I still love my 2011 Saab 9-5. Still looks modern and it’s been very reliable (bought it with about 20,000 miles and now have 120k). It’s a bit too much car since I have no kids but I’ve always wanted one since I was young.
I'd love to eventually get my hands on one of these. I mean, I'm a fan of all Saabs (pre+post GM) but this car just looks amazing and they're "rare" enough to seem special, imo.
These final year 9-5´s were really handsome cars, with great proportions and upscale trimmings. I regret not seeing new Saabs gracing our roads. They have so much presence.
Yep your right there John Davis. The end of the Saab story. I actually saw one of these on the road today. Such an unusual beautiful sight. I would love to have one since it’s mostly GM drivetrain. I think the Chevy dealer will still service them.
Joes Golden Garage the Saab 2.8T was very old fashion and only matched the 295 lb-ft of torque of the 2.0T with direct injection and variable valve timing with the tech. We considered a 9-5 Aero 2 8T but for $10,000 more with a warranty the CX- Cadillac XTS 3.6TT with 410 horsepower and a similar Haldex4 AWD qas a better deal including safety aids like adaptive cruise....
There is a rumor that SAAB technologies (not NEVS), the company the builds the SAAB 39 Gripen fighter is going to make a there own car using technology from the flight industry. Just hope this is true...
Melvin Kroonen Yeah ?, it us called a Buick. Buick is beating Toyota in quality of mass produced cars. It offers German assembled TourX wagon and plenty of crisco era to choose from
Beautiful car. I was putting fuel in its platform mate, my Buick LaCrosse recently, and a kid came driving up in a 9-5. All banged up; tape holding the front corner of the bumper to the fender, missing its shark fin on the roof, etc. I wanted to cry.
I am a huge fan of this car...33mpg from a 5 series size car is excellent! Plus I love the manual option. You can always change the interior trim from that gaudy wood anyway, and the lighter color interior helps brighten things up a lot! My hope is that Saab survives to offer the SportCombi Wagon, which looks absolutely gorgeous and comes with the Turbo4 paired with AWD...sounds like perfection to me.
Honest review, seems none of the reviews these days talking about most important things - reliability and safty. and saab would be a leader in mid class. I have 9-3 2008 200miles on the clock the only visits to garage are change oil, tyres, bulbs and filters for the last 5 years. Go Saab Go!
@bigphat200 - I thought I wanted one too, until I actually bought one and had to deal with the insane cost of parts every time something relatively minor broke. Two of the best days of my life where 1) when I bought a Saab, and 2) when I traded it in for a Mazda. My Saab itch has been scratched, for good.
mraurora it wasn’t GM... It was US. No one bought them anymore, SAAB did this to themselves, they changed so much the car ended up being 3 inches LONGER
Man, I owned a 1999 9⁵ aero wagon and out of the 20+ cars I've owned, that was my number one favorite. Was such a gem too, 6spd manual, bbs RK6 wheels, hella cargo space, and the interior quality was actually really good. It wasn't the fastest for its time, I mean my current daily GT Sport hatch has a 1.6t & 7spd DCT and it's even a hair quicker, but it felt refined, buttoned, handled great, and was just overall a peak late 90s/ early 2000s sportwagon. I reaaaally wish Saab could have continued on. Although GM was destroying them even further, the design language of the NG Saabs was great imo, ahead of its time forsure, but unfortunately the bankruptcy era GM cost cutting & over-engineering realllly hurt them. One of my other cars is an 2011 Malibu LTZ 3.6V6, and although this Saab got slightly better interior quality, this era GM quality is horrible, and they were right, for 2011 GM was behind in so many ways. That Malibu recently hit 80k miles and the interior is falling apart. But still, man I'd love an NG 9⁵ forsure as a backup daily.
No Saab buyer would buy a BMW instead and vice versa. It's really a Saab thing, you gotta own and drive one to understand. Once you're hooked, there's no getting out.
Yeah it's a shame they didn't make their own engines for the NG9-3 and NG9-5. But BioPower means it can run on both gasoline and ethanol. The hardware has been capable of this for at least 10 years, but it wan't offered on new cars until 05. Though, there are 3rd party software updates available to get BioPower functionality in older cars.
I had a 2004 Saab 9-5 which I loved. I went to the Boston Auto show in 2011 to see this new version of the 9-5 and loved the exterior but the interior was very disappointing. It didn't have the upscale feel of even my 2004 9-5. Just cheaper GM switch gear. Very disappointed GM killed off Saab.
I remember 20 years before this car, MW tested a 1991 Saab 9000 turbo. John said then that it is hard to spend over 30 grand for a 4cyl car. That is still the case today. Most cars are equipped with I-4 turbo's. What ever happened to cars with V6's? My V-6 Impala gets better gas mileage than most 4cyl turbos.
It's unfortunate that Saab really had to rush this car into production and cut back on interior quality spending. I've seen that fake wood in person...it's really bad :( I love seeing them on the road though. It's hard to believe it's a 10 year old car because the styling seems to fresh and current.
I had a 1989 SAAB made by SAAB Auto and I have a 2001 SAAB made by GM. To say that GM madw Saab 'more reliable' is laughable. What they did was to junk it up. The '89 would have lasted forever, the '01 costs me $1000 every other month. Still, the turn radius beats out a BMW or AUDI every time, and that makes my car a lot of fun to drive. I hope the company that buys SAAB loves the brand's uniqueness and invests to keep it competitive.
Cristian Seibriger The GM underpinnings like the Epsilon frame and Haldex4 AWD with torque vectoring was as good as they come back the and very reliable. Under GM Saab had it's best sales year in 2003 with 9-3.
@@normt5463 But overall the car became considerably less reliable with GM. Everyone that owns saab can affirm that. They had a lot of problems with electronics and other issues. Gm has not been known been known for making reliable cars simce the early 90s
@@normt5463 Saab had even much better sales with the saab 900 in the 80s especially with the turbo models so it doesn't prove anything if saab had good sales in 2003 LOL. Furthermore since yoy mentioned the 9-3 , i can also remind you how cheap the interior became with the introduction of the new 2003 9-3 it was cheap as hell, cheap plastic everywhere that would break easily, the engine that gm put was not as reliable nor as tough as the good old T5 engines that saab used to make. The car had also a lot of problems with electronics. So bitch please 😂 it's a well known fact that gm just drove saab to the bottom with their shitty quality. It's good saab weren't listening to them everytime that's why they were still decent cars otherwise the would've been terrible shitty cars.
@@christrahi16 GM owned half of Saab from 1990 on. We had 5 Saab 9-5's in sedans and wagons. Never had a electrical issue unless you are talking DI cassette. We still have a 2004 9-5 Arc wagon that needs a brake distribution module rebuilt. But those are all Saab specific issues.
@@normt5463 Yeah saabs weren't unreliable under gm but my point is that they became less reliable. Gm was only interested in fast money so they wanted saabs to make their cars cheaper and cheaper, that is why they began in cost reductions and with every year from 1997 for the 9-5 they started removing features and trying to make parts cheaper and many parts were in plastic. There is a part that is responsible for the shifting gear that was made in plastic and made the shifter feels mushy quite fast among other examples. Yes i meant the diy cassette when i saod electrical issues but an also known problem was the ac system. I have two 9-3 and in both of them it is not functioning peoperly. In my 9-5 it has been renovated. I love saabs but i think that if they have been alone they would have manufactured their csrs in a higher quality and higher engineering.
I really dont like how he keeps saying how improved saab id with this car.I have owned 3 saabs and can only say that there is something special about all of them.Its the purity of the older saabs that make them great.Why change the design to this big and bulky design? is
I miss Saab too, but please we have to get Saab down to a decent everyday working person's price we are the ones who really loves SAAB's it's not the rich and famous wealthiest people. I think that's what they got wrong. not GM
@johnnyr25 Compared to the M series, the Saab is much better looking in my opinion, plus it doesn't offer a wagon option like Saab will. Agreed the Sonata is much better value, but then again it is still a Camry/Accord competitor...whereas the Saab has a manual/AWD option which Hyundai never offers in sedans.
The good thing about current recession is that it is like a drought in Savana - only the fittest will survive. And clearly with that interior and lack of innovation Saab will not be amongs the shortlist of survivors as well as Volvo and some US manufacturers
ppl are missing the point of this car. Just because it doesn't follow the layout of what a normal person would consider acceptable when purchasing a auto. Sometimes that is what makes it better. Not being Normal.Yea, a Ford Taurus will blow the doors off this car. and The Hyundai Geneses look like the deal of the century next to it, but i always get this chill when i see a Saab on the Road. I so want one.
@bmwmsport11 GM is good when you aren't talking about the American brands. The Ecotec engine, after all, isn't an American design or development. It's a good engine.
Unfortunatly that was thier problem, to expensive and they were known to have alot of problems which cost even more. Had the cars been cheaper they would have sold more, ALOT more. but now unfortunatly they are dead. I will still only drive a saab though.
