Post #421,302
11/16/17 1:21:19 AM
11/16/17 1:24:45 AM
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New veerhickle incoming
After three years of happily bimbling around in the Volvo, I've decided to get an estate - for great dog and junk carriage, whilst keeping the rear seats clean! I've landed on a 2010 Saab 9-3, which I hope to pick up tomorrow. It's diesel and it's manual (neither of which were my preference) but having driven it, it's smooth and it's quiet and the gearbox is delightful. It'll cost me quite a lot less in tax (£110/year vs £280/year) and fuel (60mpg vs 28mpg), but it won't sound quite as nice and I'll have to manually stir cogs again, like a pleb. ETA dealer pic: 
Edited by pwhysall
Nov. 16, 2017, 01:24:45 AM EST
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Post #421,303
11/16/17 6:37:05 AM
11/16/17 6:37:05 AM
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Nice.
I would be very tempted by such a thing if it were available in the USA.
Hope it treats you well!
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #421,304
11/16/17 7:57:10 AM
11/16/17 7:57:10 AM
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Seconded. Congrats, Peter.
bcnu,
Mikem
It's mourning in America again.
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Post #421,310
11/16/17 2:31:01 PM
11/16/17 2:43:32 PM
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A Saabatical, eh?
GMTA.. I had near a half-dozen of predecessors [quite unlike this Über-stylized morph] until ... they just seemed to fade ... away in these parts.
Didn't know they still had a still-working presence over-There.. I'd try for a decent swap with the Acura Plutocrat for such a spaceship but, as with the US demise of Citroën..
(for typ. Causes: unwillingness to change the hydraulic fluids -merely annually- and a dearth of service-types who could would even read ..about how that advanced car actually worked.)
Saab, over here, was marketed initially as the "Engineer's Car" (overall-design) and the idea of superior-engineering, implying a lesser-state?
of the Local lead-barges: just maybe pissed off the JIngoists aplenty. {sigh} I mean.. take a gander at "Style" here: the ''59 Cadillac El Dorado, say. Jejune-chrome-it-All ... R'Us
Lucky you!
Ed PS: Near-new Saab serviced; drove it away.. came right back. W.T.F. did you Do to my transmission!?
[the Good type of query intonation, though]
Seems they'd replaced fluid with a new synthetic and while the gearbox had indeed shifted nicely ... now: it was like er, buttery,
a distinction with a bloody-Good difference (as you seem to have noted already.)
Edited by Ashton
Nov. 16, 2017, 02:43:32 PM EST
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Post #421,316
11/16/17 8:09:39 PM
11/16/17 8:09:39 PM
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nice looking. Are these newer ones reliable?
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman
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Post #421,324
11/17/17 3:40:41 AM
11/17/17 3:40:41 AM
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According to friends etc who have them, yes.
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Post #421,321
11/16/17 9:21:45 PM
11/16/17 9:21:45 PM
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Nice!
Given that VW is no longer sells new diesels in the US, my son bought a used 6 speed standard transmission, 2015 Golf diesel GTI wagon. He had sold his similar but older and "crooked" Jetta back to VW.
He totes 2 dogs. Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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Post #421,340
11/18/17 1:33:19 AM
11/18/17 1:33:19 AM
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I has it! Micro-review inside.
Seat and general cabin
The seat is very, very good. This is a comfy car. It's been cold and bleak and northern (like you think of northern) up here today, and the bumwarmers are quick and the dual-zone climate get things toasty quickly. The radio is OK. Haven't blasted any of my banging choons yet, but Radio 4 sounded very agreeable; and the stereo has an aux input on the front panel. The BT phone connection is good too. Very clear at both ends (and piss easy to set up). A pleasingly low level of road noise comes through.
Steering and driving
I like it. Definitely more agile than the Volvo. Steering is a little light, but that's electric power steering for you, I suppose. Turns in very nicely. Pedals are responsive without being twitchy (like French cars can be, where the clutch is all in the top inch etc). Brakes are strong but I'm a super smooth driver so didn't have to test them.
Engine and performance
Bear in mind I've just come from a turbo petrol engine that only comes alive at >4K RPM, so I'm still going "cor" at the low-end torque. It's a diesel so it makes tractor noises, but once warm it quiets down nicely. The six-speed gearbox is very compliant and precise-feeling. This is a car for MPGverts. On paper its combined figure is 60MPG. I didn't figure out how to reset the MPG thinger until I got home but I've been a mile down the road and back, through two sets of traffic lights (I needed beer from the shop, alright?) and just doing that it's reading 29MPG. I'll really find out next week when I commute in it.
Numbers
1.9 diesel twin turbo, 160BHP, 360NM torque. £110 tax (122g/km CO2). Top speed 147MPH (ha!) 0-60 in 9.3 sec. Motorway 70mpg, urban 50mpg, combined 60mpg.
So, upcoming modifications: I'll be tuning this bad boy with a boot-liner and some new mats. I've already fitted an aftermarket dog guard from Halfords (£30!) and if it's shit, I'll get the proper Saab one which is £130.
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Post #421,362
11/20/17 8:40:40 AM
11/20/17 8:40:40 AM
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Here's to many lovely miles with your new old Vectra!
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Post #421,363
11/20/17 10:30:55 AM
11/20/17 10:30:55 AM
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Having spent many thousands of hours in Vectras...
...I can say that this ain't no Vectra.
(I know it uses the same GM platform - but Saab have hidden it well)
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