Used Saab 9-3

Bingolingo

Hi

Going to look at a few 9-3 estates tomorrow. I need to replace the second car and have a budget of about £4k. Not going to be doing many miles in it so going for a petrol.

Does anyone have any experience with the petrol saabs? Looking at an 07 or 08 model with 60-80k miles.

worried_jim

I had a 9-3 turbo auto. Loved it! Proper fast! Managed 18mpg over the two years I had it (would do 30 mpg @ 80mph on the mway). Best £500 I ever spent!

There is something special about Saabs that make driving an absolute pleasure, they are so cleverly laid out and put together.

I hope you enjoy yours, I would have another in a heartbeat.

marcarm

I had a 07 9-3 2 litre turbo and loved it. Had no problems with it in the time I owned it and used to get between 30-35 mpg through a mixture of driving.

Would have another If my circumstances allowed

parking_question_chap

A relative of mine used to have a Saab 9000 CSE. Never had any problems.

AdrianC

The later shape 9-3s really are just Vauxhall Vectras - even the engines are GM off-the-shelf. There's a whole stack of info on SaabCentral and UKSaabs about them. There's not really any major inherent problems, but they're fairly complex 7-8yo cars, with less-than-perfect parts support, although it's nowhere near as bad as it could be, with several specialist suppliers.

Bingolingo

Thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear people have had positive experiences with the model.

parking_question_chap

AdrianC wrote: »

The later shape 9-3s really are just Vauxhall Vectras - even the engines are GM off-the-shelf. There's a whole stack of info on SaabCentral and UKSaabs about them. There's not really any major inherent problems, but they're fairly complex 7-8yo cars, with less-than-perfect parts support, although it's nowhere near as bad as it could be, with several specialist suppliers.

Yeah pretty much the 1.8 engines are straight from GM, the 1.8T have been modified slightly with an added turbo. Though I dont believe the 2.8 is a vauxhall unit, that said it might be from somewhere else in GM?

I believe the 95 is pretty much all Saab. Rumour has it GM ended up withdrawing funding from Saab because Saab refused to use GM parts on the 95.

Inner_Zone

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Yeah pretty much the 1.8 engines are straight from GM, the 1.8T have been modified slightly with an added turbo. Though I dont believe the 2.8 is a vauxhall unit, that said it might be from somewhere else in GM?

I believe the 95 is pretty much all Saab. Rumour has it GM ended up withdrawing funding from Saab because Saab refused to use GM parts on the 95.

SAAB 95 used the Vectra B base platform and the SAAB 93 the Vectra C base platform.

Think the 1.8T is actually 2L.

2.8L was from Holden, GM's Australian brand.

AdrianC

parking_question_chap wrote: »

Yeah pretty much the 1.8 engines are straight from GM, the 1.8T have been modified slightly with an added turbo.

The "1.8" and various-power 2.0 are all the same lump - the difference is the boost level.

Though I dont believe the 2.8 is a vauxhall unit, that said it might be from somewhere else in GM?

Same lump as the v6T Vectras. Not that "Vauxhall" is any more than a UK-market-only badge on Opels, of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_High_Feature_engine#LP9

I believe the 95 is pretty much all Saab. Rumour has it GM ended up withdrawing funding from Saab because Saab refused to use GM parts on the 95.

Not quite - the 9-5 is Vectra, too, both generations. The problem was that GM didn't want Saab to keep using their tech when they half-heartedly tried to sell the company. Which kinda left them in the lurch.

Last "all Saab" Saab was the 99/c900. The 9000 was Tipo Quattro/Fiat Croma/Alaf 164/Lancia Thema. Everything since was Vectra-based. Saab have never once had their own engine design - the two-smokes were DKW-derived, the V4 was a Ford-buy-in, the slant-four was a Triumph design, and everything since was GM (or Fiat 1.9D).

Marktheshark

4k buys a lot better quality estate car than a Vectra with some different body panels and interior.
Forget Swedish reliability, they are a re- hashed Vauxhall Vectra.
The depreciation will be about £1k a year.
Also you will see the equivalent Vectra is about half priced.
Like the Nissan / Renault thing, you buy the same car but pay double for a badge on the front.

Paradigm

AdrianC wrote: »

The "1.8" and various-power 2.0 are all the same lump - the difference is the boost level.

Not strictly true, yes the basic engine is GM but Saab developed the turbocharging, fitted their own Trionic engine management system along with a whole host of other changes. IIRC these modifications were such an improvement that GM started using the Saab version in it's other brands.

It's also true that the 9-3 used the Epsilon floorpan from 2003 but it was so heavily changed, including complete Saab rear suspension, that it was a totally different animal.

AdrianC wrote: »

Not quite - the 9-5 is Vectra, too, both generations. The problem was that GM didn't want Saab to keep using their tech when they half-heartedly tried to sell the company. Which kinda left them in the lurch.

A quote from Ed Abbott from ARM possibly the best known Saab tuners in the country....

The old ‘9-5’, whilst claimed by many pundits to be ‘all GM’, was infact 90% Saab and the 10% that was originally GM was subsequently modified by Saab to be unique to Saab.

http://www.abbottracing.net/category.php?id_category=21



Saab died because they refused to churn out "rehashed" Vectras.