In the market for a 2004 ish Saab 9-3 - what to look for?

[saxon]

I am planning to buy a Saab 9-3 convertible with a budget of less than £8k. I do a longish commute of 40 miles each way to work and so need the car to be reliable. I have always loved Saab's and wondered what are the key things to watch out for? I can't seem to find out much info on what goes wrong with them. My second option would be an Audi A4 convertible as I need 4 seats and open top motoring.

The only thing I have found seems to get mentioned is the particulate filter which is expensive to fix but does this just apply to the diesels?

When are the major services due and how much are they?

My target is a blue 2004 convertible with cream leather and less than 50 000 miles for less than £8k.

Any advice?

Saxon

[T5GRF]

I ran a 2003 53 plate 9-3 Aero Saloon with Hirsch remap for 3 years and 50,000 miles. Mine was a very early new shape Aero and was a dealer demo loaded with everything. I will list what mine needed over that period:

Auto Gearbox replacement under warranty at 40k
Front coil spring snapped (common fault) took out brand new tyre at the same time
Intercooler ballooned and split replaced
Boost control valve replaced
Set of pads all round and one set front disks
Various electrical gremlins such as Sat Nav freezing, repeatedly blowing rear brake light bulbs, key loosing its coding to the car etc
Very poor interior trim quality with peeling dashboard graphics, poor quality dash plastics, drivers seat bolster leather easily scuffed and collapsed
Water pump started leaking at 60k replaced
lots of tyres!

There are probably quite a few other bits I have forgotten, it is worth pointing out that when I bought the car from a main dealer I also obtained a detailed print out of service and warranty work prior to my ownership, it ran to 3 pages and contained a lot of warranty claim items including replaced Navigation, constant gearbox ECU faults and other electrical faults.

Despite all of the above (it must be the TVR owner in me) I did enjoy owning the car and whilst there are better medium sized sports saloons out there the value for money factor can't be ignored they look good, go well and are well specified for very much less than an equivalent German saloon.

I found all the main dealers I dealt with to be poor and in some cases shockingly so, however the SAAB dealer guarantee on approved used cars is very good and covers just about everything mechanically and never failed to pay out for my claims much to my relief!

I understand that later cars are better built in terms of the interiors but I think still have common mechanical issues.

Find a really good Indy garage to maintain it and get a decent warranty and you should be fine!