E30 Zone

On the hunt at the moment for a cheapish 9-5 for the daily commute, and a SAAB 9-5 Aero Estate is looking to fit the bill till I can find a Alpina D3 touring in scotland.

So far my hunting for a decent forum has not really turned up much, any recomendations?

I know a few zoners have owned them in the past.

I bought a latest generation (Insignia in a posh frock) 9-5 recently. I find www.uksaabs.co.uk a friendly and helpful place.

The previous generation (i.e. up to 2010) Aero Estates do look like a lot of car for the money.

Martin.

Thanks Martin, joined a couple of forums and have been reading up on common issues. I am currently the higest bidder on this, but I am very close to my maximum bid of £1580.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161069036715? ... 308wt_1170

Rtaylor2208 wrote:Thanks Martin, joined a couple of forums and have been reading up on common issues. I am currently the higest bidder on this, but I am very close to my maximum bid of £1580.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161069036715? ... 308wt_1170

That looks a nice one. It is getting rarer to find a standard, un-molested one these days but even if you lose out on this one, there are lots out there.

Not sure if you have driven one before, if not, you will find the torque-steer quite comical but great cars otherwise.

My 9-5 is the first turbo petrol car I have had, and I am now starting to understand why manufacturers are downsizing engines and going forced induction. Mine is only two litre, but has more torque than my last 740i and it comes in so much lower in the rev range. Effortless overtaking, and means it can run silly gearing for economy.

Martin.

My only concern is the overall reliability as there are some real horror stories. But if this owner has put up with it for 10 years I suspect it will be a good one.

I have had a few turbo engine cars, the best one i have driven is our currrent RS Meganne 265, but drove many volvo 850\S70\V70 t5's and t5r's when my dad worked for them years ago. Same problem with the torque steer but you do get used to it.

I had a 2.3t 9-5estate and loved it. I only bought it as I needed a cheap estate. Kept it for nearly two years, which is the longest I've ever owned a car. All I would add is AVOID automatic. No experience of them but that was the advice I was given for them. I have a di cassette and a refurbished Sid panel which works if you manage to get one where it's working, well done. If you need them let me know by pm.

Tedswagon wrote:I had a 2.3t 9-5estate and loved it. I only bought it as I needed a cheap estate. Kept it for nearly two years, which is the longest I've ever owned a car. All I would add is AVOID automatic. No experience of them but that was the advice I was given for them. I have a di cassette and a refurbished Sid panel which works if you manage to get one where it's working, well done. If you need them let me know by pm.

Thanks, I bought an automatic, basically i bought the one i linked to but for £1150 in the end, yes its an auto but to be honest I love the lazy driving aspect. DI has replaced under recall in 2008 so I think should be fine, touch wood the SID only has 1 dead pixel at the moment. Only thing I need to do is change the batteries and capacitors in the alarm siren as its saying it needs serviced. Other than that I'm 1000 miles into ownership and no issues at all so far.

Saabs are great motors. I've owned 4.

The b205 engine used in the earlier 9-5's can suffer from sludging issues, drop sump, clean out and fully regular synth servicing usually prevents this.

PCV system upgrade also helps prevent any issues.

The generation before (b204) are capable of mahoosive power on stock internals and it doesn't suffer from oil starvation issues, neither do the later b207(later 9-5's).

If you're looking for more power, a simple £50 remap will see a stock LPT run the same power as an Aero (sometimes turbo upgrade needed) so you should see around a 70bhp increase! dp and a few tweaks later and you could easily be running 270/80bhp even on the b205 engines.

They're really good cars, obviously GM's influence cheapened them a little in some respects but they're a lot better than Swedish Vauxhalls and the older ones are imo equally as good as their German counterparts.

Get yourself on UKSaabs... There's some fairly knowledgeable people on there and you'll eventually find a really good bargain, not as busy as here but still a good source of info.

HTH

Well after 2 years this old girl is off to a new home, 24K Miles covered and with the exception of a fuel pump its only needed the usual servicing \ tyres. The chap that is buying it has got himself a bargain at £750 as I couldn't be arsed putting it through the MOT which is up in July. It still cleans up well apart from a tiny bit of rust on the boot.



We have taken a ridiculously cheap lease on a new Focus ST ST2 Nav Estate on a 2 year deal to tide us over as I can't really decide on what I would buy next.