Saab 9-5 opinions? Should I do a buy?

[tom13]

Hi guys,

Looking to buy a Saab 9-5 estate and just wanted to know if I'm making a mistake. I must say I hate Vauxhalls and I thought these were pretty much a Vauxhall but I think I'm mistaken.

It's a 2004 2.3t and has always been running on fully synth. Regular oil changes. 130k miles auto with regular gearbox oil changes as well. MOT for 12 months. Looking about £500 quid.

What's the consensus?

Cheers

[Stanky]

Do it, I have a 1.8t 9-3 and its a superb car, I wish it was a bit bigger and had the 2.3t engine but its an amazingly capable car. Probably the best car I have ever owned.

They are criminally cheap, just don't tell anyone or they'll all realise.

Some of the underpinnings are Vauxhall.GM but you have to go digging tbh.

[Saabnut]

Buy!

 

Did you expect me to say anything else? Sounds like a good buy to me, if I were in the market I would express interest in that!

[Jim Bell]

The answer is always yes buy one. 

[Spiny Norman]

Sounds a cracking buy at that money, you really don't notice the vague Vauxhall influence when you're driving them. A 2.3T should be quite entertaining.

[wuvvum]

2.3t engine is a decent compromise - the 2.0t is a bit underpowered, especially in an estate, and the 2.3T is a bit mental.

They are a lovely drive, ever so comfortable on a run, although the seats don't go quite as far back as you'd expect on a big car - I'm 6'1" and have the driver's seat all the way back.

[Vantman]

I like my Saabs! Just buy it ,no sludge problems with a 2004 model, big, comfy, fast and capable.

[Steve79]

The 2.3t that i had before selling to djoptix was brilliant. Well worn around the edges but still had enough oomph.

2.0t is quoted to be 150bhp but is probably nearer 180bhp from factory as Saab were overly conservative with figures. Noobtune stage one remap will get around 220bhp. 

[Broadsword]

Sounds like a hell of a lot of car for £500. If you can stomach the fuel consumption (also how high is the tax?), I can't imagine what could possibly go wrong.

[sierraman]

Read that back to yourself. 

A car for £500

12 months MOT

Big Mistake?

Seriously if it blows its bollocks at the next MOT you have had 12 months motoring for practically nothing. Get it bought. 

[tom13]

Cheers guys putting my mind at ease. Just need to look at insurance mainly.

Yeah there were lots of issues that popped up online suck as fuel pump and stuff and it all seems to be addressed and I think its been well cared for.

Does anyone have any real world mpg figures.

[tom13]

Tax is about 30quid a month.

[Shep Shepherd]

Buy it!  9-5s are excellent cars

My 9-5 Aero HOT gets 32 mpg overall on average, which is pretty good going for a car of its size and performance.

[GeordieInExile]

2 hours ago, sierraman said:

Read that back to yourself. 

A car for £500

12 months MOT

Big Mistake?

Seriously if it blows its bollocks at the next MOT you have had 12 months motoring for practically nothing. Get it bought. 

Mine was £500 with 12 months' MOT. It's fucking CLASS. They carry loads, they're comfy and the turbo is fun. Get it BOUGHT.

(P.S. Mine's also an Aero...)

P.S. these engines need to have been fed fully synthetic oil and nothing but. However, Saab only specced the Aero to do so. I would be wanting to see evidence of either fully synth oil always being used, or a recent sump drop and scrape. Ideally both. If anything's gonna make your engine die it'll be that.

EDIT: Should've read the full post really. If you've the evidence of fully synth being used.. GET IT BOUGHT.

[GeordieInExile]

2 hours ago, Shep Shepherd said:

Buy it!  9-5s are excellent cars

My 9-5 Aero HOT gets 32 mpg overall on average, which is pretty good going for a car of its size and performance.

Sorry, but HOW?!

Mine's showing about 21mpg average on the dash... OK, so I do a fair amount of town driving, but still. That's shite.

Not that I bought it for the economy, even though at the time I was doing 300 miles a week of commute.

[Wingz123]

10 hours ago, wuvvum said:

2.3t engine is a decent compromise - the 2.0t is a bit underpowered, especially in an estate, and the 2.3T is a bit mental.

They are a lovely drive, ever so comfortable on a run, although the seats don't go quite as far back as you'd expect on a big car - I'm 6'1" and have the driver's seat all the way back.

What is the 3.0 turbo like? I saw one of these the other day.....

Also can someone explain the sludge problems (I have heard they suffer but why and what to look for and which years are affected?)

I too have been looking at 9-5's quite a bit recently....

[Tetleysmooth]

Having bought the 9-5 2.3t Arc estate yesterday, I'd say do it.

The one I bought is a high miler, but absolutely rock solid to drive. Bloody quick too. Without realising it, I kept exceeding the national speed limit.

You only get one life, so go on and treat yourself.

[Jerzy Woking]

Just get it bought! Fantastic cars, but if you go down the Noobtune route, be aware that you might want to take the upgrades a bit further.

My 9-5 puts out around 300bhp, and has proven to be very reliable. Have achieved 34 mpg on a long run (but driving like there was an egg under the acellerator), but low 20's when pushing it. 

 

[dome]

Great cars, I loved my Aero. Do it!

[scdan4]

Just to go against the flow, I was glad to see the back of mine. 

I Just Could Not Get My Head Round The Ignition Key Not Being In The Same Sodding Place As Every Other Car, Ever. - turns out I have some serious muscle memory going on. The key needs to be in your other, wrong, hand. Just a little annoyance every time you (I) get in. 

cabin is a seriously nice place to be. 

Something Almost Always Broken, announced with a somber bong of doom.

Defo likes a drink round the houses.

But mainly it was the key wot did it for me. Just stupid “because we’re different “ twattery. Everyone knows where the key goes, may as well put the handbrake in the glovebox ffs.

[GeordieInExile]

3 hours ago, Wingz123 said:

What is the 3.0 turbo like? I saw one of these the other day.....

Also can someone explain the sludge problems (I have heard they suffer but why and what to look for and which years are affected?)

I too have been looking at 9-5's quite a bit recently....

I've heard the 3.0 manages to be both not that quick and very thirsty.

The key location is good, sensible planning. What if you crash? You don't want the key going into your knee. Having it down there keeps it out of the way.

[MrDuke]

The only reason ignitions were ever on the column, was so they could be mechanically linked to the steering lock for primitive security. There's absolutely no logical reason for it to be there on anything remotely modern, and as GIE says, it's a thoroughly stupid location to hang a bunch of keys from.

[Wingz123]

And as furious driving says it's so you dont whack the keys with your knee...

[Tetleysmooth]

19 hours ago, Wingz123 said:

What is the 3.0 turbo like? I saw one of these the other day.....

Also can someone explain the sludge problems (I have heard they suffer but why and what to look for and which years are affected?)

I too have been looking at 9-5's quite a bit recently....

http://www.serioussaab.co.uk/articles_pages/sludge.html

[jon.k]

Mine was probably my favourite all round car ever.  They can rot quite nicely around the rear arches behind the liners.

[GeordieInExile]

Indeed... as I learned the hard way when I was presented with a bill for £400 at its MOT just gone as it needed a bit of welding on its chassis.

Ah well, all sorted now...

[JimH]

Mrs JimH ran a 2.3t estate as a dog kennel for about 60K.

• The seats were very comfy.
• It went briskly enough
• It wasn't the most economical car on the road especially for the 58K of local running that it did. IIRC the little readout on the dashboard never went over 29mpg.
• The seats were very comfy
• It ate front tyres. This may have been down to my Valued Life Partner's heavy right foot.
• It had very comfy seats
• Parts for it always seemed to be on the expensive side. This got much worse when Saab went the way of Ol' Yeller.
• It was Smoke Beige and it was recorded on the log book as Beige despite the fact it was bloody dark grey FFS. This might be a consideration if you were to use the car for nefarious purposes because they would be looking for the worng colour of car.
• Really, the seats were dead comfy.
• The dashboard was still quite pretty in a Saab 99 Turbo sort of a way.
• The only thing I recall going wrong with it while I was trying to run it was the rear mountings on the front subframe failed. This took about an hour to replace.
• I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about the oil. This one never had to oil changed in 60K and it was just fine. Servicing is for people who are good with colour.
• The seats were comfy. They might just be shitty Vectras underneath but at least they put nice seats in them.

In the end it got bridged because the stupid auto levelling system on the pointless xenon headlamps went on the fritz and it was the first year that bust auto-levelling became an MOT fail and it needed four new tyres and the idler on the poly-vee belt needed replacing and I just couldn't be arsed doing anything to a car that by now had maggots living under the rear seat. Kids, eh?

I'd have another.

 

[jon.k]

The self levellers on the lights were what made me sell mine, too. What a pain in the arse for a tiny little part. Although someone did say on here the other day that this problem is solved by fitting non-xenons.

 

I got 37 mpg from mine once!

[Tetleysmooth]

I'm waiting for the exhaust flexi to arrive for mine.

Christ it's loud, I daren't use it at the mo. Looking forward to replacing the flexi though, then I can start using the bugger.