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I wish I could say my 99 9-3 was the best car I ever owned but... I traded in a 99 Taurus with 69k for it which had never had anything done other than an oil change.
Since I bought my 9-3 used (with 102k kilometers approx 64k miles) I have replaced the front axle seals, the antenna, the clutch, the head gasket, the timing chain guides, oxygen sensor, brake pads, rear washer motor, even the oil drain plug.
I have gotten all work done at the dealer and while I think the mechanic is less than knowledgable on how to diagnose a problem, I have questioned them over each repair and believe them to be generally valid. The outcome is approx $7,000.00 in repair bills in 1.5 years. The list above doesn't include the 10+ times I have had it in for check ups, diagnosis and oil changes. Oh yeah, and $120.00 for a new flasher (or blinker whatever the correct name is) housing because someone let a shopping cart go down a ramp and hit the front of the car.
The car now has 130k kilometers on it and seems to be running fine other than I suspect it has a bad DI unit(I get stalling, severe hesitation on very cold mornings. It is as if it can't seem to get enough fuel or is flooding out when you step on it - any ideas mail me. It seems fine after it warms up for 20 minutes or so. I think the DI unit may have been corrupted by the leaking head gasket - but that is just a theory), the headlight wipers don't seem to work reliably and keep blowing fuses, an extremely loud squeak (sounds like a rubber bushing when going over bumps on cold mornings, -3 degrees Celcius or less) and has 2 bent rims. I did have this garage, the only SAAB dealer, check the car before I bought it and they estimated $1200.00 worth of repairs to fix everything that was wrong with it.
Don't get me wrong, I love to drive the car but if I could get out of it and into a mid-90 BMW 5 series I would in a flash. Unfortuately I have to keep it for a while now to recoup the cost of the repairs and pray that something else does not go wrong.
Anyway, not to spoil the I love 9-3's thread but maybe I should start a love-hate relationship thread. Some do have problems and lots of them. I will confess though that the car is smoother with 130k kms than my taurus was was 60k kms and tons more fun to drive. During weak moments I secretly love driving it when the highway is clear but then dollar signs flash into my head from the repair bills.
posted by 24.222.24...
, Wed, 23 Apr 2003 05:22:01
, Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:55:20
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