Faults:

This car is actually really good. I never expected this from a GM car, but hey, I've been proved wrong. It does have a good engine, but it's a little underpowered (131 HP). What happened is this, I bought the car and it was in reasonable shape, I only had to put new tyres and a new disk brake on it. It had 200 000 km, and well, that's a lot. I drive around 500 km a week:

Front suspension had to be replaced at 205000, due to our good road maintenance in Belgium. It cost me 350 euros (490 dollars).

Servo leaked power steering fluid. Pipe had to be replaced at 228000 km, cost me 125 euros for the pipe (rusted) and an hour's work. Saab is not cheap, so I did it at a local dealer.

General Comments:

I think it's a great comfortable car, that unfortunately lacks a bit of power. I'm selling it now, and buying a 2.3 Saab 1994. So you could say that overall it is a good car, and really cheap these days.

It looks great, the interior has a bit too much plastic, great seats, it had air-con, ABS, heated seats, onboard computer, electric windows, a massive trunk, and at great speeds it is really quiet. I owned a BMW 318 IS a couple years before, and it beats that car easily.

Downside, 10 litres at 100 KMs is not cheap or ecodriving!

Faults:

I fixed a broken clutch cable at 91000kms, then problems started with the gearbox. The rear gear became pretty hard to engage, and now I have to press the clutch harder than before if I want to shift gear in a smooth way.

I've noticed that sometimes a big white cloud of smoke is spewing from the exhaust pipe at high speed, but it never caused any troubles or loss of power.

General Comments:

This Saab is a very nice car to drive, handles very well, even in winter (without winter tyres!!) and is pretty silent.

About the motor, well let's say that the car is almost underpowered, the 2.0 133hp is not powerful enough for a car of this weight, just good for a smooth and calm ride, but nothing else. You'll have to get used to be overtaken by Smarts or other tiny cars on the highway.

And about the fuel consumption, it's a disaster, almost 10.5L/100km!!

One of the very good point of this Saab is the interior. I was very impressed by the interior space, the comfort of its seats and the cargo capacity. The dashboard is very nice-looking and practical.