2000 SAAB 9-3 Reviews - Page 2 of 11

25th Oct 2011, 15:28

Didn't use synthetic oil, eh? Bad idea on an engine with DOHC and a turbo.

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2000 SAAB 9-3 S 2.0 turbo from UK and Ireland

Year of manufacture	2000
First year of ownership	2007
Engine and transmission	2.0 turbo Manual
Performance marks	5 / 10
Comfort marks	5 / 10
Overall marks (average of all marks)	5.0 / 10
Distance when acquired	80000 miles
Most recent distance	100000 miles
Previous car	Rover - Austin 200

Summary:

Total and utter rubbish

Faults:

Brakes were crap... replaced rotors / pads, everything. Made bugger all difference. Bulkhead flex leaves you with a crap pedal.

PAS cooler ruptured - rusted through.

General Comments:

Utter rubbish GM crap with a SAAB engine.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 9th November, 2010

29th Aug 2011, 03:27

First of all, let us be very clear from the start that the majority of Saab main dealers are a complete waste of time and money. The only sensible way to maintain a Saab car is to find yourself an independent specialist.

This I have done, a small independent Saab specialist where both the partners are time served Saab trained apprentices (when apprenticeships were for 7 years), then a further 12 months employed by Saab at the factory in Sweden.

I have used them for a number of years, and have established quite a rapport with them and other enlightened Saab owners, some of which have now clocked up over 300,000 miles (no, not kms, MILES) with their Saab 93s and 95s.

They regularly have Saabs brought to them from other garages who just cannot get the cars to perform as they should, simply because they do not have the correctly trained staff to maintain these vehicles.

As for our American cousins, well if I were living in the States, I just would not entertain a Saab for the simple reason that Saab dealerships are virtually nonexistent.

If you live in North America, then no, do not consider a Saab, the odds are stacked against you. If you are however lucky enough to live in a European country, then yes, a Saab is a very safe bet.

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2000 SAAB 9-3 Turbo from North America

Model year	2000
Year of manufacture	2000
First year of ownership	2009
Most recent year of ownership	2009
Engine and transmission	Manual
Distance when acquired	75000 miles
Most recent distance	88000 miles
Previous car	SAAB 9-3

Summary:

Reliable car

Faults:

Having major issues with the windows, blinkers, and moon roof not working! They randomly work. I have checked the fuse box and the connection to the battery, and cannot figure out what is going on. Anyone have any advice/tricks towards this issue?! Thank you.

General Comments:

Great car!! No problems until now.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 13th October, 2010

2000 SAAB 9-3 Base 2.0 turbo from North America

Model year	2000
Year of manufacture	1999
First year of ownership	2008
Most recent year of ownership	2009
Engine and transmission	2.0 turbo Manual
Performance marks	7 / 10
Reliability marks	5 / 10
Comfort marks	8 / 10
Dealer Service marks	7 / 10
Running Costs (higher is cheaper)	5 / 10
Overall marks (average of all marks)	6.4 / 10
Distance when acquired	119500 miles
Most recent distance	135130 miles
Previous car	Acura Integra

Summary:

If you have a thick wallet, by all means buy a Saab

Faults:

I've only have had the car for just above 15,000 miles, and purchased it late August 2008 and I've had more problems with this thing than I would even imagine. Alright, I know it's a fairly high mileage car, but for being now 9 years old, 135K isn't all that bad. Here's a list from what I can remember having been replaced aside from basic maintenance.

- Clutch, flywheel, pilot bearing

- Rear main oil seal

- Oil pan gasket

- Oil drain plug

- Driver side axle (CV boot went and it's easier just to replace the whole axle)

- Both lower control arms

- Both tie rod ends

- Fuel filter

- Clutch slave cylinder

- SID message screen... started to become pixelated and not displaying anything correctly

- Driver seat belt bucket needs to be jimmyed a little bit... it doesn't like to let go of the bucket to let me out

- The reverse gear grinds sometimes when I put it into that gear (manual trans)

General Comments:

The car has a lot of features and everything is powered! Power windows, mirrors, seats, sunroof, etc.

I just with the repair costs weren't so high. I'm a college student and I need something reliable that won't cost me my entire weeks paycheck to fix.

I get pretty good gas mileage of about 28-29 mpg highway, and about 25-26 city with the manual transmission and the low pressure turbo. The turbo actually has quite a bit of kick, but I think it's starting to wear out (go figure).

I've kept up with Audis and BMWs and other performance-like cars with this hatchback. I don't race but like to have fun.

If you have a thick wallet, by all means buy a Saab, but if you want something more reliable that's fairly easy to maintain (oil and filter changes every 3K get very, very annoying especially when you have to buy fully synthetic oil), get an American or Japanese and stay away from European.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 30th June, 2009

1st Jul 2009, 19:20

15,000 miles and burned up a clutch - been around Saabs 25 years as a tech - sounds like very hard driving to me.

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