Faults:

Acquired with faulty radio, intermittent ACC, intermittent dash light dimmer.

Replaced radio, ignored ACC issues, bypassed dimmer.

Parking brake cable broke.

Downpipe from Exhaust Manifold broke, required replacement of entire Cat because all are of one piece. Replaced with aftermarket converter.

Hose to MAP sensor needed replaced.

Fuel Pump needed replaced.

Car was retired after the Left Front axle broke on the Highway.

General Comments:

A pleasure to drive, a burden to own. If you take pleasure in tinkering and have backup transportation, you will get great joy from it. If you need a car that is just THERE for you, day in, day out, get a Saturn.

I won't say I didn't enjoy owning it; I did, but it was getting tiresome the frequency with which something needed attention.

Faults:

Clutch worn out at 129000 miles, a common problem with 9000s and quite expensive to repair (best part of £1,000)

Turbo pipes perished, easy and cheap to replace.

General Comments:

Power and performance are comparable to the latest uber-hatches - VXR, Focus ST, R32 - but this car is more luxurious and a bit larger. Very practical, comfortable, reliable, and safe.

Grip is pretty good from the wide tyres, but there's plenty of torque steer to separate the men from the boys.

I love it, especially on the motorway where nothing comes close to the in-gear acceleration. And all for £1500.

Faults:

Nothing much, except that the electric windows stopped working once, but they started working again!! A loose contact, possibly. The hose from the windshield wiper fluid tank broke a couple of times. Apart from this, only the hand break cable had to be changed.

General Comments:

A very comfortable car, though a bit thirsty around town. It cruises beautifully on the highways. The cruise control is worth its weight (??) in gold, because on Finnish highways, one could really get tired of holding down the accelerator. It is a very safe car, too - I have not felt safer even in a Mercedes!

Even though the car is 10 years old, the interior looks good (Alcantara), has a touch of class to it, and no rattles or squeaks.

Faults:

Middle muffler rusted through at 68000 miles, air conditioning compressor leaked, needed to be replaced at 69,000 miles, cost over $1,500. Now auto shift gets stuck in gear or won't shift into drive at 70,000 miles. Gas level sending unit in gas tank died at 69,000 miles, unit will cost $500 plus labor to replace.

General Comments:

Car looks nice sitting in driveway, too bad it falls apart on the road.

Faults:

The car had various faults when first purchased which the dealer agreed to fix, these included oil leaks, spongy and noisy brakes. Further problems developed, break noise returned, car started using water. Turns out the water was actually leaking into the engine (?!), this cost approx $6000 NZD to fix on a car that was purchased for $10,00 NZD. Fortunately this was covered by a mechanical warranty purchased when buying the car. Despite this water problem being fixed the car still lost water and required more trips to the mechanics and various other attempts to stop the water leaks. at about 95,000 kilometers the gear box started to become very rough when changing gears, and engine mount wear was showing. The whole engine would shake when changing down a gear at speed (eg when over taking). Rain water started leaking into the boot.

Bits of the car also started dropping off, internal light fitting covers just dropped out, a piece of roof trim blew off the roof when traveling at approx 100km per hour, the drivers seat belt clip split in two. Drivers seat belt often jammed when trying to put the seat belt on and would stay locked for at least 1/2 an hour before being able to operate the seat belt.

General Comments:

Car was generally nice to drive, but was a bit like driving a boat, hard to keep in a straight line - you had to concentrate when driving to stop the car from drifting around the road. Wheel alignment was fine, it wasn't due to this.

A Saab mechanic advised me that Saab parts are the most expensive of all manufacturers - even more expensive than Porsche.