I swear, I am so disgusted with my 99 Benz E 300 turbo diesel. I love driving the car, but I have spent well over $1,000 in repairs in 2.5 years ownership (and that's WITH the starmark warranty..what a freakin joke these "certified" cars are!)

Anyway, once I get the latest repair done, this thing is outa here. I'm l,ooking at 2003 9.5 Saab wagon (Linear) with 52,000 on the clock. 5 speed auto trans.

My mechanic (Saab owner) speaks well of this model and year.

Howz about some input from owners that live here?

Yeah yeah, my toyota (and even my 944 S2 dead realiable) but the Asian cars just don't get for me..I really prefer Euro carrs.

Have never owned a Saab. Are parts as expensive as Audi??

Well, it's hard to say for sure if a Saab is right for you or not. I'm on my second (a '97 900 SE turbo, 120k mi) and my dad is on his 4th (or is it 5th) since the late '70s. In general, I'd say they are well designed, unique (albeit much less so than in years gone by), and very satisfying to drive. They do tend to be fussy - fix it now or you'll regret it later - but I think that goes for European cars in general. Also, you definitely cannot afford to skimp on quality gas, oil, and recommended maintenance. One thing I really like about Saabs is the loyal base of owners, very much like the 914 community. If you are inclined to do a little (or a lot) of your own work, you'll have a very helpful army of old timers ready to help you out (be sure to check out saabnet.com). But it would be foolish to expect parts to be available at bargain prices (they aren't) or for the cars to run forever without attention (they won't). My impression vis a vis Audi is that for the first 100k mi, the parts cost/reliability concerns are about equal, but in the second (& third) 100k, Saabs are a lot easier to own.

If you must get a European car....can't see it myself....go with
whichever has the longest bumper to bumper warrantee....Audi comes to mind with their free maintiance deal...or iz'at off now? I had a Beemer once.....got rid of it at 36k miles as "things" were falling off.

German engineering is not nearly as good as Japanese
development.

We have a 99' saab that has been a good car, but you have to keep on top of maintenance. We are lucky in that the saab dealer we bought from has a very good and trustworthy service department.

SAABs of that vintage have electrical and electronic everythings.... My former company had leased SAABS for the sales reps and sold them off after a coupla years.

Some of the engineers I worked with bought and liked the cars but thought they would prolly be a nightmare when the electronics get older...

Kinda like the electrical/electronic problems a lot of the Benzes are experiencing now....

Then again, I like manual door locks...

Ken

We have a 2004 SAAB Sportwagon Linear. 10,000 miles. Zero problems in 14 months. Nice car. Understated. Sophisticated. And driven by zealots. Lots of standard features. My wife says she has become one with the SAAB. I think she's a closet Buddhist.

I have a 2000 Saab 9-5. It is my fifth and unfortunately my last Saab. There is a lot of expensive maint. on them so it is probably not a solution to your concern. I've spent over $2K in parts alone in the last 15 months. They are roomy, powerful, have pretty good brakes. A good car for driving in snow and ice. The cars have many safety design features to them. Now for the bad news. The Saab 9-5's have a serious design problem with the ignition systems (Direct Ignition Modules) The factory is working out a solution to the problem and will then recall the cars. It is reported to only occur on the 4 cylinder motors but I have a 6 cylinder engine and have replaced two modules at $475 each in the last year. My car only has 77k miles on it! Saab also has a design problem with the positive crankcase ventilation system which results in oil slugging problems under certain conditions. Seems to be worse if you live in a high humidity climate, make lots of short trips, don't change your oil frequently enough or if you don't use the recommended synthetic oil. They are about to launch an 8 year unlimited mileage warrenty for the motor only to cover this problem. It will even cover my car clear out to 2008! So far I have dodged the bullitt on this problem. But then we also live in a dry climate, change our oil frequently and do use synthetic oil. The cars have very complex electronic systems, they have many on board computers, etc. None of them cheap. For example if you manage to lose all of your keys, you will have to replace not only the keys but also the security computer module at a cost exceeding $2k. Last spring I had a headlight quit working. It cost $275 to replace a special relay and the work had to be done by a dealer because it required a diagnostic computer just to determine what the problem was. Frankly I can't recommend this car to you or anyone else. Like I said, it is probably the last one we will buy. It is really sad because we had good luck with previously owned Saabs: a 99, a Saab 900 and two Saab 9000's We have driven them for the last 24 years. Lyle

Thanks so much for your unvarnished opinions.

I will stay away from Saab. I know about the sludging and PCV problems. I know they fixed the PCV problems in 2004.

I have no problem properly maintaining a car, but the costs some of you have born, (esp. Lyle in Ft Collins) are not acceptable to me.

Back to the Asians.

I really want a wagon. I had a 2000 Outback. Liked it a lot and when I fell asleep at the wheel and carreened into ditch, $8,000 worth of damage and it STILL climbed out on its own power. I like Suby's but they are little rough around the edges. New turbos are tempting though.

I wish Honda still made the Acoord wagon.

Can I hijack me own thread??

Mazda 6 anyone? Whatcha think?

Any other wagon recommendations?

Seems like you're on the right track...

Japanese cars might not be the most exciting, but most are bullet-proof reliable. We have always owned Nissans and never dealt with anything beyond routine maintenance over the past 20+ years.

My wife drives an Audi A6 wagon. Loves it, and we've spent little on maintenance other than a tranny at 190K. First front brakes last month at 225K!. Rears went at 150K, because a caliper slide stuck from corrosion caused by being in Kansas winters before we bought it. Like a lot of mid 90s cars, the paint on the roof is going away. 24 MPG, big enough for long trips with 4 people and luggage. Cheap to find on the resale market. My son just bought an 03 A4 wagon. He and his wife now fight over who has to drive the Volvo! The Cap'n

is300 sportcross, 100k on mine no issues other than that deer!!!

quick, nice to drive , a little hard to find

Had a friend who had something called "The 10 Year Rule"...

Rando believed that if a type of car was good enough to hold together for 10 years, it was good enough to buy a good one and put a little bit of money in it to get it into great shape and drive it for another 10....

Sure enough, the 10 year rule weeds out a lot of type of cars.....

And identifies the ones that are reliable and might make it to 20....

Ken