Faults:

Radiator developed a leak.

Heater valve jammed on hot.

Oil leaks.

Lots of squeaks and rattles.

General Comments:

I bought the 900, because I always liked them, and I saw a low mileage rust free 900i for sale locally, so I snapped it up. It was black with tan cloth, and despite being the basic 'i' model, it had electric windows, central locking and a sunroof.

I found the cloth interior unpleasant however, and changed it to black leather; black on black 900s look awesome!

I was disappointed with the performance; even after a total service and tune up, it ran perfectly hot or cold, but didn't have much to give power wise. It was happy to sit at 70mph all day long, but anything more got very noisy indeed; the engine didn't like it.

Fuel economy average to poor for a 2.0 too.

The heater, once sorted, was amazing though, and with leather trim it was very comfy to sit in, although the ride is very harsh at times.

I put 4 new tyres on the car, which improved it no end, and actually the handling is surprisingly sharp for such an old design.

Visibility is good, and the enormous bumpers help it to avoid damage from careless parkers, but the size of the windscreen means the wipers are small.

Headlights not great as standard, but easily fixed with uprated bulbs.

Oddly for a car designed in a snowy country, it had a bizarre quirk, when actually driving in falling snow, it would find its way through the grille and onto the radiator, causing steam; worrying when you see it for the 1st time!

I don't think they are the indestructible vehicle SAAB enthusiasts think they are, they certainly don't do anything a similar aged BMW or Mercedes can't do, and some of the design flaws are just stupid; it's impossible to change some of the front suspension bushes with the engine in the car!!

It's an oddball classic and great fun to own, but personally I think slightly overrated.

Faults:

For a 16 year old car, remarkably little - and mostly relatively minor.

Rear shock absorber detached, and rear suspension needed about £700 of work to rebuild, including some welding. This may have been due to rust.

Needed some welding around front suspension area to pass MOT.

Required fix of ground fault in rear lights.

Required carb adjustment to pass MOT emissions test.

Required new distributor cap (replaced rotor arm too) to try and make engine run smoother from cold - burned electrodes. This helped, but the carb was probably needing cleaned out - although I never actually got the time to overhaul this before I have the car away. It ran very rough on cold days, sometimes on only 2 or 3 cylinders if I let it idle with the choke out, but was just fine after warming up for 5 minutes, or if I kept the mixure lean, and foot on the accelerator at idle. It wouldn't go above about 65 mph probably because of this carb problem.

Heated seats stopped working, although not really worth fixing.

Rear demister decayed (expected with age)

General Comments:

A very solid, comfortable, and pleasant to drive car. Nice soft suspension that gave a comfortable ride on the often poor UK roads. For a 16 year old vehicle, amazingly all instruments, the original Phillips radio (after a little rewiring), and the heater all still worked perfectly. Lots of boot space, but had a silly spacesaver spare wheel.

This vehicle was very uneconomic. The 1985cc carburettor petrol engine was quite thirsty, as one would expect for a relatively unsophisticated petrol engine that was being started from cold, and run for short journeys of 10 miles or so, while hauling nearly 1.7 tonnes of steel.

Faults:

Wheel Bearings go at 100K. Head Gasket replaced at 130K. Apart from routine servicing from NON franchised mechanic, no other problems (Honest).

General Comments:

Car has been in family for 10 yrs, and 150K miles. A good, extremely safe car, after all the passengers are generally irreplaceable!!!