9-3 Estate Diesel - Opinion

[Hespereus]

Thinking of buying a 9-3 Estate Diesel as my daily drive - maybe a 2005 model. Any advice?

MPG
Reliability
Comfort on long drives (I am 6 feet 2).

Thanks everyone

[aeropilot]

Hespereus said:

Thinking of buying a 9-3 Estate Diesel as my daily drive - maybe a 2005 model. Any advice?

MPG
Reliability
Comfort on long drives (I am 6 feet 2).

2005....that should be the 1.9TiD, which should give reasonable good mpg. I've had them as loan cars and have been showing mid-30's in London driving.

Reliabilty is another matter. Mechanically, you shouldn't have too many worries, but by that age interior trim/dash will likely be fizzing and rattling.
Avoid the poverty spec cars, especially the ones with the awful base spec audio systems.

BUT.......at 6ft 2" you will find the seats a problem I think. I'm 6ft with longish legs and there's a complete lack of under thigh support for me and I'm glad to get out of them after a day in one. The manual adjustment on the seats is really odd as well, the electric options are much better in terms of adjustment, but still with the woeful lack of under thigh support, with is a pity as Saab used to be renowned for their seat design before the Gm penny pinchers got involved.

[Nick_F]

Did they change the seats? I can drive my pre-facelift 2001 for as far as a tankful will get me without needing so much as a stretch when I get out.

[aeropilot]

Nick_F said:

Did they change the seats? I can drive my pre-facelift 2001 for as far as a tankful will get me without needing so much as a stretch when I get out.

They changed everything in 2003

[Nick_F]

More fool them.

After 132k mine doesn't have any of the aforementioned rattles or fizzes, either. It does have a slight water leak, and it needs some rear trailing link bushes, and I could stop the cam cover oil leak if only I could remember where I put the new gasket, but other than that it's perfect.

[aeropilot]

Nick_F said:

More fool them.

After 132k mine doesn't have any of the aforementioned rattles or fizzes, either.

You can't really compare your car to the 9-3 made from 2003 onwards as that's like comparing chalk and cheese - they are totally different cars with virtually no common parts at all.

[Nick_F]

Okay, so when did the thread title and first post get changed from 9-5 to 9-3 then?

Edited by Nick_F on Friday 7th August 22:24