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?