Saab 9000 aero?

Im looking for my next DD. It will replace my rusty protege5 for winter DD and the miata that is currently the summer DD will become a toy car. In the hunt for something cool, fun, reasonably economical and reliable, I'm considering a 9000 aero. I would like to buy something older in good shape rather than something newer that will just depreciate quickly and fall apart. I need a back seat frequently, so another miata won't do. I also need something that my wife won't mind driving so I can steal her leather filled comfy SUV when I go racing and want a tow vehicle. This car will likely never see the track or autox since I've got fun vehicles covered. What do you know? Do you know of any for sale? I'm looking in the $5k range, but am flexable.

VERY solid cars. Keep a spare Ignition DI Cassette with you at all times.

$5k will get you the nicest one on the planet.

They're great highway cruisers, are easy to make quite fast if that's your thing, and they get disgustingly good gas mileage for something that will pass another car at highway speeds that fast.

Awesome awesome cars.

I agree with HalfTrac but I will add that they seem to rust in really odd places, and the HVAC system has a tendency to render itself useless at higher mileage.

I owned a 92 9000CSE non-turbo 5-speed for a year. I had a love-hate relationship with it. Pretty reliable at the 100k+ miles it had when I got it, no bodywork issues, cavernous hatch, good highway manners. I absolutely hated the seats. It felt like I was sitting perched way high on them, not in them. Ruined the whole car for me.

How about a 2001 9-5 Aero. This car just popped up on CL locally. $4500 obo

dyintorace wrote: How about a 2001 9-5 Aero. This car just popped up on CL locally. $4500 obo

They are known for the infamous engine-killing oil sludge issues and the interior is pretty GM-tastic, but they are not terrible cars if well kept. I always really liked the styling, I have never driven one though. $4500 is also a lot for an orphan brand car, around here they are going for $2-3k in similar shape.

'94 to '98 (I think '98 was the last year, might have been '97) with a manual gearbox are great cars. I've owned several non aero models, and I wouldn't mind having another. 250k to 300k miles is not unusual for these.

Watch out for rust and cracks around the rear upper shock mounts, and rust inside the rear wheel wells in general. The cracks around the upper shock mounts are fixable, but a PITA.

Also only use the exact oem NGK plugs no matter what anyone else tells you you can use. And change them frequently, its the secret to keeping the ignition cassette healthy.

I've heard that converting a non aero turbo 9000syste

pigeon wrote: I I absolutely hated the seats. It felt like I was sitting perched way high on them, not in them. Ruined the whole car for me.

I felt the same way about the seats that were in the 94 NG900 SET I had.. being flat and made of leather, pulling out of the driveway, you wound up on the passengerside of the car

Im not really interested in a 9-5. Also, I'm not sure, but I had thought the aero had different seats than the other 9000's so hopefully they are better. I'll probably end up flying to a place that doesn't have rust and driving something home so I may be able to avoid the rust issues. I do appreciate the info on where to look though.

Stay away from the '93-'95. www.saabnet.com is your friend with the 9k. Search "Saab 9000 TCS problems".

I had a '93 9k CSE 2.3L turbo w/5-speed and we loved it to the end. Triple digit cruising speed was no big deal. Find an aero if you can and keep a spare DI handy as others have said. I never had one fail but then again I changed the plugs every other oil change (they are real cheap). You are correct, the aero had different and better seats. I thought the regular 9k leather seats were fine.

FWIW, while 93's are worth avoiding due to TCS issues (and being an orphan with lots of year specific parts), TCS was an option in '94 and '95.

Great cars. I had a '96 that I put 33k on in 2 summers, bringing it to 260k. Completely trouble free. Rust in rear shock towers and front jack points. I wouldn't be scared of a high mileage example.

With a free open source tune that made faster than the 250hp 9-3 and 9-5 I still averaged around 28MPG.

Off to craigslist...you bastards...

I had an '88 9000 Turbo. Fantastic car -- great cargo capacity, reasonable gas mileage, enough power to be fun for a fwd family car. Reliable enough, but I sold it when things started to break consistently. If I had been more mechanically inclined back then it would have been quite easy to continue working on.

Where do you think you'll find parts for one? Saab is the Yugo of the millenium.

ddavidv wrote: Where do you think you'll find parts for one? Saab is the Yugo of the millenium.

That's a good question

ddavidv wrote: Where do you think you'll find parts for one? Saab is the Yugo of the millenium.

eEuroparts.com There is a fairly good aftermarket for SAAB parts, you just need to know where to find them. There are also several SAAB specific salvager's like GoldWing and SportsCarsService. IMHO I wouldn't be very worried about finding 9000 parts for a while.

There is also a very good online community of SAAB owners willing to give technical support. SAABnet, SAABcentral, the SAAB link, and I'm sure that there are more.

Aftermarket parts will continue to be made.

You don't all buy parts directly from your nearest dealer for every one of your cars, do you?

Saab Parts and Saab Automobile are not the same thing. The parts company is still there, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. It is profitable.

Regardless, who buys parts for their 20 year old Saab at the dealership? Someone who hates their money and sucks at the Internet.

i always thought maintenance was frequent and costly on any saab besides the good ol' 900...?

now you guys got ME considering a 9000 - they go for pretty cheap, and one good sign is half the ads for them are along the lines of "i love this car so much, i will miss it, i have no choice but to sell, i want to sell her to a good owner" etc etc - the owners definitely form an attachment to them heh

oh, and they take run on regular...except the turbos i guess

ohms wrote: i always thought maintenance was frequent and costly on any saab besides the good ol' 900...? now you guys got ME considering a 9000 - they go for pretty cheap, and one good sign is half the ads for them are along the lines of "i love this car so much, i will miss it, i have no choice but to sell, i want to sell her to a good owner" etc etc - the owners definitely form an attachment to them heh

For a DIYer 9000 maintenance is not to bad, not as easy as a c900 but much easier than many other euro trash cars (VAG I'm looking at you). If you know how to use the internet you can find the parts at good prices too.

ohms wrote: oh, and they take run on regular...except the turbos i guess

Non turbo 9000s will run on any swill that passes for gasoline, but they are slow and don't get great m pg, IDK if they can be effectively tuned for more power.

Non aero turbo models have a light pressure turbo system that can run on regular, but just because you can doesn't mean you should, I always used the mid-grade fuel. Light pressure turbo systems can be converted to run full pressure like an Aero, I've never done it but its supposed to be easy.

huh, interesting. thanks

i dont mind the slowness, and i'll bet its still faster than my auto xn6 505 hehe

gonna keep an extra cl tab open these days to search for 9k's...

HappyAndy wrote:

ohms wrote: oh, and they take run on regular...except the turbos i guess

Non turbo 9000s will run on any swill that passes for gasoline, but they are slow and don't get great m pg, IDK if they can be effectively tuned for more power. Non aero turbo models have a light pressure turbo system that can run on regular, but just because you can doesn't mean you should, I always used the mid-grade fuel. Light pressure turbo systems can be converted to run full pressure like an Aero, I've never done it but its supposed to be easy.

Don't limit yourself to an Aero. The 1998 (in manual transmission form) is basically an Aero without the special seats and the body trim - that's what my wife has. My 95 9000CSE has been gently modified (cheap and easy) and has dyno'd at 305 ft/lbs of torque, which is 50 more than a stock Aero.

Despite what some have said, I've found the regular Saab 9000 seats to be the most comfortable of any car I've ever driven, and firm and supportive.

One thing to note is that every 9k I've ever test driven has had something wrong with the boost pressure, so if you drive one and it doesn't seem to have the oomph you expect, that's probably the issue. Usually it's a bad boost pressure control valve, but it could be leaking vacuum lines or that base boost needs to be cranked up a bit - it seems that non-enthusiast owners don't realize they're stuck in base boost and don't do anything to fix it. In an Aero the boost gauge should get well into the red when you stomp the loud pedal and in a CSE it should get close.

Our two 9k's have over 350,000 miles between them and are both running oh so sweetly.

mw wrote:

ddavidv wrote: Where do you think you'll find parts for one? Saab is the Yugo of the millenium.

That's a good question

NAPA, Autozone and my local junk yard. For the last year there have been 2-3 cars (1 aero) at any given time with most of it's stuff still intact.