My first post here. I wanted to mention that the general tone of this Saab forum is very very negative. I'm glad I didn't read much of the whining before I bought my '94 9000 a couple of months ago. The British Saab forums are much more knowledgeable and informed about Saabs and most members seem to do much of their own work and maintain their cars. Saabs are not very common in much of the US, especially the South, it seems there are many more for sale in the Northeast especially.
I just thought I'd mention a more optimistic viewpoint about Saabs and cars in general than has appeared in this forum. Any car can be called a lemon when there are many things wrong with it. Of course the big question is whether the needed repairs are due to neglectful maintenence or poor design by the manufacturer. Much of the whining seems to be from young and inexperienced car owners that paid very little for their car. Of course any old used car that you don't pay much for is going to have a lot of repair issues. Repairs that go neglected have a way of spiraling out of control on any kind of machine. Cars are subject to a lot of wear because of daily use and require maintenence like any machine with lots of moving parts and different systems such as electrical, water, refrigerant, fuel, steering, suspension, etc. as well as the obvious power train to the wheels. I hate to see it in print that someone thinks his Saab is poorly designed because he bought it cheap and then doesn't want to spend the money to replace the clutch for example.
My Saab is my first. I am 54 years old and have worked for a few years as a mechanic long ago anad have continued doing the majority of our family's car repairs all my life. This Saab I got on Ebay, a '94, is far and away the best car I have ever owned. It has been garage kept and well maintained. It is superb on the highway and rivals any German or Japanese car I have driven. There have been very few significant things for me to repair. The alternator went bad the day after I got it home and it was quite different from any other car I had worked on but I got through it, learned a lot about the car and have come to appreciate a lot of the differrences and intelligent design I have learned about. The serpentine belt and tensioner system is a more expensive but great alternative to the old vee fan belt system. It will last much longer and run more smoothly than vee belts. The engine has two additional rotating shafts inside the engine just for balancing vibrations. The engine is powerful and yet is extremely fuel efficient. My mileage on the highway was 33.5 MPG bringing it home, better than my wife's economy Jetta at 31 MPG. The steering is rack and pinion, rather than a gear box and pitman arm, which is superb. The brakes are four wheel disc, rather than two discs on front and two drums on the rear which are great for stopping. The car is luxurious, sophisticated electronically and everything works inside.
And so it seems Saabs are poorly understood in this country. Underappreciated and undervalued and can therefore be an extremely good buy for a careful shopper and someone that knows how to track down affordable parts. I'm going to get my wife into one also as soon as I can.
Richard Reid
10-22-2006, 10:46 AM
