RE: Shed Of The Week: Saab 9-5 Aero Estate

[otolith]

Bonefish Blues said:

PoopahScoopah said:

Sorry for the thread revival but I just wanted to pop in and reiterate what an absolute crock of steaming dog turd the above comment is, and was clearly based on a broken car!

I just bought a cheap Aero saloon. 99 reg, manual. Stuck a couple of gallons of Optimax in it and drove it up the A7 from Galashiels to Edinburgh, a 40 mile trip at a cruise (bad weather that day). Peaked at 36mpg, and that's on crappy barely legal (if not already illegal) tyres. Gave it the beans on Edinburgh bypass to check how it was boosting - pulls nicely in 3rd gear - and it dropped down to 32mpg, but all in all I'm happy. It's a bit better on fuel than my T5 estate. The 2004 manual Aero estate I tested the week before was showing an average of 23 and a bit on the SID and that was a car only used for occasional short trips, and the guy didn't even know how to reset the SID so it had obviously been measuring that avaerage over a very long period.

I paid £825 for mine. Experienced 9-5 buyers may say I paid over the odds as it needs some money spent - sump drop, tyres, brakes - so it'll probably be a £1600 car when I'm finished. But it'll be sorted for a good few years to come once I've done that, and it's a damn solid, clean, well looked after car with only 70k on the clock.

Drop back when you've got a calculated mpg figure as opposed to an indicated one.

Those don't look unrealistic to me. Mine would do close to 40mpg (actual, it claimed more) on the motorway with cruise set to the speed limit.

[M1C]

I had a '99 Aero manual saloon and it would do approx 30mpg in normal day to day use, and displayed 46mpg on after a longish steady 60-65mph cruise.

[Bonefish Blues]

otolith said:

Bonefish Blues said:

PoopahScoopah said:

Sorry for the thread revival but I just wanted to pop in and reiterate what an absolute crock of steaming dog turd the above comment is, and was clearly based on a broken car!

I just bought a cheap Aero saloon. 99 reg, manual. Stuck a couple of gallons of Optimax in it and drove it up the A7 from Galashiels to Edinburgh, a 40 mile trip at a cruise (bad weather that day). Peaked at 36mpg, and that's on crappy barely legal (if not already illegal) tyres. Gave it the beans on Edinburgh bypass to check how it was boosting - pulls nicely in 3rd gear - and it dropped down to 32mpg, but all in all I'm happy. It's a bit better on fuel than my T5 estate. The 2004 manual Aero estate I tested the week before was showing an average of 23 and a bit on the SID and that was a car only used for occasional short trips, and the guy didn't even know how to reset the SID so it had obviously been measuring that avaerage over a very long period.

I paid £825 for mine. Experienced 9-5 buyers may say I paid over the odds as it needs some money spent - sump drop, tyres, brakes - so it'll probably be a £1600 car when I'm finished. But it'll be sorted for a good few years to come once I've done that, and it's a damn solid, clean, well looked after car with only 70k on the clock.

Drop back when you've got a calculated mpg figure as opposed to an indicated one.

Those don't look unrealistic to me. Mine would do close to 40mpg (actual, it claimed more) on the motorway with cruise set to the speed limit.

So would mine, in those specific circumstances, but throw in a mix of driving and it tumbled.

[otolith]

Bonefish Blues said:

So would mine, in those specific circumstances, but throw in a mix of driving and it tumbled.

Pretty sensitive to driving style - a big, heavy car with 250bhp, so if you started using hard acceleration and braking, yeah, it guzzled. Using light throttle and conserving momentum, though, it was pretty efficient while keeping up with the traffic.

[M1C]

On my '99 model, i reset the computer before my 40-ish mile 'razz' up to Hartside Cafe one Sunday morning, my average was down to 19.2mpg (displayed). On the way back, taking it very steady, it went back up to above 40.

£600. 150k ish. Very very clean all round. Quick...but subtle about it. Bland engine. Very nice car though. Sold for £800 a few months later.

Mine was just like this, just a couple of numbers away from this road tested one on the reg.

http://www.carenthusiast.com/roadtest/saab_95.htm

[Bunfighter]

otolith said:

Pretty sensitive to driving style - a big, heavy car with 250bhp, so if you started using hard acceleration and braking, yeah, it guzzled. Using light throttle and conserving momentum, though, it was pretty efficient while keeping up with the traffic.

Thing is boy it loves mid-gear bursts, soo much so that you forget economy.

I really recommend the stage 1 map. For £80 it's a steal.

[irish boy]

I've had a couple of 9-5 aero models, superb cars. The manual is a lot more economical than the auto, and less tax too. Never any real bother out of them ever. Comfortable, quick and a substantial car for the money.

Lady near me was trading a 9-3 aero she bought new in '08 in for an Audi cab. Took a chance as it was the right money, not majorly into convertible cars but it really is superb, not much slower than the 9-5, 6 speed box gives 2200 rpm @70, 33mpg and feels very rigid/tight.




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[beko1987]

irish boy said:

I've had a couple of 9-5 aero models, superb cars. The manual is a lot more economical than the auto, and less tax too. Never any real bother out of them ever. Comfortable, quick and a substantial car for the money.

Lady near me was trading a 9-3 aero she bought new in '08 in for an Audi cab. Took a chance as it was the right money, not majorly into convertible cars but it really is superb, not much slower than the 9-5, 6 speed box gives 2200 rpm @70, 33mpg and feels very rigid/tight.




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I keep looking at those for a summer of fun one year/break my convertible cherry, they are good looking things! And the earlier ones are quite cheap too, cheap enough to not matter if it broke/was worthless when selling on

[Bunfighter]

irish boy said:

I've had a couple of 9-5 aero models, superb cars. The manual is a lot more economical than the auto, and less tax too. Never any real bother out of them ever. Comfortable, quick and a substantial car for the money.

Lady near me was trading a 9-3 aero she bought new in '08 in for an Audi cab. Took a chance as it was the right money, not majorly into convertible cars but it really is superb, not much slower than the 9-5, 6 speed box gives 2200 rpm @70, 33mpg and feels very rigid/tight.




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Audi fanbois will tell you that you're wrong but then theyll be suffering

[Arnold Cunningham]

A really really minor point I know, but in sport mode I notice they actually come on boost earlier and hold the boost level higher at part throttle - so when you then put your foot down, there's less lag.

apc321 said:

Sport mode on the automatic gearbox seems rather pointless. Better to leave in normal mode and let the torque do the work.

[Bunfighter]

Yep it's perkier I.e less lag.

[namastebuzz]

I bought an '04 Aero Wagon with only 76k and one previous owner with a full dealer history for £1600 and sold it 10k later for £1500.

One of the best cars I've ever had. Only sold it because we needed more seats.

The autobox is much stronger than the manual and drives great with the flappy paddles. '04 onwards doesn't suffer from the sludge issue and '06 onwards has the horrible "Dame Edna" headlight trim and eye-watering £500 VED for the auto. You can get a N00btune for around £90 which boosts the power a bit and the torque a HUGE amount. Further tuning requires a bigger downpipe though.

If you want class, comfort, solidity and massive speed for peanuts then the 9-5 Aero is hard to beat.....

[JustinF]

namastebuzz said:

The autobox is much stronger than the manual and drives great with the flappy paddles.

You've had both then?