SaabsUnited.com

Jono is a SU regular living here in Australia.
He shot the following through via email and I thought it’d be a good opportunity to stop talking about finance and do something really important – help someone get into the Saab they want.
The email:

I was just wondering if you could put a call out to the saab community.
I am looking to buy a first generation 9-5, and i need to know people’s opinions.
Is there any common faults with model. Which is the best year / best version, average KM for these years etc….
I am already looking around, and have found one apparently owned by a saab mechanic that looks in reasonably good condition.
Any feedback would be much appreciated

Having never owned a 9-5 I’m probably the least qualified person here to comment, so I’m honoring Jono’s request and putting the question to you.
Jono has around $10,000 to spend and in Australia, this is the range of Saab 9-5s that are currently available around that price range (there’s be a few more at 11K or a little more that you could probably get for 10K as well).
Comments are open.
The only suggestion I’ve got is that if it’s a 2.3, you’d want to see a very good service history and perhaps even drop the sump to check for sludge issues with the oil pickup. I’ve seen two of those in my mechanic’s workshop in the last month and it ain’t pretty.
Other than that, get as much gear as you can. And if you’ve got performance in mind, then BSR are your friend.
Then again, if this is the car (and I’ve got a hunch it might be) then I’d suggest there’s no more mods required.