2003 SAAB 9-3 ARC review from North America

Door handle broke, repaired under warranty.

Purchased certified from SAAB dealer for $17k with a warranty till 2009. I never had any problems, but only drove it 8k miles over two years.

I did notice that the car no longer felt tight, lots of squeaks and rattles over bumps. Expansion joints seems to send a loud booming shudder through the suspension. The rear doors creak too - not a very stiff platform with poor torsion resistance.

I loved the SAAB at first and was really disappointed when it started to feel like an old junker.

The turbo is smooth, powerful and fuel efficient, seats are wonderful, handles great, lots of equipment, nice looking car, roomy trunk. But my crappy 97 Oldsmobile is tighter over bumps than this SAAB.

When the warranty company informed me it would cost $3400 to extend my warranty after 09, I decided to get rid of it. I would not want to own this car without a warranty. Dealers only offered me $8500 as trade, but got $10,600 from CARMAX.

Resale value just horrible. I would have kept the car if it did not feel like it was falling apart and the cost to extend the warranty was maybe more like $ 1800.

I am going back to Japanese cars - they have much better resale value and are much better made. The SAAB has a lot of that cheap GM feel to it... maybe they were better prior to 2003.