Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 22:04:30 -0500 From: Four Weis <mweinopsamcom> Subject: Re: Purchasing a Saab
Garrett Cook wrote: > l am a college undergrad that will probably be needing a car this > summer. l thought about getting the usual, like a Honda or something, > but then thought about getting something "different." l think that > the 1994-1998 Saabs are probably some of the nicest looking cars out > there; even the 1994 models look brand new if you wash 'em. l was > thinking about getting the manual 1998 coupe model (with the turbo, > yea!) l've heard a lot of people saying "l love my Saab!" and "l've > gone 300,000 miles on the same clutch," You might be hard pressed to find a 1998 coupe with 300,000 miles. The people saying I love my Saab and I've gone 300,000 miles on the same clutch are driving the classic Saabs, not the NG Saabs. The NG Saabs have not been around long enough to earn this reputation. > but others telling of horror > stories of weird things like coolant spilling into the passenger > compartment and stuff. Check the year of the car when people complain about 'horror stories'. I have been driving a classic Saab for 18 years and have not had any of these 'horror stories'. > lt seems like there's no happy medium, people > are either getting good cars or bad ones. Again, try to correlate "good" and "bad" with the models and years of manufacture. There was a model change around 1994-1995 - most new models have problems. The classic Saabs have hydraulic clutches and the new model used clutch cables for a few years until they got smart and went back to hydraulic clutches. > > 1. lf l were to purchase a 1998 model, what would be some key points > to look for as far as reliability is concerned? l'm afraid that a lot > of the used ones may be from people trading them in because their > particular one broke down all the time. > 2. ls the oil filter location such that it is easy to get to, or is it > someplace screwed-up like in the center of the engine or something? Classic Saabs are set up so it is very easy to change the oil - on the side on engine. You barely have to bend over to reach the oil filter. The engine arrangement was changed with the NG Saabs and I am not familiar with the oil filter location. > > 3. Repair l'm sure is expensive. l feel that l'm pretty good at > finding info on the internet; that if it had a problem l could > probably find out its cause and how to fix it. l have almost no > experience dealing with repairing cars, other than changing oil and > pouring in washer fluid and stuff. lf something did go wrong with the > engine somewhere, and l had step-by-step instructions as to how to fix > it, what are the odds that l could fix it with a normal metric set of > tools? Add a good multi-meter as you will probably have to diagnosis and repair electrical problems. You will also need Torx tools.
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