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Re: Question on Saab's maintanence costs / reliability
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Posted by Baab [Email] (#1214) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Baab) on Mon, 21 Apr 2003 09:03:42 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: Question on Saab's maintanence costs / reliability, Abe, Mon, 21 Apr 2003 07:27:41
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At least here in the U.S., the 5-door 900 was discontinued in the early 1980s, so if that's where you are located you only have the choice of the 3-door hatchback coupe or the 4-door sedan. For hauling large objects, the hatchback is the only real choice. Although the back seat folds down in the sedan, the trunk opening is too small to get really big items in.

If you can do your own service work, maintenance costs are pretty reasonable, especially if you use Saabnet sponsors such as sobstory.com for parts. I've been driving "Classic" 900s since 1985 and since I do most of my own work maintenance costs have not been excessive.

On the other hand, if you will be depending on a mechanic (or at worst, a Saab dealer) for service the car will probably eat you out of house and home pretty quickly! Although well-built, these are high-maintenance cars compared to typical Japanese or domestic US models. There are a lot of little things that tend to go wrong, and 900s are prone to transmission problems. There is also a fair amount of unusual engineering on these cars that many mechanics are unfamiliar with.

Speaking of transmissions, the automatic in these cars is a front-drive adaptation of an ancient, inefficient 3-speed Borg Warner unit that was originally designed for Studebaker, to give you an idea of its vintage. The 5-speed is the better choice unless you either can't drive stick or will be doing most of your driving in city traffic.

Having said that, pay particular attention to any symptoms of wear in the transmission (such as whine in 4th and/or 5th gear, or popping out of gear) as this is an expensive-to-repair weak spot in an otherwise durable vehicle. A lot of old 900s are junked because their owners didn't want to spend $2000 on a replacement tranny.


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