Saab 9-3 - anyone know anything about them
 

Have been looking at Legacies as want to upgrade my daily hack Volvo V40 soon.

Trouble is the 3L is too thirsty and rare, the 2.5 is... well a 2.5 and the 2L is a bit underpowered and the car is bloody massive ... probably too big to be honest as lovely as they are.

So I was looking at a Saab 9-3 Estate and it seems a lot of car for the money and a bit smaller than the Legacy. £3.5K buys a nice 2007 car.

Trouble is Saab are out of business so how does one get spares? Are they any good anyway? Never driven one or been in one so any advice would be good.

Budget is about £4K max and would prefer petrol to diesel!

My wife's uncle has one on an 07 plate - it's his second. It's a TiD with the 150bhp engine. It looks fine but has had quite a few issues and it really is a rebadged Vectra (same engine, similar chassis, etc). If you don't mind that, they are fairly comfy, go okay and work fine but I think I'd steer towards Volvo or even Ford. Servicing isn't too much of an issue and parts are all GM anyway so not too hard to source.

Last November I chopped in my 9-3 (150bhp TiD) after ~134k miles. Had no problems getting service / parts as Saab UK morphed into Saab Parks UK, which is owned by Saab Automobile Parts A.B (in Sweden). They supply a number of the old Saab dealers around the UK.

Was a good mile muncher (I'd quite happily come home from central London non-stop) and I enjoyed a drive down the twisties in it.

I had 2 prior to the Impreza, a 2001 150bhp 2.2 Tid 9-3 (had it from new for 5 years) and then a 2006 120bhp 1.9 Tid 9-3 (traded in after 1 year).

I didn't like the 1.9, it just didn't have enough power for the size of the car, but the 2.2 did and was really good to drive. Overall very good cars, Only bad point I thought was that even though Saab used GM, they customised pretty much everything on so it wasn't quite as cheap to maintain as it perhaps should be.

You can still get spare parts now though as someone is producing them.

http://www.torque-gt.co.uk/car_detai...&productId=867
Manual.
http://www.torque-gt.co.uk/car_detai...&productId=865
Auto.

Cheers lads, I did know they shared a platform with the Vectra, but that doesn't bother me as long as its reliable. I guess I am just wary in case the parts get to be stupid prices.

I don't really want another Volvo even though it makes sense as they are very good cars, but it wouldn't feel likle a change! I miight look at a Ford although last time I looked they seemed to hold their prices a bit too well in estate form meaning I get less for my money.

Maybe I should just get a 2L Legacy and not worry about the power ... they are lovely cars! Did think about a WRX wagon, but they are as rare as rocking horse sh1t at the moment and maybe a bit small.

I've just got rid of my 06 2.8v6 turbo 9-3 sports wagon and I ve gotta say it was an impressive motor. A very responsive engine and equipped put to the nines.

It was good on fuel on the motorway as long as u stuck to 70 ish this would return around 38 mpg

I wouldn't say it was too clever around town but still seen 20-24 mpg. But was never under strain as all the torque (90% I think) is delivered at 2k on the rev counter but the massive downside was the high tax bracket

The 2L legacy is gutless. The one to get is the 2.5L. The engine is different to the one fitted in the newer Impreza and is not prone those reliability issues.

Why don't you import a Saab 9-2X?

Are you seriously telling me Subaru have two different flat four 2.5 petrol engines? Genuine question btw.

It's to be a daily hack, not after importing anything to be a daily hack. Want to go to a dealer give them some coin and drive away... minimum of fuss! If I didnt need an estate car this would be even easier as I would just buy a WRX!

There are several engine codes relating to the 2.5 L, depends on model and market.
I'm not sure if they use the same block but there are going to be design differences between between the Impreza and the UK Legacy because the Legacy is normally aspirated.

I sold my 2l 9.3 turbo after it had done over 200,000 pretty reliable miles and it's still being driven locally three years later. It did 28-30mpg even when driven keenly and there are plenty of good s/h spares available. And now they are dirt cheap.

Personally I'd avoid. Or get a Vectra.

We're getting alot of these in at the moment. Yes you can get parts, but prices aren't always nice and lead times on availability are patchy. The problem that arises is with parts that are bespoke and don't cross reference to a equivelent Vauxhall part.

For example, last week we had to wait 8 days for a new intercooler. And a intercooler hose wasn't available with no date of when it will be (lucky I'm a dab handy with hose repair :o ). The DPF pressure sensor on the other hand was same day delivery as its a standard Bosch part as fitted to loads of other makes of cars.

Shame as they aren't bad cars.

Yes but the block is a weak point on the chocolate engine so if it's the same block I'm out!

Cheers Ali, that's kind of what I feared. You've made my decision for me... can't have a car where I have to wait for spares and then pay a fotune... hang on that's a Legacy's problem too! :D

Guess I will have to look at Mondeos or maybe another Volvo!

I have a 2004 9-3 Aero (210bhp Turbo) Auto as my daily drive, its comfy (amazing seats), effortless to drive (no brainer being an auto) and full of toys for little money. I actually bought the Saab having trawled through countless Piston Heads posts based on my budget. So far in year I've replaced a cracked spring (could happen to anyone), rear banana arms (????) and standard service, doesn't use any oil pretty happy with it apart from mpg is not so great. I will say however that the air con is by far the coldest / best air con I've ever had in a car, its absolutely arctic like in summer.

EDIT: Originally I wanted the SS model but they are rare, or at least they were when I was looking!

:lol1: IM aren't great for supply of non-stock parts. I remeber when they had cambelt tensioners on back order! My car was off the road for a week for a cambelt change that should have took a few hours. :mad:

As I say general service stuff, and anything GM derived is easy. But things SAAb specific and not general service/common parts like body panels, windscreens, light clusters etc. can be iffy.

WRX Wagon, you know it makes sense, with your knowledge of the mark it's a no brainer, I absolutely love mine still puts a smile on my face and has the look back factor when I get out of it after over 2 years of ownership, extremely reliable and reasonable on parts and fuel too.:thumb:

That's where I started, but a) I am not sure it is quite big enough and b) they are hard to find in relatively unmodified form.

There was a beaut silver one on here in October and I wasn't able to get to it.... it went for £3K and was in superb condition and more or less standard! Still kicking myself over that!

Cheers :thumb: The cambelt tensioner should be an off the shelf part... even I know that... not good for Subaru :(

Here you go.
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...rs/5?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...reza?logcode=p

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classifi...urbo?logcode=p

silver one is nice with low miles too.:thumb:

Don't want a black one and the red one is out of my price range, plus it looks a bit tatty.

The silver one looks great but the weird thing is it didn't show up on my saved search.... I worked out why as I have my search set to cars newer than 10 years old and of coruse it's now 2014!!!

Think I will give them a call. Cheers :thumb:

The wrx blob wagon's boot is not that big tbf, I could only get my dog in and a couple of bags at most, now with the BMW touring can get dog and pram in boot together (dogs a Rottweiler ) , so I suppose what do you need the estate boot for?

Thinking of a a4 avant sline Quattro 2.0TFSI soon for the 4x4 as rwd family car will be tricky in winter weathers. (still thinking tbh)

Plenty big enough for my needs and when the seats are folded down it will swallow white goods too, I don't think chris is a dog man though so not an issue.

Silver one was my fave too and a good reason for the sale, well under budget and low miles, I love black blobs so thought i'd sneak that one in, the red one does look a little tatty with the wheels but it has PPP and I know your last one was red so thought you might like it.:thumb:

So are you back in a scoob yet then?

Christ almighty that silver one is a BARGAIN!!
Buy it now!!!

He's not on here so I recon he's off buying it.

Well I won't argue against a wagon and tbh not all that in the mpg stakes compared to my daily! Only thing without the seats down boot really is not big at all.