2002 SAAB 9-3 2.0 Aero Coupe?
Discussion
The wife's lease car goes back in 3 weeks and as I've managed to offload my PHEV to her for the kids (always part of the plan) I'm free to go shedding for a year until we do a full reset of cars.
£800...Care to start guessing?
Seven seconds to 60-ish...
£800...Care to start guessing?
Seven seconds to 60-ish...
Edited by stewjohnst on Wednesday 3rd May 22:46
Hotel India said:
Based on the pic, 4 cylinder, possible turbo, I'm going for Saab 900/9-3.
We have a winner - Have a bag of frozen sauasages for emergency gardening use only.I knew the photo was giving too much away but there you go.
It's a 2001 SAAB 9-3 2.0 manual Aero coupe.
160-odd on the clock, FSH and probably shot valve stem seals but what's a bit of oil burnt between friends?
It's motd till October so I'll run it around until then and see what's what.
I looked at 9-5 Aeros but as with the Volvo I'd have plumped for an estate and ended up keeping it forever to cart the dog around.
The coupe is just about impractical enough to keep the wife at bay but as it's a late model SAAB it does have isofix and all the boring safety things I have to care about now I'm a dad.
I really wanted another E36 touring but when I looked at the ncap report it was a bit of a worry for the miles i do...
Hotel India said:
Bloody hell - didn't expect to be right! I feel ashamedly happy.
Nice car - love Saabs, but bought the wrong one myself. Only car I regret buying.
Yours looks nice - elegant. Hope it serves you well til 'reset'.
Bloody autocorrect. And here I am avoiding marking English Literature mock exams...
I've had a Saab before, I had to do three months of commuting when I had a Fiat Barchetta and didn't fancy that up the M1 every week so I bought a 9-5 2.0lpt auto (slow but comfy). I paid £900 for that with 12 month tax and ebayed it 6000 miles and theee months later for £710.Nice car - love Saabs, but bought the wrong one myself. Only car I regret buying.
Yours looks nice - elegant. Hope it serves you well til 'reset'.
Bloody autocorrect. And here I am avoiding marking English Literature mock exams...
I needed a manual petrol after trundling around in a cvt hybrid and it might be middle age but I think the 9-3 has aged pretty well.
I'm looking forward to the run from Bristol to Leeds in it tomorrow afternoon to get a feel for it, expecting a comfy SAAB seating position (Aero electric seats) and a nice slug of mid range torque to play with.
A slightly fraught start to the collection, I fell asleep before setting the alarm for the London train this morning so had to take my current car to the station to guarantee 'brisk progress' to make the train.
After a brief interval brought about by going to an office to do the job I'm paid for, I'm now sat on the train to Bristol to meet the vehicle and buyer...
My budget £1.99 history check says nothing out of the ordinary on the stolen/write off front so all is good
After a brief interval brought about by going to an office to do the job I'm paid for, I'm now sat on the train to Bristol to meet the vehicle and buyer...
My budget £1.99 history check says nothing out of the ordinary on the stolen/write off front so all is good
So what have I bought?
Well it's a 2002 last of the line-ish SAAB 9-3 with 160,000 on the clock.
Out of the factory it had 205 horses from a 2.0 turbo lump, its a manual as opposed to the lazy auto so I'm looking forward to using a clutch again (no doubt I'll forget at the first roundabout I come to and stall it in fifth).
I'm assured it has FSH up to 147k and the current owner has had some work done himself that shows a certain level of understanding for the car.
Namely, a steering brace (because the GM approach to mounting the rack to the bulkhead used to cause cracking and failures) and a replacement of brake lines amongst other things.
There's a long mot history and although there's a lot of bits and bobs on advisory, they're the sort of things you'd expect to see on a 15 year old car, gradual brake line corrosion, wonky lights, etc.
The history is a lot cleaner than some of the later model 9-3 Aeros I looked at (no EML/warning lights/airbag failures, etc) which was one of the reasons that put me off the newer version as a snotter.
As an Aero, it has the big comfy seats but they're not heated and it has the carbon effect dash as opposed to grandads coffee table walnut trim so the cabin shouldn't be horrific to be staring out of.
The valve stem seals are worn so it uses a bit of oil I'm told but it has MOT until October so I intend to run it around until then and if it isn't dead we'll see what to do.
I'm intending on keeping standard as all my years of company carting and insuring the missus means my own NBC has long since expired so Insurance isn't great, I required my insurance to include a remap and it added a zero to an already three figure sum...
I have still bookmarked the Maptun site though (250bhp and 360nm stage 1 - tempting).
Haven't seen it in the flesh yet so of course it could be a pup...but that's half the fun
Well it's a 2002 last of the line-ish SAAB 9-3 with 160,000 on the clock.
Out of the factory it had 205 horses from a 2.0 turbo lump, its a manual as opposed to the lazy auto so I'm looking forward to using a clutch again (no doubt I'll forget at the first roundabout I come to and stall it in fifth).
I'm assured it has FSH up to 147k and the current owner has had some work done himself that shows a certain level of understanding for the car.
Namely, a steering brace (because the GM approach to mounting the rack to the bulkhead used to cause cracking and failures) and a replacement of brake lines amongst other things.
There's a long mot history and although there's a lot of bits and bobs on advisory, they're the sort of things you'd expect to see on a 15 year old car, gradual brake line corrosion, wonky lights, etc.
The history is a lot cleaner than some of the later model 9-3 Aeros I looked at (no EML/warning lights/airbag failures, etc) which was one of the reasons that put me off the newer version as a snotter.
As an Aero, it has the big comfy seats but they're not heated and it has the carbon effect dash as opposed to grandads coffee table walnut trim so the cabin shouldn't be horrific to be staring out of.
The valve stem seals are worn so it uses a bit of oil I'm told but it has MOT until October so I intend to run it around until then and if it isn't dead we'll see what to do.
I'm intending on keeping standard as all my years of company carting and insuring the missus means my own NBC has long since expired so Insurance isn't great, I required my insurance to include a remap and it added a zero to an already three figure sum...
I have still bookmarked the Maptun site though (250bhp and 360nm stage 1 - tempting).
Haven't seen it in the flesh yet so of course it could be a pup...but that's half the fun
Said vehicle is now in my possession for the sum of £800 and has been for the last hundred miles or so.
Overall, it's a very comfy place to be, the seats are very supportive and must be good as they say 'Turbo' on them.
I'm on my iPhone so expecting sideways photo posts but...
There are the usual Saab-isms, when you save a memory position in the seat, there's a helpful beep that goes off somewhere behind the dashboard to let you know it's saved it, and of course there's the Saab reverse lock which I forgot about at the first petrol stop...
The interior in general doesn't look like it's done 160,000 miles, there's not even any leather lost off the seats.
The raft of 50mph roadworks on the m5 gave me the chance to do some 50-70 accelerations, naturally I dropped it to third and acceleration is more than adequate.
It's also nice and torquey regardless of gears and the engine has a nice low gruff sort of growl.
Overall, it's a very comfy place to be, the seats are very supportive and must be good as they say 'Turbo' on them.
I'm on my iPhone so expecting sideways photo posts but...
There are the usual Saab-isms, when you save a memory position in the seat, there's a helpful beep that goes off somewhere behind the dashboard to let you know it's saved it, and of course there's the Saab reverse lock which I forgot about at the first petrol stop...
The interior in general doesn't look like it's done 160,000 miles, there's not even any leather lost off the seats.
The raft of 50mph roadworks on the m5 gave me the chance to do some 50-70 accelerations, naturally I dropped it to third and acceleration is more than adequate.
It's also nice and torquey regardless of gears and the engine has a nice low gruff sort of growl.
There are as expected, some foibles. I'm going to be putting about a half a litre of oil a month in by the sounds of the old owner (oh well) but it's averaged a decent 40mpg so far - no doubt the roadworks at 50 are helping.
The sid display has missing pixels, ditto the aircon unit but other than that - touch wood it seems ok.
Not sure I'll be using the coat hook on the drivers grab handle though
So it's managed 300 miles and got me home safely.
Other observations, after filling up the tank halfway home, I noticed that the fuel filler release button on the door didn't seem to do anything and I also noticed a squeak from the rear of the car had developed...
...by the time I reached Tibshelf for another stop I managed to identify the root cause for both - Me.
I'd assumed I was back in a 9-5 (they had boot and fuel cap release on the door) and I pressed the boot thinking it was the fuel flap...one good slam later and the squeak was gone.
M62 was closed on the last bit of the leg so a bit of a country laning revealed that torque steer is alive and well, accelerating and hanging gear on the worn roads near me feels a little like waking on marbles but it all adds character.
The front spoiler is a bit low and catches on kerbs so there's some minor damage there and the front fog has been replaced at some point as the glass is smoked on one and clear on the other.
I also noticed that it didn't have the model designation on the rear, just the wings so it adds a bit of Q-car fun.
Other observations, after filling up the tank halfway home, I noticed that the fuel filler release button on the door didn't seem to do anything and I also noticed a squeak from the rear of the car had developed...
...by the time I reached Tibshelf for another stop I managed to identify the root cause for both - Me.
I'd assumed I was back in a 9-5 (they had boot and fuel cap release on the door) and I pressed the boot thinking it was the fuel flap...one good slam later and the squeak was gone.
M62 was closed on the last bit of the leg so a bit of a country laning revealed that torque steer is alive and well, accelerating and hanging gear on the worn roads near me feels a little like waking on marbles but it all adds character.
The front spoiler is a bit low and catches on kerbs so there's some minor damage there and the front fog has been replaced at some point as the glass is smoked on one and clear on the other.
I also noticed that it didn't have the model designation on the rear, just the wings so it adds a bit of Q-car fun.
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