Saab 9-5 3.6 TiD V6

[Baryonyx]

Are these any good? I'm in a bind, needing a car now as my Peugeot has thrown a fit and failed it's MOT in spectacular fashion. I've been talking about replacing it for a while now, with something bigger and more comfortable.


There is a 9-5 3.0 V6 TiD not far from me, just over 100,000 miles for £1500. Is it likely to be reliable? Would any liner slip issues have manifest themselves by now, or could that still happen? Anything to look out for other than the usual 9-5 foibles? I'm hoping for some comfortable, relatively quick and easy going transport for getting to work and back.

[twizellb]

What colour is it?
Please do'nt think its a daft question as it might be my old one.
I know you are fairly local to me.

[otolith]

I was really interested in these when we were looking into 9-5s, then I did some research and stepped swiftly backwards.

[Baryonyx]

twizellb said:

What colour is it?
Please do'nt think its a daft question as it might be my old one.
I know you are fairly local to me.

Sort of like a sandstone metallic, I would say! Registration ending OHH - there can't be many of these around! Sadly, I think I'll give it a miss. The collective Saab knowledge of the web suggests that they are troublesome, and can slip a liner at any time, leading to the total write off of the car. What a shame, as they sound ideal.

It's a cheap car, but given that I've sold my last car for repairs after a catastrophic MOT failure, I don't think I could stomach more trouble right now!

[twizellb]

Its not mine then.
I scrapped mine because the headgasket failed, was quoted 1000pounds and as the tax and mot was due it did'nt make sense.

[Baryonyx]

Yes, the head gaskets were another thing that put me off! I hear changing them is a bit more involved and labour intensive than the usual head gasket job. Such a shame this car didn't amount to more, it's a cheap and characterful alternative To the mainstream competition. Of the same age, Merc diesels were awful rust buckets, Audi diesels were a bit dowdy and BMW's E39's command a strong price even when they're fking shagged with 200,000 miles in the clock. The Volvo S69 D5 I'd also much more expensive.


I'm buying a motorbike to get to work on instead!

[twizellb]

Volvo s60 d5 is a good car with a very good engine but like you say, people want good money for them, I should have kept mine.
I just bought a MG ZT, very undervalued car in my opinion, cracking car to drive.
Good luck on bike front.

[Pablo16v]

I owned a 2004 3.0 tid estate for 3 years. They are actually really good cars to run, but they are let down by some basic engineering issues with the engine that should’ve been sorted during development. I think they rushed the car into production to compete with the bigger engined Audi A6's and Beemer 5 series, but didn't do enough reliability testing hence the cooling issues. The engine is pretty decent otherwise. Smooth for diesel, doesn't sound too tractor like, and pulls like a train in 5th from 30mph. I regularly hit over 40mpg, but probably averaged around 37-38 mpg overall. The gearbox was another area that SAAB could’ve done better with. It was pretty notchy, and often felt sticky when cold. An auto ‘box would probably have suited it better but was never an option.
The head gaskets went on mine at 110K miles. I looked at repairing it myself on the cheap using a photographic ‘how to’ guide that someone had posted on UKSAABS, but in the end I sold it to a mechanic for £600. It’s a shame things worked out the way they did as the 3.0tid certainly had potential.

Some good info here if you’re handy with spanners http://www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=2&amp...

[Baryonyx]

Would you chance buying one as a runaround for £1500?

[Pablo16v]

Baryonyx said:

Would you chance buying one as a runaround for £1500?

Apologies Baryonyx, just seen your post. For £1500 I'd be tempted, but I would make sure I was able to take the car for a long test drive to ensure the coolant wasn't disappearing into the engine. If everything else on the car worked ok, and the car seems fine mechanically then I'd probably take a punt. What's the mileage by the way? If it is already well over 100K miles there might already be a replacement or rebuilt engine somewhere in its history.