Thinking about a Saab - Advice wanted

[alisdairm]

Hi, I am upsizing my familty and need to upsize my car, I currently have a 2002 Mazda 323 2.0 Sport, but don't think it'll hold my wife, 2 kids, baby gear, pram, and a weeks worth of shopping.

I love the Jap reliabillity and was hoping to find it in a Saab, as neither Honda, Mazda, or Toyota large family cars float my boat (Accord, 6, Avensis).

I do about 22k a year, want a fast petrol salloon, would prefer Auto, and I have about £5000/6000k to spend.

Any advice on models (9-3 or 9-5), and what to avoid/look out for.

Thanks

Ali

[Prof Beard]

9-5 Saabs are good value at the moment. The estates are particularly good - get an Aero for real wumph...

[jay140285]

Dont be put off by a diesel

Get it re mapped and they can be very quick.

I have very good performance out of my 2005 93 yet if I sit at a steady 70 on the motorway can see mpg in the low 70's

With the miles your looking to do its got to be worth a thought.

[otolith]

We have a 9-5 Aero estate - it's big, quiet, rides well, has superbly comfortable seats, sensible ergonomics, overtakes well, is relaxing to drive, all the toys work, would probably protect us well in a crash, gets low to mid thirties on a run and does about 26-27mpg day to day. I like it. It isn't really a driver's car for me, too heavy, front wheel drive, turbocharged, but for what we use it for it is superb.

There were oil sludging issues with some of the petrol engines - the Aero models should have been run on fully synthetic oil from new and as a result should not suffer from them. We had the sump dropped and cleaned out anyway as a precaution.

I was quite interested in the V6 diesel option, until I researched it, and decided that it was too much of a liability.

[Seeker UK]

jay140285 said:

Dont be put off by a diesel

Get it re mapped and they can be very quick.

^This

The 150bhp TiD is pretty rapid from 30-70 w/out a remap.

I've never, ever seen 70mpg in mine though :-)

[bakerstreet]

jay140285 said:

Dont be put off by a diesel

Get it re mapped and they can be very quick.

I have very good performance out of my 2005 93 yet if I sit at a steady 70 on the motorway can see mpg in the low 70's

With the miles your looking to do its got to be worth a thought.

I have a 2005 93 TID 150 and I'm sorry, but I don't believe your car is doing 70mpg.

I am down to 65mph on the duals and 70/75 on the motorway and I'm up to 46mpg and thats a pump to pump figure, not what the OBC says.

[Seeker UK]

I average 38 in mine and on a recent 500 mile run (mostly motorway and A roads 60-70 mph) and doing a "brim to brim" I got 48. A far cry from the 60 Saab reckon - IME experience most cars get 90% of the MPG that the manufacturer's claim but the Saab seems worse. 48mpg isn't bad though.

[otolith]

For petrol comparison to that, we recently did a couple of hundred miles of mostly motorway and averaged a tenth or two under 35mpg against an official extra-urban figure of 42.2mpg.

[Seeker UK]

otolith said:

For petrol comparison to that, we recently did a couple of hundred miles of mostly motorway and averaged a tenth or two under 35mpg against an official extra-urban figure of 42.2mpg.

Even for 35 mpg, you won't find another estate with that sort of performance for that sort of price for that sort of fuel consumption. 8-)