v944god

I was pretty impressed

Guy came into my work today with the newest Saab, and I was pretty suprised they gave the Saab a face lift. The car looks very stylish. Aggresive front, and the curves just compliment the body of the car. The rims were incredibly nice. The car had leather seats which felt incredible. The car came with a load of options, too much to list. Car had automatic w/ tiptronic which was alrite, but the true test was performance wise.

The car idled great, so I popped it into tiptronic, and kept it in the lowest gear possible (wasn't looking), and I just punched the throttle. This car suprised me! I spun the tires somehow. The turbo guage was pretty nice too, but THE TURBO WAS SINGING! WOW! If I punched the throttle, the turbo would scream, and I'd let off the throttle, it would vent the air to atmosphere. It handled great, but the power of this car was so suprising.

If I was in the market for a sport sedan, this would be it. I'd def. take this car over an audi 1.8t.

THAT TURBO WAS SINGING

944S2NUT

How about over a WRX?

Nabeel

I agree, the new Saab 9-3 is pretty impressive. I'd still choose an Audi A4 1.8T though, mainly because Audi offers Quattro versus the FWD-only Saab. Bigger aftermarket also. And although Audis are not the pinnacle of reliability, keep in mind that GM owns Saab now...that can be a good thing or a bad thing, I don't know.

Wagz

I'm guessing the Saab would be a lot better build quality over the Subaru.

v944god

I'm not a fan of subaru. I do respect them, but not a fan.

Robby

Several years ago, Saab came out w/the 9-3 & the 9-5- I don't know TOO much about them, BUT, I DO remember a test for one of them- can't be sure, but I THINK it was the 9-5- BUT, I DO remember that it was the VIGGEN- they also had the Aero- the Viggen was the bad-***- it had a 250HP engine w/comparable TQ- the test I saw showed it running the 1/4 in 14.9 @ 96 or so- that's about as fast as ANY FWD car has EVER done straight off the showroom floor, unmodified, etc- other's that have been close are: the '92-'96 V-Tech Prelude (~15.2), the VERY FIRST VR6 Corrado tested by R&T in '92 (15.0- this was before they went distributorless & went to the speedline wheels from the BBS, etc- not sure why, but the best I ever saw later was 15.2), the GTI VR6 & Jetta VR6 (taller gearing than Corrado but still managed several 15.2's depending on what zine you read), & the Type R (~14.8- 15.2 depending on year)- of these cars, the only one I'm SURE of that ever had LSD was the Type R- I'm not even sure about the Saab- the new Maximas offer an optional Helical LSD, but, they have gotten so heavy, that their 255HP isn't enough to break them into the 14's yet.... Anyway, just an observation....that Saab really seemed cool & I've always been slightly interested in them ever since- they're a little pricey, though, unfortunately....

hoffman912

ummm.. saab is now owned by subaru isnt it?

Red 944

gotta remember dodge's new piece of ****, srt-4

Red 944

saabs been teamed with gm for a while, don't know if gm owns it yet or not, know it planned to. not sure about subaru

Olli Snellman

Saab is owned by GM. All of those Swedish quality cars are history when GM & Ford took over. I can never consider a car as Saab if it is based on Subaru Impreza !) (Like the new Saab 9-2X will be).They will build it in Japan ! There will be even Subaru boxer engine.Same thing with new Volvos which use more or less Ford components! Good old Saabs were build either in Sweden or Finland.They were built for though conditions and they were quality cars.My late father used to be a Saab fan.When he found out that GM will buy Saab he swithed to VW !

hoffman912

thats right.. sorry

bdellis

Dont forget the 2002 and 2003 maxima 6spd FWD. 0-60 = 6.0 and 1/4 = 14.7 & 5-60 = 6.5 stock.
255hp v6 no turbo or sc...... more importantly it runs 60 - 100 in 9.5 seconds.
I think the 2004's are a bit slower.

Robby

I forgot about this thread- yes, the SRT4 is FAST for a FWD (well, for ANY wheel drive actually....) although I DETEST them & think it's a big mistake & that they will be teenagers wet dreams & are accidents waiting to happen, etc, but.... they ARE FWD & they ARE fast...

The Maxima, though- I didn't think they were that fast- I saw one magazine list it at 14.9 & another at 15.1 recently- 14.7 is getting pretty good... - they SHOULD be much faster though- w/LSD (they have helical as an option) they should run sub 14.5's w/their HP/TQ, but they are getting so heavy...

Steve Lavigne

GM bought 20% of Fuji Heavy Industries (Subaru) several years ago. GM has complete ownership of Saab.

Burma Shave

I drove four different WRX's a few weekends ago(to replace gf's gti vr6) and was very unimpressed and somewhat confused. I thought new one felt slow, so I found 2 used ones to drive(one slightly modded)and still not impressed. I thought this car would be a blast to drive. I ran them all hard but acceleration was..well..so so at best. I've had my 951 long enough that it doesn't seem all that fast anymore but it seems considerably faster than wrx. Does awd make it feel slower? It didn't seem to pull on other cars that well either. My gf said it was a pos(didn't like all the rattles etc. in the used ones). So far the most fun I've had in a new car was a Mini s. Sorry if this is a highjack. I never considered a saab because resale is so poor , however I've worked on several(years ago) and was impressed with build quality.