Faults:

I have moved to 2 places with my 2002 9-5 Aero, and each place I have really gotten to know the Saab Service Centers. I can't express enough how this car has ruined my impression of Saabs forever.

In the last 6 months, I have had it towed 8 times. Each time, it has put me or my husband in a dangerous position where it shuts off completely while driving, and the steering wheel locks up. To the point where you can barely steer it off the road.

I have been to one Saab dealership, where #1 they charge you $115 just to look at it, and #2 they can't seem to figure this out. My regular mechanic has been so nice and patient with us bringing it in every other week, he sometimes doesn't charge for the labor. I really think we probably put his first child through a couple years of college. Unfortunately, he has tried everything, and as soon as we get it back, it dies again.

Looking back on the maintenance records, I saw that since I bought the car (almost 5 years ago) I have taken it to be serviced 28 times (or possibly more), which is about once every 2 months. Ridiculous. Luckily the first few years my costs were covered by the warranty.

I will never buy a Saab, and will make sure that I tell anyone considering it to stay far far away, unless of course they love to watch thousands of dollars disappear quickly.

I never was one to express my feelings on picket signs, but I have considered the thought now to do so in front of a dealership. Better yet, maybe I will start a bumper sticker business and the first one will state "Saabs born from jets: let's hope more thought went into creating the jet"

Faults:

I blew the wiper motor during an ice storm due to no fault of the car.

I had phantom "brake light failure" warnings for about 20,000 miles, that just ended one day for no apparent reason.

Recently my check engine light came on and is coding that I have no coolant, but my info display that checks coolant levels (and obviously the visual check of the reservoir) tells me that I indeed HAVE coolant.

The fuel floater in the tank must be broken somehow; if you fill it up, the tank reads empty until it uses an 8th of a tank up.

General Comments:

Most comfortable car I've ever owned. Everyone raves about the seats, the Aero package seats are exponentially superior to the standard seats.

It's a very quick car, but it does have trouble getting the power to the road smoothly without a painful sounding tire hop if you lay into it too hard.

The stability/traction control system is incredible, I live in the northeast and when the roads are bad this car drives excellently, the only thing really stopping it is ground clearance.

Speaking to ground clearance, I've had the front bumper repainted twice to the tune of $1800 to hide marks from curbs and road hazards.

I want to trade it in on a newer model, but it seems no one wants to let these go. I only got this one because it was my dealer's and he was buying a brand new one.

Besides the annoying lights and messages, this car has never stranded me or had any major repairs.