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Hey All,
I've been "gone" in Europe for awhile enjoying Saab's European Delivery Program. My wife and I picked up a 2004 9-3SS Aero for her!
Specifications are: Nocturne Blue, Grey interior, moonroof, xenon lights, touring package, cold weather package. The Aero model real performance goodies are limited to a sport suspension and sport seats (and spoiler, yeah that's for performance too).
My quick-and-dirty car review follows:
What they got right:
Steering resistance and feedback (better than average).
Brakes are smooth and powerful for street driving (no track time yet!)
Power is smooth and torque is available over a wide band (see below).
Seats look like they are comfortable (see below).
Auto up/down windows – finally!
Auto open/close moonroof – finally!
Bi-xenon lighting – holy shit these are bright!
Body styling – a very attractive sedan, even with a little bmw look to it.
Clutch – I thought that I felt a little more resistance/feedback with this unit than with the 2003 models that I test drove (that had a very light pedal and no feedback).
6-speed trans – nice to have 6 gears, but probably unnecessary. Shifting was a little crunchy into 2nd and 5th when cold, but this matched everything I read on the 9-3 bb.
Re-Axs rear suspension. Despite the silly name, this shit works. The caveat is that you do have to incur some body roll before it works, so it helps to get the car set into a corner as quickly as possible with as much speed as possible. You can actually feel the rear end coming around almost like a RWD rotates under power. Very, very nice.
Pirelly Pzero Rosso tires really work well at high speeds and in dry and wet conditions!
What they got wrong:
INFOTAINMENT is annoying. And for what? It’s not like they cleared the dash of repetitive black rectangular buttons either – it’s got plenty of those!! Multiple rotate & click knobs is annoying (trip computer, radio, infotainment). Multiple displays is annoying (upper, mid and lower).
ONSTAR is annoying. And the only way you can use the spiffy built-in phone is to pay for Onstar first, then pay extra for the phone option. Annoying! In Europe they get GPS navigation!
WINDOW CONTROLS on the driver’s door. I thought this was cool, until I rode in the passenger seat. Sucks to be a passenger.
POWER SEATS do not have the adjustment range for the cushion to tilt as in the “old” 9-3 and ng900. Again, sucks more for the passenger trying to get comfy!
Onset of POWER is so smooth and soft that they might as well use a bigger turbo with more lag! Now they have electronic lag! I was really expecting more aggressive tuning for the flagship “AERO” model. Otherwise I was very pleased with Trionic-8 and the drive-by-wire system.
posted by 63.207.93...
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