Finding the right 9-3 AERO

[scott15]

Having owned a 9-3 AERO in the past, the itch to have another is very strong!

How did you find yours?

I am currently searching eBay, Pistonheads, Auto trader and Gumtree almost every 30 minutes.

I'm looking for an Auto with sat-nav which seems to be the hardest to pick up!

If anyone knows of any about to come up for sale, or have found any on any other forums please feel free to let me know.

[nitrodave]

I recently purchased a 55 plate 93 aero, but unlike you i wanted a manual 5 speed and no sat nav.

I'd rather have no sat nav as they are old and dated and the 5 speed appealed over the 6 speed as i prefer longer gearing when a car has plenty of torque.

I dismissed autos completely.

Other things i wanted was the full grey leather and heated seats.

I used all the places you are looking to find one and saw some absolute sheds, saw one which had a bad misfires, some were just too rough and one even had a bad head gasket failure.

Eventually one popped up for £1500 and it ticked all my boxes but was a 3 hour drive away. I saw it the day it came up for sale and took a punt, went to see it and it was a mint, one owner car.

It is worth travelling and waiting for the right one to come up. I even managed to knock a fair bit off the price and could not be happier

[scott15]

nitrodave said:

I recently purchased a 55 plate 93 aero, but unlike you i wanted a manual 5 speed and no sat nav.

I'd rather have no sat nav as they are old and dated and the 5 speed appealed over the 6 speed as i prefer longer gearing when a car has plenty of torque.

I dismissed autos completely.

Other things i wanted was the full grey leather and heated seats.

I used all the places you are looking to find one and saw some absolute sheds, saw one which had a bad misfires, some were just too rough and one even had a bad head gasket failure.

Eventually one popped up for £1500 and it ticked all my boxes but was a 3 hour drive away. I saw it the day it came up for sale and took a punt, went to see it and it was a mint, one owner car.

It is worth travelling and waiting for the right one to come up. I even managed to knock a fair bit off the price and could not be happier

I agree on the sat nav being outdated however I feel the whole interior looks so much more appealing with the bigger screen, and the fact it isn't permanently green.

I've had a Manual 9-3, a manual 9-5, an auto 9-3 and also an auto 9-5. I would never go back to the manual gearbox in them. I just find them far too sloppy. The auto gearbox is so smooth and changes gear so quickly.

I'm hoping one will pop up soon. Really looking forward to getting back into one again. Heated seats and Aux connection are also on my list.

[-crookedtail-]

As you are probably finding a lot of the Aero cars had weird specs, for example mine has sat nav but no bum warmers.

I agree that aesthetically the sat nav ICM3 head unit looks much better, but it really is crap - You would never actually use it for navigation.

What engine are you going for, the 2 litre or the V6? When I was looking for mine I saw all kinds of dogs but if you keep looking you should be able to find a nice one. I was initially after the 2 litre but found a nice V6 in the end, much nicer imho.

[scott15]

-crookedtail- said:

As you are probably finding a lot of the Aero cars had weird specs, for example mine has sat nav but no bum warmers.

I agree that aesthetically the sat nav ICM3 head unit looks much better, but it really is crap - You would never actually use it for navigation.

What engine are you going for, the 2 litre or the V6? When I was looking for mine I saw all kinds of dogs but if you keep looking you should be able to find a nice one. I was initially after the 2 litre but found a nice V6 in the end, much nicer imho.

Yes, I really didn't use it often in the last Aero I had. I just really cannot stand the look of the small green screen, or even worse, no screen!

I'm looking for the 2.0. Whilst the V6 does seem lovely, I like having the ability to play around with turbo's etc, which obviously the n/a v6 I wouldn't be able to do that with. Sadly the insurance for the 2.8t is far too expensive for me (almost £4k!). I paid £1850 to insure my last Aero, and that's about as high as i'd ever like to pay!

Any pictures to make this thread a little more colourful?

[griffin dai]

The v6 is a 2.8 turbo

Same engine as the Vectra VXR. Twin scroll td04 so hardly any lag and a remap from JZW or Vtuner should see you 320bhp & 400+ ft/lbs.

Try the following for insurance (modified cars)

Greenlight
Aplan
Brentacare

Edited by griffin dai on Monday 5th September 21:56

[scott15]

griffin dai said:

The v6 is a 2.8 turbo

Same engine as the Vectra VXR. Twin scroll td04 so hardly any lag and a remap from JZW or Vtuner should see you 320bhp & 400+ ft/lbs.

Try the following for insurance (modified cars)

Greenlight
Aplan
Brentacare

Edited by griffin dai on Monday 5th September 21:56

All of them? I thought some were n/a?

Ill give them a go for the future, thanks. For now i'd just be happy with a standard Aero to get me through the winter

[griffin dai]

All the 2.8's are turbocharged mate (Aero/Turbo X/Carlsson etc) but you can get a 9-3 2.0 n/a although it's not that popular. The older shape 9-3 (or could be the ng900) came with a 2.5 v6 n/a and the 9-5 came with a 3 litre v6 turbo (avoid this one!! All im saying)