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I'm relatively new to the world of Saabs - my mother bought a 9-3 hatch a few years back and I enjoyed driving it from DC to Greensboro, NC in January. I've been shopping for a new to us "family" car for a couple of months - our daughter was born in April and my 1989 Mazda MX-6 (turbo GT with 155K miles) simply can't fulfill our needs anymore.
I have looked at just about every hatchback and wagon manufactured between 1999 and 2002. The 9-5 wagon was a surprise entry - the depreciation overall was very high (good for me as a used car purchaser), the repair costs surprisingly low, and in particular, the reliability on the 2000 model seems to be higher than average for Saabs and the market segment - all according to info I found on various mainstream websites.
I've driven two of these cars - a 1999 and a 2000. I love the highway comfort (we'll be making a couple/few runs between DC and NYC every year), visibility, hauling capacity, and feel of the 9-5 wagon. And I truly enjoy the maplight, cupholder, sliding arm rest, and first aid kit. I was less than 24 hours from buying the 1999 car, which was absolutely immaculate inside and even had the fancy ventilated seats, having taken it to a mechanic and stopped in at the local Saab dealership (getting "buy it" recommendations from both), but when I called the original owner they told me that it had a bad motor (I wondered why the head gasket had been replaced right before they got rid of it) and I shouldn't buy it. Whew - that was close!
I've learned a lot from this site and really appreciate the community support network for Saab owners.
At first I was wary of high-mileage cars, but given the sludge issue and everything I've read here, I'm becoming more comfortable with the idea of buying one. Here is the description of a car I'm seriously considering buying:
I bought this car a month or so ago to replace my Yukon. But with no luck selling the Yukon this may have to go. My price is set so I can re-coup what I have into the car. Sorry no bargaining. This car is loaded! I bought it because of its luxury interior. Driving the Denali for the last few years has spoiled me but this thing filled its shoes and then some. Leather heated seats, cold A/C, CD, Casette, plenty of speakers, trip computer with gas consumtion monitor. Memory drivers seat, trunk area cover, cargo net, retractable picnic tray from rear. And plenty more neat features. I had the car inspected by my mechanic and some routine maintenance completed. No issues. BG trans flush & brake flush were just completed as well as VA inspection & emmisions. 106,xxx miles. See pics, ask questions then come buy it! The Yakima roof rack with Raptor bike holders does not convey but can for $300 extra.
I'm not afraid of getting into the superficial guts of a car - I've replaced simple things like the tailight assembly, power window control switch/harness, distributor cap/rotor and the like on my old Mazda. I think that I can keep up with the quirks and high regular maintenance requirements of a car like this - the idea of repairing little annoyances like the SID with a soldering iron (recent thread) actually appeal to me.
The kicker is that we live in downtown Washington, DC and I hadn't considered buying a car this large until we maxed out the 14 cubic foot trunk of my father's Jag (which he kindly loaned us while he was out of the country) and had to fill up the rear seat (beside the infant carseat) with junk on our last vacation trip. We do have a secure parking space behind our house, and rarely have to park on the street, but I did love my 178" long car with which I've claimed the Parallel Parking Queen tiara on many occasions. We only drive about 3,000 miles a year, and don't depend on a car for work commutes (I bike to work or take the bus or metro in foul weather and my husband works at home), so it's very difficult to justify spending more than $8,0000 to buy a new to us car. As a current owner of a 17 year old high mileage car that had the turbo and head replaced at 64K miles under the 3 month/1K mile dealership used car warranty, I am very concerned about taking on annual repair costs over $1K/year.
The other serious contenders that I have looked at (all wagons) are the Subaru Legacy, Audi A4, Volvo V40, Volkswagen Jetta, Saturn SW and Ford Focus. When I started researching this purchase I was captivated by the compactness and performance of a couple obvious city cars: the Subaru WRX, Mazda 3 (hatch), and Mazda Protege 5, but they simply can't haul all our stuff.
So in my final decision making process, I'm curious about a couple of things that I hope folks here can help me out with. First of all, is it true that the 2000 4 cylinder/2.3L model is more reliable that other years (1999, 2001, 2002)? Second, are the average repair costs really significantly lower than the 9-3 and other entry/mid level luxury cars like the Audi A4? These are the average costs I found at auto.consumerguide.com - are they accurate?
A/C Compressor $415
Alternator $315
Automatic Transmission or Transaxle $1,030
Brakes $260
Clutch, Pressure Plate, Bearing $470
Constant Velocity Joints $670
Exhaust System $270
Radiator $255
Shocks and/or Struts $440
Timing Chain or Belt $280
Thanks in advance - I've waffled between a super economical short-term (5 yrs) solution in the Saturn SW2 and a real car that I will probably keep for 10 years or more (I've had my first car - the Mazda - for 12 years now). I'm leaning towards the real car option and would really appreciate any groundtruthing that can be provided on the research I've done.
posted by 66.167.1...
, Sun, 27 Aug 2006 12:54:46
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