Should i buy a saab 9000

A tatty with a duff traction control ECU may be beyond economical repair. With Turbos and later 2. The DI unit replaces the distributor. Don't be tempted to fit reconditioned items because they tend to fail within months. Also, replacing the spark plugs on a V6 is a nightmare because of poor access, so if this engine is fitted it may just need some fresh plugs if it's running badly.

The former is pretty much bomb-proof, although post cars can give trouble with reverse gear selection. The auto-boxes are also pretty tough, but they wear out after , miles or so - even if the fluid and filter have been changed religiously every 24, miles, as per Saab's schedule.

When a rebuild is due, the ratio changes become snatchy, so take an extended test drive, let everything get warm, and make sure all is smooth. As a result, if the slave cylinder is leaking, replacement of that on its own isn't straightforward. Until , the manual's shift quality was pretty rubbish, but later cars are much better. However, by now, gear selection issues are likely because the Metalastik bush in the selector rod or the gearbox mounting bushes will have disintegrated.

New ones are available, in rubber or polyurethane - they're cheap, and reasonably easy to fit. The racks themselves seem to last forever though. The suspension is also very reliable. Springs and dampers rarely need replacing but track rod ends and the front suspension balljoints wear eventually. Standard cars got 15in rims while the Aero got 16in items. All these alloys corrode but they don't go porous, they're freely available although Carlsson rims are rarer and they're all interchangeable with each other, too.

The brakes are conventional, with all cars getting discs all round and anti-lock technology. Everything is available and problems are rare; it's worth checking for perished hoses, corroded pipes and an ABS light that stays on. And the rocker panels have been restyled to give the car the radically pinched waist of a Choi Kwang-Do instructor. Having worked so diligently to improve the Turbo this year, we wish Saab had also massaged the manual shift linkage.

The fiddly reverse-lockout collar is an anachronism, and the throws still feel unnecessarily rubbery. Part of what we're feeling is the Playtex-pliable bushings that Saab has always used to isolate both the engine and the transmission. In practice, that isolation is nearly total; what you hear and feel of this engine is mostly a distant throb of cam chains. But when you suddenly lift from full-throttle stabs in first through third gears, you get two inches of annoying driveline lash.

Cockpits in luxury cars must pass our informal tactile test. Does the driver's hand ever fall on a surface that feels cheesy or insubstantial? The , with its acres of standard Bridge of Weir leather—including its new-for leather-wrapped steering wheel, shift knob, and shift boot—borders on tactile and olfactory overload. Even the inner linings of the A-pillars are covered in a plush, velvety fabric; it's like rubbing the inside of a rabbit' ear. What's more important is that all Saab hatchbacks are a miracle of interior packaging.

The back seat is on the northern side of capacious—the master bedroom in the Trump Princess comes to mind. Three adults back there will ride in more comfort than they would in either the Lexus LS or the lnfiniti Q What's more, with the Saab's rear seats folded flat and the parcel shelf removed, you've got 57 cubic feet of storage area to play with, all of it lined in silky black carpet.

One afternoon, when, as usual, our technical director had confiscated our resident Ford pickup truck for use at his new house, our red Saab was pressed into U-Haul duty. It swallowed a Toro Plus lawn mower, a dining-room chair, and six sacks of groceries. Why anyone would consider buying the angular, less practical CD is—to us, at least—an unsolved mystery.

The only serious ergonomic flaw inside the is its obdurate automatic climate-control system, which, like Hal in Stanley Kubrick's A Space Odyssey, has its own quirky agenda. It selects whatever blower speed it considers appropriate usually the Hurricane Hugo setting—a fine facsimile of the Lockheed wind tunnel during Winston Cup tests and is extremely cumbersome to override. Moreover, the ten tiny ventilation and defroster buttons, positioned to the right of Hal, require more squinting and scrutiny than is altogether appropriate in a car capable of speeds that are more than twice the highest U.

Mechanically, dynamically, and cosmetically, however, it is difficult to find much wrong with the Saab Turbo. The cockpit is so quiet that you can hold hushed conversations at mph. It is certainly quicker and roomier than the few luxury sports sedans with which it shares its market niche—such cars as the Alfa Romeo S, the Audi , the BMW i, the Mercedes E 2. And yet, as is the case with the Lotus Esprit Turbo SE, there's something unseemly about a four-cylinder engine in a car with a Rodeo Drive price tag.

Three editors noted that another three grand would put them behind the wheel of a Vpowered Lexus LS This, in Saab's case, brings up a problem of perception. As any marketing guy worth his weight in focus groups will tell you, a Rolex and a Timex both keep perfect time, yet you'd clearly rather have one strapped to your wrist than the other.

Never mind. For , we've come to think of the Saab Turbo as the grand limousine of sports sedans. Rolex, Timex, who cares? This car keeps perfectly good time. And it makes time even better. There seems to be a common misconception floating around the ozone concerning the Saab Turbo, and I'd like to aim a verbal Exocet at it right now.

The Turbo's sensible sheetmetal has a lot of folks thinking that Saabs are no longer quirky, ruggedly individualistic, fun, or whatever it was that once made them the darlings of the up-and-comers. Think again, buckaroos. Or any other automobile this size with an interior anywhere near as cavernous? No way. Add in front-wheel drive and of the most eager turbocharged horses on the planet and you're way out there where the unconventional roam. But you know what? A new liftback model, the CS, with a restyled nose and tail appeared in The CD, however, retained its original styling until it received the CS-style front end in A new performance version of the , the Aero, was launched in Available in both manual bhp and automatic bhp guises, it featured a bodykit, sports suspension and Recaro front seats.

In manual trim it was capable of just shy of mph and, as tested by Autocar, could out-accelerate the Lamborghini Diablo, Lotus Esprit S4 and Porsche GT from 50 to 70mph in top gear.

There were no diesel, soft-top or estate versions of the , but a 3. Although a smooth and refined unit, it lacked the punch of the four-cylinder turbocharged engines and did not find favour with buyers. The range soldiered on until when, after a production run of just over ,, it was replaced by the new range.

And with the UK being a traditionally good market for Saab, it is perhaps no surprise to find that there are several times more s still on UK roads than all the other Type Four cars added together.