1999 SAAB 9-5 SE from UK and Ireland - Comments

The radio started to overheat when playing Cd's.

The radio lost all signal following a trip to Saab garage.

Two sets of front brake discs.

Intermittent fault on cruise control.

Numerous hose and seal failures.

Inability to select reverse gear-A problem living down a lane in Wales.

Broken cup holder.

Rear window motor failed.

Rear door lock failed.

Both door lock and window now failed on front door as well.

Constantly replacing bulbs.

Battery just died after a 100 mile trip down the motorway.

Finally and most recent some worrying noises from the engine bay under acceleration.

This cars reliability is beyond a joke. In my own opinion if Saab stopped making this car the world would be a better place. The elecrical reliability has been poor and mainly a dealer problem. I can understand a few niggles on a five year old car, but when you have seven problems with the car in the first week which then result in seven trips to the dealer it's just not acceptable. It took Saab six weeks to get a replacement rear windscreen for the car as the aerial filament had and I quote 'gone' gone where? In the end I gave up and got the RAC to do it.

The brake discs had been damaged some how, which I didn't notice until I had been driving it a few days. When I spoke to the dealer they happily changed them or so I thought. When I checked on getting the car back all they had done was replace the brake pads which made no difference so another round trip to the dealer of 70 miles was needed for them to actually do what they said they were going to do.

Gearbox problems on this type of car at 77 thousand miles is just not on and I had to push for the dealer to do a thing under warranty when the entire gear box had been changed including clutch. The attitude I got from their staff was that I had done alright under warranty in terms of value of the work done, to which I think they shouldn't have sold me a faulty car in the first place, especially as pushing it up a lane backwards trying to turn it by yourself is near to impossible.

I thought after my Renault reliability could only get better, but clearly I'll go back to Citreon I started with before that as at least they can make a car that works. My advice to any one thinking of buying a SAAB 9-5 is DON'T DO IT Life's too short to spend it in a garage.

Thanks for the advice.

I have had a bullet-proof 1996 Saab900 for the last 6 years. When I decided to replace it, the first car that jumped into my head was a nice 9-5. So I started to do a bit of research. Boy am I glad I did. Here's the thing... The 900 and 9000 was a high quality high reliability, good value car; slightly different, made with pride by a proud people, the Scandanavians.

The 9-5, and 9-3 is a poorly executed cheap american imitation of the original concept. I think it may be too late for Saab to recover their rep.

Got a saab 900 97 registration its bulletproof!what more can I say treat it nice and its like a labrador loyal.loving, intelligebt and it always fetches the stick back oh and they are good looking.

I have had my 1999 Saab 9-5 SE for a year and like many who have posted here I am troubled by the trouble. I just spent 8,000.00 dollars U.S... Yes 8,ooo! to have the top end of the 6 cylinder engine replaced. Cause:timing belt tensioner. This is a component that failed regularly through the year 1998 and I guess they got the problem mostly ironed out. Apparently I am one of the few who didn't get the iron. Failure was at 72,000 miles timing belt was changed by the dealer at 61,000 miles. Dealer was original point of purchase when car was new and they serviced it until I bought it from them last year which was 2005. So SAAB is reviewing my case for possible partial reimbursement, but I've been told by dealers not to hold my breath.

My question is if this component that costs 200 + dollars to replace (timing belt tensioner) was failing at a high rate and SAAB was paying for repairs through 1998 why wouldn't this component be suspect and either mandatory replaced or inspected at timing belt change. 8 thousand dollars is 2/3 of what I paid for the whole car.

I love driving this car and it has been fairly trouble free until this. Will SAAB help me financially and keep a customer or will they leave me alone in the cold and force me to never look at another product manufactured by this cold hearted corporation? I love this car, but if they shaft me I'll have to look at reliability over style and comfort.

I met a mechanic with 30 + years of SAAB experience and his advice was stick to the 4 cylinders and you'll be happier.

For now I'm stuck with the 6 cylinder so Come on SAAB do the RIGHT THING and help me out here.

Unfortunately, GM is in significant amounts of financial trouble and Saab is one of the reasons, meaning that the chance of Saab reimbursing you will be slim to none.

Very sad, since you obviously have a great case especially since the dealer was well aware of this problem.

This is a follow up to my post on 3 April regarding the 8000 dollars U.S. to replace top end of my 1999 SAAB 9-5 SE 6 cylinder engine. I got the word today SAAB will NOT reimburse me a penny. This is a problem related to the timing belt tensioner. Oh well, live and learn and maybe talk to a veteran mechanic prior to purchase next time. Had I done that I would have a 4 cylinder engine and 8ooo dollars in MY pocket.

I suggest you folks who are complaining about this awesome beast lose the dealerjip and find yourselves a REAL mechanic. Your issues will magically vanish!!! Go figure.