Notorious

Hi all, went and had a look at this today (hope pic below works), I have no experience of saabs and was wondering if anyone on here could give me few pointers, reliability, fuel, performance etc.

Has 62k on clock, full leather, fsh, one owner. It is priced at £6995 and they have offered me 3k trade in on mazda which I think is fair.

TIA

dpb

Another couple of grand gets you the new shape/chassis

Notorious

thanks for that, can't really justify few extra grand on it at the moment.

skinters

At that mileage it shouldnt have any issues. If it's an Aero it will run best on 98Ron (eg Optimax) as the boost is a bit higher and will suffer on poorer fuel.

Cam chains don't need done until about 120k miles++ (£5-600)
DI Cassette can fail but that's normally at 90k + miles (£160)

When you drive it, you want to check it's boosting properly - the boost should go easily into the orange/mid section of the gauge and push towards the red if standard. If it flies past the end of red and into the black, it's been modded
Nail it in 3rd and take it to the red line - it should pull hard all the way smoothly. 2nd gear wont get you full boost, 3rd and up will.

Clutches good for 120k miles - should be no judder.

Handling is not great on these as standard but it should be taught enough with no clunks.
Check the engine mounts look ok and there is not much movement - good way to also check this is the gearstick shouldnt move much at all when you power on/off. If it slops about then something is amiss.

Basically, as long as there's solid evidence of meticulous oil changes with synthetic oil then you'll have a warm feeling.
Sounds silly, but I always check to see what brand the tyres are - if there are any non-matching, or even different front to back with cheap brands then it makes me suspicous on the whole car. A full set of quality tyres tells you a lot about the owner.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Same colour as mine but better looking as mine is a bog standard 5 door.

Check for smoke on startup, can indicate turbo trouble, not the end of the world but possible expense, mine does it occasionally but runs really well and isnt worth much so I am not worrying about the occasional puff of smoke just on startup.

My front suspension has devloped a clonk that needs looking at, changing direction over a roundabout provokes the noise so try that.

I love mine and even though its just the LPT it flies (for a grandad wagon), seems pretty much as quick as the Volvo T5 I had, I dont why its so quick (by my standards, not 300 bhp Scoob owner standards), from 30 to 90 (never go any faster really) it will match a Cooper S and wasnt that far off a Civic Type R, annoyed a Chavved up Saxo last night that couldnt pull away, so the Aero must be mental.

Mine does not handle in any conventional sense, it will go around corners but its not enjoyable or confidence inspiring, the Aero should be better but I am not sure how much slightly wider tyres and diferent springs can make to a fairly ancient crap chassis, stuff can be done (Viggen rescue kit) but if you want a true handler look elsewhere.

Mine is doing between 30 - 37 mpg mainly on motorways, currently it seems to make a difference what fuel I put in, Shell (as Opposed to Tesco's) lasts longer, no explanation but that is my interpretation, lowest I get is 26 on the urban cycle during winter.

Despite its shortcomings I like mine, I paid 4 grand for it, 70,000, FSSH, new tyres, just serviced 14 months ago, going to run it a bit longer and get a diesel next

Notorious

chhers for that info, very helpful. Well I took it for a test drive today, all seemed well then the oil light came on and started to flicker when the car was coming to a standstill, my mate who is a mechanic was with me and he says it may just be an electrical fault, still kinda put a slight damper on it. Have said I will buy it onbasis problem is sorted. With regards to the tyres it has a full set of pretty brand new looking Goodyear F1's so that gave a good impression of the previous owner. When test driving it the roads were busy due to being 3pm, schools etc, felt nice to drive, was a slight shudder from front wheels at times i noticed, again may just need balanced.

So I shall wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Notorious

well few days on now, garage has come back saying that oil gauge seems to be the problem and "not to worry as all will ebe in hand" if I buy. the sales guy didnt really seem to know much detail about it and skirted around the issue a bit.

excuse my ignorance but how big a job/problem is it if the oil gauge needs replaced?

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Depends whether the mean the gauge or the pressure switch, the pressure switch is easy but I would imagine the gauge is part of the panel so a dash out job, might need the whole thing replacing.