thinking of Keith Thelen.
I saw this come up and sadly did not have time to read it over the weekend. You have performed a great service, as I have now vicariously gotten my very small Saab itch satisfied.
Know what you mean about the dealers – I know a guy who sold Saabs for years, and is still a fanatic about them. He bought a 9000 for peanuts that came in on trade to the dealer (that is now selling Subarus).
I work with a guy with a slightly older 9-5 wagon – the cupholder is indeed cool, but (at least in his car) there is only one of them in the front. Not cool when there are two people up front with drinks.
The cupholder of the 9-5 made its appearance on the Commodore and also (methinks) the GTO. Complete with Saab marking.
I can’t understand why Saab caught so much shit for using the Vectra platform either, especially in the US where the Vectra has never even been sold! Isn’t this the way you’re supposed to do platform sharing? By most accounts, the GM 900, 9-3 and 9-5 were all still great cars to drive and loaded with Saab-ness. I’ve got a first-year GM900 Turbo in my driveway and can attest to that. I’d never guess it was built by a subsidiary of the same conglomerate that brought us such winners as the 1994 Pontiac Sunbird or 1994 Chevrolet Lumina if I didn’t know any better.
And I certainly wouldn’t mind having one of these 9-3s either, especially the wagon. My one dislike of this generation 9-3 is that some of the later ones used these hideous clear taillights that did not complement the styling of the car whatsoever. The vertical clear lenses looked cool on the wagon, but the treatment the convertible and sedan received? Yechhhh. This color looks great on it, and I like the two-tone interior as well.
I’ve never bought a new car, but when there were still leftover “new” examples of the aborted Epsilon 9-5 and 9-3 SportCombi on dealer lots at ridiculously discounted prices, I was extremely tempted – and they’re both still a frequent search for me on Autotrader/eBay. If I was gonna bite the bullet and finally have a car payment, I’d need it to be exactly what I wanted, and it’s tough to find either of those with a 6-speed. Saabs have always been popular where I live and they’re still a daily sighting for me, so maybe I’ll come across one eventually. Owning a GM Saab has also made me want to own an OG 900 or 99 even more than I did previously, and since I share Jim’s car-whoring sickness (or more accurately, “car-slut” since we don’t get paid for it) there’s a very good chance I’ll end up with at least one of these at some point.
You can spot some of the GM hardware. The mirror switch is straight from Opel’s parts bin. It’s equal to the one on my Holden VT.
But generally, I agree with you. I also have a GM900, in my case a 98.
My wife drives a 2006 9-3 Aero. LOVES IT! The car is really fast from 40mph to 100+ and in fact, you don’t even need to downshift from 6th down to 5th, it just goes. There is no turbo lag.
The biggest drawback for us is parts and service. We live 6 hours from what was the nearest SAAB dealer. Thankfully, a lot of issues can be fixed by the local GM dealer. One of the known issues is the front coil springs rust and physically break. The Aero’s use a stiffer spring than the 2.0t cars and the last time this happened, it took 6 months before we were able to find a new set.
In the UK, Saab was always a left field choice, seen as close to Audi and BMW but 10% cheaper than either, without Volvo’s dull image, and with the exclusivity of smaller numbers than any of them, plus a reputation for the most highly educated customers and the highest customer retention of any car brand.
It seems to me that the 9-3 SportWagon is the true successor to the 900, not the 9-3 saloon. It may look like an estate rather than a hatchback, but underneath it’s a hatchback – no extended wheelbase or pretentions of competing on size with a big Volvo estate, but more boot capacity than a Vectra or Mondeo, and better looking than either.
The 9-3 may be based on the Vectra platform but so what? Don’t Audi and Skoda share platforms and engines? Doesn’t Rolls Royce use BMW switchgear? My 9-3 is distinctively Saab – the stunning mid-range acceleration from a turbo engine, the genius nightpanel facility for the dashboard, knowing that the ignition key won’t smash your kneecap if the worst happens, the absolutely brilliant seats, the brilliant instruments – the list goes on. And even the 180hp twin turbo TTiD gets 55mpg.
I’m now on my third 9-3 SportWagon (and 4th Saab) – all have been excellent and the only repair cost in 150,000 miles has been an alternator (bought in from Fiat) that failed a year out of warranty – and even then, Saab picked up 75% of the cost. Here in Edinburgh, Saabs are still a common site – result of a good dealer in a liberal university city, perhaps? Elsewhere, you have to tell people what it is and wait for the inevitable ‘what are they really like’ question.
Great write up! I always enjoy doing these (sometimes) minors fixes to my new used cars. I never knew too much about these cars, so that aspect was neat, too.
The early first gen Tacomas (pre-’98?) and some of the older “pickup” models also featured a somewhat novel in-dash cupholder solution.
We bought two of these. My wife has a black 2008 sedan and I have a silver 2009. In general, they are fine cars. Certainly not as bland nor as reliable as a corolla, but they do have a special something about them. In the past 10 years, the black one has had a couple of issues – biggest one being that the engine control module failed about 4 years ago – it would fail in the middle of the highway and you would need to coast to the shoulder – pull a fuse and reset it -and then go on your merry way. we had that fixed quickly with a replacement computer from a wrecked donor. We generally do the maintenance on these ourselves – at least the minor stuff. I found it ignorant that they put the oil drain on the REAR of the pan – that way you absolutely have to drive up on ramps to reach it. not sure why they couldn’t have it on the front like subarus were. ATF changes are not too bad – kind of a tight squeeze but do-able. I still love the cars. they do great mileage wise on the highway -34mpg or so, but in the city it drops to 24-28, depending. the interiors are starting to fall apart. drivers seat on my wife car is held together with some zip ties. My rear window regulator broke so that is being held up with a machine screw. headlight socket melted a few years back and was replaced quickly. Both of them needed sway bars replaced within one year.
I should have purchased a wagon but missed the chance. that will likely be the differentiator that will drive these to an early grave – and if anything major ever gives out and becomes more than cost neutral to fix. I do love the cars. when they are washed and waxed, I think they still look modern and somewhat timeless – very understated. I like that.
In all, I”m glad i bought them before they went under. if only because the opportunity to do is rapidly drawing to a near. we often talk that there are no new cars that intrigue us as much as these saabs did/still do.
but I’ll tell you what – regardless what people say about turbo lag and reliability – when you hear that weed-whacker sound spool up and feel that acceleration it really does put a smile on your face – even if the interior plastics are kind of cheesy.
She insisted on splitting the cost of the repair! Saab people are enthusiasts and that your purchase and especially sale had nice people!