1993 SAAB 9000 CDE review from UK and Ireland

Needed the Gear lever linkage replacing (£9.99 from GSF!)

Well what can I say, I bought this car with full service history, new tyres, new exhaust for £400 off eBay as a 'Winter Hack' to replace my Rover 3500s and to use whilst I re-commission my VW Beetle, to be quite honest I think I am going to keep it!

As a winter car it is superb, fantastic climate control and heated leather seats make it really cosy. The cabin space is massive, this is the first car I have owned where an adult can comfortably sit behind me! The boot is also Huge it recently swallowed a 7" Christmas tree (through the ski hatch) A Christmas style Sainsbury's shopping expedition a Pram (not a buggy a full on pram for a 2 month old) a child's bicycle and 3 sets of wellies - who needs the hatch version!

Performance isn't electifying (if that's what you want go for a turbo!) but its adequate, I recently set the Cruise controll at a naughty speed for a night time blast down 15 miles of 'private' motorway it accomplished this absolutely without fault, and to be quite honest it didn't feel like I was travelling more than about 60mph. It also managed to return around 27 mpg whilst doing this (handy trip computer) this figure drops around town, but that is to be expected, it is possible to get over 30mpg on a long journey if driven sensibly.

For such a big car it is also suprisingly light on its feet through the twisty bits, quite a bit of body roll (to be expected on a car this size) and if you push it it will under steer, but its all very composed and you would have to be very ham fisted to crash it! If you did crash it however you would probably walk away with nothing, but minor injuries - I have heard some great 'walk away' stories about these cars, my favourite being the guy who was hit by a train on a level crossing in his 9000 who dusted himself off and went to work! - this may be a friend of a friend story, but I think it is a good one.

At the moment the only downside I can think of is that its not that nice to look at from the outside, its probably the 'squarest' car Saab have ever produced, but who cares when you are wafting effortlessly along in your amazingly comfortable leather armchairs with a lovely warm bottom (did I mention heated seats!)

To sum it up it's a well screwed together, very comfortable, very big, four door luxury saloon that at £400 is almost disposable!