Saab 9-5 Aero Hot Estate

[addsvrs]

So after selling my A3 last month I have been looking for a 9-5 since, viewed a few which were proper dogs, I had actually given up looking and bought a minging Mondeo (can be seen lurking in the background) with t&t to last me until I found a good 9-5.

Sods law meant I found one about 2 days after buying the mondeo. Made a cheeky offer not expecting it to be accepted but to my surprise it was. Roll on yesterday and off I trundled to Sheffield on the train to part with my hard earned for a car I had only seen in pictures.

Here it is after the drive home yesterday. Previous owner was sound (not a crazy bloke who would rob me then chop me up into bits and feed to his pigs like my missus thought lol)

Drive home was great, really really pleased with the car, few niggles as you would expect on a 10 year old motor. Spent today cleaning / polishing it / fiddling etc








Spec as follows.
Late 2003 9-5 Aero Hot
100k
1 years mot and 2 months tax.
Xenons / cruise / electric seats / black leather / manual / lots of history / all electrics working bar the rear wiper / rear parking sensors , and the thing I was most impressed with was nearly new Pirelli P-zeros all round.

Plans are to run for abit and see what breaks then look at refurbing the alloys, sorting the small bits of rust / scratches etc. To say im pleased is an understatement.

[mattman]

Looks good, like the metal effect dash better than the wood version I had on my 98 2.3 saloon a few years back

[Luke.]

Looks great - what niggles you got to sort?

[addsvrs]

Forgot to mention the 2 spare Xenon headlights he gave me and all that car for a little over shed budget.

[addsvrs]

Niggles I discovered on the drive home, rear wiper not working, when turning right a brake warning light appeared briefly for a few seconds which after reading the handbook last night points to low level brake fluid which I have topped up today but not driven yet and the passenger folding wing mirror dosent like folding.
we will see how the next few months pan out but after looking for the history, eg full synthetic oil all through its life, im hoping iv found a good 'un.

Edited by addsvrs on Sunday 18th August 15:50

[Kitchski]

Lovely, I wanted one of those as a family wagon, but the three kids seats don't fit in the back

[bungle]

Looks good value if that was shed money, facelift as well. Where'd you find it?

[addsvrs]

Found on ebay. I have a shop on there so do spend an unhealthy amount of time on there.
The advert was good, good photos, good description etc but missed out things like the pzero's all round and newish discs which you could just see in the photos, parking permit / national trust stickers in the windscreen which i would associate with nice street etc.
Turned out he was a doctor and had bought a newer one so didnt really have much experience on ebay.

[Steviesam]

bungle said:

Looks good value if that was shed money, facelift as well. Where'd you find it?

What is different on the facelift?

[bungle]

Steviesam said:

bungle said:

Looks good value if that was shed money, facelift as well. Where'd you find it?

What is different on the facelift?

To be honest, not really sure, I just know that the front bumper is different, and that apparantly "sludge" issues aren't so prevalent in the facelift. uksaabs forum would know though!

[addsvrs]

Think the headlights and grill are different aswell.

[MrC986]

The electrics are known to have a mind of their own. l have a 53 plate 2.2 tdi Vector estate bought in the Spring with 105k & now on 119k. The htd rear window has never worked & sometimes the engine man. light comes on & it shows an air intake fault on the codes. lf l didnt do 115 mile round trip to work l might have a proper one like the OP. l knew what l was buying as it was about £2k less than the equivalent Audi/BMW :-)

[addsvrs]

I do have the anti theft system warning but that seems to be quite common.

[Spanglepants]

Nice car, I've got the saloon but drove an estate once (tuned as well).
Might be a long shot but regarding the rear wiper and parking sensors check the loom between the tailgate and body. It happens on the saloon - not sure if its the same set up on the estate.

[addsvrs]

Rear parking sensors work, power is getting the rear wiper motor so I will just buy another motor and try that.

[anonymous-user]

Very nice indeed. These are high on my list of next cars when my current shed dies.

Quite fast I take it?

[addsvrs]

Not wow fast as its only 250bhp, but the 350Nm makes overtaking from low revs very impressive, in fact makes you smile like a kid, I think the general size and comfort plus very minimal road noise makes it seem a bit slower than it is, only a quick glance at the speedo makes you realise your fairly close to ban inducing speeds.
My petrol headed brother was telling me from a certain speed it will out perform a 911 turbo (ie 30-70), not sure how true that it, apparently top gear did a feature on it. He is never usually wrong. Im sure someone on here will put me right or wrong.

[addsvrs]

Update
Seeing how there is much love for Saabs in Readers cars at the mo, thought I would update this thread.

How its been ? Well after 3 months and 1500 miles, really really pleased with it. Ave 26mpg which I'm happy with as I only do short journeys.
Fixed a few niggles (rear wiper / cig lighter socket), had a full service , and put my plate on. I was thinking about winter tyres but couldn't justify it in the end, wifes car has them on so don't think its worth the expense vs mileage for me.

To do list
Sort out the proper annoying alarm, every now and again goes off for a few seconds, research suggests lithium batteries in the siren need changing. Seems quite a simple job of just removing the siren but haven't got round to it yet.
Source a good s/s exhaust.

The would be nice list (ever expanding)
Rear spoiler
Refurb alloys
Re-map from Noobtune
Rear window tints

And to finish a few pics from today (25/11/13)

[addsvrs]

END OF TERM REPORT

Well after 2 and bit years and 18k it was time to move it on. Had a intermittent T/C / ABS problem just before Xmas, got a bit worse last month but didnt affect the running. After recently replacing the rear shocks, new battery, it wasn't a welcome problem. Spent a few bob at my local specialist trying to identify the fault, replaced the steering angle sensor, no joy, ABS wasnt talking to the ECU but had a live feed so was pointing at maybe a wiring problem. At £60 an hour labour I decided I didnt want to keep pouring cash into it with no real diagnosis so listed it on Ebay with the faults listed hoping for high 000's. Sold it within 24hrs for amazingly what I paid for it 2.5 years ago. TBH i was gutted as i really liked the car and then wondered if i should have chased the problem till the end. Ive since discovered the fault may have been something to do with the CANBUS (?) system, I daren't look at how much that may have cost incase it was only a tenner !
Oh well onwards and upwards.......

On the day it left, still in my opinion looks damn good


Picked up my new one today

Will start a new thread on this one