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1999 Saab 9.5 Turbo $5500 115k Miles...Opinions?

newParadigm

Diamond Member
:::EDIT:::
Originally posted by: BDawg
Yes, the car must be in reverse to remove the key.

Looked at the car today, and you are wrong. Though you do have to do this tricky thing with pulling up on the shifter skirt to get it into reverse. Didn't go for it, something hinky was going on that the owner wasn't telling, so I passed. Its looking like it might be Miata, Jetta, and new dirtbike time.
EDIT

I'm looking for a new car, cause my Sable (2003) is a pain in the ass. It gets ****** gas mileage, has very poor pickup, and i just don't like it. I can come out of this deal ahead in terms of money (get almost $3k more for my car), and have a better quality built, faster, more fun car.

The Saab has a smaller (2.3L vs 3.0L) more sport tuned engine, so it will get siginificantly better gas milieage, and with the turbo, and because its a stick shift it'll have better pick up than the Sable. It also has AM/FM CD and Casette (stock matching wood grain Head Unit), with brand new subs and speakers (edit: talked to the seller again, car has stock Harmon Kardon speakers, and just had the subs added )(10" 300w ea with a 500w amp). It also has a powered sunroof, climate control front and rear heated seats, all leather interior, as well as woodgrain dash and interior trim.

It seams like a good move to me. Even though it'll be a move upwards in age an mileage, the durability Saab provides should compensate for that. Besides, as I said, I'll end up with money in my pocket, and a better ride. Opinions?
 
I love my 2000 95. I've had very few problems with my car and no major ones. The 99s were the first year, so they might have more problems though.

The Harmon Kardon system in 9-5 is the best factory system I've ever heard. I assume what you have is aftermarket.

The car performs very well for having a 2.3L 4c. I have no issues with acceleration (other than I want a Porsche).

I would buy another one of these in a heartbeat if I can ever drive this one into the ground.
 
Originally posted by: ballmode
Get a $2 grand miata

sell sable and use extra cash to get another car

Idk, kinda wanna stick to one car that I can have fun driving no mater what im doing, ya noe? Plus that 2k miata's will turn into 3k fast, cause i'd need to get a hardtop (upstate NY....snow) and I'd more than likley have to buy out of state to get that kinda of pricing....and my being 18 I DON'T want to have to insure 2 cars.
 
Originally posted by: newParadigm
Originally posted by: ballmode
Get a $2 grand miata

sell sable and use extra cash to get another car

Idk, kinda wanna stick to one car that I can have fun driving no mater what im doing, ya noe? Plus that 2k miata's will turn into 3k fast, cause i'd need to get a hardtop (upstate NY....snow) and I'd more than likley have to buy out of state to get that kinda of pricing....and my being 18 I DON'T want to have to insure 2 cars.

I'm 23 and I don't like insuring 2 cars ('99 accord and '94 miata). I'd have to admit that a miata is a very fun car to drive though 😛
 
Saabs are like most cars, if they have been taken car eof they will be ok if not then...

For 115k check out the timing chain and listen to the balance chain for noise. On the 9-3's/NG900's you have to drop the motor to do both of them, probable the same on the 9-5. Timing chain you can checked by removing the tensioneer and measure how far it is out.

Also it needs to use only syn. oil. If not the turbo and oil pan pickup can sludge up easy. I will be using the wal-mart Supertech Syn. oil with a Motorcraft FL400s filter.

Parts do cost more and finding a good saab tech might be hard. A lot of techs are just scared to work on them but they are juts like any car now, unlike the old ssab that had to be REALLY different.

And of course check out saab central
 
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Saabs are like most cars, if they have been taken car eof they will be ok if not then...

For 115k check out the timing chain and listen to the balance chain for noise. On the 9-3's/NG900's you have to drop the motor to do both of them, probable the same on the 9-5. Timing chain you can checked by removing the tensioneer and measure how far it is out.

Also it needs to use only syn. oil. If not the turbo and oil pan pickup can sludge up easy. I will be using the wal-mart Supertech Syn. oil with a Motorcraft FL400s filter.

Parts do cost more and finding a good saab tech might be hard. A lot of techs are just scared to work on them but they are juts like any car now, unlike the old ssab that had to be REALLY different.

And of course check out saab central

The car has been SAAB serviced for its entire life, and has had practically one owner (the person I'm buying from has only had the car 3 months). I'm not keen enough with cars to check the timing belt, but I may have it done by a mechanic. Because of the fact hat its been SAAB serviced I would expect that its always had Syn Oil, but I'll check with the owner (she has all the service records which will show this...).
 
Originally posted by: newParadigm
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Saabs are like most cars, if they have been taken car eof they will be ok if not then...

For 115k check out the timing chain and listen to the balance chain for noise. On the 9-3's/NG900's you have to drop the motor to do both of them, probable the same on the 9-5. Timing chain you can checked by removing the tensioneer and measure how far it is out.

Also it needs to use only syn. oil. If not the turbo and oil pan pickup can sludge up easy. I will be using the wal-mart Supertech Syn. oil with a Motorcraft FL400s filter.

Parts do cost more and finding a good saab tech might be hard. A lot of techs are just scared to work on them but they are juts like any car now, unlike the old ssab that had to be REALLY different.

And of course check out saab central

The car has been SAAB serviced for its entire life, and has had practically one owner (the person I'm buying from has only had the car 3 months). I'm not keen enough with cars to check the timing belt, but I may have it done by a mechanic. Because of the fact hat its been SAAB serviced I would expect that its always had Syn Oil, but I'll check with the owner (she has all the service records which will show this...).



Just because a car was dealer serviced doe snot mean much. There was the guy that only took his car back to the toyota dealer he bought it from and when the engine sludged up they told him he did not change the oil enough, even though he did it when they said.
So dealer serviced can be good to bad, like any other shop.

But its a timing chain, not belt. Very costly if you don;t do it yourself. Also check coolant. The 2.0/2.3 motors are known to blow head gaskets if not taken care of. And put a cooler thermostat in it if oyu do buy. The factory one is to hot.
 
Not sure about the shape of your car but I drove a '99 9-5 2.3 turbo just like yours when it was new and it was a VERY nice ride. Did 130mph on Autobahn without even really feeling the speed. Great car.
 
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Originally posted by: newParadigm
Originally posted by: Marlin1975
Saabs are like most cars, if they have been taken car eof they will be ok if not then...

For 115k check out the timing chain and listen to the balance chain for noise. On the 9-3's/NG900's you have to drop the motor to do both of them, probable the same on the 9-5. Timing chain you can checked by removing the tensioneer and measure how far it is out.

Also it needs to use only syn. oil. If not the turbo and oil pan pickup can sludge up easy. I will be using the wal-mart Supertech Syn. oil with a Motorcraft FL400s filter.

Parts do cost more and finding a good saab tech might be hard. A lot of techs are just scared to work on them but they are juts like any car now, unlike the old ssab that had to be REALLY different.

And of course check out saab central

The car has been SAAB serviced for its entire life, and has had practically one owner (the person I'm buying from has only had the car 3 months). I'm not keen enough with cars to check the timing belt, but I may have it done by a mechanic. Because of the fact hat its been SAAB serviced I would expect that its always had Syn Oil, but I'll check with the owner (she has all the service records which will show this...).



Just because a car was dealer serviced doe snot mean much. There was the guy that only took his car back to the toyota dealer he bought it from and when the engine sludged up they told him he did not change the oil enough, even though he did it when they said.
So dealer serviced can be good to bad, like any other shop.

But its a timing chain, not belt. Very costly if you don;t do it yourself. Also check coolant. The 2.0/2.3 motors are known to blow head gaskets if not taken care of. And put a cooler thermostat in it if oyu do buy. The factory one is to hot.


Me and good'ol dad are going to look/test drive the car tomorrow at around 4:30. We're gonna setup an appointment with our mechanic, and have hime check out the timeing and balancing chains. It would be helpful if you had any more information about how to check both of these items (any good mechanic should know how, and mine is excelent, but the more you know the btter...hence why im posting here in the first place).

When you say to check the engine coolant I assume you mean to check to make sure its not low when i go to look at the car. As for the thermostat...this car has climate control, so even though you had been talking about engine coolant in the previous sentance, I wanted tto be sure which thermostat you were referring to.

Thanks for all your help, and I really hope this car is what I think it'll be.

~Vince
 
Originally posted by: halik
Originally posted by: Asharus
Do it, anything else other than your current car...

qft

QFT time eleventybillion. I inherited said car from my mother, which we were 'given' when the dealership fvcked the tranny on our Taurus. We had a 2000 Taurus, which were notorius for blowing these seal things on the enging block (there are aluminum plugs to allow water to expand should it get in there in the winter and freeze...). Anyways, they had to pull the tranny to do it, and a month later the car ran out of transmision fluid on the way back from a friends house who lives about 2 hours away. We brought it into another mechanic because we were suspicous, and sure enough, one of the Transmision fluid hoses was incorrectly connected. When we brought the car into the dealership and told them what happened, they gave us the Sable, and kept our payment and loan the same length, we basically traded up 3 years and and about 30k miles (well maybe traded down dependedon how you word it...we went from a 2000 50k miles Taurus to a 2003 20k miles Sable).

Thats why I have a Auto crap for pick-up Sable, instead of the 5 speed Taurus we had...
 
Originally posted by: newParadigm
the person I'm buying from has only had the car 3 months

That throws up some red flags right there, why is the current owner getting rid of the car after 3 months?
Also from what I remember Saabs are generaly designed well but are insanely expensive to fix when something breaks.
If you do buy it remember to put the car in reverse when turning it off, you can't remove the key unless you do.
 
Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Originally posted by: newParadigm
the person I'm buying from has only had the car 3 months

That throws up some red flags right there, why is the current owner getting rid of the car after 3 months?
Also from what I remember Saabs are generaly designed well but are insanely expensive to fix when something breaks.
If you do buy it remember to put the car in reverse when turning it off, you can't remove the key unless you do.

She already has two other cars and is relocating to Vegas for work. She doesn't want to bring all three (BMW, Ford Escape, and the SAAB) with her, so she's selling it off. And thanks for hte reverse heads up thing, wouldn't have known.
 
Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Originally posted by: newParadigm
the person I'm buying from has only had the car 3 months

That throws up some red flags right there, why is the current owner getting rid of the car after 3 months?
Also from what I remember Saabs are generaly designed well but are insanely expensive to fix when something breaks.
If you do buy it remember to put the car in reverse when turning it off, you can't remove the key unless you do.

wtf are you talking about? my dad has a saab. there's nothing special about removing the "key."


=|
 
Originally posted by: theNEOone
Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Originally posted by: newParadigm
the person I'm buying from has only had the car 3 months

That throws up some red flags right there, why is the current owner getting rid of the car after 3 months?
Also from what I remember Saabs are generaly designed well but are insanely expensive to fix when something breaks.
If you do buy it remember to put the car in reverse when turning it off, you can't remove the key unless you do.

wtf are you talking about? my dad has a saab. there's nothing special about removing the "key."


=|

I don't remember if SAAB still had that feature on the 9-5. I know they had it on the 99, (old) 900 and 9000.
 
Originally posted by: theNEOone
Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Originally posted by: newParadigm
the person I'm buying from has only had the car 3 months

That throws up some red flags right there, why is the current owner getting rid of the car after 3 months?
Also from what I remember Saabs are generaly designed well but are insanely expensive to fix when something breaks.
If you do buy it remember to put the car in reverse when turning it off, you can't remove the key unless you do.

wtf are you talking about? my dad has a saab. there's nothing special about removing the "key."


=|

Maybe they changed it but in the 900s I have driven with a manual transmission you were required to put the car in reverse gear before you could remove the key.
 
Originally posted by: theNEOone
Originally posted by: CrackRabbit
Originally posted by: newParadigm
the person I'm buying from has only had the car 3 months

That throws up some red flags right there, why is the current owner getting rid of the car after 3 months?
Also from what I remember Saabs are generaly designed well but are insanely expensive to fix when something breaks.
If you do buy it remember to put the car in reverse when turning it off, you can't remove the key unless you do.

wtf are you talking about? my dad has a saab. there's nothing special about removing the "key."


=|

A stick shift?
 
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