Hello all, new here and wanted to get some info. I am going to look at a 95 9000CS today and wanted to know what to look for. I am new to Saabs and don't really know a lot about them. This one has 47,000 miles, looks (pictures) to be in great shape, and garage kept. I have mainly owned Hondas, Chevy, and Ford so not sure if there anything that I should look for when I go check this car out and drive it? Is Saab known for any particular problems? All the reviews I have read have been pretty great. Also, he is asking 3500 for it, is that a good deal? Sorry to ask so many questions, just don't want to go in there blindly. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
So your thinking of making the plunge to one of the best cars I have ever owned, good on ya! I have a 1996 CSE I bought about 3 years ago and so far at 240k miles it's only let me down one time. There are a couple of good buying guides for the 9000 so i won't go in to great detail here what's already been said, but I will tell you what I have had go wrong on my car and areas I wold look at when buying a new one.
Now on to the problem areas I would look at and fix first if you have no service history.
1. First off check for rust in the wheel arches, bottom of the doors, and around the spoiler/trunk area on the body. Under neath check for rusty rear suspension(my car was from Wisconson so it's entire rear suspension was completely rusted, this can make repairs hard as all the bolts are welded toogether by the rust.
2. Hand Brake Check! Make sure the brake works smoothly and the calipers release fully, my car had an issue with the passenger rear caliper sticking causing premature pad wear.
3. Check for very rusty, loose or broken studs on the exhaust manifold to head, I had a couple of these snap off and had to drill and tap almost all of them to remove them. I replaced mine with ARP stainless units so that won't happen again.
4. Check all the vacume hoses for cracks or broken lines, I had to replace most of mine from dryrot.
5. Ask about the waterpump, mine went out at about 160K so they last quite a while, but it never hurts to ask.
6. Check the Hazard switch to see if the work correctly, and the turn signals, sometimes the relay goes bad and the hazards won't work unless the turn signal switch is on or they won't work at all.
I can't really think of anything more off the top of my head, I had a DI cassette go out at about 170k but you can't predict those. Good luck and these are some really great reliable cars.
Ah yes, tank straps..one of mine is currently a piece of steel cable...
If its an auto, check the state of the fluid - dipstick is easy to get to by the battery although it should be ready for a fluid change at that mileage.
Thanks for the info guys. I went and checked it out and it had some red flags. the motor wasn't clean at all and there was white writing (id number) on it and the manifold, which led me to believe the motor had been replaced. Also, he said he bought it at an estate auction and his wife was driving it. I found cables running to the trunk where an amp was at and a woofer box. The leather seats also looked rough for only 47k miles. I couldn't get the AC to blow cold either. I passed on the car, but was impressed with the look and feel of it. Wish the car would have been like it was described in the ad, I would have bought it on spot. Gotta love Craigslist. Thanks so much for your info and the search continues.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
SaabCentral Forums
3M posts
119.1K members
Since 2001
SaabCentral forum the most comprehensive Saab resource on the internet. Join our discussions on the Saab 9-3, Saab 9-5, Saab 900, Saab 9000 and all other Saab models, choose your forum.