First saab, 9000 aero or 9-3 aero?
Discussion
Love the look of the 9000, real old school cool. Good potential for handling and tuning. Older car though and that brings with it the normal issues of things being worn out and electrics maybe needing attention. Commonly mentioned weak gearboxes. So cool though.
9-3 aero is still a good looking car in the right colour, still reasonable tuning potential. Lots of convertibles which I like. Newer car so if I pick a good one hopefully wont require constant maintenance. Just doesn't excite me as much though, not something that will earn any kudos. Not that I'm the type to care what people think tbh. Heard that suspension parts are a common failure point.
Any ownership experience? I'm fairly handy with the spanners but I dont want to have to be doing it every weekend to keep it working. Had my fill of that with renaltsports. Cant do electrics, brain just refuses to be interested in how it works. I accept that all cars need maintenance and mechanically I look after my cars but I cant afford to throw money into cars continually. Think 9-3 is the sensible choice of the 2 but who wants sensible.
9-3 aero is still a good looking car in the right colour, still reasonable tuning potential. Lots of convertibles which I like. Newer car so if I pick a good one hopefully wont require constant maintenance. Just doesn't excite me as much though, not something that will earn any kudos. Not that I'm the type to care what people think tbh. Heard that suspension parts are a common failure point.
Any ownership experience? I'm fairly handy with the spanners but I dont want to have to be doing it every weekend to keep it working. Had my fill of that with renaltsports. Cant do electrics, brain just refuses to be interested in how it works. I accept that all cars need maintenance and mechanically I look after my cars but I cant afford to throw money into cars continually. Think 9-3 is the sensible choice of the 2 but who wants sensible.
I love my 9000 anniversary. It's pretty much aero spec and has a manual box. It's on an S reg plate which is unusual. Over the years I've done the usual maintenance but it's been ridiculously cheap over all. It cost me £500 from ebay. I've had it 6 years or so and done 60k miles plus in it. I can load it with 3 pushbikes, v8 engines, 8 ft concrete fence posts etc. i sometimes wonder what I'd replace it with and so far nothing else ticks all the same boxes.
I was casually looking over a current ad’ of a 2001/2 saab 95 aero estate, decent looking car, fully loaded and low miles. One of my brothers used to run Saab’s and swears by them to be rock solid.
Decided to look at the MOT history and was shocked to see how the car is afflicted with serious corrosion!! I’m no Saab geek but I had always thought the cars were very robust against the dreaded rust problem?
Decided to look at the MOT history and was shocked to see how the car is afflicted with serious corrosion!! I’m no Saab geek but I had always thought the cars were very robust against the dreaded rust problem?
Trouble is I guess the car was built 20 years ago so rust will be creeping in now.
I have a mk1 9-3 convertible I paid £500 for two years ago and accepting brakes, tyres and servicing it's cost me precious little in running costs. I did pay £500 odd to replace the roof hydraulics but I was very happy to get a very clean, original, low-mileage mk1 for £1000 with a good working roof.
The later models not based on the 900 have a revised and much more robust roof mechanism from my understanding.
Purchased mine as a standard 150bhp LPT but with a £100 odd remap it's a bit of a missile wound up on boost, not many £500 motors will keep up with it that's for certain. It's dreadful on petrol for what is a 2.0 T though if you drive it with a heavy right foot.
Other thing, which I'm sure you're aware with the Cavalier based 900/early 9-3 they can crack their bulkheads at the steering rack is bolted to the bulkhead, it's pretty terminal if that fails.
Other thing to consider is (on my 2.0T) the tax is eye-watering, they're quite dirty buggers!
I have a mk1 9-3 convertible I paid £500 for two years ago and accepting brakes, tyres and servicing it's cost me precious little in running costs. I did pay £500 odd to replace the roof hydraulics but I was very happy to get a very clean, original, low-mileage mk1 for £1000 with a good working roof.
The later models not based on the 900 have a revised and much more robust roof mechanism from my understanding.
Purchased mine as a standard 150bhp LPT but with a £100 odd remap it's a bit of a missile wound up on boost, not many £500 motors will keep up with it that's for certain. It's dreadful on petrol for what is a 2.0 T though if you drive it with a heavy right foot.
Other thing, which I'm sure you're aware with the Cavalier based 900/early 9-3 they can crack their bulkheads at the steering rack is bolted to the bulkhead, it's pretty terminal if that fails.
Other thing to consider is (on my 2.0T) the tax is eye-watering, they're quite dirty buggers!
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