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I'd put money that the new Saab engines and new Saabs last longer than any of the older ones. The Ecotec is brilliantly designed. It fixes all the bandaids that Saab put on the older cars, from DI to idler pulleys to waterpumps to head gaskets. CV joints, tranny gears, heater cores, injectors, AIC valves, throttle daspots...you name it.
Read the posts around here. No wonder people need hatches. They have to carry all the spare parts that their cars will need. I know. I've done it. 10 Saabs in 23 years, of every flavor except 9-5. Driven well over a million miles in total. And only 1 sedan. 1/3 were reasonably reliable and no more than half left me stranded anywhere. I've carried everything from spare gaskets to belts to the gear drive water pump in my 1980 900T. O2 sensors and injectors too. In relatively new cars. It's not acceptable in this modern world.
I absolutely agree the 9-3SS is undepowered. It's a tradeoff between a bigger turbo with more lag and the faster spinning smaller turbos that choke at higher CFMs. Hopefully split turbine housings and maybe the variable compression engine will come around some day. Using elegant engineering to get high hp has always been Saab's forte.
If you have doudts about longetivity, I recall a list in R&T a few years ago of the top 10 most durable cars. Top 5 were GM. Mercedes 300E series was #10. Not a Saab or other euro or Japanese car in sight. Those GM cars were lasting about 17 years and over 200k miles on average. That's at least 3 or 4 years more and 40k miles better than the last Saab stats I saw in the mid 90's when my friend worked at Saab's engineering group. Yes the Saab engine is more stressed than the Buick's, but nobody cares. They only care what the lifetime before the scrapheap is and what the maintenance cost will be over that lifetime.
And speaking of Buicks...they have lead the IIHS real world safety ratings for at least a decade. The Regal if I recall. Not a huge car. Undoubtably they are driven more conservatively than many cars, but again, that's not the point.
Let's just hope that the best things in Saab spread to other GM divisions and the Saab DNA carries on. And that the stubborn Swedes adopt some of the better GM practices. Maybe someday I will get into my father-in-laws Regal and say, hey, isn't that a Saab gauge ? OK, maybe that's dreaming !
-Ravi
2003 9-3SS Sport Launch & Touring
posted by 198.20.4...
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