Bought a Saab, no really!

[Russ Rallye]

Was in need of another temporary estate car after I sold my E class recently do set about searching. As much as I'd like to emulate mike woodford with his E39 Touring they're just too far out of budget for the time being. 1st choice this time was an audi allroad until I started looking at Saabs. Can just get so much for your money.
Top of the list was a 9-5 Aero estate preferably in manual flavour. After looking at a few tatty examples and seeing them make decent money I was a bit put off until this particular car came along.
A black 03/52 Aero manual with 122k miles on the clock and loads of spec. Inc towbar already fitted.

Agreed a price with the seller (approx peanuts) and picked it up on Friday. It needs a few jobs done, subframe bushes and a tre + rear discs/pads but it's just been mot'd and has 6 months tax, new front brakes and tyres too.

 

[Mr R.]

Cracking buy Russ.

Im looking at these along with the Volvo V70 D5 for the family bus, such alot of car for the monies as you have said.

Scott.

 

[Russ Rallye]

Full spec is 2.3 4cyl petrol turbo 250bhp standard although this one has been remapped so should be 270-280 ish and 300lb/ft.
Has cruise, electric heated memory front seats, heated rear seats, dual climate, towbar, xenon headlights etc.

Didn't feel like it was as healthy as it should be on the journey home so investigated today and found a loose vac/boost pipe and a one off completely, this restored the list performance for about 2 mins until it blew the top hose of the tb! Once that was refitted and tightened, all is good and certainly goes well now.
Got some cosmetic bits to sort, new shark fin required

Lights need flatted and polished much like the clios

Also need to paint the mirro surrounds as they're a bit flaky.

Overall I'm happy just need to get the jobs sorted this week.
Russ

 

[Mr R.]

Russ, i fitted an engine into one of these once for a engine builder who bought the car with a fooked crank.

The reason was because the oil strainer is so fine it blocks and starves the engine of oil, these engine must have the oil changes done every 6k and with full syn oil.

Scott.

 

[Russ Rallye]

Yeah they changed the later ones and upgraded the breather system which this has had and has also been run on fully synthetic. There's receipts for the sump being removed and cleaned which is a good sign as it seems a common thing on the Saab forums. Gonna give it a full service shortly too.

Volvo v70 D5's are a good car, mate had one as a tow car, plenty grunty even though it was only 163bhp, think the later ones are more powerful though, sound good for a diesel too.
Russ

 

[Mr R.]

Im sure the later D5s are 180 bhp, what should i look out for if going to view a Saab?

Are the autos ok or stick to a manual, what engine is best, petrol/diesel?

Cheers Scott.

 

[GCC]

rear discs/pads

If the 9-5 aero are the same as the 9-3 aero rear brakes, enjoy!! I know the rear hubs on the 3 are "loose" so to speak so they assist with flat out cornering. Makes for fun times when changing rear brakes or suspension items...

Amazing cars though!! SO much vehicle for money!!

 

[imprezaworks]

Cheap as chips these things. Looks good

 

[Alastair.]

I nearly purchased an identical one with similar mileage about a month ago for 1k, was gunna get it until the TT Popped up at work. Nice bus

 

[Oldskoolbaby]

Had one of these last year as an alternative to a T5. Was a great car but the big end went one evening due to oil starvation. This was after saab fitted a brand new engine inc turbo and revised breather system so its worth constantly keeping check on the oil. I wish I did anyway as it was pretty immaculate and I only paid a grand for it with 85k miles and 20k on its engine. In hind sight it was probably a nicer car than the Volvo but not quite as well put together. I do love a Swedish turbo wagon.

 

[Russ Rallye]

Im sure the later D5s are 180 bhp, what should i look out for if going to view a Saab?

Are the autos ok or stick to a manual, what engine is best, petrol/diesel?

Cheers Scott.

Not sure on the auto Scott, but my theory on autos that aren't modern is they're sh1t really! They do a V6 diesel with 180bhp that I considered but never driven any other apart from the aero, mine does high 30's mpg on a run so I can live with that. Loads of info on the Saab forums and there's a few bits to look out for on them, rear shocks are weak, trailing arm bushes, front subframe bushes x6, the aforementioned oil issues, various LCD displays inside lose their pixels etc.
russ

 

[Russ Rallye]

Done a couple of jobs today, managed to polish a nasty scratch out from the rear quarter but more importantly sorted the headlights. Just the usual method of various grades of wet and dry followed by a machine polish with some compound and a final wax.

Before

During

And after

They're not 100% but they're a thousand times better than before. It has however highlighted the fact that the side light bulbs look a horrible yellow against the the xenon main beam + one of the high beam bulbs has gone so I'll see what's available as an upgrade that matches the xenons a bit more and also improves the visibility.
Russ

 

[Leeshez]

Nice bus