2000 SAAB 9-3 Viggen 2.3 turbo

Summary:

Fantastic car until 115,000 miles

Faults:

Mass air flow sensor.

Head gasket.

Water pump.

Temperature gauge.

Crank sensor.

Transmission fluid leak.

Worn out transmission bearings.

Bent wheels.

Digital display burnt out.

Seat button broke.

General Comments:

Until 115,000 miles, the car was fantastic.

Good: The seats and seating position are perfect. The utility of the hatchback is unrivaled. High-pressure torquey turbo power is awesome. It steers well, with well-weighted movement. It gets 26.5 miles per gallon in mixed driving (premium fuel of course). The controls are logical. Not surprising for a Swedish car built in Finland, but it handles well in the snow and has nice cold-weather features. It handles well in the dry, for a front-heavy front-drive car.

Bad: The shift action is horrible, the worst I've ever driven; I actually thought the transmission was broken on the test drive. The wheels bend easily. It has more rattles and shakes and vibrations than is contemporary rivals.

Reliability: I had zero problems for the first 40,000 miles I had the car, until 115,000 miles. Then the thing literally started to fall apart. It's now breaking faster than I can afford to fix it. I have several problems that need to be fixed fairly urgently that I simply can't afford to fix.

Conclusion: If you can get a low mileage one, go for it, I highly recommend it. I'd say don't buy one with over 100k though. At the moment I'm in love with it one day and angry the next day, as each problem reasserts itself.

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

Review Date: 21st November, 2007

26th May 2009, 16:51

I agree - I bought the same car (in blue) at 47k miles and am now at 96k. Everything is going haywire - AC has gone out, digital display gone, convertible top door fails to come up all of the way - the top hits and sticks - digging into the top itself (tearing), the door does not go down - I have to do it manually - I have oil & water leaks, the car overheats, I had to replace the antennae motor, had to replace the security system when I lost my spare key (a $1500 mistake on my part), my front bumper sits too low (the car is not lowered) and I always scrape it - one day I backed out of a parking spot and my bumper caught on a curb and ripped off! Murphy is laughing his ass off!

2000 SAAB 9-3 SE turbo

Summary:

Sad Saab sludge story

Faults:

Believe me, there is such a thing as death by sludge! I unfortunately, experienced it. I loved this car and bought it with 16,000 miles on it, in 2001. I took good care of it, and it ran, up until last week, with 160,000 miles on it.

My SAAB 9-3 2000 engine died on the road. I could not make this up if I tried! It was a sad passing, and I am still mourning my loss. It was my first and last SAAB purchase. Too bad the Saab manufacturer does not stand behind its products.

I would love to be a part of a class action suit...

Beware SAAB owners.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 12th July, 2007

12th Jul 2007, 17:29

To original poster: Why don't you tell one and all exactly what the problems were. Obviously, you were not happy. Say why. Say when, where, how, etc. Anyone who visits this site won't be bored by your story. This site is for telling car stories. Go for it.

13th Jul 2007, 00:50

Did you say the car died at 160,000, or 106,000, because those two numbers were on the review. Please confirm and also please do state the problems encountered.

One thing though -- you can't expect many car manufacturers to still back you up well over the warranty period, let alone 160,000 miles.

13th Jul 2007, 09:46

You seriously want to be part of a class-action law suit, with a car that failed after 160,000 miles???

Grow up. Take some responsibility for yourself for a change. Sure, maybe shoddy engineering/workmanship lead to this problem, but after 7 years and 160,000 miles, the car manufacturer owes you absolutely nothing.

27th Aug 2008, 20:52

I agree 100% with the above posting, but I compared a 2000 Saab pickup screen vs a classic 900 screen and found the 2000 screen was many times finer and it's not surprising about the clogging problems. I hear this all the time. I will put off my oil change a little longer and then a year goes by, oops! Can't do that to forced induction engines!!! A lot of this seems to be going around.