Early 90's Saabs - reliable?

Mileage is not high by any means. I had a '88 Saab 900 Turbo with

400,000 Kms when I traded it in, and it was still going strong - original turbo, never touched the engine. Second clutch, though. What engine does this car have? The 4-cyl is pretty bulletproof.

You bet.

Depends on your climate. If you get snow, rust might be a concern. Service history is important (oil changes, etc). Make sure all the accessories work, if not you can use that for price bargaining points.

Depends on the engine and model.

Almost certainly it will have a drivers airbag.

It'll help if you tell us what country, what model, and what engine.

Dave Hinz

The 4 cylinder cars are quite solid, avoid the V6 though. Also the automatic transmissions are a weak spot on Saabs in general, at least the older ones. I would assume it was a bit of an afterthought for the US market, the manual gearboxes are excellent though and probably 90% of the 900 series cars you see are manual.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the tips! I haven't really settled on a particular model yet. I'm in Australia so we don't get any snow here, but the temperatures do get quite hot in summer (>100 degrees Fahrenheit). As for the engine, I'd be going for a 4 cylinder with automatic transmission.

The thing that worries me is that I don't see many early 90's Saabs on the road in Sydney. There were a lot of them around when they first came out though.

Han.

Hi James,

Is there a high mortality rate on Saabs with automatic transmissions? My wife doesn't drive a manual, so I'm wondering if it's better to stay away from automatic Saabs altogether.

Han.

They use ZF automatics which in my (and apparently many others) experience are not the most dependable slushboxes out there. Some Volvos used a ZF box which was a notorious achilies heel on them, I replaced one myself that was shifting funny and beginning to slip with only about 100k on it and that was the second transmission in that car.

Another thing you'll likely find (try driving one first, maybe it won't bother you) is that the automatic is a poor match for the Saab 4 cylinder engines, it doesn't like to let them rev into their power band and it saps enough power that especially if you have the AC on you'll probably find the car quite gutless. The turbo models are better, but couple turbo lag to slushbox lag and it's excruciating when pulling out into traffic. Doesn't make much difference on the highway but around town you'll sure notice it.

Note that my experience applies to the classic Saab 900's, I have very little exposure to the post '93 GM-made Saabs so I don't know if the transmission is any different in them, though even with the newer ones the vast majority I see on the road have manual gearboxes, not sure if this is due to the automatics failing and causing the cars to be scrapped or due to the manuals selling better when new.

Thanks for the very useful insight! I guess in terms of performance, I'm not really fussed as the car will be used mainly as the second car. I'm more after the safety features and what I had perceived as European reliability, but the automatic transmission sounds like a bit of a worry!

Speaking of Volvos, that's another car I'm looking at. You mentioned the ZF boxes were on the Volvos as well - are they common on autos circa 1993?

Sorry to get a bit off topic!

Han.

The ZF 4HP22 4 speed automatic was used in some 740 and 760 models (but none of the turbos) in the mid 80's, by '93 they would all have the generally very dependable Aisin-Warner transmissions, the AW-70 or AW-71. You can tell easily because a car with a ZF will have 1-2-3-D on the shifter, and a car with the AW will have 1-2-D as well as a button on the side to lock out the overdrive. I don't know what transmission the newer FWD cars use but I haven't heard too many negative things about them other than the '93 850 which was the first year of that model.

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the tips! I haven't really settled on a particular model yet. I'm in Australia so we don't get any snow here, but the temperatures do get quite hot in summer (>100 degrees Fahrenheit). As for the engine, I'd be going for a 4 cylinder with automatic transmission.

There are still quite a few around. Important things in Sydney (& Aus generally):

*Do change the oil religiously at or before the recommended interval (lots of people halve it) *Do find out the correct brand and grade of oil and stick to it *Do get to know SaabServe at North Parramatta if you're within cooee of there *Do get any prospective purchase thoroughly checked out by a dealer or a Saab specialist (doesn't cost all that much for some peace of mind) *Don't buy any Saab without a spotless & verifiable service history (unless you're like me and you're offered a good C900 turbo unregistered for $400!) *Don't use all the performance on stinking hot or high humidity days - especially with an auto. Longterm they sometimes spit the dummy! *Don't buy a V6 GN (heavy on brakes and regular cambelt changes pricey *Don't rush into a purchase because it looks immaculate

Lots of people (including me) prefer the C900 to the GM Saabs, particularly for the way they look, drive and handle. With either car, I personally prefer the manual. I've never had any problems beyond clutch rebuilds with 99s and 900s. Some of the autos however ... Enjoy whichever one you get; even our disaster purchase 12 years ago was wonderful when it all decided to work properly. The others have been pretty good generally! Cheers

Sorry - should have read all your posts before answering the first one! C900s rated higher on most crash testing than the 94 on 900s. Be aware too that you're looking at a car from a very low volume manufacturer, so reliability was probably never near Toyota/Honda sort of level. Mind you, ten years on, most potenital probalmes should have surfaced apart from things wearing out. Again, cheers

Haven't seen anyone complaining about an auto tranny failure here in a very long time.

Heh is there anyone here who still has a C900 with an auto tranny? I've seen a few in junkyards with straight bodies which makes me wonder, have yet to see one out in the wild (licensed and drivable parked somewhere)

Good point, the absence of complaints could either be because they're not breaking, or they all broke a while ago. But - about not seeing them "in the wild" - how could you tell without getting up-close and personal with the car? I don't recall them being marked or anything?

Dave Hinz

I was talking about cars I've seen parked, if I walk past a parked Saab or Volvo I usually can't help peering inside to see the transmission type, mileage, condition of the interior, whatever I can tell without looking suspicious. Also if one starts up at an intersection there's telltales like rolling back slightly, the front of the car bouncing slightly shifting from

1st to 2nd, and if you're on foot or have the window down you can often hear the click of shifting a manual gearbox.

I see. Have you, er, talked to anyone about this behaviour? I mean, aside from us who could hardly be called objective?

Wow. You pay a lot more attention to these things than I do. I usually look to see which of the GM Saab people actually notice a real Saab next to them. Guy in an Aero yesterday gave me a "nice car" (to the '86 900), so I offered to trade. A deal was not reached. Too bad because I could use the engine.

Dave

Replace the left lower wishbone with a new one as soon as you buy the car. Easy to do and they're a real failure point. When it breaks it's a good bet it'll take out the CV with it. I've had 2 C900s and 2 broken wishbones. Phil Brown

In what way does it fail and how much is a replacement? I've never heard of this problem.