9-5 Aero Estate - Want to buy, am I being picky or....

[NickM450]

.... do you guys not sell?

Finally settled on a 9-5 Estate as my next car, I've narrowed it down to the 2.3 Auto, between '04 (sludge issue sorted) and late '05 maybe early '06 (pre-Dame Edna and still has maximum £285 tax).

Problem is I can't seem to find one without higher mileage or anything close to me, in the South West. Perhaps you SAAB experts of PH could answer a few questions?

Ideally I'd like the HOT with all the toys apart from SatNav and have around £2,500 to spend. Am I being unrealistic or does my car exist?

Is the sludge issue of pre-2004 really such a big deal, are there any advantages of buying the earlier cars?

Is higher mileage an issue with the 2.3 Turbo engines and what power outputs did they come in?

I've seen these few cars which look good:

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=1...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

Unless of course any of you are thinking of selling?

Cheers folks

Edited by NickM450 on Sunday 22 February 11:20

[NickM450]

Thanks chaps

I didn't realise they were the same car, I am slightly obsessed with that particular car. Is there any way to tell if it has the 'dealer pack' or 'Aero Lux pack'? I know it was standard on '02 until late '03 cars but optional on '04 onwards.

[NickM450]

Disco_Biscuit said:

They are out there, I recently bought a 54 plate Aero wagon 80k full SAAB history, not fully loaded but has everything bar sat nav, £2200, but did need a few cosmetic bits doing, badges faded, wheels refurbished etc. Superb car, £80 noob tune remap and its flying

Fancy selling it?

Makes this one seem pretty good value at £2500

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=1...

Anyone used one of those independent vehicle check things? Are they worth £200?

[NickM450]

Well that's just rude, guess I will just have to keep looking for myself.

It's annoying as there are 3 on eBay right now, all Aero, all fully specced and all sold! I'm about a week late.

[NickM450]

You're all so mean

[NickM450]

Thanks for the heads up

The silver one is now sold and I had excluded the black one after taking a closer look at the pictures.

There was one more at simplysaab.co.uk but I discounted it due to mileage, over 160k, that's also now sold. Guess I should start broadening my search criteria.

What others did you view, did this one feature on your shortlist:

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/2015...

Edited by NickM450 on Saturday 28th February 15:20

[NickM450]

bakerstreet said:

I called up about that one and I was told it was sold. Typical low volume trader. Can't be bothered to remove it from autotrader or their own web site. There is also a £995 car on there, which I Iooked at , but i was garbage. The £1495 one with 160k and roof bars is actually a good car. I test drove that one too.

How can you judge cars purely on milage? At 160k and 10 years old, its only 16k a year, which quite frankly isn't very much. Also, come and look at my car which is better condition than the black car and has considerable more miles The engines are pretty low tech and actually very over engineered (Forged internals). The suspension is worth double checking as its a common failure point. Brakes are also pretty big up front at 330mm and not the cheapest thing to replace.

I didn't buy the one in Hemel and I wasn't even aware there was one for sale in Hemel. Annoying as thats just round the corner from me. I bought mine from a guy in Newark.

The mileage is a mental thing, it's strange because just over the 100k or thereabouts and I'm not too worried, considerably more and I start to get jittery. Completely stupid I know I should really get over it.

What I need is a personal shopper, for cars. I don't have the knowledge to find a good 'un from the pile of available cars and get nervous.

Edited by NickM450 on Sunday 1st March 14:00