Faults:

The throttle body went bad twice. The car had an electronic throttle body with TCS, and at 286k I lost 3rd and 4th gear (at that point the engine was heavily modified with almost 300 bhp). One of the best cars I ever had!

General Comments:

Fast and furious! Excellent handling, regardless of the rear axle. Painful in the winter without snow tires, but fun to drive; has the feeling of a jet!

Faults:

Front brake pads.

Sump cracked by speed hump.

General Comments:

Mine was nicknamed the Millenium Falcon, as it had the same Hyperdrive performance. My previous car was a BMW M3 non Evo model, and even that couldn't touch the Aero for mid range punch. I paid less than a grand for it (my fifth Saab), and to date it had taken on and beaten much more exotic cars; there is an arrogant, queue barging Audi TT 225 driver somewhere in Stockport who still has shellshock at how comprehensively he got demolished on a slip road onto the M60.

To date the only vehicle the Aero hasn't managed to beat in an overtaking dogfight is a late 90's 911 turbo, and even that couldn't pull away. It combines the performance of the Millenium Falcon with the reliability of a Honda, the comfort of a club lounge, and the subtlety of a Ninja warrior. Unlike my M3, I can park the Aero anywhere without having to worry about it getting nicked/keyed/broken into, and it costs me half as much to insure.

Faults:

General scratches on the car typical of a now 17 year old car.

The odd wear (no tear) in the upholstery in the cabin.

Window washer bottle's hose has detached and is in a pretty bad spot to repair.

General Comments:

It is the safest feeling car I've ever driven. Handles extremely well, and sticks to the road like a dream.

It has a pretty poor fuel consumption, but it is a big and heavy car so that's to be expected.

The entire cabin is very nice and comfortable, A/C works exceptionally well.

Apart from the fuel consumption, this car was well ahead of its time.

Gear change is reasonably nice.

The car has never broken down, nor has the engine ever failed to start.

Faults:

Exhaust pipe Leak. cost: $100

SRS Airbag intermittent contact fault. cost: $400 (for parts only)

Timing chain rattle. cost: don't know, but expensive

Blower motor not working. cost: $20

Sprung an oil leak while not being driven. cost: don't know.

General Comments:

The car drives really well and is very comfortable especially over long distances.

Performance is good, especially for a heavy car with an automatic. However...

I have spent more in repairs in the one month I have owned this 90,000km car than in the entire two years I owned my Honda, which had 230,000km on the clock.

I didn't think about the timing chain rattle when I purchased the car, as it wasn't that loud and I assumed timing chains were generally not an issue, especially on a car with 90,000km. I soon discovered timing chain repairs are not simple and involve head removal. There are also a multitude of parts in the timing chain assembly, so diagnosis is likely to be expensive. Parts are also likely to be expensive. Getting any change out of $2000 would be surprising.

Resetting the airbag warning light after the dashboard needed to come out because someone had put a plug in the wrong socket ($300) lead to discovering the $400 faulty component.

Anything beyond simple general maintenance only appears to be solvable by mechanics trained in repairing SAABs.

Some people appear to have good runs from SAABs, but I would strongly recommend anyone considering a purchase of one of these cars, even low mileage examples, to have it checked out thoroughly by a specialist SAAB mechanic as parts prices are astronomical (e.g. $3700 for an air conditioning computer if it fails). Insure that all engine, electrical and safety (i.e airbags etc) are plugged into a diagnostic computer during this check, as some faults are not easily detected by visual inspection (e.g. airbag issues).

These cars are really nice until something goes wrong with them, and it appears to happen sooner than later.