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I bought my 2002 9-5 Aero 5 speed in Dec 2004 with 21K miles on it. I am now up to 78K miles. I have been thinking about replacing the 9-5. For no specific reason besides my desire for a different car every two-three years.
My wife just got a new Subaru Outback XT (250 hp Turbo engine). This also got me in the car buying mood.
My requirements in a car are:
- Relatively quick car. Especially for highway passing.
- Comfortable seats. Tend to drive the 350 miles from Rochester to NYC almost weekly.
- Decent highway gas mileage.
- manual transmission.
- A usable back seat as I have customers sit back there regularly.
- Reliable
AWD would be great, but I find my 9-5 with a 16 inch winter wheel/tire (2001 9-3 rims) combo handles the snow with zero problem. Without giving up the gas mileage that AWD burns up.
I have been unable to find any car to meet my needs as good as my Aero. It is the perfect car for me and I cannot justify any reason to replace it. 78K miles and basically nothing has gone wrong with my saab. Plenty fast. 31-32 MPG on highway. Deceptively huge trunk. The closest I came was a 2004 A6 2.7T. Seems like a great alternative, but I have read too much about the car being mechanically troublesome.
I cannot understand why other non saab drivers dont understand how great these cars are. They are reliable, fast, comfortable, very economical on gas, and not that expensive. I think too often the 9-5 gets compared with higher end vehicles that cost 15K more (due to saab's over inflated MSRP) and the car gets slammed in the press. I am convinced if the 9-5 was compared to other prices in it "street" price class it would get much more positive praise.
I am going to keep my 9-5 for another year or two and see if anything then grabs by eye. As I tend to buy cars that are 2-3 years old with low mileage I am also looking at what new cars are on the market today. However, I see nothing out there that is really grabbing my attention.
Saab needs to get their act together and get a refreshed 9-5 out in 2008. My preference is that they not go as radical as some of the re-design pictures I have seen. The exisitng 9-5 is a great shape. I think it would be best to change the exisitng body by about 25%. Similar to what BMW has done with the 3 series over the last 6 years. The 3 series is changed, but still somewhat true to the orignal shape of the 3 series.
I have never appreciated my 9-5 more then I do now. In the end this was a great exercise for me. Also saved me about $15K.
posted by 66.66.1...
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