The last iteration of the Saab 9.5 is one of my favourite looking contemporary cars. Quirky and with real presence.

There are a few low mileage ones at tempting prices hitting the market now and I quite fancy a punt; I realise they're an Insignia in a party-dress but I can live with that. Anyone any ideas about servicing and availability of parts?

TIA

 

I had a 9-3 TiD until recently. Parts availability wasn't a problem, although independent garages sometimes found their suppliers got confused between the equivalent Vauxhall, PSA and SAAB parts, many of which differ slightly for some weird reason.....

 

I ran a 95 estate as a company car but that was back in 2004 so probably an earlier version to the one you're on about.

Pleasant cabin to be in, although the with the ignition key down by the handbrake, I found I bumped it off a couple of times which meant loss of power steering but thankfully no steering lock. I had the low boost turbo version but that was plenty quick enough. I think for a lot of people, its non-shouty, architecty image is a good one that promotes a relaxed approach to driving and life in general.

If you're referring to this version, IMHO it's lost some of its Saab-ness ...

 

Well, they really are Vauxhalls with better trim so you know exactly how they will drive (and what will go wrong). I can't summon up any enthusiasm for any of the models as there are just so many nicer alternatives. I suppose if you just wanted a tool to do a specific job (like when I bought that Signum to do 25,000 miles in a year as cheaply as possible) fair enough, but otherwise I'd look elsewhere.

Old Saabs OTOH are quite cool.

 

I'm not really looking at one as a completely rational purchase; it's reasonably sensible but rather nice - at least to my eyes - from a design perspective.

TBH I consider pretty much all contemporary stuff to be as dull as dishwater aesthetically, that's why the Saab and the Citroen C6 - to a much greater extent - appeal. The latter in black with cream leather would do rather nicely!

A late '80's Saab 900 would be rather cool but good ones are becoming harder to come by.

 

Someone up our lane has one. It does have a certain presence, though there IS a lingering Buick-ness in its fat sides.

I dunno whether it's the swansong thing (Borgward 2.3, Rover 75 etc) or whether they DID seem to have something about them that was a return to form for SAAB.

The previous superannuated GM-SAABs were popular with their owners (that sort of Honda thing that no-one else gets) but were simply too little, too late. So perhaps the 9^5 just seemed a lot better.

However, the lumpy, wobbly GM-Alfa-SAAB chassis (the 159 family was also a SAAB!) doesn't do it for me dynamically.

 

I'd go for the C6...

 

I had a 2.0T LPT saloon but think the estate is the cooler car!

BTW not an Insignia at all - more than likely a Vectra in drag, though when we owned one we had a Cavalier at the same time - looking under them both, I remember the front suspension design was very similar if not identical!

 

Certainly it has some remnants of hydropneumatic, so is not merely just another transverse-end-on McPherson-strutted plank-sharing clone.

On the swansong theory, I'd still probably go for the last true Citroën (CX) instead of its modern copy...

 

In a recent Wheeler Dealers, Mike ('Old Out Yer 'And) Brewer and Edd China resurrected an old DS that Brewer picked up in France. Some innovative engineering then, and arguably still today, wrapped in an instantly recognisable and futuristic body.

If money were no object and all that ...