Hi all,
Friend is looking for a Saab tid to replace his older petrol LPT one. He's seen one for sale 2002 51 plate SE with 118000 miles but full saab s/h - £2750. He's really keen but I've advised caution - my understanding is that the diesel is not very good. Any pointers or wise words disproving my view before he goes and looks at it? (It'll be a 180 mile round trip and I have a feeling this might influence his decision - if he goes I don't think he will come back without having bought it!).
|
|
Don't know anything about the car but the CO2 figure is surprisingly low 164 thus cheaper VED from 2010, £180 rather than £200.
|
|
I think I read somewhere that you would be wise to keep an eye on oil levels and ensure regular oil changes on these. However, I should think it would be a pleasant enough car. Not too expensive either. I have a personal and wholly subjective theory that often the best cars are those which have covered reasonably high mileages in a relatively short time provided they have been properly maintained. On balance probably worth a punt.
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 19/07/2008 at 19:08
|
|
|
|
|
This thread - www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=56867 - could be informative, Pete.
|
There's lots of good advice at UK Saabs forum, including a current thread advising on a 9-3 diesel purchase:
www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewforum.php?f=1
If I remember rightly, the 1.9 is generally regarded as the better, more reliable engine than the 2.2. Saabs can be great cars and I will certainly miss our petrol 9-5 when it goes next month.
|
Friend has an 04 9-5 with the 2.2 TiD engine. It's been reliable, but it does have a rather agricultural sound to it - although it's quite well suppressed at cruising speed. The 1.9 (in the 9-5 at least) is a smoother, nicer engine (and feels more powerful despite the smaller capacity) but you will, of course, pay more for one.
My advice would be to try the car and see if he likes it enough to live with the engine. I don't think the engine itself has any hidden vices (it's a chain-cam design, IIRC) so the noise and relative lack of oomph are the worst things about it.
|
A former colleague had a Vectra 2.2 DTI (same engine) which did 100,000 miles without a single engine related problem. Agricultural, but actually went well, I thought.
ISTRC the servicing intervals on the Vauxhall were ridiculous though. 30k or something daft. He did oil changes every 10k.
|
|
I had a 95 with the 2.2TiD engie - 80,000 mles without one fault on the car except a dodgy speaker which was replaced under warranty. Might be a bit of a tractor - but you see many old tractors on farms that still run perfectly. It's all down to the miantenance.
|
|
Agree with grumpyscot (maybe because I am also one), I did 100k in my 2.2 TiD Saab, enjoyed it a lot, the engine is OK a bit rough but loads of pull and capable of really good economy.
|
I have the older engine, the one your mate is considering will be the later 125bhp engine, which apparently got an improved injection pump and a variable geometry turbo. I'm not really up to speed on whether the later engines are more or less reliable than mine?
I bought my 9-3 2.2 TiD with 75k miles on it, I have done just over 75k miles in 4 years and the engine has been extremely reliable. The only non-service item it has needed in 4yrs/ 75k miles is an auxiliary belt, the old one started to whine a bit. (And a new battery, but the old one was 8 years old).
Mine gets serviced at 9k mile intervals (6 months for me) with fully synthetic oil; the MAF sensor gets cleaned at every service. If your mates looking at a 2002 model, the service intervals are 12k miles.
Recently there seem to have been more posts on TiD reliability issues cropping up on Saabscene.com, but luckily mine is still going strong.
I currently have the issue of perished spillback pipes but this is only a problem if the car is not started for 3-4 days, I drive it daily so I've not got round to replacing them (cheap to fix DIY).
It is agricultural, quite rough at idle but okay once you're driving IMO. When I first bought it, at idle you could see the dash moving 3mm and I could have got vibration white finger off the gear stick. But I had the idle speed increased slightly at a Saab garage and it has been a lot better since.
I dont think its any more rattly than a VAG PD engine can be, which is okay for some, disagreeable to others.
I have a tuning box fitted to mine; without the box the fuel economy was a bit disappointing. With the box fitted it can just nudge the 50mpg mark if I'm careful, I could get 53-54mpg if I drove slower/ did different journeys.
The old 9-3 is a little bit lighter than current Vectra-sized cars so with the tuning box the performance is on a par with some of the modern 130-140bhp diesels.
In 4 years the only big expense was a new heater distribution unit (£400 fitted). Apart from that I've only had to buy oil, tyres, brake pads and brake discs, auxiliary belt and battery. (Oh yes and a new electric aerial (£12 DIY) where I reversed into a low branch!)
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 21/07/2008 at 13:42
|
|
|
|
|
Well he went and saw it yesterday. When he got there however the car was 'out with one the partners' and wouldn't be back until 6pm (this was at 11am)!! Now I could say he should have checked it would be there, but he did phone to check it was still available.....Anyhow I thought he'd had a lucky escape until he then mentioned a Citroen Xsara coupe 2.0ltr HDi he'd seen....I give up! Anyone had any experience of one of these? I used to have 1.4 petrol 5 door several years ago as a company hack and to be honest it was only engine problems I had (20k miles in 8 months was just too much for the poor thing). He seems hell bent on getting diesel, any diesel it appears (!) but with a limited £2.5 - £3K budget. In some ways I actually think he might be on to something with the Xsara-73k miles on a 52 plate and £3000, but I just am not sure what he'll make of the interior quality after a saab! I've said I'll go with him at the weekend to take a look-so any pearls of wisedom apart from checking service history for clutch/belt and pulley replacement which seem the main issues with the hdi unit?
|
|
|
