Saab 9-5 Estate road tests and consumer car reviews

Saab 9-5 Estate Vector sport estate 2002

A rough noisy engined car that rolls around on bends, has iffy build quality and no real torque for its size. Trading on past glories it’s probably no surprise Saab went into receivership as whilst their competitors were dramatically improving their cars, Saab chose to carry on claiming that their’s were based on aircraft design!! We bought our Saab when it was about 3 years old (24k on an 02 plate) with the comfort pack and it’s now got 138k on clock. The auto box is flaring and surging all the time, particularly when travelling on bendy/hilly roads and you’re on and off the throttle. Motorway driving is ok, but for what was a £27k car this is just completely unacceptable; I don’t know whether to go for a replacement gearbox or just carry on driving till it grinds to a halt. On the plus side it’s roomy and comfortable particularly on our trips to Scotland and the comfort pack is good. Having said that and given the gearbox problems, I don’t know if the winter mode will be working if we get snow this year! I agree with one of your correspondents who said garages seem to think £450 is reasonable for a service on a 9year old Saab - they’re all chancers! Oh yeah, and the sat nav has been pretty poor as it never seems to recognise postcodes that have been in existence for ages!

Saab 9-5 Estate Aero Sportwagon 2007

Strengths: Character. Build quality. Allround drivability. Capability on roads covered with snow or ice. Very comfortable. Safety (have 3 small children). The wife sees the car as a "sensible choice" - The father gets a very sporty and capable "family car" (Vs equivalent booooring diesel MPV’s and SUV’s..). As a second hand car I’m personally of the impression that no other marque out there gives even closely as much car for as litle money! Weakness: Well, as with most US intervention, the products suffer. GM has exploited the Swedish technology and build quality, and payed back with typical US cheap and nasty plastic! This may work for the US market, but surely has done no good for marqu-building in Europe! To make it even worse, they put on those nasty "Dame-Edna" glasses! I wonder who was in charge of the design department at that stage??! Anyway, you can now get them changed in original bodycolour at Abbotracing. Summary: Saab 9-5 Aero versions are uniqe in what they offer. Yes, there are more luxurious cars, faster cars, better equipped ones, but they are also more expensive, especially second-hand, BUT what are you actually paying for? One of the biggest critiques towards the new generation 9-5 when introduced in 2006 was that it was not handling as sharply as its BMW and Audi rivals. Seriously! What’s referred to here is borderline track racing, with luxury family cars! And the margins are minimal! The Aero is with no question a sporty car and more capable than 95% of all the other family-estates out there. It is being sporty, representing great building quality, has tons of space, is safer than most cars at its age, has all the equipment you actually need (Vs paying for lots of useless gatgets - which will break sooner or later and devalue the car.) But most of all it is representing the Scandinavian essence, which is a sence of functional understatement. Why? Because we have no need to shout out that we’re capable. We know for ourselves, and that is enough ;-) It’s easy to overlook it in the pressence of all the "bling" and shouty cars out there. With the Aero you have to stop and actually do a bit of thinking before you consider buying one. If your after quality and the joy of drivingexperience, I higly recomend it! If your goal is status, impressing the neighbour or being staggered by presence, then there are plenty of alternatives out there. Still, you may ask yourself why most buyers of this car happens to be architects, doctors/dentists, lawyers, engineers etc ;-)

Saab 9-5 Estate Arc 2004

A great workhorse. I don’t normally buy new or nearly new cars but this was an exception. 217,000 miles and it has only needed a new wheel bearing, tyres, a number plate light bulb and wiper blades. Still sporting the original exhaust. Leather interior comes up like new. Reading the other reviews it sounds like I have been lucky, but I’m really pleased with the running costs. Fortunately we can avoid dealers prices in Devon as there are great specialists around for servicing. Good value cars if someone else has taken the hit on the depreciation.

Saab 9-5 Estate 1.9 tid estate 2009

This is the second Saab I have owned and so far have never experienced any mechanical problems. Recently I have had a serious operation and the car has been garaged for seven weeks. I took it out last week and it fired up first time and drives as smoothly as it ever did. I am extremely satisfied with this car. Its roomy, rock solid, safe and overtaking in second and third gears is reassuring on A roads. I like the fact that its got a unique layout and It fits neatly between the pricey German cars and the rest.

Saab 9-5 Estate 1.9 TiD Vector 2006

A very comfortable ride. As I use mine for mainly motorway driving I have clocked up 91000 miles before having a swirl inlet manifold problem that, having searched dealers for a competitive quote got variations ranging from £960 to £650. The interior starting falling apart after about 26000 miles. I have always been a Saab fan but now the car is nothing more than a Vauxhall Vectra with a Saab badge; the brand has lost its prestige. Residual values are a complete joke my 22,000 pounds car after 3 years is now worth 6000 pounds, that’s if you can get someone to take it off your hands. I have had BMW’s and Audi’s before this 9 5 and was shocked when quoted for a service at 480 pounds, my previous BM’s and Audi serving never cost more than 240 pounds. Dealers have poor customer service levels and the price of everything varies so widely you wonder if they are competing to see who they can rip off the most. AVOID AT ALL COSTS TOTAL RUBBISH

Saab 9-5 Estate 2006

I’ve had this car for just over a month and the jury is still out. After a disaster with an Audi A4 Estate with a very dodgy auto gearbox I struggled to get another diesel auto. It has a nice ’cockpit’ and huge boot and is comfortable. However, the actual drive is not so good. Motorway driving is great and it’s very economical. Driving round Derbyshire up hills and needing accelaration out of bends is a real problem as the car is determined to drop down a gear prematurely. The end result is a surge of power shooting you out of the corner which today on very wet roads, covered in leaves, was not good. The dealership are saying there is nothing wrong but it’s going back this week for another check as it’s still covered by the manufacturers warranty. My brother seems to think this is a throttle problem and not the gearbox, let’s see how we get on. Even though the Audi had a dodgy gearbox it was much smoother to drive. On the upside, the Saab has parking sensors and you can pull the mirrors in and out electronically which is ideal for parking near the school. Giving it a 3 purely based on the drive as the car is at present so that may be a bit harsh. Oh I forgot, the drinks holder is the best part of the car, it’s totally space age. £9k a lot ot pay to hold your capuccino though!

Responses to this review

Hi Sarah... Just read your review in respect to the gearbox of the Aaab (and previously of the Audi). I thnk the fault may lie with the foot extender contol mechanism. This control mechanism uses both the throttle and brake alternatively and this may be why your brother may have thought the problem to be related to the throttle rather than the gearbox. A simple test would be to try to drive into the bend at the correct speed. The foot extender control mechanism would then send a message to the gearbox, through the throttle, that the car is being driven by a capable driver. The revs would adjust accordiongly resulting in the gearbox selecting the correct gear for exiting the coner. Just a thought... John from Ireland

Saab 9-5 Estate 2.2 TiD 2002

After my 900S of 1997 reached around 250000 mostly happy miles, we decided to have a 9-5 estate to get a more family-friendly ride. What a disaster! Not only the 9-5 diesel is noisy, it’s mechanics are extremely poor quality: had to replace EGR-valve, turbo, air-mass sensor, oil-pressure sensor, turbo-sensor, nearly all the turbo tubing, breaking down approximately every 2 months after a problem less first 80000 miles. It keeps starting really badly, even after several days in the garage to solve this problem, on hot days it just won’t start unless it’s towed to it. The dealer has been wonderful so far, but pricey. everytime you think that "this must be about all that can break on a car" you find out there’s even more low-quality GM-parts in this Saab. AVOID under all circumstances!

Saab 9-5 Estate 1.9 TiD Airflow 4dr

I recently test drove this model and found it to be a nice car. Looks great, drive was very smooth and comfortable and handling was responsive. The interior was comfortable but there’s a lot of cheap looking plastic in there. The running cost on this car are very competitive to other estate cars out there but the residual value is unfortunately extremely low. Next!