Date: 25 Apr 2003 20:02:38 -0700 From: ride5000nopsam.ri.net (Ken Gilbert) Subject: request for expertise (used car purchase)
i'd love to hear some thoughts on this from those of you in the know. my wife's looking for a saab. we can't afford a new one, so we've been looking at used. we've found one (1999, 9-3) with about 108k miles on it. it looks like it's in good condition--tires got a year left, front rotors look like they could use a turn, but rears look nice, exhaust pretty clean, paint looks much better than expected considering the miles. coolant smells right, looks right, feels right. oil had a slight gasoline odor, but not enough to really get me worried. ATF was nice and pink. shocks were still doing their job. it came with sunroof and CD player. i see that saabs have timing chains.. i like that. i'm looking at advice as to what kind of repairs or replacements are coming down the road. how about water pump? how robust is the turbo? the interior was just about perfect, so no complaints there. exterior was too. the way i see it no one puts on an average of 2k mi a month w/out some heavy highway use, which is good. i know saabs are generally thought of as reliable, long-lived cars. it seems like there are no real issues with this model, at least not from what i've picked up on google, usenet, and bbs's. how are parts costs? i am a pretty good driveway mechanic (fluids, bolt on exhaust, brakes, etc), and am not afraid to get into it if need be. the dealer's ad in the classifieds said 8k. without prompting, the dealer told us he could take a "pretty good chunk" out of that if we decided to buy. he wasn't pushy, but i don't think he's had a lot of interest. it had been there a week. judging by the rust on the rotors, i'd say it hadn't been driven in at least 3-4 days. i think i could get him down to 7k. my wife drove it and when asked she told me the steering felt tight, with no dead spot, and no shimmy. she managed to chirp the inside front tire coming off the highway exit ramp and turning onto the road, which was a bit funny. any advice? the price seems reasonable (kelley says about 11k6), but i don't see a whole lot of high milage '93's out there to compare it to. i'm almost suspicious of the price! thanks in advance, ken gilbert
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