The cost effective Saab 9-3 TID 150 Sportwagon
Discussion
Background - I had a 53 plated 9-5 2.2 TID estate back in 2015 which whilst broadly comfortable and visually ok though wasn't really smart enough according to MrsC having racked up nearly 40k miles in 2 yrs (& was showing 155k miles).
I liked the fact that Saabs were a relatively niche car & they had suffered unfairly from a trade value point of view after the collapse of the manufacturer & were quite a bit less in cost terms than the equivalent German competitors of the same age. I set a budget (ideally around £3.5k), it needed to be no more than say 120k miles, be a facelift 150 TID version (I expected to do about 400 miles a week) & not in silver or black. Man maths briefly stretched the budget into shabby TTID cars & having missed a couple of TIDs well within budget & seen some very dog-eared TTIDs for more £s, I stumbled across a little Saab specialist nr Lutterworth who had a 2 owner 9-3 TID 150 Vector Sport with FSH for £3850 with 113k miles & it had had the necessary water pump/ cambelt changed 2 yrs before by the specialist.
I'll post up some better pics shortly although here's the car with its winter "boots", having had the rear windows tinted for practical reasons i.e. to keep the pooches cooler when they were in the back....
Important "cargo" in the boot....WOOF
In the 2 yrs I've owned it, it only cost me the following other than tyres/regular servicing & as normal my trusted little local garage looked after it; flexi front exhaust section, rear exhaust box, front ARBs, set of discs/pads all round & a 4 wheel alignment. I dropped the oil out regularly at about half the recommended miles & it flew through every MOT without a glance of the advisory pen. Having done 47k miles with me (showing now just over 160k miles), it's just left with its' new owner for a quieter life (I was at times doing 800 miles a week) and in hard £s, the depreciation was £2,200. PH Classifieds again served me well & with a thorough clean & with an accurate description/decent pics it stood out from the other cars being advertised generally.
Yes, I marginally "pimped" it with the rear privacy tint, had the original wheels refurb'd properly as they needed a spruce up & also bought a shabby set of convertible rims including tyres for £50 off Fleabay (now refurb'd as per the pic with winter tyres & as of 2 hrs ago now surplus & waiting until late autumn '17 to resell them), though it's been exceptionally reliable/comfortable and never dipped below 45mpg with a best of 52 mpg in my hands.
If you're considering a smart looking family estate car for not a lot of money that's not from a big manufacturer, I'd recommend you have a look at one of these & in case you ask, I've just bought an X3 M-Sport 2.0d that's just run in at 100k miles (you might see a pattern in car ownership
)The moral of this ownership experience is that you can run a decent looking family estate car for not a lot of cash if you're savvy. 
I liked the fact that Saabs were a relatively niche car & they had suffered unfairly from a trade value point of view after the collapse of the manufacturer & were quite a bit less in cost terms than the equivalent German competitors of the same age. I set a budget (ideally around £3.5k), it needed to be no more than say 120k miles, be a facelift 150 TID version (I expected to do about 400 miles a week) & not in silver or black. Man maths briefly stretched the budget into shabby TTID cars & having missed a couple of TIDs well within budget & seen some very dog-eared TTIDs for more £s, I stumbled across a little Saab specialist nr Lutterworth who had a 2 owner 9-3 TID 150 Vector Sport with FSH for £3850 with 113k miles & it had had the necessary water pump/ cambelt changed 2 yrs before by the specialist.
I'll post up some better pics shortly although here's the car with its winter "boots", having had the rear windows tinted for practical reasons i.e. to keep the pooches cooler when they were in the back....
Important "cargo" in the boot....WOOF
In the 2 yrs I've owned it, it only cost me the following other than tyres/regular servicing & as normal my trusted little local garage looked after it; flexi front exhaust section, rear exhaust box, front ARBs, set of discs/pads all round & a 4 wheel alignment. I dropped the oil out regularly at about half the recommended miles & it flew through every MOT without a glance of the advisory pen. Having done 47k miles with me (showing now just over 160k miles), it's just left with its' new owner for a quieter life (I was at times doing 800 miles a week) and in hard £s, the depreciation was £2,200. PH Classifieds again served me well & with a thorough clean & with an accurate description/decent pics it stood out from the other cars being advertised generally.
Yes, I marginally "pimped" it with the rear privacy tint, had the original wheels refurb'd properly as they needed a spruce up & also bought a shabby set of convertible rims including tyres for £50 off Fleabay (now refurb'd as per the pic with winter tyres & as of 2 hrs ago now surplus & waiting until late autumn '17 to resell them), though it's been exceptionally reliable/comfortable and never dipped below 45mpg with a best of 52 mpg in my hands.
If you're considering a smart looking family estate car for not a lot of money that's not from a big manufacturer, I'd recommend you have a look at one of these & in case you ask, I've just bought an X3 M-Sport 2.0d that's just run in at 100k miles (you might see a pattern in car ownership
)The moral of this ownership experience is that you can run a decent looking family estate car for not a lot of cash if you're savvy. Edited by MrC986 on Monday 24th April 22:26
pixelatedJH said:
Noticed this on the classifieds the other day and was very tempted - Lovely looking car and the new owner got a very good deal
Thanks. I was conscious there are "trade" cars around the £1.5k mark with similar miles, albeit when you look at them, quite a few have a "colourful" MOT history. Also 160k miles puts quite a few off looking at cars like mine though I'd over serviced mine & made sure it was sold with a new MOT and put a new pair tyres on as well. The new owner will put a non age based plate on it & will have a good looking (IMO) car that'll probably never be worth less than £750 in the future even with another 75k miles on it.If you're looking for a similar car, I'm sure you'll find one soon & hopefully won't have to travel too far though the cream coloured leather on some doesn't age well & shows the dirt nicely...FWIW I'm Midlands based & my 9-5 was bought from Plymouth!
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