1999 SAAB 9-5 SE review from UK and Ireland

The radio started to overheat when playing Cd's.

The radio lost all signal following a trip to Saab garage.

Two sets of front brake discs.

Intermittent fault on cruise control.

Numerous hose and seal failures.

Inability to select reverse gear-A problem living down a lane in Wales.

Broken cup holder.

Rear window motor failed.

Rear door lock failed.

Both door lock and window now failed on front door as well.

Constantly replacing bulbs.

Battery just died after a 100 mile trip down the motorway.

Finally and most recent some worrying noises from the engine bay under acceleration.

This cars reliability is beyond a joke. In my own opinion if Saab stopped making this car the world would be a better place. The elecrical reliability has been poor and mainly a dealer problem. I can understand a few niggles on a five year old car, but when you have seven problems with the car in the first week which then result in seven trips to the dealer it's just not acceptable. It took Saab six weeks to get a replacement rear windscreen for the car as the aerial filament had and I quote 'gone' gone where? In the end I gave up and got the RAC to do it.

The brake discs had been damaged some how, which I didn't notice until I had been driving it a few days. When I spoke to the dealer they happily changed them or so I thought. When I checked on getting the car back all they had done was replace the brake pads which made no difference so another round trip to the dealer of 70 miles was needed for them to actually do what they said they were going to do.

Gearbox problems on this type of car at 77 thousand miles is just not on and I had to push for the dealer to do a thing under warranty when the entire gear box had been changed including clutch. The attitude I got from their staff was that I had done alright under warranty in terms of value of the work done, to which I think they shouldn't have sold me a faulty car in the first place, especially as pushing it up a lane backwards trying to turn it by yourself is near to impossible.

I thought after my Renault reliability could only get better, but clearly I'll go back to Citreon I started with before that as at least they can make a car that works. My advice to any one thinking of buying a SAAB 9-5 is DON'T DO IT Life's too short to spend it in a garage.