Please spare the me the third or fourth-hand "my brother-in-law's best friend's wife's second cousin owned a Saab. He said it broke down all the time" B.S.

Anyhow, looking for a nice wagon for my wife. What we really want is a W124 wagon but finding really nice ones is becoming quite difficult. We do not want a W210 wagon. Put aside the dead-horse discussion of real or perceived decline in quality from W124 to W210 - we just don't liike the way the W210 wagon looks. Found a nice W124 being sold by a member of this site but I'm not ready to pull the trigger until April or May and this car is going to be long-gone.

Anyhow, in addition to the 124, I'm intrigued by later-model Saab 9-5 wagons. These would require a short-term car note but in comparison to late-model BMW and MB wagons, it seems that one gets a lot for the money with the Saab. I have driven several 2002 and 2003 9-5 wagons. The Linear is nice enough. The Aeros, especially those with the manual gearbox, go like a scalded cat!

Saab has the most comfortable seats I have put my tush in outside of an LS430. We're not considering a Volvo wagon as their reliability is poor. Acura and Lexus don't make wagons - well, Lexus had the IS300 but it is far too small. BMW 5-series is also a possibility but much more expensive used than the Saabs.

Resale value of these cars is not good so you get a lot of car for the money buying a 3 or 4-year-old version. Ventillated seats, 250+ HP, Xenon headlamps...

Consumer Reports and several other impartial rating agencies show good to excellent reliability for 9-5s post-2001. Wanted to see if anyone has specific experience with these cars. I've been over to saabnet.com and there's some good info over there, though with the limited appeal of these cars the traffic is less than I'd hope for.

Any thoughts or experience with these cars?

I worked on SAAB's for a while and I liked them. I think they get a bad rap because of the older models. They were easy to work on and Fast. Every time I left the dealership I smoked the tires on one. Try and find a 9-5 Aero their even faster and look cool.

You need to research the sludge issues with the 9-5.

My cousin just bought a new one, sedan. Nice car silver black interior, auto all the goodies. I like it almost enough to defect from MB, what keeps me is the fact that I keep thinking GM when I look at it. But I guess its under warranty so what could go wrong...

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

We had a 9-3 with a sludge problem. That was the only one. Since then I have had to fix a landrover discovery with the same problem and a ford 351 windsor in a pickup. I dont know what causes it but I dont think that problem is isolated to the saab.

Toyota camry and sienna suffered from sludging pretty badly too.

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08 W251 R350
97 W210 E320
91 W124 300E
86 W126 560SEL
85 W126 380SE Silver
85 W126 380SE Cranberry
79 W123 250
78 W123 280E
75 W114 280

Loooooong oil changes?

Toyota's is very old news, I think 1995-99 had an issue with it. Fualty crank case vent, fixed a long time ago.

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1999 SL500
1969 280SE
2023 Ram 1500
2007 Tiara 3200

My older brother has had a bunch of SAABs, the most recent being a 9-5 wagon he's owned for ~4 years. I drove it a couple hundred miles while visiting this summer. I think it's an Aero, but am not certain. At any rate, it has the turbo-four engine, with an automatic in this case.

My thoughts: It has an impressive amount of cargo space given the overall size of the car. However, a 124 or 210 wagon is much larger both inside and outside. (I've owned both.) Front seats are fine, backseat is on the tight side.

It has a significantly firm ride, be certain you can live with that before choosing the hot rod version. Tire life is relatively short, and tires somewhat expensive on the Aero model.

It's comfortable and reasonably quiet. (The MB is a bit better in these regards.) Fuel mileage is quite good - I saw ~26MPG with bicycles and a rooftop carrier. Quality of the interior bits is reasonable, but definately below the BMW/MB standard. The A/C seemed weak - and this was in Michigan, where it doesn't even get hot. Ventilated seats are a novelty, they are very noisy and tend not to be used much as a result. All necessary toys were present and accounted for - sunroof, electric seats, xenon headlights, etc.

It definately has enough acceleration. But like most FWD cars, the steering gets squirrely and numb under acceleration. Auto trans is only a four speed, so somewhat behind the times there.

I don't know of any particular problems he's had with the car, so it must be reasonably reliable. I think he's put ~40K on it. I think it's going up for sale in the spring, as he just picked up an '06 CDI E-class.

My $.02. However, so many things are subjective. I think the Lexus LS has the worst seats in which I've ever parked my posterior.

- JimY

My brother and sister-in-law have a '00 9-5 wagon that they bought about 2 years ago from Lexus dealer here in Bham. Local trade w/ 50K or so on the clock. Nice looking and comfortable; looked very well cared for. They have sunk well over $5K in the car since purchase. Most expensive was some kind of ABS module that essentially fries the whole computer when out. Saab wanted nearly $3K for the part. Other oddball stuff....and I haven't even billed him for the time I've spent listening to him ***** about it.....

Last problem involved too-short belt (installed by dealer) that somehow sheared the pulley off the water pump during drive to FL for vacation with his 2 yr old in backseat. I think a lawsuit is still being considered. He's a $#^$# lawyer, so it's free for him.....

Short of it,, they like the car, but probs have been substantial. He's looking for a BMW 5 series wagon to replace it.

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TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K

I've got one. A 2001 9-5 V-6 Wagon; although, there is not much to tell the 1999 through My wife insisted on it. She had a 900 SPG when we first met. That was a really fun car. Then we got married and started making babies so we sold it and ended up with a brand new 1996 Grand Caravan. A couple of years ago she had enough of that and insisted on the 9-5 wagon. Faced with $40K + for a new one I found one on e-bay which I scored for about $10k under bluebook.

Purchased it with about 26K miles and it has about 45K now. The pixel display went out and was replaced under warranty. The crank sensor went out after the warranty expired by time. Cost about $325 to replace. I would have tried to do it myself, but I did not have time.

It is a comfortable ride, although we have never taken it on any long trips - we use the mini-van for that. The heated seats are nice. Drives well in the snow. It is a hole heck of a lot faster than my 300SD.

Here is an interesting link: http://www.saabnet.com/

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http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...aman/Fleet.jpg

Peach Parts W124.128 User Group.

80 280SL
85 300SD
87 300TD
92 300D 2.5 Turbo
92 300TE 4Matic

Had a 2001 9-5 Linear.

Strengths:
-really good on gas(~30mpg), but flick the switch to "sport" mode and it's a guzzler(~18mpg).
-even the base Linear has snazzy acceleration, but only on sport mode.
-RELIABLE. Seriously, it is. I never had anything go wrong with it in the 4 years I had it. Oh yeah, just a dead (original) battery when I was selling it.
-Lots of interior space, especially compared to a C240 which is in the same price range.

Weaknesses:
-The Linear's suspension SUCKS A$$. It's soft and all over the place, there's no excuse for this. If you're using this as a highway cruiser or a grocery getter, no problem. If you're planning to zip around on errands and meetings throughout the day and are an agressive driver, you will not enjoy this car.
-The seats are meant for large people, not for shinny or average weight people. When you take a sharp turn, you will slide around in your seat provided you weigh less than 200lbs. This will get annoying.

That's all I can think of.

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