Talk to me about Saab 9-3s

[Stroller133]

At the moment I'd be looking for about £1700, but if I keep it another 3 months I'd be perhaps be prepared to let it go for £1500. It would likely be on 90k. Looking on autotrader those less than that price are all either older, 1.8i which are probably a but sluggish, Linear spec, higher mileage or a combination of these factors. Mine is the pre exterior facelift, but has the revised dash.

[twosmoke300]

If a good ones comes up get a 1.8 t cos they are actually a 2.0 and a remap is cheap . Less likely to have been hammered too

[Stanky]

That was going to be my next question - is it just a case of different mapping between the three power outputs? I wasn't sure if that was the case, or whether they had different turbos/intercoolers/injectors etc.

 

Thanks for clarifying TS!

[Hendry]

My supervisor at work had 2, both troublesome. I think they are basically Vectras but Saab have (and I think part of the reason they went tits up) re-engineered a lot of the components so they are/look similar to Vauxhall parts but not compatible/interchangeable hence more expensive as Saab engineers thought the Vauxhall parts weren't up to it and made them "better" rather than just put a Saab body on the Vectra floorpan/chassis and mechanicals like they were supposed to.

 

He had an 04 plate 2.2 TID, it struggled to start at times and ran shit for a while, his garage told him it was the fuel pump, which was something like £1300 just for the part, then it'd need coding so it got scrapped, although I do believe if you buy the complete ECU, pump, lock set, keys and ignition part from a donor car they don't need recoding.

 

He then had a 57 plate 1.9 TID 120 Airflow, basically the Fiat/GM 8v CDTi engine found in Astra's and Vectras, this suffered all the usual faults for this engine, egr valve, inlet manifold, gearbox issues etc.

 

So yeah just a more expensive to buy, more complex Vectra C with more expensive spare parts prices.

[twosmoke300]

Most 2.2 tid starting issues are leak off pipes and injector seals . Couple of hundred quid max. The pumps can fail but result in a permenantly dead engine not intermittent

[alfetta]

If you do the research It shares very little really  -  was totally reworked  platform. Some detail things are the same, brake calipers some switch gear etc. Saab got panned for platform sharing when other makers do it all the time, mainly because of the poor image of Vectra...It certainly handles better, not great but OK.

 

 

I quite fancy a 9-3 SS, but the interiors seem a bit cheap as GM started winding saab down...

[MarvinsMom]

funny isn't it, GM and SAAB, or for that matter Ford and Jaguar share platforms then the pub experts will whine and whine, moan and groan.

 

but if one of the dirty hun does the same thing, no one bats an eye lid.

 

always liked SAAB as they were very much their own brand both technically and stylistically in the olden days. and the world is now more dull and boring without them.

 

i would much rather have a scab inplace of some germanic turd, no matter what.

[Mad Cyril]

 

i would much rather have a scab inplace of some germanic turd, no matter what.

 

'ere, 'ere.

 

I ran a 2003 9-3 2.0t (petrol) Vector about seven or eight years ago.

It was one of our company cars from new. I ran it from 50k - 100k and I never had a spot of bother with it. It never used a drop of oil or water,nothing squeaked, nothing fell off, nothing rattled.

We never had to spend a penny on it.

It was comfy, quick, quiet, and didn't feel anything like a rock hard, scrabbly, under-steery Vauxhall to me.

Everybody who drove it or rode in it loved it, indeed two of my mates bought one after being in mine.

Unfortunately one of them bought a diesel which sounded like a tractor and spent an awful amount of time in the Saab dealer.

 

Buy a well looked after petrol one and I reckon it'll make you smile long time.

[stephen01]

Is this for sale or are you just showing it off?

 

It's for sale, wife is picking up a brand new car in a week or so, and I'm sticking with the honda..

[Pillock]

It's for sale, wife is picking up a brand new car in a week or so, and I'm sticking with the honda..

 

Tell me more, tell me more [/grease]

[xtriple]

I really like SAABs. I had a 900 auto that, while dire on fuel was a lovely quirky thing to own and really well made. Also had a 9000 auto high spec thing n one of my skint periods. Bought it for a £150 with TandT and while it wasn't as good as the 900 and had 'plenty' of faults (powers steering that did,,, didn't.... did) I really liked it and it went like fook as it was a turbo petrol thing. No idea what engine it was but I liked it.

 

Never had one of the new ones, but I really like the look of them. However, I am a sad old bastard and have a bit of a thing against GM when they ruin other car makes and then run them into the ground. So sad. SAABs were always quirky, the thinking mans alternative to all the German crap. Why they never sold by the million I could never understand! Much more attractive than Volvos (sorry SVM!) and sooooo comfortable.

[CortinaDave]

My whining isn't based on an anti GM bias, it's in owning 2 of the things - actually 3 if you count the 02 plate FSH 60k miler I bought off kinkersaab for spares because it had sludged and lunched its engine.

 

Both mine were convertibles, they both broke down expensively and often and they were both shit to drive.

 

Maybe every other one built was great and I happened to buy the three shit ones that rolled out of Trolhattan but I can only go by that experience.

 

they looked damn good though.

[HillmanImp]

My whining isn't based on an anti GM bias, it's in owning 2 of the things - actually 3 if you count the 02 plate FSH 60k miler I bought off kinkersaab for spares because it had sludged and lunched its engine.

 

Both mine were convertibles, they both broke down expensively and often and they were both shit to drive.

 

Maybe every other one built was great and I happened to buy the three shit ones that rolled out of Trolhattan but I can only go by that experience.

 

they looked damn good though.

 

I remember this. I was proper gutted for you financially and me for my dreams.

[sierraman]

Things probably went wrong when they started basing them on Vectras, I mean its hardly a platform recognised for its dynamics or come to think of it its quality.

[Partridge]

It's not a bad thing with them being "jst a ve ctra m8". A least if you need a steering rack or summat it's an easy enough part to find, and you don't have to wade through some SAAB gibberish with the part number. A typical SAAB part number:

[michael1703]

Today i fitted a new turbo to an 06 with 122k on the clock, its going to be close to a grand for the bill with turbo/labour/oil/filter/cat clean etc

 

Silver rocker cover model

[Stanky]

What caused it to eat its own turbo? or was there not enough left to conduct a post-mortem?

[michael1703]

Lack of servicing and running it low on oil I suspect.

 

Oil filler cap had that brown varnish you get when they've been run with a dribble on the dip stick for too long.

 

Turbo was seized, impeller looked sound, no broken fins.

[Stanky]

Hmmm, fair enough but thats not neccessarily something that affects only Saabs though? Any engine, turbo or not that's been run low on oil and not serviced is going to die, expensively, sooner or later.

 

This is why I'd prefer some history with the car that I buy - but point taken. If it has been abused, it will die, and will be expensive when it does so.

[twosmoke300]

Stupid 20k service intervals again

[Justin Case]

I quite fancied a convertible one as a weekend toy until I saw Wheeler Dealers tonight. It took them about £1k to fix what seemed to be a tidy but slightly mis-firing one. It now strikes me that a Volvo C70 might be a better bet. WCPGW?

[twosmoke300]

Throttle bodies ? Auto gearboxes? Suspension joints and bushes . oh and Abs modulators .

There is a start for you

[michael1703]

The one I replaced the turbo on is still smoking and using oil more investigation needed,I checked the oil flow was good before replacing it and gave it new oil and filter at the same time, checked the one way valves the other week and they were ok.

 

Regarding the smudging that twosmoke mentioned, I googled that and consensus is that it only affects the early model as the cat sits under the sump and the heat of the cat boils the oil into a cake like substance

[twosmoke300]

Sludging is a combination of a few things . Incorrect oil (must be a fully syn) . Poor pcv system ( modification number 6 is the best one) Cat under the sump as mentioned and the breather hoses breaking down on the inside and the bits blocking the strainer.

 

It only effects the proper saab engine and was modified in 2004 . If its a black rocker cover then its one of the sludgy ones.

[nacho man]

/\/\ I cleaned my 9-5 sump the other day and it was pretty manky and had 16 services in its 97k lifetime. I replaced the breather hoses and added fully synthetic oil. Watch is give up on the way home now.

 

Hopefully if it don't it should be good for a good caning now and then.

[Stanky]

Ok, so are they fundamentally worse than any other similar car in a similar price bracket of their age?

 

I'd like a saloon, of post 2000 age, under a couple of grand with comfort, poke and a engine no bigger than 2 litres.This is a hard-fought compromise with my finance department!

 

As I see it the other contenders are all equally disasterous was I to buy the wrong one - or am I a bit too fixated on a Saab to notice something potentially much better?

[Stroller133]

Top tip for power. There is a chap that does remaps on petrol Saabs. The non aero 2.0t goes from 175bhp (1.8t with 150bhp) to about 220bhp. Some say these drive much better than the aero (210bhp) as the smaller turbo means less lag. I would guess this reduces 0-60 from 8s (9s for 1.8t) down to around 7s and massively improve mid range acceleration.

Look on uksaabs, plenty on there have used him and only recall reading good things. Cost is about £100 or might even be less.

I want to do mine if I keep it, but not sure how to handle it insurance wise.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Drove a 9-3 turbo convertible recently and a sports car it ain't. Super smooth, quiet and a very good hood (incredibly quiet for a convertible- very low wind noise).

Some scuttle shake and a rather long throw gearbox. Rather anodyne, un- Saab interior.

So, a mixed bag really.

[Uncle Jimmy]

....They are very heavy, the drop tops come in around 3,300lbs so the 185bhp don't go far.

[robinmasters]

I've obviously missed something. There appears to be a widely-held preference for Saab 9-3's over zie Germans, in spite of its Vauxhall underpinnings. Wasn't the Vectra C just a re-badged Opel?